Psalms Mixtape, Live in the Shadow of the Lord - Psalm 91

We've been in a series called Psalms Mixtape. That's a

cassette tape. For those who are young and don't know

what the heck that is. It's a cassette tape. It's

a thing that played music back in the day. You

could record the radio on it. It was great make

your own mixtapes. Yeah, But we've been in this series

called the Psalms Mixtape, and it's a short series. We're

not going through every psalm in the Book of Psalms,

although we have talked about it and thought it would

be a ton of fun to do at some point,

So buckle up. Maybe we'll go through all the psalms

at one point, but we're just gonna be focusing on,

or we have been focusing on, just a handful of

these psalms. And there's one hundred and fifty of them

in the whole book. It's one hundred and fifty psalms,

and much like the mixtape that you made for your

high school crush, it's full of different flavors or genres

of these songs or poems all throughout the book, but

they all come together for a singular purpose, right, So

there are psalms of Thanksgiving that we've talked about. There's

psalms of lament when you're lamenting. There's imprecatory psalms for

the destruction of your enemies, that's a big one. There's

psalms of praise. There's psalms of wisdom, also known as

the didactic psalms, and we have psalms of kingship or

the royal psalms, and we also have psalms of trust.

And each message in this series, as we've been going

through it has been taking one of those types of psalms,

and we've been talking through it. But as we've seen,

as we've been going through these psalms, and no matter

what the life circumstance is of the psalmist who wrote

the song or the poem, the aim is always the same.

It's always the same aim, and it is to turn

to the Lord right when we're thankful, or to be

thankful to the Lord for what he has done in

our life right well when we're lamenting. Who do we

turn to for help in time of need? The Lord,

who is our ever present help in time of need,

when our wicked enemies are closing in around us. How

many wicked enemies do we have. I don't know. Maybe

some of you have some wicked enemies. We ask who

for justice? We go to the Lord for justice, because

He is our vengeance, not us. When it's time to praise,

our praise should always be aimed at the Lord. Why

we just sang about it. He is worthy of all praise.

Our praise is always aimed at him. When we lack

wisdom or we need guidance and teaching, where do we go.

We go to the one who has all wisdom and

who teaches us how we should live. To know who

the King is overall, we look to the creator of

all things, who was, who is, and who is to come.

And when it comes to who we put our trust

in for our whole lives, we look at the Lord

and we trust in him alone. No matter what our

own life circumstances are, no matter what life throws at us,

no matter what we're feeling, it's always the same aim.

We aim to turn to the Lord. And at our

last service, Pastor Duncan he got to preach through a

psalm of kingship or a royal psalm, which was awesome,

how fitting for Christmas Eve, right because we're celebrating the

King of all kings, the Lord of all Lords coming

in to the world. That's the perfect time to learn

from a Psalm of kingship. And today what we're gonna

do is we're gonna wrap up our Psalm series and

we're gonna finish it by going through Psalm ninety one,

and you can start turning there. If you don't have

a Bible, we have a bunch of them at the

resource desk in the lobby. Please grab them. And just

a reminder, we did switch over to officially preaching out

of the ESB translation. We still read the NIV. We

gotta woo over here there it is. We still do

read and study out of the NIV like we were

preaching before. And if you have an NIV or a

NKJV or a CSB or any of those translations, you'll

be able to follow along. Plus the verses will be

on the screen for you as well. And the new Bibles.

We bought our ESB too, so we have NIV, n

ESB Bibles. If you don't have one in want a

free one, take it. We want you to have the Bible.

So we're in Psalm ninety one and we're gonna be

going through a psalm of trust. So I want to

read through our texts today, and then we will pray

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,

and whom I trust, For he will deliver you from

the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his

wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield

and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night,

nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence

that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at

your right hand, but it will not come near you.

You will only look with your eyes and see the

recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord

your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge.

Because you made the Lord your dwelling place, no evil

shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near

your tent, for He will command his angels concerning you

to guard you. In all your ways. On their hands,

they will bear you up. Lest you strike your foot

against the stone. You will tread on the lion and

the adder, the young lion and the serpent, you will

trample underfoot. Because he holds fast to me in love,

I will deliver him. I will protect him because he

knows my name. Where when he calls to me, I

will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.

I will rescue him and honor him with long life.

I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Let's pray. God,

We thank you for your word. We thank you for

this moment to go through it. And God, give us

ears to hear what you'd have us here today. Let

us learn from your word what you want to teach.

