Turn with me in your Bibles to
Psalm 91. Psalm 91. I want to read this
whole psalm to you this morning. And I hope that you will listen
to each and every verse. He that dwelleth in the sacred
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. Surely He shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His
feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid. for
the terror by night, nor for the error that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right but it shall not come nigh
thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee. Neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread
upon the line and adder. The young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love
upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high,
because he hath 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 will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation." Now, all through this psalm there
are many descriptions of things that show the dangers
which face every one that is born of Adam. He speaks of the snare or the
trap of the fowler, the noisome pestilence, the terror by night
the error that flies by day, the pestilence that walks in
darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noonday, the evil,
the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon. And there is no doubt that he
is speaking of dangers that are both physical and more importantly,
dangers that are spiritual, many dangers that are in this life,
and even greater danger of soul which faces every one of us because
of our sin. He speaks of dangers that are
present, and that great danger of the coming judgment which
he has promised shall surely come. But there is also in the midst
of this the promise from God of safety. There is word here
concerning His deliverance and His protection and His peace
to some. And these words, if you notice
in what is said, and you know something about the Scriptures
elsewhere, you know that these words are spoken first of all
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But every word that is spoken
to the Lord Jesus Christ by way of promise is spoken to every
child of God, is spoken to all of God's elect. These words are
spoken to all who look to the Lord Jesus Christ and who trust
Him alone for all things. You see, it is a great day if
we are ever enabled by the grace of God to find out that the only
safety, the only refuge, The only security that there is in
this world or in the world to come is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not our church membership. It is not our imagined good works. It is not anything that we have
done or not done. and most especially the only
protection from the wrath and judgment of God who is described
here as the Most High, the Almighty God, the only protection against
our sin, and His judgment for our sin is in Himself, in His
redeeming work by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does God in
His infinite wisdom, in His goodness and His mercy, what does God
use to picture Christ for us as this safety and this security? Well, I know this, the Lord Jesus
in Luke chapter 24 says to those people after the resurrection
and to each and every one of his people in every age, he says,
these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things Now listen to this, that all things must
be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. All these things that are
written In all of these books, all these books that were dictated
to men by the Spirit of God, all these things in them, they
must be fulfilled even in the Psalms concerning Christ. And then it says that he opened
their understanding. He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. In other words, we
never understand the Scriptures, first of all, until He gives
us understanding. That's what He says. by the Apostle
John, that God gives to His people understanding that they might
know Him that is true. And when He gives to us understanding,
when He opens our understanding in all the Scriptures, we are
enabled to see that they are not only all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. But all the Scriptures, they
speak of Him and that salvation and blessing and all those promises
of God's grace that He says are yes and amen in Christ. Now, of all the things that God
uses in this book, and they are many, but of all the things that
He uses in this book, in this psalm, notice what He says in
this fourth verse. He says, He shall cover thee
with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou
trust." In other words, here is God, the great Creator of
all things. And God, the Creator of all things,
likens His self Especially as he is in Christ Jesus, he likens
himself and his salvation and mercy to one of his creatures. He likens himself to a large
bird, maybe to an eagle, or even to a chicken that protects and
that covers its chicks under its feathers and wings. Now, when I read that, you know,
we all are by our fallen self so inclined to think of ourselves
so much more highly than we ought to. And to imagine that such
a description is so, so far beneath us, and yet the truth is that
we will never enter into the worth of this and the glory of
it and the benefit of it to our souls unless God gives us an
