My Refuge and Fortress | Psalm 91

Let's talk about fear for a moment.

Do you know fear is a very real thing?

People are like, amen, I know that.

This week I was reading a story of fear.

Story of a missionary in India,

who for several weeks had been preaching the gospel

and ministering to people traveling from town to town.

And he told the story of how one night

he and his team of four other men

were returning from a meeting, it was about 10 p.m.

and they had about a five mile walk ahead of them

through a pretty thick part of the jungle

to get to their next destination

where they planned to stay for the night.

So it was very dark and they're traveling

with one flashlight and what he called a Petromax,

which is a bright lantern.

And as they were climbing a steep section of the path,

the guide they were with suddenly froze in his tracks

and he turned around and he went, shh, tiger.

And everybody froze and somebody put the flashlight up

and about 100 yards out, they could see the outline

of a huge male tiger in the distance.

And that tiger had now seen the light

and was staring right into it

and was beginning to creep forward towards them.

Now, if you don't know this, in India,

tigers maul and kill a lot of people every year.

It is a very serious threat.

Well, the missionary said that he had met a tiger

and he was about to kill a tiger.

Well, the missionary said that he had never in his life

felt more helpless and more afraid, and you can imagine.

So he began to pray very silently and with great fervor,

asking the Lord for his, to intervene

and to protect this group.

And then to his relief, about 60 yards out,

the tiger suddenly dashed off into the bush,

into the jungle.

And that was to his great relief,

but then he thought to himself,

maybe that's not so good.

What if the tiger was now planning an ambush,

it was gonna come in off of their flank?

And so the group said, we should get going.

And just as they started to move, that lantern went out.

Yikes.

Now they're in almost total darkness

and that tiger is out there somewhere.

So this missionary sat down in the tallest grass

he could find and he waited for the lantern to be fixed.

And he said he prayed like he had never prayed before.

And he said, it seemed like ages

before they got that lantern started again.

And in the meantime, every little sound that he heard,

guess what he thought?

This is the horrific end of me, you can imagine.

But then the tiger never appeared again.

So the question this morning is,

did the Lord hear his prayer

and did the Lord protect him from the tiger?

Let's see what the Bible says.

Grab your Bibles, let's open them up.

We're going to Psalm 91.

Psalm 91, I mentioned in my video from yesterday,

this Psalm over the years has come to be known

as the Soldier's Psalm because of its content,

because of the promise of God's sovereign protection

over his children.

History tells us that it was widely read

and cited by soldiers in both World War I and World War II.

And even today, I just found this out this week

from Zach Swift at his commissioning,

that even today, Psalm 91 is still being printed

in Bibles that are given to cadets, which is amazing.

The Soldier's Psalm.

Now you look at the top of it,

you see the absence of a superscription, right?

There's no superscription as there's been

in so many of the Psalms that we've studied.

What that means is the author is anonymous

and that means also that the historical background

and context is unknown,

which is a real bummer for history nerds, right?

But we're gonna have to accept that.

Now some Old Testament scholars have looked at the language

and some of the phraseology and they have speculated

that maybe Moses wrote Psalm 91 after 90,

others point to David and as I look at it,

I think David's probably more likely than Moses,

but we can't know for sure,

so we won't speculate about it.

Now the structure of the Psalms really important to look at.

In fact, I'm gonna put this on the screen.

Again, you don't have to have eyes to see that.

This is not an eye test,

but if you're one of those blessed people

that likes to draw lines, likes to mark up your Bibles,

I suggest doing it here by drawing lines

where you see there between verses two and three,

between verses four and five and between verses 13 and 14.

That's the way I've broken it down up there

and we're gonna walk through it in that way

because I think this is probably the best way

for us to study it.

So let's read the word.

Psalm 91, we're gonna read the whole Psalm

and then we will come back and we'll work our way through it.

Verse one, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress,

my God in whom I trust.

For it is he who delivers you from the snare of the trapper

and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions

and under his wings, you may seek refuge.

His faithfulness is a shield in a bulwark.

You will not be afraid of the terror by night

or the arrow that flies by day,

of the pestilence that stalks in darkness

or the destruction that lays waste at noon.

A thousand may fall at your side

and 10,000 at your right hand,

but it shall not approach you.

You will only look on with your eyes

and see the recompense of the wicked.

For you've made the Lord my refuge,

even the most high, your dwelling place.

No evil will befall you,

nor will any plague come near your tent,

for he will give his angels charge concerning you

to guard you in all your ways.

They will bear you up in their hands

that you do not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra,

the young lion and the serpent, you will trample down.

Because he has loved me, therefore I will deliver him.

I will set him securely on high

because he has known my name.

He will call upon me and I will answer him.

I will be with him in trouble.

I will rescue him and honor him.

