Sermon Series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

Psalm 91
"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him I will trust.
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
Because he has set his love on Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation."

Message:
This is one of the "orphan psalms." We do not know who wrote it. Was it Moses, David, Hezekiah, Nathan the seer, or Isaiah the prophet? Is it clearly intended to be an appendix to the previous psalm, the great "prayer of Moses, the man of God'? See how Psalm 90 begins: "Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." Ah! Maybe Moses wrote both of them! Maybe both psalms were written as an exposition of Deuteronomy 33:27 which reads:
"The eternal God is thy refuge" which is the theme of Psalm 90. It is the psalm of the wilderness, the great psalm which contrasts the permanence of God with the mortal frailty of man.
One of the most interesting things about this psalm is that Satan knew it, memorized it, no doubt hated it, but employed it (in the usual distorted and devious way he ever handles the Word of truth) to try to tempt the Christ of God from the path of obedience to His Father. The devil is a student of Scripture! He studies it for his own twisted ends.
A key to understanding this psalm in its original context lies in interpreting its imagery. The dominant image describing the obligation of the believer is that of taking "refuge."

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Two)

This seems to be not an abstract metaphor but a concrete symbol for trust in God that derives from the temple and the cherubim wings outstretched over the ark of the covenant. God's protection is further spelled out by images of a hiding place, a shadow from the burning sun, a military fortress, a bird protecting her young, military defenses, and angels. The images depicting threat derive from a hunt (the fowler's snare, v. 3a), disease (the deadly pestilence, v. 3b; the pestilence and the plague, v. 6), battle (your shield and rampart, which protect against the arrow that flies by day, vv. 4-5), and deadly animals (the lion and the cobra, the great lion and the serpent, v. l3).
Whomever was the human author of this psalm, he had found in God such a hiding place in time of trial that he wanted the world to know something about it!
"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust."
The psalmist uses four names for God in this one statement:
Elyon, Shaddai, Jehovah, Elohim.
(1) ELYON, "The Most High": POSSESSION
He is "the possessor of Heaven and earth"—that is the thought connected with this name. He owns everything. The thought is that of possession. There's a hiding place for us! We have a God who owns everything! Thirty-six times in the Bible God calls Himself by this name.
(2) SHADDAI, "The Almighty"; PROVISION
The thought behind that name, embedded right into its Hebrew structure, is that God is not just a living God, but a giving God. He is the one who supplies all our needs. "But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).
(3) JEHOVAH, "The Lord": PROMISE
This was the greatest name for God among the Hebrew people. He is the God who exists because He exists, the I AM, the eternal, immutable, unchangeable One. Especially, He is the God in covenant-relation with His own. The thought here is that of PROMISE. He is the God who has pledged Himself to do certain exceeding great and wonderful things for His own, things which cannot be thwarted by any demon in hell, any adversary on earth, or any failure in us. Ah! What a wonderful hiding place is He!
(4) ELOHIM, "God the Creator": POWER
The word always occurs in a plural form accompanied by a single verb——something which would be very bad grammar in connection with anyone but God! God can say: "We" because He exists in three persons and yet is one God. The word "Elohim in the singular would simply not be full enough to convey all that is meant in the revelation of God. Elohim occurs twenty-seven hundred times in the Bible. Its first occurrence links it with creation. Thus Elohim is God as creator. The thought is that of power!
POSSESSION, PROVISION, PROMISE AND POWER——such is our fortress, our refuge, our hiding place. This is our God in whom we have safety and peace!
Please note! The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not DWELL in the most holy place; they

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Three)

