Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, you are indeed in control of all things. Help us today as we look into your word to trust you and honor you and seek you and abide with you. Thank you for the scripture that was read in the songs that were sung. We pray that you would use them for our benefit and help us to understand what you would have for us in your word. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

All right, if you can make your way to Psalm Psalm 91. I'm gonna read from a translation that probably few people use, but I'm doing it for a reason. I wanna get across a few things in this text that may not show up first glance so I know you always pay close attention when somebody's reading the Bible but maybe this will serve as a way for you to be challenged a bit by the text and and I'm going to frame my initial comments after I'm done reading based on what I'm asking you to pull out by listening for what's in the text. Psalm 91 from, if somebody wants it later, the Lexham English Bible.

One who lives in the secret place of the Most High will lodge in the shadow of Shaddai. I will say to Yahweh, you are my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, from the plague of destruction. With his feathers he will cover you, and under his wings you can take refuge. His faithfulness will be a shield and a buckler. You need not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the plague that spreads in darkness, or the destruction that devastates at noon.

A thousand may fall at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. For you, O Yahweh, are my refuge. You have made the Most High your dwelling place. No harm will befall you, and no plague will come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to watch over you in all your ways. In their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on lion and viper. You will trample young lion and serpent.

Because he loves me, therefore I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. He will call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue and honor him. With length of days, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.

Lately, I've been listening to a individual who's taken the Psalms and done a word for word rendition of them and When I'm not falling and breaking things, I'm walking my dog and listening to it. And this psalm, just like Psalm 90, really spoke to me. And when I first started looking at it, I thought, well, I get it. I've heard pieces from this psalm, and it makes sense. It's an encouraging psalm, a lot of emphasis on a refuge. Good job, Courtney, in the song selection. It does match up with the themes of the psalm. But when you listen to it, when you look at the text, I hope you notice that there was a change in person as far as who was speaking.

So if you look at Psalm 91 again, it starts off, he who dwells, and then in verse one, and then in verse two, through the end of verse eight, or verse two, sorry, it's I will say, and then verse three through the end of verse eight, you have the surely he will, he will, that sort of second person and third person comes through there. And then in the translation that I read, you saw the emphasis there was upon the fact that verse nine is actually the writer saying to God, you are my refuge. And then again, through the end of verse nine, with that change word order and emphasis, you make the most high your dwelling place. then no harm will befall you all the way through the verse 13. And then at the beginning of verse 14, you have God himself speaking and breaking in and saying, because he loves me, I will rescue him.

So the idea here is definitely, it's a idea of refuge. but it's put together in a artistic way to help emphasize what's going on, because in verse one, you can see the theme of the entire psalm, that if you dwell in the shelter of God, the Most High, He will provide refuge. the writer, the psalmist, and there's some disagreement on, of course, on who wrote this, whether or not we follow the rule of the rabbis who say that if a psalm doesn't have a title and it follows another psalm, you borrow the author from the previous one, so it would be Moses. But in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, it attributes this psalm to David. But the psalmist, whoever it is, can't leave it at that doctrinal or confessional statement. He has to insert here his personal testimony twice as they go along.

He says, I will say, of the Lord, that he is my refuge and my fortress and my God and whom I trust. And then, of course, in verse nine, Oh, Lord, who is my refuge? I know it's easy in in the best of times, we tend to forget that we need God. and we don't look at him as our fortress, or as Luther's song says, our mighty fortress. And when times are difficult, it's hard for us to conceive the God who is spoken of here, and the God who not only is spoken of here, but who speaks to us directly in the text. God here speaks out directly about his personal interest in protecting us and delivering us and honoring us. So you will do well if you see more than the, I guess, grammatical trivia of the change in person, and you see the passion the heart that went into writing this and God showing this to the psalmist that God is not out there and indifferent when we're in trouble, but he is very real to all of us who trust him and he is our refuge.

He is our only refuge. People ask oftentimes, what do I need to do to be saved? And really the short answer is stop doing and start trusting. Trust that God is the one, the great doer of all that we need to be saved, that he is the only one who can provide protection.

Look at the language that's here. Poetic, sure. He will save you from the fowler's snare, bird. ensnared by a trap set by someone is the idea in mind here and from a deadly pestilence. Wasn't that long ago that we had concern or there were a number of people concerned about COVID. And this psalm came up then, but back when the psalmist wrote this, certainly there wasn't the idea of modern medicine or vaccination, good or bad, for those sort of things. So God can save you from those things that you have no control over.

I mean, we think in a lot of cases we have control over things that we don't. I mean, I was, Just walking my dog, I had everything in control, right? I knew what I was doing, little ice patch, no problem. Well, God is the only one who ultimately has control over what's going on in our life.