With a long life I will satisfy him

and let him see my salvation.

Okay, lot to unpack here

and we're gonna go through it pretty quickly,

so hang with me.

Let's go back up to verses one and two.

The way the psalmist begins is very interesting.

He starts by writing in the third person

and he's speaking in general terms about anyone

who seeks the path of wisdom and blessing

by dwelling in the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

He who dwells in the shelter of the most high

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

That is a beautiful and powerful wisdom saying.

We'll come back to that in just a moment,

but first, see how in the next verse, in verse two,

the author switches to first person.

The pronouns are gonna be important throughout this psalm.

Changes to first person going from the pronoun he

to the pronoun I.

So we'll put up some logic here.

Just a couple steps so that you can see

how this sort of plays out.

So verse one is a general statement of wisdom

and then verse two is the psalmist's personal testimony.

It's his personal account of having done

what he described in verse one.

He says, I will say to the Lord,

my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

So to summarize, here's what he's saying.

Anyone who seeks shelter in the Lord

will live under his protective wings

and I testify that this is true in my life.

That's what he's saying.

I will continually declare that Yahweh is my refuge

and my fortress is in him and him alone that I trust.

You see it, general statement and then personal testimony.

Now let's go back and look deeper at the language.

Dwell is a good translation of the Hebrew verb, yashav.

The pictures of someone who, get this now,

enters a home, sits down and stays.

When you see that word dwell,

enters a home, pulls up a chair and remains.

That's the picture here.

Picture in your mind, some of you can do this,

log cabin, roaring fire in the fireplace,

cup of warm hot chocolate,

sit down in a comfy rocking chair

and you just bask in that peaceful setting.

You feel completely safe and secure.

That's what he's describing here.

This almost refers to this dwelling place, a seithir.

And again, shelter is a good translation of that word.

But when you hear shelter,

your mind might go to the wrong thing.

You might think, when I hear shelter,

I think of a rickety little shack that's thrown up

like a survivalist would do out in the wild.

But that is not the picture here.

The Hebrew word and the context carries the meaning

of a covering that is a hidden place or a secret place.

This is a home that is secret.

It's impervious to the evils of the world

where we can dwell with the Lord.

It's a place that we can run to

when this fallen world starts to wear us down.

And I know we're all feeling that right now.

When the storms of life hit,

when worry and fear begin to creep into our hearts,

this is a secret place,

a hidden place that we can retreat to.

And we can pull up that chair and we can stay with the Lord.

Because it's the Lord himself who is this shelter.

You have to understand, he's personalizing this.

It's the Lord who's this shelter.

The Lord is our hiding place.

And it's his presence that is our peace and our protection.

And I think what's happening here,

there's a subtle reference that any Israelite

would have known back in this day, but less so today.

Historically now, think Old Testament.

Where was the hidden dwelling place of God in Israel?

It was the inner sanctuary in the tabernacle.

And later in the temple, right?

That's where the Ark of the Covenant was.

That was the hidden place

where Yahweh manifested his presence.

So you have an image of that on the screen right there,

the Ark of the Covenant.

And the lid on the top was known as the mercy seat.

And on both ends of the mercy seat

were these great cherubim with their wings extended

over the entire length of the lid.

And there between the wings of the angels,

that's where Yahweh would manifest his Shekinah glory,

his presence among his people.

That is likely the shadow of the Almighty

that the psalmist is describing here in verse two.

Think about that.

And keep in mind, if you're in the shadow of somebody,

you've gotta be very close to them, right?

The word itself demands nearness.

Come into the shadow of the Almighty.

So the psalmist is hinting at something

that later under the new covenant

would become a spiritual reality for us through Christ.

The privilege that we have as New Testament believers

to enter with confidence into the very throne room of God.

Hebrews 10 describes this,

saying that we have confidence

to enter the most holy place by what?

By the blood of Jesus.

By a new and living way which he opened for us

through the veil, meaning his flesh.

And therefore, since we have such a great high priest,

we can boldly draw near to God in that hiding place,

which is an amazing privilege

that sometimes we take for granted.

We don't even pray, right?

We have access to the throne room,

but we don't always come into it.

And though the psalmist didn't have that level of privilege

in his day prior to the arrival of Messiah,

he still confesses here in verse two

that the ultimate truth is that Yahweh is his shelter.

Yahweh is his refuge.

It's that place where he can retreat in a time of danger

and that God is his fortress, a matzud in Hebrew.

That word means a stronghold.

God is a stronghold.

Back in ancient times, if you lived in a city,

you had to have fortified walls or you wouldn't survive

because you were constantly being attacked.

That's the picture being drawn here.

A city with fortified walls, that is what God is

to the psalmist.

And so there's nothing in this world,

not even a massive tiger in the jungle

that comes close to the power of God

is our refuge and our fortress.

