As we continue our studies on Psalm 91, we will pay special attention to verse 14, which reads like this:Psalm 91:14“Because he cleaves to Me in love, Therefore I deliver him; I set him on high, Because he has known My Name.” (TS2009)
In Psalm 91 up until verse 13, these are the words of assurance declared by a man who has experienced the divine protection of God in his life. However, in verse 14 are the words of God Himself to the ones who have made Him their refuge and dwelling place. These are God’s comforting words to the one who longs for Him. To long for God is to love God wholeheartedly and to cling on to Him firmly. The affirmation from God to such a person is that He will certainly deliver him.
Love God and obey His commandments
One who loves God will most assuredly obey His commandments and there is a close association between the two. Love prompts one to walk in obedience to God.
We read in 1 John 5:3,“We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow.” (CEV)
Those who love God will find it easy to obey the commandments of God, and these commandments are not burdensome, but easy to follow. All the commandments of God we must understand are entirely for our own good.
Abraham obeyed God
God called Abram and said to him in Genesis 12:1,“The LORD said to Abram: Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.” (CEV)
We read in Genesis 12:4, “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken to him” (Webster)
Abraham heard the call of God and obediently left his country, family and relatives to go to the land that God had promised him. We esteem Abraham highly, simply because he was completely submissive to the command of God and obeyed Him without any reluctance.
When God desires to bless a person, He will separate them out of this world, exclusively for Himself, so that they can become a blessing to many. The reason many have forfeited the blessings of God in their lives is because they are unwilling to give up those things that God wants them to let go of. They believe in God, but are content to remain where they are and expect the Lord to bless them.
We can study the Old and the New Testaments to note that those whom God chose to bless had to on their part obey God and keep His commandments. They had to lay-off those things that God instructed them to.
The disciples obeyed and followed after Jesus
In the New Testament we read in Luke 5:27-28, “After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector sitting at his place for collecting taxes. His name was Levi. Jesus said to him, "Follow me!" Levi got up, left everything, and followed Jesus.” (ERV)
This is the record of Levi who was a tax collector sitting at his place collecting taxes. As Jesus summoned him to follow after Him, Levi immediately left it all and went after Jesus.
If we are expecting to receive the blessings of God, but choose to remain right where we are this will not be a possibility. The Lord is calling us to give up certain things so that He can bless us and make our lives a blessing to others. Jesus could have told Levi to continue being a tax collector and follow Him, but instead He required that he give up his profession to follow after Jesus.
We read in Luke 5:11,“The men brought their boats to the shore. They left everything and followed Jesus.” (ERV)
In this incident Simon, James and John who were fishermen by profession were encountered by our Lord Jesus. The Lord performed a mighty miracle and filled their empty boats with a bountiful catch of fish. Nonetheless, when Jesus beckoned them to leave their all to follow Him, they immediately did so with no hesitation whatsoever.
Observe how in both these incidents the disciples left everything and decided to follow Jesus. This is the same call of God to each one of us who desire to follow after Him. God blessed Abraham in a way that was unimaginable only because Abraham followed God with total obedience, renouncing all that God commanded Him to leave. There are many people who are followers of the Lord Jesus, who also want to be friends with this world. They therefore lead dichotomous lives, wherein they live one way when they are with people of the world and another way when they are with people of God. By doing so, we miss out on God’s blessing and God’s word admonishes us that if God is the one we love, we must follow Him alone.
Things that hinder us from loving God
To many people their status is of utmost importance and therefore compromise on their walk with God in order to maintain their position. We must be reminded that the God who called us is faithful, the ruler, Almighty God and King of Kings. If we are willing to give up our position for His sake, He will certainly take us and use us.We read about Saul in the New Testament. Saul was a learned man, a Pharisee who held a prominent place in society. When Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, he had a total transformation. Everything that he had earlier considered significant to him, he regarded as rubbish when compared to the surpassing knowledge of knowing who Jesus was and having a relationship with Him. God called Saul, changed his name to Paul and made Him a great blessing to the multitudes who did not know Jesus.
For some others they are stuck with traditions that they were brought up with and are resistant to let go of them. In Mark 7:14 Jesus admonished such people who made the word of God void by clinging on to the traditions of men. We must choose to either hold on to the word of God or the traditions of men, but there is no way for both to co-exist in the life of a child of God.
Then there are those who are caught up with the pleasures of this world. The desires of this world allure them away from God. We read about Samson who was chosen by God to deliver His people, but Samson got so engrossed with passions of this world that he messed up his life big time.
This is a time for us to take stock of our lives and to let go of those things that God does not approve of from our lives. Our status, traditions or worldly pleasures should never supersede our love for God. It is only when we do so, are we guaranteed that God will deliver us from every peril.
God delivered Abraham
We read in Genesis 12:14-15, “So when Abram went into Egypt, the Egyptian men saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. Even some of Pharaoh's officials noticed her and told Pharaoh how beautiful she was. So they took her to Pharaoh's house.” (ERV)
As Abraham journeyed towards the promised-land, as he passed through Egypt, he encountered a huge problem. His wife Sarah was so beautiful that when Pharaoh’s officials noticed this, they informed Pharaoh and had her taken to Pharaoh’s house. Abraham lived in a place where he was a stranger and had no one, but God to depend on. God honored Abraham for his love, faith and trust that he had in God. God intervened, performed wonders and delivered Abraham from his calamity.
