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. Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler and 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 arrow 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 hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. Only with thine eye 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 lion
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 honour him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. This Psalm 91, is perhaps like Psalm 37, a psalm
which has comforted the Lord's people over many, many years. And it's full of precious promises
to do our hearts good. But as I open this morning, I
would like to open with a point of principle that I hope we can
think upon and relate to. Many people wish to claim the
privileges and promises of God as their own. And we hear from
time to time people saying, claim the promises of God, stand on
the promises of God, turn to the promises of God and claim
them. But I want to establish this
principle in your minds this morning. that you can only claim
the promises of God, you can only stand on the promises of
God if you are eligible for them, if you deserve them, and if you
merit them. Now far be it from me to rouse
you from your hopeful optimism, but The Bible is clear on this matter. There are no promises of God
for anyone except promises of impending judgment outside of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we are going to claim the
promises, we must claim them in Christ. If we are going to
stand on the promises, we must be standing fast in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because again, the scripture
is clear. The Apostle Paul says that all the promises of God
are in him. All the promises of God are in
Christ and it is only in Christ, it is only by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ that any of the promises of God's goodness and
God's grace come and flow to his people because it is in him,
in Christ. that his promises, the promises
of God are yea and amen. So here is the principle that
I want to establish as we think about this psalm. It is because the Lord Jesus
Christ deserves merits and is eligible for God's good gifts,
that we in Christ are able to participate in them. And may
the Lord, our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, grant
us eyes to see him this morning in the verses of this precious
psalm. May he grant us ears to hear
what truths, what promises he has for his people in this psalm. Now, let me just remind you that
the psalms are, of course, songs. They're songs of praise, they're
songs of worship, and they're songs sometimes of petition and
request and intercession. The Apostle Paul speaks about
the Psalms in a couple of his epistles in the New Testament.
He says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 19 that we are to
speak to ourselves. He says, speaking to yourselves
in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord. Now, we can talk about this at
greater length another time perhaps, but the reference there to psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs is not a reference to different
kinds of melodies. It is all a reference to the
Book of Psalms and the 150 psalms contain Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. So it's all of those three things
bound together that the Apostle Paul is speaking about. And we
are to speak to ourselves, speak to yourselves, speak to our own
hearts and speak to the hearts of one another in these Psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
our hearts to the Lord. And he says in Colossians 3 and
16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. And so the word of Christ here
dwelling in us richly by which we teach and admonish one another,
speaks to us from these psalms. And indeed, the psalms speak
to us perhaps in a more intimate way than other portions of scripture
do. Because there's a personal dimension
to these psalms. We read these psalms and we read
about the heart of the psalmist. We read about the emotions. We
read about the feelings. of the psalmist, and as we've
often mentioned, I think that we would fail in our spiritual
understanding if we limited and restricted these psalms only
to the feelings and the emotions of the psalmist himself, but
rather we are encouraged to put these words into the mouth of
the Lord Jesus Christ. They're speaking about him. These
are the words of Christ. in the psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs. And it's a heart worship of the
people of God to take these psalms to read them and to understand
that it is Christ that is being spoken of in them. By faith we
see Christ, by faith we look beyond the events of David's
life and the events of the psalmist writer's lives. We look beyond
the circumstances of their immediate situation and it may well be
that David wrote a particular psalm when he was fleeing from
Saul, the king Saul, or it may well be that he wrote a particular
psalm when he was fleeing from Absalom, his son, or when he
was feeling the weight of conviction and judgment because of the sin
that he had committed. But we see beyond the immediate
circumstances of David and we see the Lord Jesus Christ and
his labours and his ministry and his life in these truths. We are told that we are to teach
one another in these Psalms and admonish one another. Admonishing
means that we are to urge and encourage each other in these
psalms. There is to be an urgency about
these messages one for another, to speak to our own hearts about
the truths that are conveyed in these psalms to us. The Word
of Christ is in these Psalms. Now, you might say to me, well,
the Word of Christ is in the whole Gospel, in the whole of
Scripture. And that's absolutely right.
