Psalm 91
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."
3Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
4He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.
8Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
12In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14"Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation." (NKJV)
There are four things we can learn from this passage.
I. God is Our Refuge (Psalm 91:1-4)
Psalm 91
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."
3Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
4He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
The word used here for refuge is machceh (makh-she’). This word can mean a shelter from rain and storm or shelter from danger. It also has the meaning of hope and trust. In this passage, the psalmist uses the picture of a bird protecting its young.
This week I was reading about the female ruffed grouse and how she protects her young. Because young grouse chicks are very sensitive to dampness, mother birds brood them under their wings, keeping them dry and warm during wet weather and at night. The mother grouse will heroically defend her young against intruders with a sharp piercing cry and by extending her foliage to appear twice her size.
The psalmist was aware of how mother birds protected their young and saw this as a picture of how God protects His children. Just as the young grouse chicks find security and warmth under their mother’s wings, so we in Christ can find security and warmth under the wings of God’s protection. God truly is a shelter from the storm.
II. Because God is Our Refuge, We can have peace (Psalm 91:5-8)
5You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
This passage says: “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night.” How can we have peace in the midst of the storm?
Illustration:
There is a story of a soldier in the midst of a ferocious battle. He is desperately digging for cover, as shells are exploding and bullets were flying around him. While digging, he soon discovers a silver cross. He notices someone jump into the foxhole and recognizes him to be an army chaplain. Holding the silver cross in front of the chaplain, he asks: “Hey, do you know how to work this thing?”
This is a question many in the world would ask us in the church. How can we have peace when there is turmoil around us? It was during a perilous time in his life when the Apostle Paul wrote the church at Philippi about peace.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
Paul wrote this passage at a time when he was under arrest and on trial for his life. Consider what is written in Philippians 4:20-21:
Philippians 1
20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (NIV)
Paul was able to have great peace even in the midst of the harshest storms of his life. What do you think it would be like to be in the middle of a storm at sea? Would you have the peace of God in the midst of such a storm? We read in history that a group of believers faced such a storm.
Illustration:
It was 1735 and John Wesley was going to America on a missionary endeavor in Georgia. It was his experience during the voyage to America on board the Simmonds that was to have a profound affect on his life. While crossing the Atlantic there was a ferocious storm, during which Wesley began to fear for his life. He claimed later he was "much ashamed of my unwillingness to die."
During the storm, however, he noticed the behavior of 26 German Moravians who were among his fellow passengers. Even during the worst of the storm, they serenely continued in prayer and praise to God, quite unlike their "crying, trembling neighbors," Wesley later testified. They seemed to have something he didn’t have. They had a deeper assurance and experience with God that he wanted. There was a storm raging around them, but they had peace in the storm. Their bodies may have been in peril, but they knew their souls were in a refuge that no storm could touch.
The Moravians impressed John Wesley in a way no other believer had before. He wanted what they had! When Wesley returned to London, he began to attend Moravian meetings there. It was at a place located on Aldersgate Street in London on Wednesday May 24, 1738 that John Wesley’s heart was "strangely warmed.” This experience with God changed his life.
Later on John Wesley and his brother Charles would experience great storms, but would face them with the peace of God.
We know from history, the Wesley brothers and George Whitefield pioneered open air preaching in England in 18th century England. If people were not going to come to the churches, they were going to bring the church to them. Though their efforts ignited a great revival throughout England, in the beginning they were not often received well.
On many occasions, they were attacked by drunken mobs with clubs, bricks, stones, stink bombs, rotten eggs, and other projectiles. Sometimes a mob would even drive a bull into the midst of an open air meeting. Opposing crowds would also seek to drown out the preaching with bells, horns, drums and pans.
John Wesley writes of one instant when he was ministering at St. Ives:
"In the evening, as I was preaching at St. Ives, Satan began to fight for his kingdom," he wrote. "The mob of the town burst into the room and created much disturbance; roaring and striking those that stood in the way, as though Legion himself possessed them."
As the fury of the mob intensified Wesley walked into the midst of them to try to calm them. "I went into the midst and brought the head of the mob up with me to the desk," he writes "I received but one blow on the side of the head; after which we reasoned the case, till he grew milder and milder, and at length undertook to quiet his companions."