Not just learn it as and gained knowledge, but God,

let us hide it in our heart that we might

not sin against you, that we'd walk in obedience to

whatever you'd have for us today. God, I thank you

that this word falls on good soil today, that we

remove any distractions from our minds, that as any fleeting

thoughts might come in to steal the word that you

have for us today. God, remove the fleeting thoughts from

our head. Let us focus on you and your word

and God, let us learn from you today. When we

lack wisdom, you say, ask for it and you'll give

it to us. So God, we're asking for your wisdom

today as we go through your word and Jesus name.

Everybody said a men, we are three days away from

twenty twenty five. Does anyone who looked at the calendar recently?

I can't believe twenty twenty four is already gone. It's

already over. Twenty twenty four is gone. But this is

the time of year when people start setting goals, right,

You start thinking like, what's the future that I want

and what's it going to take to get there? Okay,

how are New Year's resolutions still thing? Does anybody do them?

I don't. I mean I never. It's never been really

a thing, you know, where people resolve to make some

change in your life. So I have some examples here.

This year, I'm going to start eating better, or I'm

going to exercise more. How about this one? This year,

I'm actually gonna set a budget and stick with it.

That's a good one, right, Or what about some more

holy answers? Read my Bible every day, pray, more, not

just at meal times, and at church, be more generous,

see people in need, just give start serving at church,

tell more people about Jesus, or invite more people to church.

These are all fantastic things, by the way, right, I'm

not saying we shouldn't set goals like that. These are

great things. We should all be striving to do these things.

And even though I don't really do the like New

Year's resolutions things, I never really have been into that.

If I were to pick something for this year, what

I wrote down is that I think I would would

set the goal to trust the Lord more, to trust

him more, to set my sights on trusting him with

everything at all times, literally at all times, and then

every day I would start to take steps to get

me closer to that goal. And in Psalm ninety one,

what we just read, we're looking at the life of

somebody who has put their trust in the Lord. They

have trusted in the Lord for everything. And how do

we know that they trust him? We al it's because

they've made the Lord their dwelling place. This person has

run to the Lord as a refuge. We just read,

we know that they trust the Lord to protect them,

or they wouldn't have run to him. When I was

started thinking, when I was reading this text, I started

thinking about an example. Why did the this is gonna

be get really nerdy? Why did the people run to

Helm's Deep In Lord of the Rings, people were like,

what's Helm's Deep? It's a castle, it's a place. But

they believe the walls of this castle we're going to

protect them. The walls of Helm's Deep would keep them

safe and protect them from the enemies. That's what they thought.

They trusted in the walls to save them, because you

only run to something or someone for protection if you

trust that they can actually protect you. A more common example,

a little more visceral. I call this the glass pain example.

I have two panes of glass. One is just double

pine glass like you have in your window in your kitchen, okay,

and then on this side we have like armored truck

grade bulletproof glass. You have to decide which pane of

glass you're gonna stand behind as someone shoots at you

with a gun. Which pane of glass you're gonna stand behind? Like,

the Lord will protect me, Yeah, he gave you the

armored glass to stand behind. We're gonna pick the armored

truck glass right, because we will only stand behind the

thing that we're trusting in that will protect us. Right,

we run to those that we know can keep us safe.

We stand behind the glass we know we'll protect us

from the danger or the harm. We will always run

to the one we trust will protect us. So I

called today's message this live in the shadow of the Lord.

Live in the shadow of the Lord. And as we're

going through the text, you're gonna it'll make sense why

this is the title. The other option was the better

Helm's Deep, because if you watch Lord of the Rings,

the wall gets blown up, gets destroyed. You can't destroy

the Lord. But not as many people would get that.

So just moving on. But I think the biggest thing

that I want us to understand from Psalm ninety one

today is actually an encouragement for us. It's an encouragement

for us to make our home in the shadow of

the Lord. That those who make the Lord their dwelling place,

who draw near to the Lord, and I say near

enough to live in his shadow, they will be protected.

Near enough to live in his shadow, they will be protected.

There's no one and nothing else we should put our

hope in for protection. No one else. There's no one

who can protect us like the Lord. There's no one

who can make the promises God makes and actually deliver.

No one can guarantee that but God alone. So the

argument that I see being made in Psalm ninety one,

and the argument that I'm going to argue today is this.