And when you abide in him, nothing can get to you

except that which God allows into the gate.

And I want you to think about that picture.

Nothing gets into the stronghold

except that which God allows in when you dwell

in the shelter of the most high.

And who enjoys this kind of protection?

Well, the psalmist tells us it's individual, it's personal.

Notice how he takes hold of the power

of God's love for himself.

He says, my God, not just Yahweh in whom we should trust.

He says, my God in whom I trust.

In fact, there's three my's there, right?

He is my refuge, he is my fortress, he is my God.

Friends, that truth is the antidote to fear.

And that's such an important thing for us.

The world we live in right now,

it feels like there are threats everywhere.

Here is the antidote to fear.

We find freedom from worry, from anxiety, from fear

when we seek to dwell in the shelter, in the hidden place,

which is almighty God, amen?

Verses one and two, man, memorize them,

put them on your mirror at home in the bathroom, whatever.

It is a powerful verse of comfort and peace.

Okay, second section, let's move on to verses three and four.

Having declared, having declared his own personal trust

in God, now the psalmist turns to his audience.

He begins to teach his fellow Israelites.

Notice the pronouns switch again, from I in verse two

to you in verses three and four.

And just like in English, when we use the word you,

it can be either plural or singular.

Same thing in Hebrew, but what you see

throughout this section is the psalmist is writing

in such a way that every reference to you

in Hebrew is singular, very unusual.

What does that mean?

It means that he's focusing on every individual person

in his audience, their personal fears,

their personal trials, and their personal trust in God.

He's speaking to them as individuals.

So as we read this, let his words speak to you

as an individual worshiper of Yahweh.

Verse three, for it is he who delivers you

from the snare of the trapper or a fowler,

that's somebody who, Ross knows this, right?

Who traps birds.

Who would do that?

Traps and catches birds.

And from the deadly pestilence or plague.

So these two figures of speech now are designed

to emphasize two sides of a coin

that are both dangerous to us.

One, get this now, one is a surprise.

It has the element of surprise to it.

A trap that suddenly jumps up and grabs hold of your leg.

The other is a deadly disease that slowly spreads

across the land, you see it coming.

So either way, whether it's sudden or slow moving,

the Lord can deliver you from these types of threats

because his power is sufficient for protecting you.

And in practical terms, there's many ways we can understand

this, how it plays out.

The reality is sometimes, sometimes danger comes to us

in the form of a very sudden spiritual attack

from the enemy, right?

We've all felt this.

You walked into your day, you felt like you had

the armor of God on and boom, suddenly,

it just comes out of nowhere

and you're suddenly feeling very much attacked.

And then there's other times when something,

a temptation comes at us very slowly

and it strikes that place in our character

that isn't as sanctified as it should be.

And we fall victim to that temptation, we give into it.

So the enemy may snare us in a surprise attack

or we may find ourselves falling to that temptation

that we see coming because we don't run to our hidden place.

We don't run to our shelter where we can be protected.

But if we do run to him, look at the promise in verse four.

It says, he will cover you with his pinions,

that means feathers, okay?

And under his wings, again, think of that cherubim

in the mercy seat, under his wings, you may seek refuge.

You will find refuge.

His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark.

So again, remember, we're studying Hebrew poetry.

So you expect the language to be flowery, illustrative, right?

Here again, we have two figures of speech

designed to emphasize two sides of a coin.

When you're under threat, God can cover you

with both tender care and battle-hardened armor.

This is so interesting.

First, God functions like a mother bird

who puts her wings over her chicks

and protects them from the elements,

from wind and rain and the storms.

It's a picture of warmth, tender mercy

that God has for his children.

But then there's the toughness of his armor.

Not just the standard shield.

An ancient warrior would have a round shield

that was only big enough to cover his vital organs,

his torso, but then this thing called a bulwark

or a buckler, that was the much larger,

taller shield that would cover his entire body.

It was a fortress that would go around him,

just like a fortified wall.

So from our perspective, when we're facing danger

and we run to God for protection,

we find him to be both warm and tender and strong as steel.

Praise him, right?

Isn't that amazing?

Man, I'm reaching here.

This is amazing truth.

Okay, now in verses five to 10,

we read about the implications of that type of protection

that he offers and as we read through these,

consider the confidence that we should have in our God.

No matter what evil threatens us, we are safe in his shadow.

Look at verse five, you will not be afraid

of the terror by night or the arrow that flies by day,

of the pestilence that stalks in the darkness

or of destruction that lays waste at noon.

A thousand may fall at your side,

10,000 at your right hand,

but it shall not approach or come near to you.

That's quite a promise.

Again, more beautiful descriptive language.

In this case, he uses a rhetorical device called a merism,

which combines two parts of a whole that describe the whole.