understanding. And that means that you and I,
if we are in such a state as this, we are as helpless and
as defenseless and as weak as these who are described in this
verse, these little chicks or birds that are totally dependent
of everything from their mother. That's how weak we are. That's
how frail and how fragile and helpless we are. And what condescending
grace and mercy it is that this Most High God that this One who
describes Himself in this verse as such, and who speaks of Himself
as the Almighty God, that He would refer to Himself in such
a way, in these terms of nature, so easy to be seen, and yet apart
from His grace, we'll never know the blessing of it. You see, he begins in this first
verse speaking, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He's talking about some. He's
talking about these that are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And such is their safety, such
is their salvation and their security and their refuge that
they are described as dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty,
the Almighty God. And what grace it is! what blessing
it is, what benefit it is to us, not only physically, but
especially spiritually, to dwell under the shadow of the Almighty. Now, this is not an uncommon
thing in Scripture. Turn back, if you would, to Psalm
17. Psalm 17. And listen here in Psalm 17 at
this prayer of David, something that he recognized by the grace
of God, something that he desired even the more of. Listen in Psalm
17 and verse 8. This is what he prays. He prays
as a part of this psalm. Keep me as the apple of the eye
and hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Don't hide me in
my strength. Don't let me hide in a false
refuge somewhere. Don't let me hide in a phony
profession of religion. Don't let me hide in my own works. Don't let me hide, as Adam and
Eve did, in the trees in the garden. But hide me. Lord, you do this
to me. Hide me in the shadow of thy
wings. Look a little bit farther over
this same man in Psalm 57. Psalm 57, and listen to what
he says in Psalm 57 along the same line. This psalm has this
heading. It supposedly is at the time
when David has fled from Saul and hidden himself in a cave,
the cave of Adullam. But listen in verse 1. He says,
Be merciful unto me, O God. Yeah, but David, you're the king,
no matter what Saul said. "'Be merciful unto me, O God,
be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities
be over past.'" And that is a way of describing
virtually all of life. This is a way of describing as
elsewhere we find in Scripture such a Job saying, man that is
born of woman is of but few days and full of trouble. Calamities. And so here is this
man, David, in his great weakness. Here's this man, David, who failed
and who fell on many an occasion. Here is this man, David, who
arranged the murder of a man for that man's wife, who lay
with her in the arms of adultery, who did everything imaginable
as a sinner, just like you and I, if we haven't done it, It's
just by the grace of God. And what does he say? He says, Yea, in the shadow of
thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be over
past. Look again in Psalm 61. Psalm 61. Psalm 61 and verse 4. He says, I will abide in thy
tabernacle forever. I will trust in the cover of
thy wings. Where are you going to hide,
David? Here you are. sinned, here you are, you failed,
here you are on your deathbed, and you're going out to face
eternity? You're going out to meet this
thrice holy and just God? How can you ever have any peace? How can you ever have any refuge
from His wrath?" And yet this is what he said. He said, although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure, and this is all my hope, and
this is all my salvation. It's what he has made himself
to be to me and for me. I'm hiding in His wings. I'm seeking shelter and safety
in Him, in this One who is the one hope and the one security
of all of God's people, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of them is chosen in
Christ before the world began. They are everyone described as
having been given to Christ in that everlasting covenant. And
when He came into this world and took upon Himself human flesh,
He went to that cross and died for and redeemed every one of
them. They are everyone saved by Christ. Some look on the one hand, they
say, well, I don't feel like this. This hasn't got anything
to do with your faith. As a matter of fact, he says,
it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his own purpose and grace which he gave to his people in
Christ before the world began. Let me read you this out of Deuteronomy
32. He's talking here not only about
a people who represented a spiritual and heavenly people. He's talking
about an individual such as Jacob, who later became Israel. He says,
he found him in a desert land and in the waste, howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed
him. He kept him as the apple of his
eye. And as an eagle stirreth up her
nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh
them, and beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did
lead him, and there was no strange God with him." Now, he's talking
about that people Israel that he sometimes called Jacob. He refers to them as an individual. And He refers to them in such