So you're gonna want to write this down or put

in your phone. God protects those who dwell in Him

now and forever. The God protects those who dwell in

Him now and forever. So live in the shadow of

the Lord, because He will protect you now and for

your eternal future. He guys, ready to break down this text.

It's a good one. It's a doozy And I love

how this text is actually broken up because you'll see

the Psalmist as we read it, you kind of saw

him repeat himself, and he says it in two different stands.

Is the first stands I see as verses one through eight.

He starts with a statement of truth about dwelling in

the Lord, and then it's followed by what God does

for those who dwell in Him, and then it's the

results for the one who dwells in Him. And the

second stands it will be Verses nine through thirteen follows

the exact same format, and we'll walk through this. But

then the Psalm concludes by changing personcives you guys read

it's not the Psalmist speaking anymore at the end. Actually,

it is God's perspective. It's God responding and speaking, and

it's so beautiful. So let's start with that first stanza.

Look at verses one and two. 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, and whom I trust.

And I think this is the main point of the

whole Psalm right here right there. All right, pack it up,

we can go home, right, nailed it. This is the

main argument for the whole psalm. But I do want

to break it down, and I want to do what

I call a word definition lightning round for this first verse.

So I'm glad it's all on here, so you're going

to see. I just want to go through and defind

some terms real quick. What does it mean to dwell?

Means to live in or make your home in? Right?

How about a shelter. What is a shelter that is

under or what about shelter? It's under the covering of

well under who says the most host high? And note

the capital M and capital H. Who's he talking about?

It's God, right, the most high? Well, who's higher than

the most high? You can say it, say loud, no one.

It's the point of being the most high. There's no

one higher than you, right, no one's higher than the

most high. To abide, what does that mean? It means

to live or remain in? Abide? I like that, remain in?

And what's the only way for you to be in

the shadow of someone? How are you in the shadow

of something? You're standing right next to it, and usually

it's someone bigger than you or something bigger than you. Right,

it's to be right next to them. What does it

mean to be almighty? What's the definition of almighty? Means

someone who has all the might or all the power.

So this psalm is beginning, and just verse one. If

I were to put all those definitions into one sentence

and make up our own, like amplified version of this verse,

this is not the Bible says to me, putting definition

in here. So don't get it twisted. Those who make

their home under the covering of the one who is

higher than everyone else will live or remain near the

One with all the might. Those who make their home

under the covering of the one who is higher than

everyone else will live or remain near the One with

all the might. And that seems like the best place

on the planet to be. That seems like the best

place for us to be. There's no one higher than God,

there's no one more powerful than God. The best and

safest place for me to make my home is in

his shadow. It's close to him. And what does the

Psalmist call God in verse two, Well, we see quite

a few terms in there. Calls him his Lord, his refuge,

his fortress, his God, and whom he trusts. He calls

God a safe place from danger, the stronghold or the

fortress that you run, the fortress that he trusts in

for safety. You guys, think about medieval times when the castles,

kings and queens and all that stuff. What did they

do when they saw an enemy army marching towards the city?

Where do they run? The ranage of the castle. That's

where you run when the enemy army is marching towards

your city. Everyone would gather into the castle. And the

Psalmist is explaining the Lord as the castle that he

runs into when the enemy is approaching. The Lord is

the castle or fortress that he runs into. And what

does God do for those who put their trust in him?

What does he do for them those who call him

their refuge and their fortress? Can you put verses three

and four on the screen, For he will deliver you

from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his

wing you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield

and buckler those who trust in the Lord. For those

who dwell in him will be delivered from the fowler.

What's a fowler? A fowler someone who catches and traps birds.

They set traps to catch birds. He's sneaky. He lures

the birds in, he entices them, He tricks them all

to catch him in his trap. And what does an

animal do when it's caught in a snare? It panics right,

And the more it pulls, the tighter the snare gets,

and the more locked up it is. You guys, remember

the Chinese finger traps. So the first time I ever

got one of those as a kid, huh huh oh no,

and I like panicked, and I rip the thing in

half because I was freaked out so much. I cut

my fingers out. Eventually I forget out how to use them,

and then I trick my boys with them. It's great,

but those who trust in the Lord will be delivered

from the snare. They're delivered from the plot and tricks

and traps of the enemy. And it's not just the enemy, right,

it's not just the enemy that they're delivered from. If

we keep reading this text. No, the one who dwells

in the Lord is delivered from the deadly pestilence or plagues.