run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they habitually reside in the mysterious presence. Those who through the grace of God obtain unusual and continuous communion with God, so as to abide in Christ and Christ in them, become possessors of rare and special benefits, which are missed by those who follow afar off, and grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Into the secret place those only come who know the love of God in Christ Jesus, and those only DWELL there to whom to live is Christ. Outer court worshipers little know what belongs to the inner sanctuary, or surely they would press on until the place of nearness and divine familiarity became theirs.
HE THAT DWELLETH IN THE SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH SHALL ABIDE UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY. Abiding under the shadow of the Almighty...this is a mercy which the believer alone enjoys! As the children of Israel made their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the cloudy pillar led them in all their way, affording them shade by day from the heat of the burning sun, and light throughout the night seasons. To no other people under heaven was this ever vouchsafed. And so it is with the believers today; they and they only, behold the light of God's countenance in the night-season of adversity; and they alone are sheltered from every thing that would oppress and overwhelm their souls; as it is written in Isaiah 4:5; "The Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defense."
I WILL SAY OF THE LORD, HE IS MY REFUGE AND MY FORTRESS, MY GOD, IN HIM I WILL TRUST, (v. 2)
As soon as our psalmist makes his opening statement which we have observed in verse 1, he immediately breaks in to confess his own faith before commending it to us; "I will say of the Lord, He IS MY refuge..." This is the equivalent of the apostle Thomas' confession of faith after Jesus had appeared to him following the resurrection and Thomas fell at His feet, exclaiming, "My Lord and My God!" (John 20:28)
To take up a general truth and make it our own by personal faith is the highest wisdom. The Lord is our refuge for safety, our fortress for defense, and our God for everything! That is why we trust Him!
And our psalmist continues with giving us the next six verses to explain what God will do for the one who trusts Him.
Verse 3 sets the tone for this section by saying that God will save the trusting soul from two kinds of dangers: first, the subtle snare of enemies, described as the trap a fowler used to catch birds, and second, death by disease or pestilence. This does not mean that those who trust God never die from infectious diseases or suffer from an enemy's plot, of course. It means that those who trust God are habitually delivered from such dangers.
Derek Kidner in his excellent little commentary writes: "Most of these dangers are of a kind which strike unseen, against which the strong are as helpless as the weak. Some, like the snare of the fowler are obviously metaphors for the plots which would entangle our affairs or compromise our loyalty. Others are ills that attack the mind or the body, by human or non-human agency. The pictures of pestilence that stalks, and destruction that wastes or devastates are poetic personifications. As for God's care, it combines the warm protec-

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Four)

tiveness of a parent bird with the hard; unyielding strength of armor. Shield and buckler gave respectively the cover that was large and static, and small and mobile." As Christians, we have this promised when the enemy assails us: "No temptation (test) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted (tested) beyond what you are able, but with temptation (test) will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13)
I like the translation in the Amplified Bible of this verse:
"For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently."
HE SHALL COVER YOU WITH HIS FEATHERS, AND UNDER HIS WINGS YOU SHALL TAKE REFUGE.
Once, not far from a mission station in the heart of Africa, a forest fire swept through the bush leaving death and desolation in its wake. After the fierce flames subsided, a missionary took a walk down one of the trails looking at the havoc wrought on every hand by the fire. He noticed a nest by the side of the way. Enthroned on the nest he saw the charred remains of a mother hen. Idly he kicked the poor heap with his foot and, to his astonishment, out from under the burned and blackened carcass there ran some baby chicks. Mother love had taught that hen to give her life for her brood. They had found refuge from the flames beneath her feathers! Interestingly enough, on one occasion the Lord Jesus likened Himself to a hen. Like that mother hen in the Angolan forest, the Lord Jesus Christ spreads His pinions over His own. He deliberately gave Himself up to the fierce heat, the blazing wrath of God at Calvary. We, sheltering beneath His wings, find an eternal refuge from the flames.
Verse 7 in our Psalm says: "A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you."
Remember...our Psalm began by describing the person who was to enjoy the many blessings identified. He was the person who dwelt in the secret place of the Most High and enjoyed the shadow of the Almighty. In this verse, in a very beautiful poetic style, such a person will observe many who will fall as victims of sin, but because of his life is lived in constant fellowship with God, he will not share in the tragedies that result from a life of sin. It was when Peter followed his Lord at a distance, that he fell to the temptation of betrayal. Listen to his story as Luke tells us: "Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest's house. BUT PETER FOLLOWED AT A DISTANCE. Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them." (Luke 22:54-55)

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Five)

