“Soul Talk: How Safe Am I?”
Psalm 91
We have a security system at our house. I know it works on the doors because we’ve tripped the alarm by opening them when the system’s been on. But there is also a code we can punch in at the control box which, we’ve been told, would immediately bring emergency assistance without setting off the alarm. But how do we really know? Sometimes I would like to punch in the code just to see if anyone comes quickly. But unless I want to get into deep trouble, I need to trust and believe.
I feel much the same way when I read this glorious Psalm 91. After all, the Psalmist is eloquent and picturesque when he speaks about THE PROVISIONS OF SECURITY. In verses 3-13 we see, first, what GOD GIVES. The first provision God gives is in verse 3: “Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.” The fowler’s snare is a trap set to catch prey. It symbolizes danger from the enemy. It means that God gives SAFETY from the traps and snares the devil sets for us. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray “…lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…” This provision is the reason we can ask with confidence.
God also provides SHELTER. (4a) “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge…” Bird experts say that the spreading of wings with birds is very common. When a predator or something dangerous approaches, the bird instinctively spreads its wings and the younger birds scurry underneath for shelter.(1) So it provides a beautiful image – which is why it is frequent throughout the Bible. Dt. 32:11(MSG) – “He was like an eagle hovering over its nest, overshadowing its young, then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air, teaching them to fly.” Ps. 36:7 – “How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” Ps. 57:1 – “Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” Even Jesus used the image (Mt. 23:37 NLT): “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings…” When the storms of life are whipping and whirling around us, God will shelter us.
God’s third provision is that He is our SHIELD. (4b) “…his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” The Psalmist knew that God is faithful to all He created (36:5): “Your love , Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” He knew that God’s faithfulness would pass through the generations. (Ps. 119:89-91 NLT): “Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven. Your faithfulness extends to every generation, as enduring as the earth you created. Your regulations remain true to this day, for everything serves your plans.” There are times when only the faithfulness of God can give us hope. (Lam. 3:20-23) “I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” God’s faithfulness is our shield. We sing it often: “Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided – Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”
God provides safety, shelter, a shield, and SACRED GUARDIANS. (11-12) “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Hebrews 1:14 teaches us that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. God sends His angels to keep us safe and on track in all our ways. In essence, God has provided us with designated drivers to escort us home.
God graciously gives us tremendous provisions. And the Psalmist shows us what WE GAIN. First, we gain FREEDOM FROM FEAR (5-6) “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.” Since God provides security, what is there to fear? The Psalmist also says that we gain FREEDOM FROM EVIL. (7-8) “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.” Evil will not take over our lives and control us. I like how the Living Bible paraphrases this: “Though a thousand fall at my side, though ten thousand are dying around me, the evil will not touch me. I will see how the wicked are punished but I will not share it.” Thirdly, we gain FREEDOM FROM HARM AND DISASTER. (10) “…no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.”
God gives safety, shelter, a shield, and sacred guardians so we are free from fear, evil, and harm and disaster. In fact, The Psalmist concludes by restating God’s covenant with us. (14-16) “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Notice the promises – God will rescue us, protect us, answer our prayers, be with us, deliver us, honor us, satisfy us with long life, and show us salvation. It’s wonderful! Can you say ‘Amen’?
Let me ask you something. DO YOU BELIEVE IT - really believe it? So YOU NEVER FEAR OR WORRY OR WONDER? What about Christians who die at a young age, who are killed by drunk drivers, who are murdered because they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, who are killed simply because they believe in Jesus, who have children born with malformations or disease or are molested by another family member, whose prayers for healing do not result in healing, whose marriages break apart, who lose everything through fire or a natural disaster, who contract cancer that keeps eating away at their bodies? How can we say we believe this Psalm in light of the reality of life? How can we make sense of what we know we should believe in light of the seeming contradictions life brings?
The key lies, I think, in what the Psalmist says about THE PLACE OF SECURITY. (1-2) “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Notice – “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High…” The place of security is DWELLING IN THE SHELTER. The verb to dwell means “to remain, stay, tarry, endure, have one’s abode.” It suggests continuance and permanence.(2) “The shadow of God is not the occasional resort, but the constant abiding-place, of the saint...We ought never to be out of the shadow of God. It is to dwellers, not to visitors, that the Lord promises His protection." (3)
The reality is that many run to the shelter for a visit, but do not dwell there. They run to the shelter in times of trouble or need or fear – but they dwell somewhere else. Wherever it is, it is not in the shelter of the Almighty. As Isaiah prophesied (55:2-3 NLT) “Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.”