That's what a pestilence is, a plague. If there was

one thing that I was afraid of growing up, it

was the bubonic plague. It's because I went to school.

I had a biology teacher who liked to talk about

Ebola and all the scariest things in the planets, the

bubonic plague. I thought that every single rat was a carrier.

After I got told about bubonic plague and then come

to find out that it was actually spread by fleas.

That's way worse. That is absolutely worse. Like I can

stay away from a rat, but no flees. Awesome, thank you.

But even the scary black death, the bubonic plague, the

Lord delivers the one who trusts and dwells in him.

And we don't see a lot of plagues nowadays, right,

But I don't want you to miss him what the

Psalmist is actually saying saying, whether it's the enemy you

see in front of you actually trying to trap you,

or an unseen enemy like a plague that's trying to

end you, the Lord will deliver you from it, because

he is the deliverer. If you would just dwell in him,

if you would just trust in him, he will protect

you and cover you with his wings, right under his wings.

Do you remember what Jesus said in Luke thirteen we

went through a little while ago, that he longed to

gather the children of Jerusalem under his wings, but they

were not willing. It's under his wings that we find

a refuge or safe place from danger when you live

close enough to him to be covered by his wings.

And the Lord is faithful, he follows through on what

he says. He's gonna do. He can be trusted, and

it's his faithfulness that will be our shield. Now that's

what God will do, which leads to the result for

the one who trust in him. Right, we're talking about

the three part to the stanza, So let's look at

the next few verses, Verses five through eight. You will

not fear the terror of the night, nor the air

that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may

fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you. You will only

look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

Is anyone afraid of the dark? It's a safe space,

you can admit it. Dark is a little scary. There's

an old show on Nickelodeon back in the day called

Are You Afraid of the Dark? And it was like

the kid's horror shows or whatever, trying to scare them.

But why is it that every scary movie and TV show,

all the scariest stuff always happens at night. I think

there's just something very unsettling about the darkness, and I

think it's that you can't see where the danger is

coming from. You can't see. It's just a terrifying fact

that you can't see where or when the danger is

going to strike. It's in the dark of night, when

you can't see, how are you supposed to protect yourself?

Right the bad guy's running at you from behind when

it's dark, how are you gonna protect your if you

didn't see him coming? But the Psalmist is saying that

if you are covered by the wings of the Lord,

whether it's the danger you can't see or an enemy

that you can see clear as day, you will not

fear them. And that's an incredible blessing to not have fear.

There is just lots of reasons. Reasons might be an

interesting choice of word. There's lots of things that cause

us fear and anxiety today. So what a blessing would

be to have all of that evaporated. No fear, no anxiety.

Whether it's a terror hidden in the dark or an

arrow in the middle of the day, you will not

fear them. And I love this next part, A thousand

may fall? Can you go back one slide? Verse seven?

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at

your right hand. What does that mean? You might look

to your left, I'll look to your left. You might

look to your left and see a thousand people fall

down dead. You might even see ten thousand people even

closer at your right hand, fall down dead. But it

will not come near you. That's wild. That's some pretty

strong language being used here in the psalm. You will

see the wicked fall around you, but the only thing

you're gonna see with your eyes is the repayment or

the reward of the wicked, the recompense of the wicked.

But you will still be standing. You will still be standing.

I think it's a pretty awesome blessing, right, So let's

put this first Stanza. I like to put everything together

in a simple statement, and this is what it is.

Those who dwell in the Lord are safe under his

wings and have no reason to fear. Those who dwell

in the Lord Lord are safe under his wings and

have no reason to fear. I think it's a pretty

clear summary for the first stands, What do you guys think,

I'm not seeing anything crazy, good, kiss, Let's take a

quick look at the second stands of verses nine through thirteen.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the

Most High, who is my refuge. No evil shall be

allowed to befall you, No plague come near your tent.

For He will command his angels concerning you, concerning you,

to guard you in all your ways. On their hands

they will bear you up. Lest you strike your foot

against a stone, you will tread on. The lion and

the adder, the young lion, and the serpent, you will

trample underfoot. So now that Psalmist is basically doubling down

on everything he said in the first stanza, he pretty

much repeats himself, dwell in the Lord, God protects you,

were safe, right. He starts with a truth statement or

a statement of truth, that those who have made the

Lord their dwelling place, that evil isn't allowed to befall them.