So you have night and day and darkness and noon.

Together, they refer to a 24 hour period.

So the message is simple, whatever danger comes at you

on any day of your life, whether it's terror in the night

or it's an arrow shot by an enemy or a plague

or some form of destruction,

you have no reason to be afraid

if you're found in that fortress of God.

On any given day, when we talk about retreating

to the shelter, this is a daily thing, right?

We're in the shelter of God, fortified by him.

And then as we step out of that,

we're wearing the armor of God

and we can always retreat back to the shelter.

But the picture is of intense warfare going on.

And even if others are being picked off all around you

and you look around and you're like,

everybody's falling, I must be next.

God is able to separate you from the crowd and spare you.

Do you believe that?

Even 10,000 people, God's care for you

could be so specifically focused

that it can preserve just you out of 10,000 people.

You believe it?

That's how sovereign he is.

Now the rest of this section from verses eight to 10

gets very eschatological.

Verse eight, you will only look on with your eyes

and see the recompense of the wicked.

This is obvious language focusing

on the future day of the Lord, to judgment,

to the pouring out of God's wrath.

And the psalmist says, in that day,

those who have sheltered under my wings

will merely stand back and serve as witnesses

as I repay the wicked for their wicked deeds.

Friends, that is the most dangerous and terrifying thing

that a man can face.

God's judgment, God's wrath,

more than a thousand tigers in the jungle.

This is the most terrifying and awful thing

that a man can face.

But here's the truth, in that day,

the redeemed will only look on, why?

Because in verse nine, because they have made the Lord,

the psalmist's refuge, even the most high,

they have made him their dwelling place.

No evil will befall you, it says.

The ESV puts it this way, no evil will be allowed,

will be allowed to befall you,

nor will any plague come near your tent.

These are great promises.

Now, trust me, at the end of the sermon here,

we're gonna talk about,

do we have an absolute guarantee on these things?

We'll get to that.

But in the next section, verses 11 to 13,

now you're really gonna get challenged,

if you walked in here today

with a certain theological system,

with some presuppositions,

verse 13 may challenge you just a bit.

The supernatural means that God uses to protect his people.

Angels, angels, verse 11,

for he will give his angels charge,

or he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways.

They, these angels, will bear you up

or support you in their hands

that you do not strike your foot against a stone.

Now, does that surprise you?

Why don't we like talking about

the spiritual realm in angels?

It's really mysterious, right?

And the Bible doesn't give us a super system.

When I taught at masters, I taught systematic theology.

And every time I got to angelology,

I had to say to the folks,

hey, look, we only have a certain amount of data

to work with in scripture, and that's by design.

It's by God's design.

Because we could easily get completely wrapped up

in the spiritual realm and worship angels

and get all involved in that,

and God doesn't want us to do that.

But we shouldn't be surprised about this.

We see this in the New Testament too.

In Hebrews one, angels are called ministering spirits.

That's their job.

They minister.

They're sent out by the Lord to render service

for the sake of those who will inherit salvation,

says Hebrews one.

They're ministering spirits.

They minister to the redeemed.

Even now, that's happening in the spirit realm.

In this place this morning.

It's wild, isn't it?

What an amazing and mysterious truth.

The Lord sends these spirit beings to watch over us.

Now, how all that works, I don't know.

I wish if I knew, I would tell you

if I had a whole bunch of data to say

this is exactly how that plays out,

I would tell you, but it gives us just general truths.

We don't know how all that warfare takes place

in the spirit realm.

And the psalmist here isn't trying to lay out

a systematic doctrine of angelology,

so we have to be careful about that.

We have to be careful about this,

but can I tell you what my hope is?

When the day comes that I pass from this life,

I'm gonna get all that information.

I say it all the time.

I have so many questions, right?

So when we get, maybe someday when we get

into the heavenly realms, we are gonna see this

in all of its beauty and fullness,

and we'll get to look back and understand

how many times, think about this,

how many times God sent angels to guard us.

What a great God we have, right?

What I think the psalmist is saying here

is that God's means of protecting us

is actually greater than Satan's means of opposing us,

because it's he who gives the power to the angels,

and his power is far greater than Satan, right?

And finally, and this promise is wild,

not only do we get protected from danger,

but we're given this victory in verse 13,

which is pretty wild.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra.

You'll trample him down.

Again, this is poetic language, so we have to be careful.

Two sides of one coin, the lion and the cobra,

represent some of the most dangerous threats

in the animal world, but think about this.

One is very small, and kills very quickly

and suddenly with a strike.

The other is very large, larger than us,

and kills with overwhelming raw power, right?

So two different threats, but the result is the same.

They're dangerous to us,

but the result is the same, they're dangerous to us.

Now, we could take verse 13 and rip it out of context

and say, let's go snake hunting, or let's go find a lion.