It is written in Genesis 12:17,“And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.” (AFV)
The Lord sent plagues on Pharaoh’s household on account of Sarah, which made Pharaoh realize that he had done something amiss. Sarah was sent back to Abraham and the Lord intervened on Abraham’s behalf.
Just like Abraham when we love the Lord and follow Him, we will encounter difficulties but the Lord will deliver us out of them all.
This was not the only incident where Abraham had to face such a difficulty. There’s another one as recorded in Genesis 20:3,“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, "Behold, you are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken— for she is a man's wife." (AFV)
Here again there was King Abimelech who took Abraham’s wife to his palace and he was warned by God in a dream that he would be punished with death, because he had taken another man’s wife. Abraham was travelling like a nomad with no security whatsoever, but when the Lord was with him, even kings could not prevail against him or his family.
Just like Abraham, those who love God and hold on to Him firmly are assured of God’s amazing mediation in every area of our lives.
God protects those who are His
Here’s the word of assurance that is given to the children of God who have placed their trust in Him. We read in Psalm 105:14-15, “God did not let anyone mistreat our people. Instead he protected us by punishing rulers and telling them, "Don't touch my chosen leaders or harm my prophets!"” (CEV)
Those who love God and keep his commandments have the surety that God will defend them and will not allow anyone to treat them wrongly. He will protect them even from rulers and no one can harm those whom God had chosen for His own purposes.
If we have failed in loving God as we should, and have compromised by loving the things of this world, prioritizing friendships and pleasures over God, we should repent and set things right. Let us decide to love the Lord with all our heart for only then can we be confident that God will be our security even from rulers who have power, authority and every from every peril that confronts us.
God protected the Hebrew young men
We read in Daniel 1:8,“Daniel made up his mind to eat and drink only what God had approved for his people to eat. And he asked the king's chief official for permission not to eat the food and wine served in the royal palace.” (CEV)
In this event recorded in Daniel chapter 1, Daniel and his three friends were taken captive to Babylon from the land of Israel. The king found them of good stature and with great skill and wisdom. They were therefore, taken to the king’s palace to serve him. When Daniel and his friends noted that the food and drink offered to them was defiled, they made up their mind to take a stand and refuse the same. Even in a matter of eating and drinking, these young men were firm that they should not dishonor God whom they worshiped.
A few years later, King Nebuchadnezzar fashioned a huge statue of gold and commanded that all people should bow down and worship it at an appointed time. Daniel’s three friends Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego resolved that they would not bow down to this idol as they considered obedience to God’s commandment was of greater importance to them, than obedience to the kings orders. The young men were summoned to the king who gave them one last chance and commanded them that they bow down to the statue, failing which he would have them cast into the fiery furnace. The three young men were so firm in their trust in God that they declared to the king that the God whom they believed in was well able to save them from the fiery furnace. However, they also told him that even if they were not saved from the blazing fire, they would still remain faithful to the Lord and not disobey His commandments.
The king was so enraged that he had the three young men thrown into the flaming furnace that was heated seven times over. They were bound and thrown into the furnace, but as the king looked on he was stunned to see that they were all set free and were walking freely. What was even more astounding was that there was a fourth man walking alongside them, whose appearance was like the son of God. The king and those with him thought that the three men would die instantaneously, but instead they were all walking freely, unperturbed and unharmed.
These are the words of King Nebuchadnezzar as recorded in Daniel 3:28,“King Nebuchadnezzar said: Praise their God for sending an angel to rescue his servants! They trusted their God and refused to obey my commands.” (CEV)
A king from a heathen nation gave praises to God and glorified God with his own mouth. The thing that impressed King Nebuchadnezzar was the fact that these young men did not compromise on their faith, held on to the commandments of God and even defied the king’s command. He himself recognized that this act of these young men is what prompted God to send His angel and rescue them from that fiery furnace. These young men were willing to submit themselves and their bodies even unto death for the sake of their faith in God. The consequence was that the Lord delivered them and through it all His name was magnified.
As children of God, when we decide to take our stand for the Lord we too will face hardships and opposition from men. Today we are in need of zealous people like Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego who will be firmly rooted in their trust in God no matter what the outcome would be.
We see Psalm 91:14 being fulfilled in the above mentioned incident. If we too can love the Lord with all of our heart and decide to obey His commandments, we too will experience the divine deliverance and protection of God from every calamity that we face. Let us choose to serve the Lord alone and not let our hearts get diverted or distracted by any other worldly pleasures. When we exhibit this kind of uncompromising love for God, what will eventually happen is that the name of the Lord will be glorified and exalted by those who do not know Him.
Let us be reminded again of God’s promise from Psalm 91:14, “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.” (ESV)
Pastor F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by Sis. Esther Collins