And I love that no evil shall be allowed to

befall you. Everything must obey the Lord. He's the king

of kings, He's the Lord of lords. Everything must obey

the Lord. There is nothing that he does or allows

to happen that's without intention. There's nothing that can mess

up the plans he's set, which means, if you're dwelling

the Lord under the safety of his wings, evil can't

come in and mess that up, because nothing is stronger

than God. Nothing can outsmart God. Nothing's faster than God.

Which every time I say that, it makes me think

of Drax from the Guardians of the Galaxy when they're like,

don't tell Drags, he won't He's like very literal and like,

don't tell Drags he won't get it. It'll go over

his head. And he's like, nothing goes over my head.

I'm too fast. I would catch it. I guys, don't

think as funny as I did. That's okay, nothing's fast

from than God. That's the point. But in this verse,

we see here that God even commands his angels to

guard the one who dwells in him. Right, He even

commands his angels to to keep him from tripping. And

we see this is the same truth that the Devil quotes,

or I would dare to say, misquotes to Jesus when

he's tempting him in the wilderness. Satan was tempting Jesus

to put this specific truth to the test. He's like,

just jump off the temple. The Lord will command to

his angels regarding you. Right, Devil's a liar when he's

lying he's speaking his native tongue. The Bible says, so

at name time, we're lying whose language are we speaking?

Complete side note, put that in your back pocket for later.

The Psalm is saying that God's angels will protect the

one who dwells in the Lord, not the one who

chooses to leave the shadow of the Almighty, the one

who chooses to leave from under the protection of the

wings of the Lord. And we're gonna talk more about

that in a little in just a few minutes. But

the one who dwells in the Lord, who the Lord

sends his angels to guard. This verse tells us they'll

trample on lions and snakes. You kidding me? That's crazy

to me, trample on lions and snakes. Have you seen

a young lion before. I'm not talking like a like

a baby lion or an old man lion. We're talking

in his prime, young lion. That's terrifying. You've seen national geographic.

You see the lion rip apart at gazelle. Come on,

that's terrifying. That's brutal. There's enough money in the world

that you could give me to walk on a lion.

What about a snake who's jumping in a snake pit

and is going for a stroll. Not this guy. I'm

not gonna do it. Idiana Jones wouldn't even done it,

and he's basically a superhero. Tread on lions and snakes.

The one who dwells in the Lord doesn't have to

fear them. He will trample them underfoot. So let's summarize

this second stanza. I summarize it this way, dwell in

the Lord and be guarded from all evil and harm.

Dwell in the Lord and be guarded from all evil

and harm. So it seems like there's a common theme

between these two stanzas, right, is something to do with

dwelling in the Lord and something to do with being

protected by him. That's why my argument today is that

God protects those who dwell in Him, because it seems

pretty clear in the text. But I do have a

very important question. Is the Psalmist being literal here? Where

is he using metaphor and hyperbole to make a point?

Can I have the band come up please? Is the

Psalmist using real and specific examples or is he using

imagery to help us understand something or to help communicate

something to us? Was using metaphor. We aren't literal birds

who can get stuck in a snare, are we? I

don't see any feathers out there. God's not a bird

with wings, is he. No, He's not a literal fortress

or a castle. He's not a physical shield. No. The

Psalmist is using metaphor, but he's trying He's not just

trying to communicate information though, he's trying to move us

to feel something. What is he trying to move us

to feel? What is the Psalmist trying to make us feel?

He's not just trying to communicate information, He's trying to

help us understand the severity or the intensity of the

information and what it means for us. And when we

read the Psalms, When I read the Psalm, that's what

I'm hoping happens, that we would slow down and actually

read what it says, and then think about the depth

of the words that were chosen, the depth to that,

and then I want us to feel what the Psalmist

is trying to communicate. I mean, we can read this

line verse thirteen. You will tread on the lion and

the adder, the young lion and the serpent. You will

trample underfoot, And if you don't stop to consider how

crazy that is, If you don't stop to think about

what it means to trample on a lion or an adder,

you'll miss out on the whole point the Psalmist is

trying to communicate. You miss the whole point of what

they're trying to convey. Think about it. The king of

the jungle, the sneaky, hidden serpent, the one you're walking

down the path don't even know is there, bites you

in the ankle and you're dead. The most powerful and

the most hidden. What's the Psalmist trying to convey? Here?