And it's interesting here, he changes figures and he goes from the hunted bird to the bird covering its young with its feathers under his wings following finding refuge and then again the figure changes to that of a military one of a shield and I know that NIV says rampart but the idea is a buckler so a shield would be a large large shield to cover your whole body and the rampart or buckler would be an arm shield that you would wear for protection as well.

So God's faithfulness or as other translations have it, his truth is our shield in multiple ways. You don't have to fear the terror of the night. or the arrow by day or pestilence or plague. In fact, he says here, not only may a thousand fall at one side or 10,000 on your right hand, but, and I think the idea we have here, if God is protecting you, if it's his will that you come through it, it will not come near you. In fact, you will see with your eyes the recompense or the punishment of the wicked. God, if God is your refuge, no ultimate harm can befall you.

Then I'm assuming when you were reading along, Maybe it bugged you a little bit. It's like, I know, I know this passage. For he will command his angels concerning you. If this was a Sunday school, I might, and we were interacting, I might ask if anybody knows where that's from. But if you were, if you want to turn over Mark four, or rather Matthew four is where you want to turn. In fact, I don't put a lot of stock into titles for messages, but think about a title of a message.

And this is Satan's Psalm in the sense that Satan quoted it. In fact, this is the only place that we know that Satan quoted. So if you look at Matthew chapter four, beginning with verse one, it says, Jesus was led up by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. And Jesus answered, it is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on up on the highest point of the temple.

And it, and I guess it doesn't have it explicitly here. Sorry about that. If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down for it is written. He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.

Jesus answered him, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all their splendor. All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. So as they say, curiouser and curiouser as you consider this, because I think we have the understanding when it comes to scripture, all scripture is written about Christ, that's his testimony.

But you don't see Jesus saying, no, Satan, you have it wrong. This passage isn't about me. No, he doesn't say that. That isn't his objection to what Satan said. In fact, what Satan said was true to the extent that he quoted it. But if you make the comparison between Matthew four and our passage, you'll notice that Satan leaves something out in the immediate context.

When Satan quotes it, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. And he will command his angels concerning you. Uh, I missed that part between the, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands. There's this phrase to guard you in all your ways. What was Satan saying here?

Well, first of all, Satan was, I think, misquoting scripture to try to have Jesus take his eyes off of God and instead put his eyes on what God could do for him. And that interpretation is borne out by the understanding that we have from what are called the Dead Sea Scrolls and the community that took these Old Testament scriptures and put them in vessels. As they found those scriptures, there were a section of, of, sayings, including Psalm 91. And it was put together in a collection about resisting Satan or dealing with satanic oppression.

And in essence, if you take that understanding in mind, and I don't know, maybe you don't need that to take a look at this in this way. But if you take that in mind, what Satan is saying, I want you to prove, and these people would have existed during the time of Jesus.

Are you one of those fundamentalists who believes God literally? And do you believe what they say about if you pray in this way, you can get me to go away. So Jesus, all you have to do to prove that you are the one spoken of here in Psalm 91 is throw yourself off because if you are the Messiah, if you are the one spoken of here, God will command his angels and they won't let you collapse and hit the stone. They won't even let you trip on a stone.

Well, I find it interesting, Satan, like a lot of false teachers, and I guess he was the original and greatest false teacher, but like a lot of false teachers, he takes the emphasis off of God and puts it into what's in it for me. And of course, Jesus says in response, don't put the Lord your God to the test. Because as we look at a passage like this, the temptation, and think about Jesus's life even, did harm befall Jesus? Crucifixion, right? The beating, obviously harm befell him, but it was not a permanent harm.

No, people who are in groups that believe that you want a good and prosperous life, they'll quote passages like this and say, if, and unfortunately our translation lends itself a little bit to this, If you make God your true dwelling place, if you trust him enough, if you have enough faith, 10,000 will fall at your right hand, but it won't harm you.

God will provide for you. Nothing bad will happen. And if something bad happens, it's because you didn't have enough faith. Well, I'll submit to you that the Lord Jesus Christ did have faith in a way that we can't even imagine. And yet God allowed harm to befall him, but it was for a purpose. And if it was for a purpose for him, when harm befalls us, it's for our good as well.

Well, when you take this picture of this passage in consideration, that ultimately, and by first principles, it's speaking of Christ, then you understand the change in person here is not a test of our faithfulness, but it's God's faithfulness to Christ and Christ's faithfulness in his obedience. Look at verse 14.