There is another story of someone possessing God’s amazing peace. During the reign of Mary Tudor in England many Protestants were burned for their faith. This was at the time when the Great Reformation was blazing across Europe. During the reign of Henry VIII, seeds of the Reformation had been allowed to take root shortly after the king had broken from the Catholic Church.
However, when his daughter Mary Tudor assumed the throne she wanted to reestablish Catholicism as the religion of the land. Many Protestant preachers were burned for their faith. One of them was Thomas Hauker.
Shortly before Thomas Hauker was to be burned at the stake, one of his friends asked him a favor. His friend said: “I need to know if what the others say about the grace of God is true. Tomorrow, when they burn you at the stake, if the pain is tolerable and your mind still at peace, lift your hands above your head. Do it right before you die. Thomas, I have to know.”
Thomas Hauker whispered to his friend, “I will.”
The next morning, Hauker was bound to the stake and the fire was lit. For a long time Hauker was engulfed in flames, but remained motionless. His fingers were eventually burnt to a crisp and then his fingers were gone. Everyone watching supposed he was dead. Suddenly, miraculously, Hauker lifted his hands in an act of worship towards God. He reached them up and with great rejoicing began clapped them three times in celebration.
The people watching were so moved that they broke into shouts of praise and applause!
When she was a little girl, Corrie Ten Boom worried that she would never be strong enough to suffer for Jesus. Her father, a very wise man, told her to think about all the times she had taken a train trip.
"When do I give you the money for the trip? Three weeks before?" he asked. Corrie answered that he gave her the money just before they got on the train. Mr. ten Boom told Corrie that our wise Father in heaven knows when we are going to need things, too.
"Today you do not need the strength to be a martyr," he said. But as soon as you are called upon for the honor of suffering for Jesus, He will supply the strength you need-just in time."
This is how God works when we face storms in our lives.
III. Because God is our refuge, evil will not triumph in our lives Psalm 91:9-13)
Psalm 91
9Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place, 10No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; 11For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. 13You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
It says in Psalm 91:10:“No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.”
This verse does not say that no harm will come to us. What it does say is that no “evil shall befall us.” I believe that what the psalmist means is that no evil will triumph over us.
As I reflect on this, I think of a story Corrie Ten Boom related in her book, The Hiding Place. There is no doubt that the Nazi concentration camps were among some of the most evil places ever devised by men.
Corrie Ten Boom and her sister, Betsie, had sent to the concentration camp, Ravensbruck, for hiding Jews from the Nazis. In her book, we read of the account of her sister Betsie dying of an illness in the concentration camp. Evil certainly was done to Betsie, but evil did not triumph. Here is the account of Corrie looking upon the body of her sister as she describes it in The Hiding Place.
“For there lay Betsie, her eyes closed as if in sleep, her face full and young. The care lines, the grief lines, the deep hollows of hunger and disease were simply gone. In front of me was the Betsie of Haarlem, happy and at peace. Stronger! Freer! This was the Betsie of heaven, bursting with joy and health. Even her hair was graciously in place as if an angel had ministered to her.”
Though she had been sent to the most evil of places and had perished there, evil did not triumph over Betsie Ten Boom, and it will not triumph over us if we trust in Christ Jesus.
IV. Because God is our refuge, He will delivers us
(Psalm 91:14-15)
14"Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
In Psalm 91:14 it says that if we set our love upon God, He will deliver us and be with us in trouble. If we make a choice to love God, then we will enjoy the protection of His love. If we go to God as our refuge and not the world, then we have His love as a canopy over us. Though God loves everyone, we will not experience the comfort and assurance of that love until we find our refuge in Jesus Christ.
There is a story I heard about a Nigerian pastor who had a church in a predominantly Muslim part of his country. His church received numerous threats from militant Muslims in his area. One night during a service, an angry mob surrounded his church. The pastor dismissed his congregation and faced the mob’s fury alone.
They grabbed him and poured gasoline over him. When they tried to ignite the pastor, nothing happened. Thinking that something was wrong with the gasoline, they poured more over the pastor. They were still unable to set the pastor on fire. They weren’t able to set the pastor on fire because you can’t set something on fire that already is on fire! Long ago, God had set His love upon the life of this pastor and now his heart was ablaze with it!
I am here to encourage you this morning that all of you can know the comfort of entering into the refuge of Jesus Christ. If we are in Christ, we can know shelter in the storm, we can know for certain that evil will not triumph over us, and we can know the joy of living under the canopy of His love.