God will protect you from everything, literally everything. He's contrasting

two huge, scary things, the giant and powerful lion and

the hidden, small, sneaky, little serpent. He's covering the whole

alphabet here. Whatever you could be afraid of, whatever harm

you can think of, God will protect you from everything,

no matter how big and powerful, no matter how unexpected

and unseen, no matter how terrifying. But there's a big if,

isn't there? There's a big if. God will protect you

if what said it one hundred times so far, if

you dwell in him, if you dwell in him. The

whole psalm is making the huge point that you will

be protected from harm if you dwell in the Lord.

You guys see that well. Now the psalm switches to

the first person perspective, so we get to look at

what God says in response to the psalm and see

how God describes dwelling in him. Look at verses fourteen

through sixteen, our last few verses. Because he holds fast

to me in love, I will deliver him. I will

protect him because he knows my name. When he calls

to me, I will answer him. I will be with

him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him

with long life. I will satisfy him and show him

my salvation. Do you want to be delivered? Do you

want to be protected? Do you want the Lord to

answer when you call? Do you want him to be

with you when you are in trouble? Do you want

to be rescued from that trouble? Do you want to

be honored? It's okay to say you do. Do you

want to have a long life of satisfaction? And do

you want to see the Lord's salvation? God says the

way to get all of this is to hold fast

to him in love and to know his name. And

what does it mean to hold fast? It just means

to cling to, to be attached, to, to long for.

I think of it when my youngest grabs a hold

of my leg and makes me walk around the house

with him. He's getting way too big for that cling

to hold fast. This is what the Lord does for

those who love him. And do you know his name?

Do you know who who God is? What did the

Psalmist call him in just the first two verses? He

called him the most high? There's no one higher. He

called him the almighty, that's the one who has all

the might or all the power. He called him my refuge,

his safe place from danger. He said, my fortress, he's

my castle. And he said, my God, the one I

bow to in worship. Oh, he knows who God is.

He knows where to run when there's trouble. He goes

to the one who is stronger than all, who can protect,

who can save? He knows who God is, He knows

his name. God protects and saves those who love him,

those who know Him as their savior. What is a

savior that someone who saves you from something? And this

could not have a more resounding connection to the Gospel.

You guys, can already hear it. In that right. Those

who dwell in the Lord are save from harm. Those

who dwell in Christ are saved from the wrath of God.

Do their sin. Those who put faith in Jesus will

be forgiven of all their sins. Those who confess Jesus

as Lord will be saved. Those who believe that Jesus

is the Son of God and died on the cross

for their sins, and he rose again, they will receive

eternal life in the presence of God for all eternity.

A men, And if you're sitting here and haven't done

that yet, do it right now. Don't wait. Trust in

the Lord, believe in Jesus, and you will be saved.

God protects those who dwell in Him now and forever.

He saves his children from calamity. Now, and he saves

his children from eternity, eternal calamity forever. Say that three

times fast. When we dwell on Him now we see

his deliverance and protection. Now we just do. Don't believe me,

try it. And when we dwell on Him through faith

in Jesus for eternity, we see deliverance through forgiveness of

sins and eternal life. So how exactly do we dwell

in the Lord? Then this whole thing is about to

dwell in the Lord? How do we do that? You

make your home with him. You make your home with him.

That's what it means to dwell. You draw near to him.

That's how you live in the shadow. You stay close.

You stay close to him, so close that you stay

under his wings. You hold fast to him in love,

You cling to him. You go to him for everything.

You trust in him for whatever you need. You trust

him with your very life, because he is your refuge.

He is your fortress. So run into him, listen to

his instruction, and do what he says. If he says,

come with me, if you want to live, you follow him.

I bet when you came to church today you didn't

know there was going to be a terminator. To quote,

the one who hears these words of mine and does

them is like what it's the end of the Sermon

on the Mountain is like the wise man who built

his house on the rock. When the storm came and

beat against the house. What happened to that house stood strong?

Listen to what he says, and do it, and we

all know what it's like to not be near the Lord.

I can say that you might not be able to

articulate when I say dwell on the Lord or draw

near to him, struggle to articulate what exactly that is.

But if I say, you know what it's like to

not be near the Lord, you can answer that we

all know what that feels like to wander from him.

I know I should spend time with him and pray,

but fill in the blank. I haven't read my Bible

in a while, but fill in the blank. I know

God tells me not to speak this way, whether I'm

not supposed to do this or that, but I kind

of just want to. Life starts to get a little

more difficult, doesn't it. You're less joyful, more impatient, get

angry easy, You're less forgiving, more anxious, more worried about things.

