Sermon
Safety In God's Presence -- Psalm 91
July 21, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Let's take our Bibles. Today we've selected as our lesson Psalm 91. It's a great Psalm. It's been used in worship since the days of the synagogue in old Testament times. Here's the way it reads:

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 pestilence that walks in darkness, 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 upon 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."
I note that this is called an orphan Psalm because we do not know who wrote it. It might have been Moses, David, Hezekiah, Nathan the seer, or Isaiah the prophet. It's clearly intended to be an appendix to the previous Psalm, the great prayer of Moses. Notice 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.

Now maybe Moses wrote both Psalm 90 and Psalm 91. He may have written them as an exposition of Deuteronomy 33:27, which reads, the eternal God is thy refuge. That's the theme of these Psalms. It's the Psalm of the wilderness. The great Psalm which contrasts the permanence of God with mortal frailty of man. Now one of the most interesting things about this Psalm is that it's the Psalm that Satan knew. He memorized it and no doubt he hated it, but he employed it in his devious way during the temptation of Christ. Now a key to understanding this Psalm, in its original contexts, lies in interpreting its imagery. The dominant image describing the obligation of the believer is that of taking refuge.

Let me just comment. As we read through the Psalms many of them, or most of them, were written by poets. A poet thinks differently than a regular mind. They think in sentences, they think in scenes, that to us, we don't identify those scenes with the truth they are trying to portray. So we've got to think through this Psalm in terms of looking through the eyes of a poet. So let's start with that, shall we?

He who dwells in the secret place. Well what's the secret place? I have an 84-year-old mother who joins me at 7:00 every Sunday morning. She comes early so she can read the notes. And as she read the notes this morning and I'm getting ready to get the service started, she said, Pastor, there are very few of us who dwell in the secret place, aren't there? I said, you've got the message already mother.

Let me illustrate. The secret place, as identified by those ancient poets, is that place where God dwelt. Now let me describe it. In ancient times as the children of Israel traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land, they had encampments. In the middle of the encampment, which was surrounded by three tribes on each side, was a structure. It was 75 feet this way and 150 feet that way, and it was enclosed with a six-foot fence made out of cloth and poles. On this side is the gate, the entrance, into the outer court. You come through the gate and the first thing that those ancient worshipers would see would be the brazen altar. It was there where you brought your sacrifice, gave it to the priests, they would prepare it, put it on the altar, and that was the sacrifice.

In other words, a man coming to God, the first thing he's confronted with is sin, and the need for sacrifice. Inside that outer court, you come a little closer, and here is what is known as the laver. It's a large bowl on a base. It's filled with water. It's for the cleansing for the priests. Now behind the laver, here is a structure made out of poles and skins stretched over the framing. It is 15 feet wide and 45 feet deep. Inside that structure past the curtain is the holy place. It's 15 by 30 by 15. To the left are the golden candlesticks. To the right is the table of showbread, and in front of us is the altar which burns with incense.

Beyond that incest burning is the veil that separated this cubicle 15 by 15 by 15 inside that cubicle it was known as the holiest of holies. That's where the arc of the covenant was placed, and that was where God dwelt. As far as those ancient Israelites, they could never go there, and the priest only went in this secret place once a year. Now here's what that ancient poet had in mind. He said, he that dwelleth in the secret place. He's thinking of that worshiper who comes as a seeker.

When you study the works of Dr. Salter, the great Cambridge theologian, he has a diagram in the front of this book and he has some very interesting identifications. He said, into this gate comes the seeker searching for God. The first thing he's confronted with is this need for salvation, and thus the altar; and thus the need for the sacrifice. Once he's received that salvation...so he marks this first step towards God as the seeker coming to salvation. Then he takes us to the laver and he speaks of the cleansing as sanctification. The seeker giving his life to Christ; now that process of cleansing.