Dwelling in the shelter produces a blessing. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty...” The imagery conveyed in “THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY” COMES FROM THE HOLY OF HOLIES in the tabernacle and temple. In the Holy of Holies two cherubim were over the mercy seat, and their wings touched each other. “Under His wings” – in the shadow – means at the mercy seat, where the blood was sprinkled, in the presence of the glory of God. (4) The mercy seat points us to Jesus. Our dwelling, in other words, is to be in Jesus. In fact, Jesus identifies His disciples as those who “abide” or “dwell” in Him through eating His flesh and drinking His blood (John 6:56). They also dwell in His Word (John 8:31). Above all else, they dwell in Him as branches dwell or abide in the vine (John 15:7–8). This abiding life, to live and remain in Jesus, is the New Testament counterpart to “dwelling in the (shelter) of the Most High.”(5z0 So OUR REST COMES FROM BEING IN JESUS. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Jesus put it this way (Mt. 11:28): “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Our place of security comes from dwelling in the shelter and from LOVING GOD. (14) “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.” The word love in the Hebrew connotes ‘cleaving’. It’s like putting a saddle on a horse – the saddle cleaves to the horse, is wrapped tightly around the horse. It’s an invitation to wrap ourselves around Jesus! And WE CLEAVE TO JESUS BY OBEYING HIS COMMANDS. (Jn. 14:23) “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
It all hinges on TRUSTING GOD. The Psalmist is saying that security in God is not an insurance policy against misfortune or trials. I think we understand that. But why then the glorious, seemingly unconditional provisions and promises of Psalm 91? It is, at core, not a call to understand but a call to trust. (1-2) “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” To trust God is to PUT ALL YOUR WEIGHT ON HIM. It’s like the old Trust Fall exercise, where you’re asked to fall backwards and put all your weight upon and into the arms of someone you ‘trust’ to catch you and keep you from permanent harm. Yesterday two of my young grandchildren climbed a rock wall. They both discovered that once they put their weight on the harness and trusted the camp counselor holding the rope, they felt safer and therefore could climb easier and higher. They just needed to put all their weight on the one holding the rope.
The Psalmist is inviting us NOT TO WORRY. There are dark sides to life – but do not worry; they will not defeat us. No final evil will befall us. Dr. Cornelius Plantinga puts it eloquently: “… no final evil can get to us because those wings have never folded. They are spread out to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised by our iniquities. And when the feathers quit flying, we peep out and discover that we have been in the only place that was not leveled. Yes, we have been bumped and bruised and hurt. Sometimes badly hurt. But the other choice was to be dead. I mean that the other choice was to break out of the embrace of God. The truth is that, if we had not stayed under those wings we could never have felt the body shudders and heard the groans of the one who loved us so much that those wings stayed out there no matter what came whistling in. This is the One who protects us from final evil, now and in the life to come—the life in which, at last, it is safe for God to fold his wings." (6)
The Psalm points us to Jesus. We see Him in Gethsemane pleading “Take this cup from me.” We hear Him no the cross crying out, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Yet we also hear Him say, “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” He trusted. And the evil did not overtake Him. It knocked Him down but He rose up victorious. Are you willing, in the midst of the tough times of life, to put your weight on and trust in God?
Consider the following conversation.
“God, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Promise you won’t get mad?“
“I Promise.”
“Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well I woke up late.”
“Yes.”
“My car took forever to start.”
“Okay…”
“At lunch, they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait.”
“Hmmm…”
“On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call.”
“All right.”
“And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to soak my feet in my foot massager and relax, but it wouldn’t work. Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?”
“Well, let me see…the death angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.”
“Oh…”
“I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on our route that might have hit you if you were on the road.”
“Oh…”
“The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn’t want you to catch what they have; I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.”
“Oh…”
“Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give a false witness about what you said on that call, so I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.”
“I see God.”
“Oh, and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.”
“I’m sorry God.”
“Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust me…in all things, the good and the bad.”
“I will trust you God.”
“And don’t doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan.”
“I won’t God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.”
“You’re welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after my children.” (7)
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
(1) Dr. Cornelius Plantinga from The Wings of God, http://worship.calvin.edu
(2) Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Psalms 73–150 (Vol. 14, p. 157). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.
(3) (Till He Come Spurgeon) - from Bible+ (www.OliveTree.com/bible-study-apps)
(4) From Back to the Bible, Praise, Prayer, and Promises, 8-14-2002
(5) Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Psalms 73–150 (Vol. 14, p. 158). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc
(6) Plantinga
(7) Received in an email – original author unknown
