God our Liberator
We read in Psalm 91:15,“When they call to me, I will answer them; when they are in trouble, I will be with them. I will rescue them and honor them.” (GNB)
As we continue our study on Psalm 91, we will meditate on verse 15 in its entirety and thereby try to comprehend all that the Lord is conveying to us. This entire Psalm as we have seen is directed towards the one who has made God his refuge, fortress and His eternal dwelling place. This is the man who through all the changing circumstances of life, its ups and downs, has his faith firmly fixed on the Lord and has unshakable trust in God most High. There are four parts of this verse that the Lord declares to those who have made Him their refuge, which we are going to study in detail.
1. The Lord will answer
We often approach others when we are in trouble, and ever so often they have no answer to our problems. In contrast the Almighty God who is the creator of the heavens and the earth promises us that when we call upon Him, He will certainly answer us.
This is the promise of God in Jeremiah 33:3,"Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about.” (GNB)
The answers that God will give to us, will be so astounding that it will be way beyond our human thinking and understanding. Irrespective of the kind of situations that we are challenged with, if the Lord is with us, we can come out victorious. There are many who are discouraged and have their minds filled with questions about the circumstances that are constantly changing. In all those seemingly hopeless times, if we humble ourselves to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, He will certainly answer us in a most profound way. When we think of solutions to the problems we are confronted with, we can only think of limited ways to get things sorted out. However, when the Lord takes over, He can work in ways that are far beyond our understanding and comprehension. Whoever seeks the Lord earnestly in prayer will most assuredly have victory and the ones who oppose such a person will certainly end up with defeat.
The bible speaks about the Lord as our counselor. The Lord speaks and counsels us in various ways, but the most frequent way is through His word. As we prayerfully read the word of God, the Lord we will distinctly hear the voice of God. Many people are impatient and do not want to wait on the Lord, but instead find the easier way to ask someone else to pray on their behalf. God has given us His word in our hands, and we need to do is spend time in God’s presence, read His word, seek Him earnestly and He will give us clear direction and counsel.
2. The Lord will be with us in trouble
There are those who have the misconception that if they pray regularly, they will not have to face any trouble or trials. This is not true as the Lord Himself is encouraging us to call on Him in the time of trouble. This only implies that the Lord is categorical that we will encounter hardships and difficulties in life. There are others who think that because they began praying fervently, they were now being loaded with more troubles. Let me reassure such people that if you prayed for an hour and felt that you were pressed with calamities, pray even more, increase your prayer time and you will find the problems will disappear, and you will be triumphant over all your challenges. Never give up on praying, spend as much time as you can in the presence of the Lord. We will face heartaches, oppositions, trials, temptations, testing and even dangers, but the Lord will rescue us from them all.
At one time Jesus invited His disciples to come along with Him on a boat to go across the lake. Though the Lord was with them on that boat, they were ravaged by a fierce storm that rocked their boat and terrified them. The disciples, some of whom were fishermen, were in dread for their lives, not realizing that Jesus was with them.
Daniel was a man who prayed most earnestly to God three times a day, though he was in exile in a foreign country. He was confronted with opposition from those who worked alongside him, who were envious of him. When they could find no fault in him, they plotted to trap him, by putting to test His sincere commitment to God. They procured an order from the king in order to ambush Daniel and even managed to have him thrown into the Lion’s den.
Peter the disciple of Jesus was also in a serious predicament when Herod decided to have him thrown in prison. As Peter languished in prison, the church met together and offered fervent prayers on his behalf.
Whenever, we face opposition from others, let us be sure that God is allowing these for our good and betterment. It is strange but true that it is only when we go through difficult paths and face obstruction of all sorts that we experience that the Lord is at work and will certainly deliver us. Like the disciples, if we have the Lord with us in our life’s boat, no harm will befall us. Also we may be faced with hostility from those who are against us, and even be falsely accused as was Daniel, but this is only a sure sign that the Lord is going to elevate us to a higher level in our lives. It doesn’t really matter the kind of trials that engulf us as they did Peter, but if we can persevere in prayer, victory will be ours for sure.