The whole of Scripture speaks of Him. We've seen that many
times. And the Gospel which relates
to the three years of ministry, the coming, the preaching, the
words and the miracles of Christ, his death and his resurrection,
his ascension. We've been thinking about that
in recent weeks, how the word of Christ is encapsulated in
those truths. And yet, I wonder if perhaps
here in Psalm 91 is something that is a little bit distinct
from even those revelations of Christ, because it seems to me
that there is a quite wonderful dialogue in Psalm 91 between
the Father and the Son. So that literally we have the
word of Christ set before us in Psalm 91 with this purpose
that it dwell in us richly. So I've mentioned that the Psalms
are songs and I'm sure we've all listened to lots of songs
in our lifetime. Music and singing is part of
a long tradition of men and women who have sought calmness and
relaxation and encouragement and the enjoyment of pleasurable
experiences from song and from music. And there are several
ways of listening to a song. We can listen to a song for its
story, for its narrative. And Psalm 91 is a song with a
story. It has a narrative. It speaks
to us of the Lord Jesus Christ's commitment to his Father. and his love for his father. The words that we read there
together in those 16 verses, they speak of Christ's dedication
to his father and his love for his father. It's the story of
the God-man's willingness to serve and honour his father. And it's also the story of his
reliance upon his Father for help and for deliverance in all
the circumstances of his life. It speaks to us of the confidence
and the assurance that God the Father gave to the Lord Jesus
Christ in all of our Saviour's own earthly trials. And we have earthly trials. We
have earthly trials. We have things that come into
our lives, come into our hearts, come into our minds, come into
our families, come into our society that causes anxiety. And the
Lord knew. of that anxiety. The Lord knew
about his own personal earthly trials. Now that might surprise
us because we're talking about God here, we're talking about
the God-man. But that's the point, that it
is the God-man. And while Christ in his divinity
is God, so Christ in his humanity is a man just like us. who endured
earthly trials and earthly anxieties, the problems that we all face.
And in this story, in this narrative of Psalm 91, we have a blessing
to observe the Son of God, our Saviour, Himself personally,
coming to that place where He was called upon to trust and
rely upon His Father. And there's a love dimension
to this story too. There's a love story here, because
we ought never to forget that there is this sublime bond of
love that exists between the Father and the Son. It's often
remarked upon in the New Testament, and here we can see it in the
Old Testament as well, that the Father loves the Son, and the
son loves the father. Indeed, in the New Testament,
frequently we hear the father's voice and invariably it is speaking
about my beloved son. This is my beloved son, hear
ye him. And whether it's at his baptism,
whether it's at the transfiguration on the mountain, it is my beloved
son and the father's love for the son. And perhaps that's also
prefigured in that story about the prodigal son and how the
father ran to meet the son and fell upon him and kissed his
neck and so rejoiced. to be embraced by his Son and
to embrace him. And we must always look to that
love of the Father for the Son and the Son of the Father. It
is the deepest bond, it is the greatest bond, it is that bond
of affection that exists in the heart of the Godhead, which is
the manifestation of every kind of love that we might have in
this world. which is often spoken about with
the highest praise and with the greatest fervour, but it all
flows from that first love, which was the father's to the son,
and the son's to the father, and the bosom of the eternal
Godhead from the eternity of God. So there is this love also
which is spoken of in Psalm 91. So you can listen to a song and
you can get its story, you can get its narrative. But we also
listen to songs and we try to find a message in the song, don't
we? We try to find a meaning and
so many times we hear a line in a song, some lyrics of a verse
in a song and we think, What does that mean? What does that
line mean? What is the writer of the song?