This is not an exhaustive list. There are other things

that you can write. Now add to that list. You

know what it's like not to dwell with the Lord,

to not be near him. My point is that we

all know what it's like. We all know what it

feels like to wander from him and There's a line

in my favorite hymn which we're gonna close with today

in a little bit. It's called come Thou Found, but

the line is, oh, I have the slide for it.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave

the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and

seal it, Seal it for thy courts above. That's just real.

It's one of the reasons I love this him because

it is speaking to something so real that we all

experience and feel, and it's not shining away from it.

We all feel this tendency to wander. We know we

are prone in moments to wander from the safety of

a shadow. Even though we know the truth and how

safe we are in His shadow, we still wander. So

we wander our way out from under the protection of

His wings. And Spurgeon said it like this. He said,

every child of God looks toward the inner sanctuary and

the mercy Seat. Yet all do not dwell in the

most holy place. They run to it at times and

enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in

the mysterious presence. We're all guilty of that, of running

to Him on occasions or just when we need him.

This kind of makes sense why he would let us

wander like. He doesn't lock you in there. He lets

us wander off into danger so that we would run

back to the protection and safety under his wings, in

his shadow. We don't make our home with him. We're

like sheep eating grass with our heads down. We eat

our way without looking at where we're going. We eat

our way into danger, away from the shepherd. Lift your

head up every once in a while and take a

look at where you're going. Stop wandering from the Lord.

Don't wander from the protection. Stop leaving the safety of

his presence. But even when we do wander, when we

aren't paying attention, he still makes us a promise. And

it's in the last verse of our texts today. I

don't remember if we haven't handy or not, but he

promised to be with us in trouble. Calls answer no, No,

I will be with him in trouble. I like that

because that's just stating a fact that we're going to

be in trouble at some point. He promises to be

with us in trouble. When we call, he will answer.

He'll rescue us and honor us and we will be

satisfied in Him with long life, and we will see

his salvation. He will save us. Thank you God for that.

But wait a minute, Christians or believers who have made

their dwelling with the Lord, those who have held fast

to Him in love, they still get sick, harm still

comes their way, they still die. What's that all about?

And I read two quotes recently that were really encouraging

for me, and my hope is that they'll encourage you

to Here's the first one. For it may befall a saint,

that is, anyone who's put faith in Jesus. It may

befall a saint to share in a common calamity, as

the good corn and weeds are cut down together, but

for a different end and purpose. Does that make sense

to you? Sometimes these old dudes, when we put their

quotes up there, we'll maybe a little confusing. They don't

use normal words. The good corn, what we would keep,

and the weeds, which are meant to be burned and

thrown away are all cut down together, but they have

very different purposes. And we need to remember that for

those who love God and are called according to His purposes,

all things work together for the good whether we are

the ones wandering from the Lord in a moment where

there is some other calamity brought our way by God himself.

Either way that our end and purpose is good. And

the second quote is from Charles Spurgeon. This one was

a huge punch in the chest when I read it.

It is impossible that any ill should happen to the

man who is beloved of God, of the Lord. Excuse me.

The most crushing calamities can only shorten his journey and

hasten him to his reward. Ill to him is no ill,

but only good in a mysterious form that's hard to fathom.

Losses enrich him. Sickness is his medicine, reproach is his honor.

Death is his gain. No evil in the strict sense

of the word can happen to him, for everything is

overruled for good. This is how we should view calamity

in our own lives. Any calamity that comes our way,

this is how we should view it. This is how

we should view the harm that we wander into ourselves,

that we would be allowed to wander into by ourselves.

Because to live is Christ and to die is what gain.

Our lives should be lived unto him every waking moment.

We have made our dwelling place in the Lord, and

we are When we are finally cut down and we

finally take our last breath, it is gained for us

because we will be at home with the Lord. To

be away from the body is to be at home

with the Lord. We win the race. But while we

are still breathing on this earth, where is the safest

place to be? In the sh shadow of the Almighty,

under the wings of the Lord, in the fortress that

is God. So make your home in his shelter. Because

God protects those who dwell in him now and forever.

God protects those who dwell on Him now and forever. Therefore,

live in the shadow of the Lord, stay near to him,

and stop wandering away. Amen, Let's go ahead and stand

to our feet.