3. The Lord will deliver us from trouble
We read in Daniel 6:22, “God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. He did this because he knew that I was innocent and because I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.”(GNB)
As Daniel was thrown into that den of fierce and hungry lions, the Lord sent His angels to shut the mouth of those lions, so they could do him no harm. When I read this passage I was reminded as to how the bible records that animals and birds too were obedient to God’s command.
• Examples of animals and birds that obeyed God’s commands
In Genesis 7:15-16 we read, “A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. Then the LORD shut the door behind Noah.” (GNB)
The people of the earth was so filled with wickedness that God decided to destroy the world and everything in it. The Lord only spared Noah and his family who remained righteous before the Lord. God instructed Noah to build a huge ark, and He also gave him the precise dimensions for the construction of that ark. After the ark was completed, God commanded all the animals and birds that lived on the earth, a pair of each to make their way into the safety of the ark that Noah had built. Exactly as the Lord ordered, all the animals and birds made their way into the ark.
We also read about the story of Elijah, who after he predicted to King Ahab that there would be no rain on the land, was led by God to stay in hiding near the brook.
We red in 1 Kings 17:4, “The brook will supply you with water to drink, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there.” (GNB)
And also in 1 Kings 17:6,“He drank water from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening.” (GNB)
God supplied His servant with water from the brook, but He also arranged for the ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat both in the morning and in the evening.
When we observe the above two incidents, we realize that whenever, men of God obeyed the word of God, the Lord used animals and birds to help them in obedience to God’s word.
So also in the life of Daniel when he was thrown into the lion’s den, the Lord sent His angels to shut the mouth of those ferocious lions. God could have just commanded and the lions would have obeyed, but God did the spectacular by sending His angel to shut the mouth of the lions.
The Psalmist says in Psalm 34:7,“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” (ESV)
Isn’t that an amazing thought, that the angel of the Lord surrounds those who fear Him and delivers them from all their troubles. God did this for Daniel when He send His angel to shut the mouth of the lions that were a threat to him.
4. The Lord honors us
We have thus far looked at three parts of Psalm 91:15, to understand that we have a God who answers us when we call on Him, who is with us in trouble, delivers us from all our troubles, and there is still one higher step, wherein He also honors us.
We read about Daniel in Daniel 6:28, “So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” (ESV)
There was a change of kingship from Darius to Cyrus, but through all of their reign, Daniel prospered and was honored by God. Generally when there is a change in leadership at any level, there are loads of changes to people’s positions, but in this case God was so pleased with Daniel that he remained in the same position of honor though there was a change of leadership in the kingdom where he was exiled. Daniel found favor in the eyes of both the kings and God granted him success in all that he did. The victory that Daniel enjoyed was despite the fact that there were those who were antagonistic towards him and plotted for his downfall.
Look at the life of Daniel, there is so much recorded about the achievements of Daniel, but there is sadly no mention of those who rose against him. The same lions that that were meant to hurt Daniel devoured the men who plotted against righteous Daniel.
This is so unlike the way most of us perceive any kind of opposition. We generally get so upset and begin to question God when faced with any kind of conflicting situation. Like Daniel we need to remind ourselves that when we are faithful to God, He will certainly deliver us and our honor is close at hand. The Lord assures us from His word in Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD.” (NKJV) Let us therefore rejoice when we are confronted with trials and resistance of any kind, knowing that our eminence will follow soon.
Here’s how the Psalmist described his experience in Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a banquet for me while my enemies watch. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.” (GNB)
This the Lord performed for David in the midst of his enemies. God prepared this elaborate banquet for him before the very eyes of those who had been hostile to him.
Sometimes when we are invited to have dinner with someone, we get overwhelmed to observe the great trouble they took the entire day to set a sumptuous and wide-spread meal for us. If human beings are so loving and take such effort, how much more will the banquet look like that God Himself prepares for those who love Him. The Lord also anoints our head with oil and makes our cup overflow. Let us be reminded that we believe in a God, who not only delivers us from all our troubles, but He is also the one who will honor us if we hold on to Him.
Let us join in and echo the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 91:15,“When they call to me, I will answer them; when they are in trouble, I will be with them. I will rescue them and honor them.” (GNB) May I conclude that when we call on the Lord, He will answer us, He will be with us, He will certainly deliver us and most importantly God will honor us in due time.
Pastor F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by Sis. Esther Collins