What is the composer of the song or the singer of the song meaning
when they put that form of words down? And Psalm 91 doesn't disappoint
us here either because there is a message in this Psalm. It's
a message of conquest through trial. It's a message of vindication
against all the odds. It's a message of triumph and
success, of a quest undertaken by the Son of God and a victory
achieved. And it's a message that Psalm
91 speaks of, which talks about the salvation which has been
accomplished despite all the opposition that was raised against
the Lord Jesus Christ doing the will of his Father. And again,
you might say, well, is that not the message of the whole
Bible? Well, yes, it is. But here in these 16 short verses,
the whole gospel story is laid out in miniature. And perhaps,
Here there is a particular emphasis upon the Saviour's humanity and
that's good for us because that allows us to enter in our humanity,
into the feelings of the Saviour and into the concerns and the
anxieties of the Saviour. There was a divine delight in
this psalm of the Father. to uphold his son against the
forces that ranged against him. And we can see the practical
applications of that. We see, It practically set before
us in the providences and the circumstances through which the
Lord Jesus Christ is called to pass. And to that extent, we
too can give these things special attention because we're talking
in this psalm, we're talking in these verses about the very
things that the world is facing in these matters that we face
today also. So there's concerns that we have
in our lives that the Lord Jesus Christ also had in his life. So I want to think with you both
about the fact that there's a story to this psalm and there's a message
in this psalm. And there's lyrics, there's phrases
in this psalm. There's a language here which
is a language of divine comfort, of Holy Spirit inspiration. There's a poetry in this Psalm
91 which enables believers to glimpse the glory of God's purpose
and promises. And yes, it is firstly and foremost
in the divine protection of the Son. But then, and this goes
back to that principle that I was endeavouring to establish in
the introduction or at the beginning, because we are in His Son, because
we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, because we have been
brought into that relationship with Him, these promises are
yea in Him for us, and amen in Him for us. These promises that
are given to the Son, we have a right to them as being in the
Son. So let's think about some of
these verses briefly. The opening of this psalm speaks
about the secret place of the Most High. And that's a lovely
phrase. There's a phrase for us to dwell
upon for a long, long time. But I'm going to be very quick
here this morning and take you straight to what I think that
means. I think that means God's heart.
I think that means the secret place of the Most High is the
heart of God. Now we think about our own heart,
not just as that muscle that pumps life around our body, but
it's the cradle of our affections. It's where in our language, the
way in which we describe ourself and speak about these things,
it's where our emotions, it's where our deep feelings originate
and find their place of rest. And so it is with God, the secret
place of the Most High. is where the deepest passions
of God dwell. And here we discover, in the
secret place of the Most High, dwells the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. The God-Man, indeed, himself,
he dwells there. And there's a beautiful poetry
about these lyrics. These lyrics, these sentences,
these phrases, verse by verse throughout this psalm, a poetry
that exists. The psalmist says, he shall dwell,
he shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He who dwells
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. The Father is the Almighty and
he takes care of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes care
of that one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High,
who is at the heart of God and his compassion and his love. And of course, let us not for
a moment think that it's a negative thing to dwell under the shadow
of the Almighty as if we're living in someone's shadow. It's designed
in its poetry to be a positive thing. It speaks of the power
of the protector, that protection which is given and the privilege
that exists in having that protection and that power overshadowing
us. Think of it as a sunshade or
a parasol. We are in the shadow protecting
us from the blaze and the glare of that sun that would come upon
us otherwise. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is here being shown in his life, in his humanity, in this body
that was prepared for him, that was given to him that he might
be the means by which God himself and the eternal persons would
secure the deliverance and salvation of his people, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the secret place of the Most High, in the affections
of the Father, is under the shadow of God's power and protection
in his humanity. And Christ speaks in verse two
of the Lord. He says, he is my refuge, he
is my fortress, and he is my God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking here. And he speaks about that safety
which he had in his humanity, in his manhood. when he considered
all that lay before him and all that he was called to fulfil
and accomplish and secure for the salvation of the elect. Let
us never think that the Lord Jesus Christ just brazenly came
into this world and did everything like some sort of superman with
a wave of his hand to accomplish the salvation of his people.
Christ laboured for our salvation. Christ fought for our salvation. The God-man endured deep, deep
anxieties of heart and spirit and we might focus those on the
Garden of Gethsemane or we might focus them on the three hours
of suffering upon the cross but did he not anticipate those for
30 years before his ministry began? Did he not know that he
was supposed to be about his father's business even as a boy? And so he anticipated for all
of those years what lay before him. And he had enemies during
those times. He had enemies that sought his
destruction just as much as the enemy today seeks the harm and
the destruction of the Lord's people and his church. And so
Christ had this sense in in going back over these Old Testament
scriptures and reading these Old Testament scriptures. We
read them today and we read, the Lord is my shepherd. Christ
read those very words for himself. Christ read those words. He said,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And so we can put the
words of the Psalms, the Lord knew them, he quoted them frequently.
