Holy Worship 1: Psalm 91 Courage in the face of Crisis (rework of pandemic sermon)

Bible reading

Psalm 91 CSB

1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say concerning the Lord, who is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust: 3 He himself will rescue you from the bird trap, from the destructive plague. 4 He will cover you with his feathers; you will take refuge under his wings. His faithfulness will be a protective shield. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, 6 the plague that stalks in darkness, or the pestilence that ravages at noon. 7 Though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, the pestilence will not reach you. 8 You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord—my refuge, the Most High—your dwelling place, 10 no harm will come to you; no plague will come near your tent. 11 For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways. 12 They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the young lion and the serpent. 14 Because he has his heart set on me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name. 15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor. 16 I will satisfy him with a long life and show him my salvation.

We need to be people of courage. Our world is increasinglingy turning darker and darker and letting go of a sense of morality that has propelled our society forward for several centuries.

Increasingly Christians are despised, looked down upon, ridiculed, and made out to be fools for believing in God. Christianity is always the first religion to be made fun of, and the comments made of or about Christians would never be made about people from other religions.

Our sense of right and wrong is being questioned, our allegiance to the Bible’s truth is being reidiculed as outdated, our insistence that there is more to life than just living your best life is seens as hopelessly out of touch with modern life.

And in the face of this ever growing hostility we need courage. Courage to stand up for God, courage to face difficulties, courage to go through trails and tribulations,

courage, to walk on the straight and narrow, while everyoen beckons us to join the wide and easy road, that ultimately leads to destruction.

How can you have courage in these times?

But this is not just a question we need to consider, because the foundations of our beliefs are being attacked by the world, or because the world is turning increasingly hostile to Christinaity.

We need to ask this questions

But because even without that we go through difficult times.

How can you have courage?

How can you have courage to face the financial world when a recession looms and your job or your business is on the line?

How can you have courage when inflation rates are sky high and interest rates keep rising and the mortgage that seemed so reasonable 4 years ago becomes punishingly difficult to repy.

How can you have courage when you are diagnosed with something and the treatment feels worse than the actual disease?

How can you have courage when you sit in the doctor’s office and they tell you that there is no treatment.

How can you have courage to face the world, when your relationship has been rocky for a long time, and one morning your spouse says “We need to talk”, or “I am leaving”.

How can we have courage?

This is not an idle question. This is a question we need to wrestle with if we want to live in this world.

God, in Psalm 91, gives us the answer. And he does so through a three step program.

Psalm 91 gives us 3 steps to living with Christian courage.

Step 1: run to your refuge

Step 2: trust your refuge

Step 3: look to your refuge.

Run to your refuge, trust your refuge, and look to your refuge.

Step 1: run to your refuge

Psalm 91:1 CSB

1 The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.

There should be a big difference between how a Christian responds to a situation, and how a non-believer responds.

We respond differently firstly because our foundations are different. We are people who have a refuge that exists outside of the world.

We are different because we have a refuge.

We have a rock

. We have an anchor

when the world around us

gets blown and tossed about by every wave of speculation.

Look at what the psalmist says there.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High…

Friends

, these people are Christians.

These whoevers, are us.

We who believe in Jesus

are the whoevers.

These are people who have said

I make my home with God.

I am not going to be like the citizens of this world.

I am not going to be tossed about.

I trust in the everlasting God

. I am a child who lives in his house.

When we believe in Jesus

we get to take up residence in God’s house

. And that anchors us.

Look at what it does

– when you dwell in God’s house,

this is metaphorical of course

but when you are one of his children,

you dwell in the shadow of the almighty.

For the people during the days this psalm was written

To be in God’s shadow

meant that you were kept safe.

You were under his provision.

You were under his protection.

This was written against a backdrop of living in the hot desert.

Where the sun was scorching,

where if you could not find shadow

you were burnt.

Not being in the shadow

was detrimental to your health and your life.

But being in God’s shadow meant you were kept safe.

So safe in fact that you could rest there

. You felt safe enough to sleep.

To dwell there means to spend the night in the company of the host.

You don’t sleep there unless you feel safe.

And when you have Jesus as your lord,

when you have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross,

when you have faith in him,

you are safe in God’s hands.

You are safe in God’s house.

You are anchored.

Even when the world around us is falling apart.

Its as if,

Imagine everyone in the world

were ships bobbing about on the ocean.

Some days the ocean is calm

, there is a nice gentle breeze.

Sun is shining

Not a cloud in the sky,

That is much of our lives.

But when crisis strikes, the times we need courage are like times when the calm ocean undereath begins to shift.

There is a big storm on the sea.

And maybe we don’t know how big the storm is going to turn out to be.

Is this as bad as its going to get?

Or do these clouds hold far more?

How long is this storm going to be raging?

We don’t know.