Many different representations are made, but the candlesticks in the book of Revelation is identified as the church; the showbread -- His word, and the incense -- prayer. So in our coming to God, our participation in the body of Christ, our love for the word of God, and our commitment to prayer becomes a part of our Christian experience. And then he moves us into that sacred chamber called the holiest of holies, and he calls that a place of satisfaction. Salvation...sanctification...service...and satisfaction.

So you have in that ancient place of worship a beautiful description of a man on his journey to God. And what really happens is oft times the searcher for God moves to the altar and realizes the blessings of salvation, and oft times to cleansing, and sometimes even into the participation and service in the body of Christ, and the meaning of the word and his prayer; but for many that's where the Christian journey stops. Very, very few take their search for God to that inner chamber where God becomes everything to them, where the desire is to feast in His presence, to enjoy His fellowship, to know Him intimately, to know Him in a wonderful consistent way -- for God is everything. That's the place of divine satisfaction. That's the secret place.

Now here's what the poet says, he that dwelleth. It doesn't say he that visiteth. Dwelling in the Hebrew is the word for inhabiting or living there. That man who lives with the desire to engulf himself with God's presence and His fellowship -- he lives there. That's not locality; that's an attitude of the heart. It takes place right here. Yearning after God; wanting to know Him in a wonderful way. That is the person who dwells in the secret place.

He says, he that lives for God in that closer union. Verse 2: he said, I will say of Him, "He is my refuge and my Fortress; my God, in Him I will trust." What he is saying is when we live with God as the central focus of our life, there becomes something very personal about our Christian faith. He's no longer just God, He's my God. He's no longer just the shepherd, He's my shepherd. He's no longer just the heavenly Father, He's my heavenly Father. He's no longer the savior of the world, He's my savior. Where religion becomes exceedingly personal it becomes exceedingly precious. That man who yearns for God will know Him in the most intimate dimensions.

Remember, these blessings only come to the man who yearns for the heart of God. And he says, he will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Well now what's that poet thinking about? Well his mind races back into that day when Israel has come out of Egypt, the land of bondage, and they're making their journey to the Promised Land, and the first thing that God does in Exodus 13 is He brings a cloud over them during the day, and at night there's a pillar of fire indicating that God's presence is amongst them. But it meant something more than that because the cloud protected them from the heat of that wilderness sun. It was their air-conditioning system during the day. And at night, the coldest of the winter, that pillar of fire became their source of heat. God's divine presence in a very wonderful way. He says, that man who yearns for the heart of God is a man who lives under God's divine protection and a sense of his presence -- always.

Verse 3: He'll deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. Verse 5: you shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. What he saying? He's thinking as a poet and he sees life as a time when all kinds of difficulties, all kinds of surprises, all kinds of heartaches, all kinds of arrows come flying at us. He sees life as a dangerous journey because you never know what's going to happen the next day. In the noonday of life the destructions come.

So the poet sees life as a journey through a turbulent world. But he said he that dwells in the secret place is going to be delivered, he's going to be covered with God's protection and under His wings he'll find refuge and His truth shall be his shield and his buckler. What's that pastor? He's simply saying, in ancient time when they were on the field they had a large shield that was usually the size of their body, and the buckler was the little one where if the big shield missed it, they could quickly put that buckler, that little shield, wherever the sword may come. So he says, God's truth, these words, these promises that He's given to us, when all of those difficult times, we have the protection that He's promised never to leave us nor forsake us. He'll always be there with us. You see we as Christians we're not immune to all of life's problems. We've got a marvelous refuge.

Now let's go to Verse 7: 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. What did he mean by that? In preparing for our being together each week, I have about 30 or 40 different commentaries that I'm studying and when I got to this verse on Monday, and I'm preparing your notes, I found out that almost every commentary has nothing to say on Verse 7. About Tuesday I'm getting worried because my notes are not finished, and I'm saying, God, You put that there for some reason. I know, I understand the context. It's the story of a man who's put his whole heart and focused on You, and You're going to protect him even in life's difficulties. Why did You put in verse 7 and 8?