I feel confident in counseling you this way.

I do not advise this.

I do not advise finding snakes

and just trying to trample them.

Don't do it.

The point is, we don't need to fear anything

when we're in the safety of God's care,

because ultimately the victory is ours.

Now, when you read snakes and trample, what comes to mind?

What might be being hinted at here?

Echoes of Genesis 3.15, right?

The head crusher who will one day come

and crush the head of the serpent.

And if we're found in Christ, that victory is ours as well.

We too, in a sense, get to trample

on the head of the serpent.

The victory is ours.

Now, last section in these last three verses,

notice how the pronouns change once again.

This is so important to see.

Pronouns changing three times.

These are written in the first person.

What we have in these last few verses

is now God steps up to the podium

and begins to speak promises and blessings

through the psalmist.

And this is what Old Testament scholars

call a salvation oracle.

Again, this is God speaking now.

Verse 14.

Because he, that is the one who abides with God,

because he has loved me, the Lord,

therefore I will deliver him.

And I will set him securely on high

because he has known my name.

He has known me.

He will call upon me and I will answer him.

Isn't that comforting?

I will be with him in trouble.

I will rescue him and honor him.

With a long life I will satisfy him

and let him see or I will show him my salvation.

Look at verse 14 here.

The word love here is not achava,

which is the standard Hebrew word for love.

The psalmist uses a very unique Hebrew word, chashak,

which means really not love in the sense

that we understand love.

It's to have a longing for something.

To have a longing or to delight in.

So he's describing a person who has a passion to know God.

It's what drives his or her life.

A deep longing for relationship with the Almighty.

One who renders to him the worship he is due.

One who consistently abides

in the shelter of the most high.

And friends, listen to this.

This is the greatest news possible.

We talk about the gospel.

This is the greatest news possible.

These the Almighty,

the ones who have a longing for God,

he will deliver them from danger.

That's the promise.

Moreover, he will save them for all eternity.

They will not suffer his wrath.

These, those who will have a passion

and a longing to abide with the Lord,

he will hear from them

and answer them in times of distress.

He will send his angels to rescue them

and he will ultimately set them on high with great honor.

Man, these verses are powerful.

Okay, so that's our exegesis.

Now, we need to talk about a whole bunch of things

because a whole bunch of stuff gets sort of,

it's like, you know, the bottom of a river.

It just kicks up a whole bunch of questions

and things that we need to address.

So what are we to take home from this type of wisdom?

Well, let's talk about,

do you truly trust in God's protection?

Should we assume that you are a Christian?

That you and I as Christians, those who know God,

those who long to abide with him,

that we will never be touched by any danger?

Is that the promise here?

Because it sounds like it.

No terror in the night, no arrow on the battlefield,

no sudden attack, no plague will ever touch us.

Will his angels protect us from trouble

in every possible situation

and even give us the power in every situation

to get a victory, trampling on the head of a serpent?

This is one of the many places in scripture

where we have to be careful

and make sure that our interpretive framework is in place,

that we let scripture inform scripture,

and that we also understand the genre of Hebrew poetry

and what it intends to communicate to us.

Obviously, obviously what we have here in Psalm 91

is not an absolute 100% guarantee

of you and I getting a trouble-free life.

Wouldn't that be nice if it was sort of a quid pro quo?

If my passion level for God is high enough,

then I just get a free, I get immunity from God.

That's not the way the world works.

Not only does a trouble-free life not line up

with what we see going on around us

and what we experience ourselves,

it doesn't line up with other scripture either.

Because you can go down the list of biblical persons,

and what do you see?

Distress and trials and trouble, Job, Job, right?

Job will rock your world as a Christian, right?

But Abraham and Joseph and Moses, David, all of them,

trial and tribulation.

When you look at church history, see the same thing.

Really wonderful men and women of God

who had a passion and a longing to know the Lord,

tortured and martyred,

and they were tortured and martyred.

They wanted to know the Lord tortured

and martyred for their faith.

People who love God struck down in battle.

Some attacked by evil men, others killed in accidents.

And yes, some struck down by pestilence,

which by the way, prior to COVID,

we could read this and go,

we haven't really experienced a plague.

But I know people who died from,

I know a pastor in Arizona, a friend of mine who died

in the COVID outbreak.

Spurgeon in his day went through this himself in 1854.

If you don't know this,

London was struck with something called

the Broad Street Cholera outbreak.

And he wrote in his memoirs about how his congregation

was hit so hard.

Here's what he wrote.

He said, family after family summoned me

to the bedside of the smitten,

and almost every day I was called to visit a grave.

Imagine that.

Almost every day he was doing a funeral.

I became weary in body and sick at heart.

My friends seemed to be falling one by one.

