"God's Protection and Provision"

What are you afraid of? Would you admit it? Better yet, what is the number one fear among adults in the US? Among those listed in the top five are the following:

Fear of intimacy; relationships

Fear of rodents, pests, airplanes, etc.; things

Social phobia (i.e. public speaking); embarrassment.

Fear of death; pain or the uncertainty of the afterlife.

Fear of loneliness or abandonment. (Top 10 Most Common Human Fears and Phobias - Learning Mind (learning-mind.com, accessed 27 July 2023))

Regarding the latter Daniel Sulmasy (then head of the Bioethics Institute of New York Medical College) made an interesting discovery while observing dying patients in a hospital. He aimed cameras at the doorways of terminally ill patients and tracked the number of minutes they spent alone. He said, “More than eighteen hours a day, there was no one in the room.”

Nurses checked on patients dozens of times during the day for no more than two minutes at a time,

Doctors averaged three visits a day for three minutes each.

Visits from family members averaged twenty-four minutes per day and were the only visits that were likely to last over five minutes.

Sulmasy said that patients who are terminally ill list isolation and abandonment as their biggest fears, yet according to his research, that is what they often experience. (Source: The American Journal of Medicine, October 1, 2001).

Psalm 91 addresses our fear of abandonment, one could say. There are several familiar verses in this Psalm. The scene is war, which is very real and an unfortunate picture of life. There is nothing more difficult than war; both for the military and for civilians. Among the stressors are

The separation of loved ones;

The fear of constant upheaval;

The threat of death.

I recently saw the movie Oppenheimer, the story about Robert Oppenheimer, the chairman of the Manhattan Project, that designed the Atomic Bomb.

The bomb was necessary to end WWII, and was a race to invent, as we were competing with the Germans and the Russians to manufacture a weapon of such significance. Oppenheimer was plagued with a guilty conscience afterwards. Because war is an awful thing.

And yet God promises the squelch the fear of those who look to Him. Psalm 91 tells of the benefits that come from a knowledge of God and the exercise of daily dependence upon His grace.

The LXX states that King David is the author of this Psalm. David knew what it was like to be afraid. And so he retreated to that place with God where He experienced His security and peace.

One of our greatest needs is the assurance of safety and peace. In Psalm 91, the following layout is evident:

Verses 1-2 are in the first person and are general in nature, describing God’s protection and provision.

Verses 3-13 employs the second person, almost coaching the person with encouragement. It is a description of the specific details of His actions towards the faithful;

Verses 14-16 are in the third person, and the words are biographical of the faithful.

From this we discover that...

God is a safe place for those who look to Him.

Interesting also is that Psalm 90 ascribes God as our dwelling place, but Psalm 91 gives the benefit of such a blessing: assurance.

Psalm 91:1–2(ESV)

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

In the Middle East, shelters and shadows were facilitated by caves and large rocks. Shelter and shade were looked at in nature and places. God is compared to such. One commentator notes: “Those who draw near to God can have peace in Him, however difficult their circumstances.” (New Geneva Study Bible, 856).

And the Psalms are replete with such comparisons to God:

Psalm 32:7 (ESV)

7 You are a hiding place for me;

you preserve me from trouble;

you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

Psalm 121:5 (ESV)

5 The Lord is your keeper;

the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

A young girl, unaccustomed to traveling, was taking a train ride through the country, and it happened that in the course of the day her train was obliged to cross two branches of a river and several wide streams. The water seen in advance always awakened doubts and fears in the child.

She did not understand how it could safely be crossed. As they drew near the river, however, a bridge appeared, and furnished a way over. Two or three times the experience was repeated, and finally the child leaned back with a long breath of relief and confidence.

“Somebody has put bridges for us all the way!” she said in trusting content.

Charles Spurgeon notes:

“The blessings here promised (in Scripture) are not for all believers, but for those who live in close fellowship with God. Those who through rich grace obtain unusual and continuous communion with God, so as to abide in Christ and Christ in them, become possessors of rare and special benefits.” (C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume IV, 230.)

So if intimacy with God is your greatest blessing this side of glory, who do you cultivate it? It is a call to prayer and Bible study. It is a summons to sit at His feet, as did Mary.

Next, let us learn that...

God protects those who take refuge in Him.

Verses 3-13 has the repetition of the second personal pronoun “you.” It is a message of encouragement to the person who is afraid.

Some of the things that are noteworthy are protection from the snare of the fowler in verse three. A fowler is one who catches birds. A fowler would lay a trap to lure the fowl into its demise. Proverbs 6:5

Proverbs 6:5 ESV

5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Martin Kiogora noted that fowler is often used as “a metaphor for Satan’s schemes and devices that he uses to ensnare innocent souls to since.” There is deception involved, which makes the demand for us to be vigilant. The fowler could also represent manipulative and exploitative people who seek to ensnare others. (Found at www.thedeepthingsofgod.com).

We need shelter from our enemies.

Moreover, deadly pestilence would be sickness that soldiers are vulnerable to. It could also signal the fiery wind blasts that are common in the middle eastern desert.

The continental army encountered sickness, starvation and frostbite during the winter of 1777 when they stayed at Valley Forge. Over 2,000 soldiers were lost because of the pestilence. It was by God’s grace that more did not perish.

In verse four, God is compared to a shield. And a buckler was a smaller shield. Here, the idea is that The Lord will stand between us and our enemies to save and help us. Calvin states:

“Troubles, It is true, of various kinds assail the believer as well as others, but the Psalmist means that God stands between him and the violence of every assault, as as to preserve him from being overwhelmed.” (John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, 484).

Verses 7-8 tell us that those who oppose God and His faithful would encounter ruin and disaster.

And this ought to give you tremendous confidence when you pray. If you knew how much God was always providing, always protecting and always giving you His fatherly care, saving you from that which would attack you, the fiery darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6), the things that are akin to this lost and sinful world, then you would pray with more confidence. There are times when the faithful are attacked by Satan. But God wants you to look to Him and not grow discouraged. For He rules over Satan’s attacks.

Never forget that...

God has His own army at His disposal.

Psalm 91:11–12 ESV

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

This tells us that there are intermediate helpers to carry out God’s word. Angels are actually God’s agents sent out to carry out the Lord’s work and also serve mankind. Hebrews 1:14 describes the angelic host as:

Hebrews 1:14 (ESV)

“...ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.”

Nevertheless, we are never to presume anything at the cost of wisdom.

In Matthew 4:6, we see that Satan actually quotes from our passage, specifically verses 11 and 12. As one commentator noted: “Satan’s aim was to turn faith into presumption.” (New Geneva Study Bible, 857).

Matthew 4:6 ESV

6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

Sitting in my living room during these thunderstorms, I’m comforted in being safe from the lightening, the wind and the strong rain. I still encounter the storm, but I’m safe.

God enables you to face death with peace and courage.

Isaiah 25:4 ESV

4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

A physician once remarked to Charles Wesley, "Most people die for fear of dying; but, I never met with people such as yours." When Charles shared this in a letter to John, the older brother wrote back, "Our people die well." To the Wesley brothers, this was a point of pride.

Fred Seipt was faced with a difficult surgery several years ago. And the medical personnel cautioned him about the procedure, that maybe his heart was not ready for the operation. Fred’s response was full of courage: “Look, I’m either going to wake up and see Nancy’s face, or wake up and see Joanne’s face (his wife of over 50 years who had passed several years before.”