And he quoted them as a personal and as an intimate, with personal
and intimate knowledge of their meaning and their application
to his own soul. He says, I will trust, I will
rely, I will depend on the Lord God for my refuge, my fortress,
and for my strength. If the perfect man could do so,
if the perfect man felt a need to do so, what an example that
is for us today to trust in the Lord. Maybe you never thought
about the Lord needing a refuge, the Lord needing a fortress,
a castle to hide behind, to protect himself. But in his humanity
he did. And during his ministry he did.
whether it's as an infant, whether it's in those 30 years of silence
before his ministry began, whether it was when he was praying during
those years of his ministry, when he went up into the mountain
and prayed personally and quietly, privately himself, he was taking
these prayers for his own help, for his own needs and for the
needs of those around about him to the footstool of God. And Christ, in verse 3, continues
speaking to his own heart. He speaks about the snare of
the fowler. A fowler is someone who traps
and catches birds. And he speaks about that snare
that the fowler would leave as being a snare that was sent for
him. Hidden temptations laid by Satan
to ensnare and entrap. the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
prayed to be delivered from these snares. He prayed about a noisome
pestilence. There's an interesting phrase,
a noisome pestilence. We get the word pest. We think
about the mosquitoes as being pests in the summertime. But a pest is something often
small that comes into our lives and annoys us. And that's what
noisome means. It just drops the A in annoy. It's a noisome pestilence. It's
something that annoys us. And that is a word that has historically
been used for plagues and viruses and secret diseases, bacteria. These would be noisome pestilence.
If the old man who wrote the scriptures knew about viruses
and bacteria, that's what he would have been speaking about.
plagues that come through, diseases that come through a community
and a society. But it speaks as well of a deeper
plague. It speaks of a plague of the
heart because sin is like a virus. It's like a virus because it
grows and it multiplies and it reproduces and it infects and
it destroys. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
prays for deliverance from the snare of the fowler, the traps
of Satan, the noisome pestilence, the plague and secret diseases. and he asks to be covered with
the wings of tender protection. These shields that are spoken
about in verse four, these are assorted shields. It speaks about
a shield and a buckler. Well, a
shield and a buckler. They're both shields. It's an
assortment of shields that's in view here. And I think what
that means is that we are being told that it's according to our
need. We will be shielded according
to our need. You remember the Roman soldiers
when they went into battle, they had big long oblong shields,
and those shields, they could stick them on the ground, they
could hold them up in front of their bodies, and they largely
protected their whole body. Their feet and their legs were
protected by that means. The buckler was a little shield
that you wore on your wrist, you wore on your forearm, and
you could lift that up to protect your head if something were coming
down upon you. an assortment of shields that's
being spoken of here with such protection as it allows. and it speaks to us of a variety
of dangers that we face, that the Lord faced and that his people
face in this world. Satan has been trying to destroy
the Lord Jesus Christ from the beginning of time. Satan has
been seeking the destruction of the Saviour and whether we
think about the the way in which the Old Testament enemies of
Israel tried to destroy the people of Israel knowing that Christ
would come through Israel and through that nation or whether
even Herod at the time of Christ's birth. Satan has been intent
in destroying Christ and I am absolutely sure that through
those 30 years of silence in Christ's life before his ministry
that Satan would have slain him then had he had the opportunity
to do so. Let's just read verses five and
six together. It says there, thou shalt not
be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth
by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor
for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. This is a list of
the Father's promises and comforts to the Lord Jesus Christ and
he is continuing to support the Lord by these encouragements,
these comforts. And it continues to us by day
or night. You know, we put our heads down
in our pillows and we don't know what a day is going to bring.
We go out into the world and we don't know what the circumstances
of that journey is going to be. There is the possibility of open
attack. And there is the possibility
of those hidden secret enemies that can come into our bodies
or upon us unbeknown. And we are completely defenceless
against them. But the Lord Jesus Christ, as
a child, he prayed these words, he sang these words, he recited
these words, he learned this psalm, he knew it. As a child,
he voiced these words and he heard his father promising these
promises of comfort to him personally. as a young man anticipating his
ministry over those decades when he laboured as a carpenter. He
memorised these words, he learned these words as he prayed on those
mountainsides. These are the words that came
back to his heart of the Father's promised care upon him. As the
Lord Jesus Christ read and meditated upon these Psalms, He owned the
promises contained in them. And in Him we can own them too. Let's read verses 7 through 10
together. He says there, a thousand shall
fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand. So this is
the noisome pestilence. These are the diseases. These
are the enemies that came for which the shields were needed
and the bucklers were needed. He says, a thousand shall fall
at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand, 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. The Lord Jesus Christ never was,
never was in his soul subject to a defiled nature. Let us be
clear on that point. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
soul, in his humanity, in his flesh, in his conduct, in his
words, in his thoughts, was never subject to a defiled nature,
to sinful desires, to evil cravings. Nevertheless, in his human nature,
he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. and was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. I don't
know that I understand the full significance of those words in
Hebrews 4, verse 15. I don't know that I can enter
into what that means. Some people might say, well,
Jesus had it easier because he didn't have a sinful nature.