A little more work and a little more weeping

would have laid me low with the rest, he wrote.

I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear

and I was ready to sink under it.

And interestingly, it was Psalm 91 that refocused Spurgeon

and got him back on track.

And again, you talk about God's sovereignty

and the way he works in very mysterious ways.

Here's how he got sort of re-energized to do his ministry.

He was walking down Broad Street

in the midst of this pandemic

and he walks by a shoemaker's store

and the shoemaker who was a believer

had posted Psalm 91 in the window.

And he walked up to it and he read it

and here's what he wrote later.

The effect upon my heart was immediate.

Faith appropriated the passage as its own.

I felt secure, refreshed, girded with immortality.

I went on with my visitation of the dying

in a calm and peaceful spirit.

I felt no fear of evil and I suffered no harm.

God protected him.

As he trusted in the Lord,

as he went to the shelter of the Almighty,

the Lord protected him.

See, in the Psalm, it doesn't say

that there won't be terrors by night.

That's not the promise.

It doesn't say that there'll be no arrows

flying at you during the day.

It doesn't rule out the possibility

of pestilence actually stalking us.

What the Psalm says is in the midst of that,

if you're in the shelter of the Almighty,

you will not be afraid.

That's the promise.

We all know Romans 8.35.

This verse that says,

who will separate us from the love of Christ?

And there's this list.

Will tribulation, death, and death

and there's this list, will tribulation, distress,

persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword?

Guess what that means?

Those things may come after us.

That's sort of the implied thing is

those things will come after us,

but even if they do,

they can't separate us from the love of Christ.

So the threat is always there,

but we have our shelter.

That's because the Almighty really does, in fact,

sovereignly rule over every detail of the universe.

What that means is the arrow flies towards you,

God sovereignly is in charge of the flight pattern

of that arrow.

True?

Do we believe that?

The spread of disease, the length of our lives,

the persecution that comes at us,

He's sovereign over it.

In the midst of this fallen world,

He really does provide His children with protection

and health and life as an act of grace.

More than we even know now,

maybe we'll again, we'll find out later

how many times God rescued us

that we're not even aware of right now.

But He does that for His children.

And yes, through His angels.

The Bible gives testimony to that fact.

And by the way, I can testify to it personally.

Some of you guys know I'm not gonna tell the stories here

because I don't, this is not about me,

I don't wanna make my story the big idea

of this Sunday morning, but multiple times in my life,

supernatural things have happened to me

where I am absolutely convinced that angels have guarded me.

Once was when I was, call them my stupid years,

in my 20s before I met Tanya,

when a gang member pointed a gun at my face

and I thought I was a dead man.

And for some reason, he didn't pull the trigger.

And I still don't know why to this day.

He smiled, our eyes connected,

he smiled and he walked away.

And I don't know why.

Other than God commanded His angels to watch over me.

Tanya and I have another story

and her mom is here this morning,

I don't know if mom's even heard this.

But we were delivered from certain death

in a near car accident.

And I still don't know to this day how my car moved.

I blacked out and something turned the wheel

and I survived a near certain fatal car accident.

The obvious implication is that God was not done with us.

That's all I can assume from that.

That He had more kingdom work for Tanya and I

to accomplish for His glory,

otherwise I would not be standing here this morning.

And the fact is God has numbered our days.

My days and your days too,

according to what He has decreed

before the beginning of time

and nothing is gonna change that because He's sovereign.

And so for those who find refuge in the Lord,

we can rest in confidence.

And listen, we can reject fear.

Knowing that whatever happens in this life,

it always happens with His full knowledge

and for His reasons.

That's the antidote to fear.

So, all right, how do we apply?

I know it got real quiet and got weird.

I wanted to tell you that, okay,

if you wanna know the story, call me tomorrow.

Okay, two extremes we need to avoid in applying this.

Two extremes.

On the one hand, we can discount this teaching

and not trust what God has declared

about His loving protection.

And we can become so paralyzed by all the threats

that are out there that we just say,

you know what, I'm gonna hole up in my safe zone

and not do anything.

I'm not gonna take any risks.

I'm not gonna venture out there.

I'm just gonna stay in my safe place.

Because we say that we trust the word,

but we really don't trust this promise.

And so we go, look, I don't do missions trips

because you know what, the world's a dangerous place.

I'm not gonna take that risk.

I'm not gonna take that risk.

I'm not gonna take that risk.

Or I'm not gonna share my faith at work

because I could get in trouble.

HR may call me, so I'm not gonna do it.

Or you know what, when I'm outnumbered in a crowd,

I am not gonna speak up for truth

because I might get attacked.

So we stay in our safe zone.

And that fear, that fear will keep you from serving God

and obeying His word.

And we have examples in the Bible

that were written for our instruction.