And the sea underneath us is tumultuous, the waves a big, and the wind is rough. At times it feels as if the waves crashing over the edge might toss us overboard.

The wind lashes at the ship and pulls it in the direction all the other boats seem to be travelling.

That is often how life feels when we go through difficult times. It can feel as if we are on a rough sea.

But there is a difference between how a Christian experiences this, and how the rest of the world experiences this.

We live under the protection of the Lord almighty. That doesn’t mean bad stuff won’t happen to us, but it means that WHILE bad stuff is happening, we have an anchor to keep us safe.

The other ships have no truth north, no real safety, not guiding point, no reference point outside of the situation.

But our anchors are hooked on the rock of ages.

We don’t get lost in the sea, because we are anchored.

We can be calm, in the middle of the storm

because we knowing that our rock, the reason for our safety will never be destroyed.

We dwell in the shadow of the almighty.

The psalmist goes on to describe God as a refuge and a fortress.

Psalm 91:2 CSB

2 I will say concerning the Lord, who is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust:

A refuge and a fortress is a places we run to when we are besieged.

These are places we run to when the enemy is after us. These are the places we run to when we feel unsafe. And we run to them because we trust them.

We run to them because we know we can be safe there.We run to them because we are protected there.

For the Christian, Jesus is our refuge regardless of what is happening in the world.

A refuge is a comfy place where we get to hide out when things get too much emotionally.

It is a place where we can feel safe.

If you are going through a difficult time, the message is this:

Run to your refuge. Find safety in the shadow of the almighty.

Fall into the pillows of his sanctuary. Run to God because he is safe.He is our refuge.

Run to your refuge.

Step 2: trust your refuge

Psalm 91:3–10 CSB

3 He himself will rescue you from the bird trap, from the destructive plague. 4 He will cover you with his feathers; you will take refuge under his wings. His faithfulness will be a protective shield. 5 You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, 6 the plague that stalks in darkness, or the pestilence that ravages at noon. 7 Though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, the pestilence will not reach you. 8 You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked. 9 Because you have made the Lord—my refuge, the Most High—your dwelling place, 10 no harm will come to you; no plague will come near your tent.

Why can we trust our refuge?

Why can we trust in God, our refuge?

Because he has promised to look after us, as a mother hen looks after her chickens.

As a Father looks after his children.

Now I want to very quickly state something here.

This psalm is not a promise to us that we will never get sick.

This is not a promise that nothing bad will ever happen to us.

What this is a promise of God’s protection despite what happens to us.

What this is is a promise that God is in control

and that nothing can happen outside of his will.

Nothing can happen to us

without his permission.

Nothing can happen to us unless he allows it.

God is a good good Father.

Romans 8:28 tells us clearly that

Romans 8:28 CSB

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

So if you are Christian,

then every bad thing that happens to you is actually good for you.

How do we know this? Because If God loved us enough to send Jesus,

to not even spare Jesus, but gave him up for us all, then how will he not also graciously give us everything we need to get through any crisis. Because all of the punishment we ever deserved has already been poured out on Jesus. That means that nothing that happens to us is a punishment.

Listen to how the Heidelberg catechism puts this.

27. Q. What do you understand by the providence of God? A. God's providence is his almighty and ever present power,

whereby, as with his hand, he still upholds

heaven and earth and all creatures,

and so governs them that

leaf and blade,

rain and drought,

fruitful and barren years,

food and drink,

health and sickness,

riches and poverty,

indeed, all things,

come to us not by chance

but by his fatherly hand.

Everything comes to us Not by chance,

but by God’s fatherly hand. He knows that the experiences you are going through are neccessary for you.

Just like a child will never chose to eat brussel sprouts of their own volition, and indeed they taste bad. But they are good for you. So as a parent your parents gave you these vegetebles, by their fatherly and motherly hand.

In the same way our experiences are curated by God, for us, because on a spiritual level they are what is best for us who believe.

Now for us to believe that, takes faith.

It takes extraordinary faith to believe that abuse done against us, is ultimatley for our good. It takes extraordinry faith to believe that going through the death of a loved one is ultimately for our good. It takes extraordinary faith to sit in the doctors offfice, hear that there is nothing more they can do for you, and to believe that that is ultimately for your good.

But that is why we have the Holy spirit. The truth is friends, it won’t feel good at that time. But it will be good. Maybe it will take 10 years of reflection and prayer for you to figure out exactly what that was good for you, or how that was good for you. Maybe you won’t even ever find out in this life.

But one day we will join Jesus in heaven,

Where you and I can truly say

Where O death is your victory, where o death is your sting?

And on that day, we will know fully, that he loves us so much, that whatever happens now, was for our good.

To have courage in the face of crisis you need to not only run to your refuge

but to trust in your refuge.

To have courage in the face of crisis we sing with the saints of old:

The cross has been my shelter in ev’ry storm, With many a wreck my pathway has been strewn; Whene’er the winds of sorrow would strive to harm, The path that led to refuge I have known.