Oh, is that right? And how do you know that? How
do you know that it was easier for Christ to be in this world
with a perfect nature than it is for us to be in the world
with a sinful nature? Who gave you that information?
Who gave you that insight? Maybe it was harder for Christ
to be in this fallen world, knowing all things, seeing all things,
knowing the hearts of the people around about him. with his perfect
nature than we can ever begin to conceive. He was touched with
the feeling of our infirmities and was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. And where the Lord looked on
and saw thousands falling under the temptation of sin, Christ
stood firm. Where he looked to his left and
his right and he saw 10,000 falling by the willful disobedience of
their fallen nature and in rebellion against God, Christ stood firm. And yet Satan tempted the Saviour. In the midst of that, Satan tempted
the Saviour, perhaps with a greater vigour and a greater activity
and urgency than we could ever know. And no doubt it was much
more than we know. We're told that he was tempted
for 40 days and 40 nights, or 40 days in the wilderness. And
Luke chapter 4 and verse 13 says that when the devil had ended
all the temptation, we sometimes think that there were only two
or three or four temptations that were put on the Lord. No,
that's not right at all. It says, when the devil had ended
all the temptation, the temptations which had lasted and endured
for 40 days, he departed from him for a season. So he came
back again. It was only for a little while
that he departed from the Lord in that temptation. Well, the
Lord rebuked him and the Lord sent him to Scripture and showed
him that he had a greater understanding and a greater resolve and resolution
than Satan. But Satan came back again. And in all his trials and in
all his temptations, we are told, There shall no evil befall thee. These are the words of the father
to the son. Neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. It wouldn't come into his heart.
It wouldn't spoil his testimony. It wouldn't ruin his worship
of God. We sometimes talk about a word
impeccability, the sinlessness of Christ. Here is Christ being
encouraged to know from his father in his humanity that his father
would preserve and protect him. Preserve that perfection, that
holiness, that sinlessness and keep him safe from the assaults
of his enemies. But his trials were real. and
the fears of the Lord Jesus Christ were genuine, and his pain, physical
and spiritual, was sure and certain as ours. In verse 11 and verse
12, there is something notable here, I think also, insofar as
the devil is concerned in Christ's temptation. And again, we see
that these verses are applied to Christ. Satan hates men. Satan always
hates men. And he leads as many as possible
to their destruction. The devil knew that this verse
applied to Christ. The devil knew that when he came
into the wilderness and tempted Christ that he could quote this
verse from this psalm with legitimacy as far as Christ is concerned. He shall give his angels charge
over thee to keep thee in all his ways. And Satan's hatred
for Christ is Satan's hatred for Christ's people. And he would
destroy us all if he were able to do so. And there's something
lovely in being able to reflect upon the fact that just as the
angel served the Lord Jesus Christ and would not allow one of his
feet to be dashed against a stone, wouldn't allow him to stub his
toe against a stone, So the angels serve the Lord's people. The
God-man was protected. The God-man was ministered to
by the angels. And the angels of God minister
to the Lord's people also. We have angels around us, protecting
us and preserving us as we are in Christ. As those promises
of God in him are Yea, and in him are our men, so we are the
beneficiaries of that angelic ministry. I think it's ironic
that the very next verse speaks to us of the Lord treading down
the lion and the snake and the dragon. You see, Satan knows
scripture. He knows the scriptures. And
he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ trampling down a lion, a snake,
and a dragon. Those are all biblical names
for Satan. Satan is called a lion. He goes
around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He was the
serpent in the Garden of Eden. He is the dragon that is spoken
of in the Book of Revelation. All names that apply to Satan.