Abram, how Abram lied about the status of his wife, Sarah,

because he was afraid.

So he made something up.

He didn't trust the Lord in that moment.

Didn't trust the Lord's protection, he lied.

Moses is afraid to go to Pharaoh and talk.

Can't do it, he says.

Send somebody else, I'm afraid.

Almost all the Israelites, they looked at the Canaanites,

they said, man, they're big.

Those are big dudes.

So you know what, I know God promised us the land,

but I don't think we should do it.

And so fear paralyzes.

And this is a fundamental failure to trust God's sovereignty,

to trust His protection, to trust His promises.

And the fact is, living in obedience to God,

at times, is gonna require you and I

to live somewhat dangerously.

Yeah, I said it out loud.

Sometimes we're gonna have to live dangerously.

And look, I feel like we were all sort of tested

just recently by COVID.

And only you can answer the question,

like how did you do during COVID?

Were you paralyzed with fear?

I mean, you guys might remember the last sermon

that I preached here before Pico shut down the school

for COVID, you remember what I shared with you guys.

And look, I'm not patting myself on the back.

This was just a reality for me and my family.

I said, look, I'm a pastor, I can't avoid people.

It's not in my constitution to do that,

and it's not in my job description to avoid people.

I'm gonna have to take risks.

I'm gonna have to live dangerously

and keep shepherding people.

And I said to you guys, remember, I said,

one of three things is gonna happen.

Number one, God will protect me and I won't get COVID.

That'd be nice.

Number two, I'm gonna get COVID

and the Lord will get me through it

and protect my life.

Or number three, I'll get COVID and he'll take my life.

And I said, I'm okay with all three of them.

I'm okay with all three.

He's gonna be the one to decide.

So I said, let's go, let's get after it, right?

And I got COVID three times.

I got every single strain.

And the first one was really tough and I suffered

and I prayed my way through it and it got better,

but the Lord got me through it.

So there's a risk and a cost to following Jesus

in obedience.

It's not always gonna be safe.

So for some of you, I'd exhort you to start taking more

calculated spiritual risk and trusting that God will,

will guard you and send his angels concerning you.

Now, you know what I'm gonna talk about,

the other extreme, right?

The other extreme that we should avoid,

all of our decisions to step out of faith

and to take a risk have to be taken in a spirit of wisdom.

Wisdom, this is a tough balance, right?

We're not to presume that we can just go do anything

we want, take any possible risk and just say,

well, I'm acting in faith and God will take care of me.

That may not be a wise course of action.

So for example, you might say, well, look,

I have a heart to go share the gospel with people

in the city, downtown, and that's fantastic.

But should you do a little bit of research to find out

if there's an area that's more dangerous than others?

Yeah, do a risk assessment.

God's given you a brain, right?

If you have choices, there's people all over the city.

If there's choices and you say, that's an area

that'll probably get you in too much trouble,

there's other places.

That's just simple wisdom, right?

Where you say, look, I wanna make a difference

in the world.

I wanna meet needs and feed the hungry

and share the gospel.

But going to Haiti right now would be foolish.

That would lack wisdom.

You can ask Adam about this, right?

When Adam gets sent to Africa by CHF,

they do a lot of planning.

They do a lot of research and they say,

here's some spots that we can go and we can guarantee

to some extent that you're gonna be safe.

And those areas are too unstable right now.

That's just wisdom.

So it's a calculated risk that requires discernment.

So we don't presume upon God's protection

by making foolish choices.

And here's the cool thing about Psalm 91.

And some of you already know this.

Built within Psalm 91 is a divinely inspired commentary

on this very subject.

Go back in your mind to Matthew chapter four.

Jesus is baptized and what happens

as soon as he's baptized?

He goes off into the Judean wilderness, right?

And he begins to fast.

And who comes to him?

Satan comes to tempt him and here's what it says.

The devil took Jesus, this is the second temptation.

The devil took Jesus into the holy city,

a vision of the holy city,

had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple

and said to him, if you are the son of God,

throw yourself down.

For it is written, and guess what Satan's about to quote?

Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12.

Psalms 91:11

For it is written, he will command his angels

concerning you and on their hands, they will bear you up.

What was he doing?

Well, he's twisting the scriptures first of all.

He's using a scripture designed to encourage

in order to deceive, that's the first thing.

But he's saying, if you're really the son of God,

then of all people, you could do as you please.

You can live as dangerously as you want

because your father has promised you 100% of the time

that he will protect you, so jump.

But how did Jesus respond?

He quoted Deuteronomy 6, 16,

you shall not put the Lord your God to what?

To the test.

Ooh, what that means is to jump as the devil suggested

would be putting the father to the test

by demanding that he rescue his son

from a danger of his own making,

from doing something outside of the father's will.

And then presuming that the father will come and protect him.