a way as to make us know that what He is talking about is not
this earthly people so much as it is this spiritual people that
Paul talks about when he says that they are not all Israel,
that are of this Israel. What did He do? He said, God
alone. saved them, watched over them,
protected them, kept them, did everything necessary to save
them from A to Z. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. As a matter of fact, he even
uses this to show that the people that he saved, the people that
he has made safe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that people is
a people not just of these Jews, but he says, a people from among
the Gentiles too. And he gives a Gentile woman
as an example. He says, when he's using Boaz
to speak of this woman who's a Moabitess woman by the name
of Ruth, he says, "...the Lord recompense thy work, and a full
reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings
thou art come to trust." You remember what she said to
her mother-in-law. Here's this woman who knew nothing
about Jehovah God, who knew nothing about the God of Israel. And
when this woman's sons, one of them married her, and then he
and his brother and her father-in-law, they all died and there's nobody
left except Naomi, and this woman Ruth, and the other sister-in-law
has already gone her way. She looks at Naomi who's about
to go back to Jerusalem. This isn't something that's in
a to be used in a wedding ceremony. This is what a Gentile woman
who is brought to believe on Jehovah God says to her mother-in-law
who knows God and is about to return to Jerusalem. She says,
whither you go, that's where I'm going. And your God, that's my God. You're God. I'm taking refuge
under the wings of the God of Israel." And not only is this a representation
of that salvation that's in Christ, in this man Jesus Christ, but
it's not in some mystical sense, but it's in a real sense. It's
in Christ and Him crucified. There is no other place for a
sinner to hide. There is no other refuge in the
matter of our sin. There is nothing and no salvation
and grace outside of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, because their
safety lies in this, all that was due His people fell on Him. That's right. When He hung on that cross, there
is more than just a martyrdom taking place. There is more than
a man just be taken and maybe in the eyes of a few unjustly
being put to death. Here is the One upon whom all
the judgment and the wrath of God for the sins of His people
fell in that hour." They were like that bird, that
eagle, or that chicken, whatever, when all these chickens, all
these offspring, and that's what the people of God are called
concerning Christ. They're His people. And here
they all are. They're hovered, if you would,
underneath the safety of His wing, even though they didn't
know that. And all of God's judgment falls
on Him. They're all in Him. And in Him,
Paul says, there is redemption through His blood even the forgiveness
of their sins according to the riches of God's grace. In Isaiah, he describes it in
this way. He says, the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah, in expressing virtually
the same thing, says in Isaiah chapter 32, in that second verse,
he says, and a man, not men, but a man. Which man? The man Christ Jesus. He says, And a man shall be as
a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,
and as rivers of water in a dry place, and as a shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. In other words, all of God's
having been put in Christ before the world began, having been
manifest in time as those who are brought to believe on Him,
but being in Him, in Him as that place of security and safety
and refuge, they have already been through the judgment of
God. I hear people using this expression
a lot. If you'll do this or that or
the other, the Lord will save you. But what the gospel is about
is the fact that God was in Christ reconciling, that He has already,
in the great sense, saved a people in Christ. They've already, in
Him, been through everything. Hold your place and turn over
to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, and listen
to what the Apostle says in Romans 5, beginning in verse 8. Now,
this book, the book of Romans, if you go back and look in the
first of it, It is in every case, just like
every other epistle, it's written to the Lord's people. It's written
to those that He brings to believe. All right? In Romans 5 and verse
8, He says this. He says, But God commendeth His
love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. What does that mean? Does that
mean that Christ died in order to make something available to
us? No, it means that He actually,
literally died in our place as our substitute. Christ died for
us, much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him." Can we believe that? Can what we believe, can anything
we've done, Can anything we've ever abstained from doing, can
anything anybody's ever promised us or told us would be true if
we walked down somebody's aisle or were dipped in somebody's
pool or were sprinkled with somebody's water, can that ever afford for us just what He said? Much more than. being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." That sounds like safety to me.