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful:...The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." (Psalm 1)
Verse 8 of our Psalm tells us: "Only with your eyes shall you see the reward of the wicked."
One does not have to travel too long in life to observe the tragic results of sin. Oft times, even those who once knew the blessings of a close relationship with God and then drift away, experience the pain and remorse of spiritual failure.
In the ministry, I have observed fellow-ministers who allow their prayer life to be stolen by the pressures of ministry and life, to fall in terrible moral failures. But those who dwell in the secret presence of God and are sheltered by the Almighty, can say at the end of the journey as Paul: "...the time of departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing." (2 Timothy 4:6-8)
Verse 9: "Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place..." The SECRET PLACE...your dwelling place...it is neither the sanctuary where we worship, nor the quiet room in our house in which we are wont to pray. It is our experience of God, our vision of Him, and our fellowship with Him. It is the spot where our spirit meets the Spirit of the Infinite—the spot 'where spirits blend, and friend holds fellowship with friend.’
That is the meaning of personal religion—-to enter the secret place and live in abiding fellowship with God. And the Psalmist does not speak of occasional visits to the secret place, but of dwelling there; and to abide requires the consent of the will. We are to live in communion with God all the day through, without neglecting any of life's common duties.
Mr. Tenney in his book...THE GOD CHASERS...writes: "God chasers have a lot in common. Primarily, they are not interested in camping out on some dusty truth known to everyone. They are after the fresh presence of the Almighty. If you're a God chaser, you won't be happy to simply follow God tracks. You will follow them until you apprehend His presence. The difference between the truth of God and revelation is very simple. Truth is where God's been. Revelation is where God is. Truth is God's tracks. It's His trail, His path, but it leads to what? It leads to Him. Perhaps the masses of people are happy to know where God's been, but true God chasers are not content just to study God's trail, His truths; they want to know Him. They want to know where He is and what He's doing right now."
TO DWELL IN THE SECRET PLACE IS TO LIVE A LIFE WHERE YOU ARE TOTALLY WRAPPED UP IN GOD...doing His righteousness, enjoying His fellowship!

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Six)

The Psalmist continues to list the blessings of the person who lives in God's presence. Verse 10 says that "No evil shall befall him, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling." What is the value of personal religion for the practical life? The Psalmist's answer is that it gives us security. We abide under the shadow of the Almighty——under the shadow of omnipotence, which does not mean that those who live in fellowship with God, are immune from trouble and adversity. Tribulation and anguish are part of the mysterious economy of life, and fall with a baffling and bewildering impartiality upon good and evil alike. But the sublime truth that the Psalmist has grasped is this, that whatever troubles may overtake us, if we dwell in the secret place of the Most High our souls shall abide secure, inviolate, and uncontaminated.
Verse 11: "For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone."
Ah! Those who make God their dwelling place will enjoy heavenly protection. God has promised us an escort home! That does not mean that we can make daring experiments with God and do foolish things, unscriptural things on the assumption that no matter what we do nothing can go wrong. That is what the devil wanted Jesus to do during His temptation. Remember...he urged Him to throw Himself down from the temple heights, to do some spectacular, eye-catching thing because God had promised to keep Him from harm. No! That is not what it means. God, however, promises us, angels which are the "ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heir of salvation."
And please note! Our Psalm does not suggest just one guardian angel, as some fondly dream, but all the angels are here alluded to! And these angels shall cheerfully become our servitors "They shall bear thee up in their hands"; as nurses carry little children, with careful love, so shall those glorious heavenly spirits upbear each individual believer.
"You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot." (v. l3) Thou shalt be safe among dangers, as if the rage of the lion were restrained, and he became like a lamb, and as if the poisonous tooth of the serpent were extracted. The psalm tells us that if we go in God's way, trusting Him to uphold us, then we will "tread upon the lion." The Bible elsewhere describes Satan as "a roaring lion" (1 Peter 5:8) and that "ancient serpent" (Revelation 12:9; 20:2). Jesus triumphed over him by trusting God. Likewise, in Christ the righteous will be victorious over Satan too! "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death——that is the devil" (Hebrews 2:14).
The last three verses of this psalm contain a confirming oracle of God in which the controlling pronoun switches from YOU, which dominated in verses 3—13, back to I, as in verse 2. Only here the I is God Himself. In these verses God adds His seal to what the psalmist has been saying.
Verse 14 reminds us that God will protect His people!
Verse 15 tells us that God will answer our prayers!
And verse 16 is an interesting promise...He will give us a long life!
All of these blessings come to those who make God their dwelling place!