Jesus says, I'm not gonna put the Lord

to the test like that.

So while the servant of God may choose to take some risks,

it's not an excuse to live presumptuously.

The angels were there with Jesus to minister to him as fast,

but not as the devil suggested,

to save him from throwing himself off the temple.

And Jesus recognized it.

So we can learn from that, right?

We have to be careful not to take one or two photos

or one or two verses out of context

and leap from it, pun intended,

leap from it without considering

what scripture says in other places,

what leads us to wisdom.

That'll get you in trouble to carve out verses like that

and say, I can do anything I want.

And I presume upon God that he's always gonna save me

and always gonna rescue me.

Don't confuse faith with foolishness,

but also don't be paralyzed with fear.

This is a hard one, isn't it?

We gotta find the balance.

Okay, I'm gonna wrap up with just two more quick perspectives

that we need to make sure we understand.

First, as we have established already,

danger and trouble and suffering do at times

come upon the believer.

But here's the addendum to that truth.

We know that if and when those things come our way, danger,

it's only because of God's expressed permission

and by his sovereign design,

by the way, that in and of itself

is designed to be a comfort for us.

When hard things come, we go, okay, Lord,

there's a purpose in this.

But the promise that we have, and this is the point,

is if the Lord chooses not to pluck us out of that danger,

he will be present with us in it.

We're not alone.

And think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right?

Not alone in the fire.

Think Daniel, not alone in the pit with the lions.

Think Paul in the book of Acts.

He comes to Corinth, and Paul has been under constant threat

from mobs, and he's starting to lose heart.

And the Lord knows that, and he comes to Paul into a vision.

He says, do not fear, keep on speaking, for I am with you.

That's what God does.

God's not always gonna rescue.

God didn't rescue Paul from all the mobs.

Sometimes he barely escaped with his life, right?

But God says, keep doing what you're doing,

for I am with you.

So in the final analysis, he's either gonna deliver us

all together from danger, or he will be present with us

and bring us through it.

Is that a comfort?

It should be.

Now the last perspective is a hard one,

but we have to acknowledge it as well.

Listen, I mentioned this two weeks ago in Psalm 90.

Even as Christians, we are not promised

or guaranteed a tomorrow.

It's possible that not all Christians

will be able to come to the Lord's house.

It's possible that not only will God sometimes

permit danger to come our way,

he might also sovereignly permit our physical death.

And this is where we have to make sure

we renew our minds carefully.

This is why we can go to a Christian funeral and rejoice.

And even if that person dies younger than we think

he or she should, we can still rejoice.

We can spare the physical life of the believer.

He or she still wins.

They still get the victory.

We are too focused on this vapor,

this mist that we live here on the earth.

All of us are.

The world teaches us this and we get sucked into it.

This is all that matters.

I'm not saying it's not important,

but there's so much more out there.

It's so much bigger.

There's such a bigger picture.

To live is Christ and to die is what?

It's gain.

You gotta believe that that's true.

If you don't wanna be paralyzed with fear,

you've got to believe that what Paul says is true.

How can it be gain, you ask?

There's so many ways.

To be in the presence of the Lord is the greatest blessing

that we can imagine this side of heaven.

To see Jesus face to face,

is to abide with him finally in all the fullness

of being in the presence of the Lord.

Even more so, passing into eternity means

the end of all the conflict that we face right now.

It means the end of all the suffering and all the sorrow

and all the wickedness that we're forced to see

and endure in this life.

It's the end of the groaning of these bodies we live in.

It's the end of sin and temptation constantly coming at us.

In death, it's all wiped away.

That's why it's gain.

And friends, because Jesus took upon himself

the wrath of God by faith in him,

we are now sheltered from it.

We're sheltered from it by faith.

Ephesians 2, 6 tells us that even now,

positionally, we've been raised with Christ

and seated with him in the heavenly places.

We're there already.

It's so secure that we're already positionally seated

with him in the heavenly realms.

That is incredible security.

Colossians 3, 3 says that we're hidden with Christ in God.

Back to that hidden place.

We're hidden in him.

That's security.

Think about it.

If we're united to Christ by faith,

that we're hidden with him in God,

then we are as safe and secure as Christ is.

Total security.

That's the antidote to fear.

So this week, you're gonna go out there

and all these threats are gonna come at you

and you're gonna read the news and politics

and everything's falling apart

and there's solar flares from the sky, right?

All this stuff going on.

Do you have an antidote to the fear

that can set into your heart if you're not careful?

Do you believe these promises?

Because once you realize and truly trust

that this world is governed by a sovereign God

who is good and who loves you with an infinite love,

a God who always does what is best for you

in every situation, that will drive out fear

and that will change your perspective

on every single thing in your life.

That's the point of Psalm 91.

Let's pray together.