Then I looked again, and look at verse 8 it says, and with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked. So it has to do something about God protecting us from the snares of the devil. You don't have to journey very far in life to realize that there are some people who start towards that secret place, but they get distracted from their spiritual journey. They get detoured on a pathway of disobedience and sin. And you watch as you travel through life the rewards of the wicked. People who do not make God their focus become the victims of Satan's temptations. So what the poet is saying, if you keep your eyes and your heart fixed on God, you won't be the victim of Satan's temptations and his destructive work. Keep close to the heart of God.

Look at the next verse. Because you've made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come nigh your dwelling. Now that doesn't mean were going to be immune to life. What he's simply saying is when you live close to the heart of God, you can take these arrows by day and these pestilence that walk by night and they don't affect you spiritually, because your life is hid with Christ in God.

Then he goes on to say, For He shall give His angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways. Now I've been bragging about my guardian angel, but I've been wrong. That's plural. Do you see it? I mean, all the angels of heaven He'll assign as heavenly messengers ministering to our needs as those who are heir of salvation. We get a little materialistic in our world, but the Bible teaches us very, very clearly that those who live close to the heart of God have divine protection. And I believe, ladies and gentlemen, when we get to heaven we're going to realize how many times they intervened and took care of us. Amen?

The man, the person, who lives and desires to please God; he wants godliness and righteousness at the very core of his being, he who enjoys the presence of God; that's the man that God will say to His angels, you take care of him, take care of her. Heavenly protection. He said they'll bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. You'll tread upon the lion and the cobra, and the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Now that's interesting. As a poet he's thinking, remember, in the garden Satan is likened to a serpent. Peter calls him a roaring lion. He goes about like a roaring lion.

So what he is saying is that person who lives for God and wants God to be the very center of his life and his being, even in the vicious attacks of Satan, Satan will lose and you will trample beneath your spiritual feet the enemy of your soul. Satan can't conquer. Thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. We are more than conquerors through Christ that loved us. And his point is, when you live near to the heart of God you'll win every time over Satan. Isn't that great?

Look at the next one. Because he has set his love upon Me, I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me. He says, that person who wants nothing more than God at the very center of his being, when you pray you get your prayers answered. Isn't that great? Because living near the heart of God, old John says, you'll know His will and when you pray His will you know that He hears you; and you know if He hears you, He will answer you. When you live next to God you understand His heartbeat and you know what He wants, and that becomes the substance of your prayers.

And then he says, He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and with long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation. Now remember, all of these blessings come to the man who has made God everything in his life -- Divine protection, protection from the arrows by day, protection from spiritual defeat. He's got the angels watching over us, and He's hearing our prayers. And then he says, with long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation. Now that's interesting.

Here's what it says in Proverbs: The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short. Isaiah says: For as the days of a tree so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. So he's saying one of the benefits of living close to the heart of God is a long life. I've got that figured out, if you're near the heart of God you don't have tension, there's no fear. Even doctors tell us that if you live without a lot of tension and fear your days are going to be lengthened.

I have a five volume series written by J. Rolls. His brother joined with Royce and Rolls-Royce started manufacturing cars in England. J. Rolls, his brother, went to Cambridge and became a great preacher. He spent his life in the secret chamber, and during his lifetime he wrote these five volumes on the names of Jesus. If you want to read something absolutely of a man who knew the heart of God...and I look up there and see this set of volumes. I pull one off the shelf and look in the back and here's the picture of old J. Rolls with his Bible tucked under his arm, 96 years of age, ready to go preaches next sermon.

What is he's saying? The psalmist says you stay close to the heart of God and He'll bless your life and protect you. You will enjoy longevity, and you'll have the angels to escort you home. Isn't that great? It's for the person who puts God number one in their life.

Father, may that be the heartbeat of all of us; to know You so intimately, to love You so intensely, to make You so much a part of every part of our being. May we not stop at the altar, or the laver, or even in a place of service. May our spiritual journey take us right into that place of divine satisfaction in Your presence. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.