That sounds like real security to me. He says, for if when we
were enemies or when we were showing ourselves as enemies,
part of a family enemy to God. We were reconciled to God. How? By our decision? No. We were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son. Much more. being reconciled,
or having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement, or received the reconciliation. Look over in Romans chapter 6,
Romans 6 and verse 3. He says, Know ye not that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into
his death? Those who were put in Christ,
plunged under in Christ, not by water baptism here, although
the same thing is represented by water baptism. But he said,
everyone that was put in Christ is baptized into his death, therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted
together in the likeness of His death, that means when He died,
we died in Him. When He was buried in that tomb,
we were buried in that tomb with Him. And when God raised Him
from the dead, He raised up all His people with Him, in Him. But look at verse 6. Knowing
this. that our old man, that's that man we are in ourselves,
that's that man we are in the first Adam when he fell, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him. That actually says in the original,
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him. Every connection that I have
to the first act, every identification I have with that old man of sin, He says, our old man was crucified. And my friends, that doesn't
say our old man is being crucified. Or neither is it saying us to
crucify the old man. We couldn't do that if we wanted
to. He said our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for
he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live. Here he is. He's like this big
bird, this eagle, this chicken maybe. And all his chicks are
under his wings. And the danger, the death, The
punishment falls on Him, and they are kept safe. They are
under His wings. He said, He shall cover thee
with His feathers. That means just what the Scripture
says, that the Lord imputes to us the very righteousness of
God in Christ. You remember When Adam and Eve
sinned in the garden, and they ran immediately, they heard the
voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And what
did they do? They went and they made themselves aprons of fig
leaves. They tried to hide themselves
in that. They sensed that that wasn't getting the job done,
so they ran and hid in the trees. But the only way they were covered. was when God slew those innocent
sacrifices, and it says that He took and made them coats of
skin. They could only be covered through
the death, the shedding of the blood of that innocent God-appointed
sacrifice. A picture of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. He shall cover thee with His
feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust." You see, Christ
is the only hiding place. His cross death is the only refuge. His sacrifice is the only security. A friend of mine sent me an email
recently, and that's how I come to this. But in this email, he just gave
me this little account, little story. It said, after a forest fire
in Yellowstone National Park, Some forest rangers began their
trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. And one
ranger found a bird, literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely
on the ground at the base of a tree. And somewhat sickened by the
eerie sight he knocked over the bird with a stick. And when he gently struck it,
three tiny chicks scurried out from under the dead mother's
wings. The loving mother, keenly aware
of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of
the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively
knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown
to safety, but had refused to abandon her babies. Then the
blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body.
And the mother had remained steadfast because she'd been willing to
die so those under the cover of her wings would live. That's the very picture in nature
itself of just exactly what he's describing here. He shall cover thee with his
feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust." You see, that's what Christ is
to His people. And not only in the matter of
their sin, but in every situation. He's our daily refuge in every
trial, every affliction, every persecution. We're so very much like little
birds or chicks that wander carelessly and with no sense of danger here
and there and every which way, but He always causes us to run back
under the cover of His wings. Sometimes you can notice You
hear a bunch of little chickens out there playing around there,
the old hen, you know, and everything's going on. They don't have a sense
of any danger or anything's going on in the world. But she gets
the sense of a hawk or something like that, and she just starts
making a certain clucking sound. And they all go scattering and
hide themselves under her wing. That's what God does to His people.
They don't have any sense of their danger. They don't have
any sense of what their sin is against God. They don't have
any sense of anything. They'll believe anything. They'll
do anything that anybody tells them to, to be free of their
sins. But they're still in that danger.
But he sends his gospel. And he calls them. And they come to Christ. He makes them to see the danger.
He makes them to see that the only refuge for a sinner is in
Christ crucified. It's by his shed blood. It's
in the fact that he's already endured the very wrath of God
against their sin. We hide in his promises. We hide
in his providence. We hide in His truth. As a matter
of fact, if you look at the last part, it says, His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. You know what a buckler is? A buckler is a kind of shield
that covers you all the way around, protects you on every side. One day our Lord was in a city,
a city that represented all of Judaism, all of that earthly
people. And His words ought to really
ring sober in our hearts. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings. And you would not. You would
not. The psalmist, though, believing
on Christ and joining himself with all
those from all people who do believe, he said, How excellent
is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. He said, Because you have been
my help. Therefore, in the shadow of thy
wings will I rejoice." Will I rejoice. That's the only safe place there
is, under the shadow of his wings, covered with his faith, covered
with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ which God imputes
to his people. That's the only safe place. May he give you grace to hear
his voice, to run to him and be saved. Our Father, this day we give
you praise. We know that all of creation in one way or
another has been given as a picture of
Jesus Christ, your Son, and how it is that you save sinners by
your grace through his death. Lord, we know that He is our
only refuge. He's our only covering. He's
the Lord our righteousness. And we know that there is real,
present, and eternal safety to all who hide in Him. We thank you and we praise you
that he has already borne your wrath in the matter of our sin. We thank you that you've made
that known to our heart. We pray that you'd make it known
to the hearts of others and we give you glory. and pray
in his name. Amen.