I’m clinging, clinging to the cross of Calvary, All my life I’ll love it and put naught else above it, And when death comes and you will find me clinging to the cross.

Run to your refuge, trust your refuge, and finally

we need to look to our refuge.

Step 3: look to your refuge.

Psalm 91:11–16 CSB

11 For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways. 12 They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the young lion and the serpent. 14 Because he has his heart set on me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name. 15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and give him honor. 16 I will satisfy him with a long life and show him my salvation.

When you do the bible study needed to write a sermon, sometimes God gives you just this really special nugget of joy. A surprising twist, a special surprise waiting until you do the work.

And this little section of psalm 91 is one such a special surprise.

All of what we have said before has to do with our own internal strength in some way isn’t it. We need to run to our refuge and we need to choose to trust in our refuge with faith. But where does the power to do this come from?

Well that is the golden nugget in these verses.

See v11-13 is a gives a hint at the power that fuels our ablitity to trust our refuge.

11 For he will give his angels orders concerning you,

to protect you in all your ways.

12 They will support you with their hands

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the young lion and the serpent.

You may remember the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert?

Jesus,

in Luke 4 is about to begin his earthly ministry.

And Satan goes to tempt Jesus in the desert.

Jesus is there for 40 days

, without food.

And Satan is ready to pounce.

And the first temptation Jesus gives him is to turn the stones into bread,

because he is so hungry

and if he really had God’s power

then of course Jesus could do it.

And Jesus says no

– I don’t need only bread,

I live on God’s word

. And Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to prove his point.

And then Satan takes Jesus up to a high place

, and he shows him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And Satan says to Jesus –

I will give you all their authority and all their splendor,

for it has been given to me,

and I can give it to anyone I want to.

If you worship me it will all be yours”.

And Jesus,

who had come to claim back the authority over the world,

for whom this would have been a great temptation

– Satan is saying,

look you can complete the mission,

you can have what you want,

no need to go to the cross

just worship me.

but Jesus says no, I worship God only.

And then finally,

Jesus is taken to Jerusalem,

and Satan says

, if you are really the Son of God,

thrown yourself down from here, for it is written.

He will give his angels orders concerning you,

to protect you,[g] 11 and

they will support you with their hands,

so that you will not strike

your foot against a stone.”[h]

Sound familiar?

You see even Satan understood that Psalm 91, was about Jesus.

Why?

Well to understand that we have to look at what he left out.

What didn’t Satan include in the quotation?

He missed out v13.

13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the young lion and the serpent.

Now what you need to realise is that all throughout scripture there is a motif.

It is a fight between man,

and the serpent,

between man and the roaring lion who waits to devour us.

Right after the fall of sin,

right back in Genesis 3,

the Lord God tells Adam and Eve – you ruined everything,

but

, one day,

One day someone will come,

who will crush the serpent’s head.

And this is a promise that one day,

the curse of sin will come undone.

And right throughout the old testament,

but particularly in the first 5 books,

we see this motif,

every time Israel has a great victory,

there is a reference to this

, to the seed of adam and eve,

crushing evil in the world.

And in the passion of the Christ,

the movie,

they capture this wonderfully.

As Jesus is in the garden of gesthemane,

And as he cries out to God,

Please Father

any other way than this.

And As he is sweating blood due to the immense pain and suffering

in the garden before his crucifixion.

And there, as Jesus wrestles with the weight of the task before him,

as he is perhaps tempted again,

not to go this way but to chose the easy way out

the film shows the snake

the serpent

slowly slithering its way toward Jesus.

Now this isn’t in the Bible,

but this exactly he right image.

And Just as Jesus resolves “

not my will but yours be done”,

he stomps the snakes head.

Victory over Satan.

And as he goes to the cross,

Jesus takes on sin and death itself.

His takes sickness and pain to the cross.

He take evil to the cross.

And he is crucified there.

The anger and wrath of God is poured out

, and it obliterates these things

. It ultimately destroys and disintegrates and breaks Jesus body.

And when the price was paid.

Jesus cries out

– it is finished!

And he dies.

And in that moment,

we who believe

are set free from our sin.

But more than that,

At that moment

we are promised a future,

a bright and glorious future.

Where there is no more mourning or crying or pain.

Where there is no more sickness.

And where Coronavirus does not exist.

Friends because of Jesus,

we need not fear the future.

Our future is secure.

Our battle has been won.

Our victory is secure.

Our safety has been ensured.

Yes whatever may come

our Lord has crushed the serpents head.

That is the core, that is the engine, that is the power that drives our ability to have a refuge.

We can run to our refuge, we can trust in our refuge, because we have looked to our refuge in JEsus Christ.

And our lord has already won the battle.

And when that truth takes root in our heart

we can have courage no matter what happens.

Amen