And here he is saying to the Lord, he's quoting to the Lord,
Psalm 91. And in that very next verse,
The testimony of scripture speaks against Satan himself. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and the adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample
under feet. and what Satan could have said
about the Lord. So too, believers will taste
the sweetness of that victory over their enemy. Believers in
Christ shall know something of that treading underfoot Satan. Romans 16 and 20 says, the God
of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet. We're back to the
means that we were speaking to the youngsters about. The fact
that the Lord uses means to break down Satan's strongholds. The God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet. Let's read verse 14 to 16 and
we'll see if we're getting near the end now. So he says in verse
14, because he has set his love upon me. Because he has set his
love upon me. Here we are speaking about this
love of the father and the son. Because he has set his love upon
me, therefore will I 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 honour him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. So we've spoken about the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking in this psalm. And I
think that what we see here is now the Father replying. Here we see the father replying
in precious dialogue. Here we see that mutual love
of the father and the son coming into the very language of the
psalm, into the very words and phrases of this psalm, and the
faithfulness of the God-man in all things. We're told by the
Father that the God-man knows the name of the Father. Knowing the name is knowing the
true nature. It is knowing the depth of the
being of God. It is knowing his character,
knowing his attributes. And only Christ truly knows the
perfections of the Father. because he knew my name. And that is why, again, I mentioned
to you that there had to be an eligibility for these promises. The promises don't flow to humanity
in general. Because which one of fallen man
knows the name of God? Which one of fallen humanity
knows the true nature and being and perfections of God, knows
the attributes of God? It takes God to know God. And
therefore the promises that are quoted and spoken of in this
psalm are the promises that come to the God-man, that one who
knew the Father, that one who loved the Father with that perfect
love, who knew the Father in all of his being and all of his
perfections in the true nature, who dwelt in the very bosom,
who dwelt in the secret place of the Most High. This is speaking
of Christ, and it is speaking of Christ's knowledge of the
great I Am. In Matthew chapter 11, the Lord
says, No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth
any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. That speaks to us of that knowledge
that we have of Christ's personal, deep and intimate
interaction with his Father. And it is through Christ, it
is in Christ that we are able to enter into that engagement,
that interaction, that intimate, personal relationship with the
Father because It is Christ, the Son, who reveals the Father
to his people. And in verse 16, we see the psalmist
echoing Isaiah. Or rather, we should say that
Isaiah echoes the psalmist, because while we read often Isaiah 53
and the loveliness of that passage with respect to the sufferings
of Christ, Here, in Psalm 91, are the seeds of Isaiah's prophecy. And Isaiah speaks on verse 10,
he says of Isaiah 53. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
The father who loved his son made his son. made the soul of his son an offering
for sin. The father who loved his son
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. But the father who loved
his son remembered his son in the midst of his trials, in the
midst of his troubles, in the midst of his sufferings. And
he blessed his son. He satisfied his son. He delighted
his son there in the midst of his sufferings with what? With
a view of the bride that he was winning. Isn't that beautiful? He gave him a glimpse of you
and of me. He gave him a glimpse of the
church, his bride. arrayed in all her purity, arrayed
in all her brilliance. The son saw there on the cross,
the son saw in the midst of his trials, the son saw throughout
his life this view of the church that his work was designed and
intended to secure with a perfect, pure, holy salvation. and he was satisfied with the
promise of resurrection, that he might be joined to his bride
and that that relationship and that union with his bride would
be consummated for all eternity and with eternal honour and glory. That's exactly what the end of
Psalm 91 says. He says, I will answer him. I will be with
him in trouble. I will deliver and honour him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. We began with our references
to the promises of God and our eligibility for them. As sinners,
we have no eligibility to look to these promises of Scripture,
these promises of God the Father. and say that we should claim
them. As enemies, we have no rights
to these promises. but as reconciled in the covenant
of peace, we have everything. As redeemed by the Lord Jesus
Christ, as justified by the Lord Jesus Christ, by his work upon
the cross, we have everything. We have Christ, we have everything. We have every promise that was
given to the son, every promise that the father made out of his
love to him who dwelled in that secret place. Every promise of
grace for deliverance that was given to Christ, every promise
of help and protection, even the very angels that our feet
may not be dashed against the rock, every promise made to Christ
in this psalm and all the others in this book of God's holy revelation
is ours in Christ. For all the promises of God in
him are yea, and in him. Amen. Do we need them? We've
got them. Can we have them? Yes. Are they
ours? Amen. In Christ we are delivered
from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. In Christ we shall not fear the
terror by night, nor the arrow that flies by day. In Christ
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. Amen. May the Lord bless us, bless
to us these thoughts this morning. Well, thank you for your attention,
everyone, and for joining with us this morning. And I trust
that there will be some blessing granted to us in these matters. Amen.