He says, because he loves me, I will rescue him. I will protect him for he acknowledges my name. So many times, In a day, in an hour, I fail God. So many times in my life, the way I look at things, I take my eyes off of Him. So if the test here is, and I've heard even so-called reform people put it this way, If you really want to be in the inner sanctum, you need to abide in God. He'll abide in you to the extent you'll abide in him. Well, if that's the case, as far as I'm concerned, I'm in trouble. I don't know about you, but I'm in trouble because my abiding on days is very minimal. All it takes is a little pain, a little disappointment, a little headache, whatever, to throw me off of what I need to do.

But the Lord Jesus Christ loved God perfectly. And if we are those who are in Him, His obedience to the Father is what's reckoned to our account. He loves me. God rescued him. Yes, Jesus said at the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? However, we also know that God redeemed him. He will call on me and I will answer. Yes, it took time. Jesus had to endure the pain and the shame of the cross for our sins, for the sins of his people. But God was with him in trouble. God delivered him, as it says in verse 15, and God honors him. And God satisfies him with eternal life. And Jesus saw The salvation of God wrought because Jesus obeyed for us.

While it's true that we can't look to our faithfulness here, as some sort of recompense on our side for the great promises of this passage. It is true to the extent that we take our eyes off of God, that we fail to see that it's only in the Lord Most High that we are provided for. We won't realize the blessings that are shown in this passage.

Are you in a place, I know I've been in this place a lot in my life where you doubt, you doubt God's concern for you. You think, is it because of something that I did that this bad is happening to me? Well, as someone said, essentially that's practical atheism. And I would say that many believers fall into that sort of practical atheism when it comes to their life.

They don't understand that if God is for us, who can be against us? You look to the Lord Jesus Christ as your refuge. Do you look to his perfect life and obedience and his death, burial and resurrection as your only hope? Or do you look, or do I look to circumstance and say, I don't see the deliverance that's spoken of here? Well, this passage is for us. not as we deserve it, but as Christ deserved it. And if we're in him, we deserve it as well.

Another thought, and sorry that I'm jumping around here a little bit. I don't think we realize the danger we're in from day to day. Maybe you've noticed it from time to time. There's a bridge in Minnesota. I forget how long ago it collapsed on 35, probably closer to 15 years ago now.

And a lot of people talked about, well, if I would have just been there, you know, a half hour earlier, I would have been one of those people who fell in. I know in my life, there's been a lot of times where I think that if my decision making had gone another way, I wouldn't be standing here. I would have been dead and buried. And the reality is, a lot of times we try to take credit for that and think, you know, I was smart enough to stay away from there.

No, God determined to keep you from that. God protected you from that. Now, there's something in the providence of God that applies to everyone, including to unbelievers. People will live as long as God has given them days to live. But for a believer, it's different. because God isn't saying, I'm raising up Pharaoh, as it were, to judge nations and to bring people down.

That sort of preservation, hopefully, I want nothing to do with that. But he looks at it and he says, I'm going to take my child and I'm gonna make sure that he or she is kept in this place. because I have something for him or I have something for her in this time. We tend to look at things very mechanistically. I mean, we have our electronics and our lights and I'm thankful for that.

But I think we downplay the idea of the spiritual world Jesus said to Peter that Satan desires to sift you like wheat. And we know from the book of Job that Satan was allowed, given permission to persecute Job. That's on the negative side. But on the positive side, it says, he will command his angels concerning you. That was certainly true of Christ, but I think it's true of us as well. I've lost the passage, but somewhere in Matthew's gospel, it talks about the angels of children.

Well, certainly God is able to take the angelic host and to protect us. Do we look at life as a transaction that we just have to make sure that we pull all the right levers and it's gonna work out well for us? Or we have to be obedient enough to merit God's favor? No, God will be with us in trouble. And he will provide for us spiritually, even if demonic and satanic beings desire to attack us, either directly or through people that they're influencing.

Another thing, and I'll close with this after looking at this, Look at how many times in our texts it places an emphasis on what God will do. Definitely something to contemplate. He will save you. Verse three, he will cover you under his wings. You'll find refuge. You won't fear. And then verse 11, he will command his angels. And then directly in verses 14 through 16, it talks about what God says directly he will do. Because he loves me, I will rescue him. I will protect him. I will answer him. I will be with him. I will deliver him. I will satisfy him. I will show him my salvation.

Now, depending on who you, I don't want to go against Henry Mahan, who preached on this passage quite a few times. And I didn't listen to the message, but I looked at his notes. I believe that when he would talk about this, he would say there's seven promises here in verses 14 through 16. I count eight.

I'm sure if I'm wrong, Henry can straighten me out when I see him. But either way, there's great promises here and that for us in Christ or for us, everything that we have in Christ is for us. He will protect us. He will satisfy us. All We need to do stop thinking we need to do it. James.