The Peace of Advent

*PSALM 91 READ BEFORE THE SERMON*

INTRODUCTION

What does it mean to dwell in the shelter of the Most High?

What does it mean to live in the Lord’s secret place?

What does it mean to abide in the shadow of the Lord Almighty?

Is that just poetry? Is that just flowery language?

Or is there a way for a person to do this each day?

Because in a world where peace is hard to find, I have to tell you that my soul is desperate to know that this is tangible.

I am desperate to know if I am able to live in the presence of God to find peace there.

As we come to the end of 2023—a year that has been plenty hard for many of you—I can look in your eyes as your pastor and know that you are also desperate to know this.

You are desperate to know if there is a place you can go and you can stay in and your soul can be content.

So together, we turn to Psalm 91 this morning and a song that never mentions peace by name, will tell us exactly where we can find it.

CONTEXT

MOSES

As you open to Psalm 91 in your Bible, you will notice that there is no historical setting for the Psalm and it is not attributed to an author.

However, Jewish tradition held that this Psalm was actually penned by Moses, like Psalm 90.

And Charles Spurgeon believed that Moses actually wrote this Psalm after the incident with the fiery serpents in the wilderness.

God sent fiery serpents among His people because of their groaning against Him and many were bit and died.

The only way for the people to live was for them took look at the bronze serpent Moses had made.

Anytime they were bit, they would look to the bronze serpent and live.

I tend to agree with Spurgeon, and if that is the case, considering the language of the Psalm, it is quite possible that Moses wrote this after meeting with the Lord in the tabernacle, some time after this event.

It is as if he is reflecting on God’s grace and mercy toward Israel, despite their sin.

Regardless of whether or not you think Moses wrote the Psalm, I think the references to Israel’s wilderness experience are strong.

The Psalm speaks of political enemies and seems to reference warfare.

Israel had enemies like the Amalekites during their years in the wilderness.

They would have been in peril from the climate and nature and a lack of water.

Listen to Moses in Deuteronomy 8:15

Deuteronomy 8:15 ESV

who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,

There is lots of talk of plague and pestilence, which makes sense because the generation of the Israelites in the wilderness has seen what God did to Egypt with their own eyes.

From verse 5 to verse 13, you will see plenty of words that will remind you of what Israel faced during their time of testing.

JESUS

But of course, that is not the only time of testing in the wilderness that we think of when we read Psalm 91.

When you get down into verses 11-12, you see the only Scripture that is quoted by Satan in the Bible.

It is the words that he tried to use to get Jesus to test His Father.

He twisted Scripture in an attempt to see God’s Son fail in His time of testing in the wilderness, hoping He would crumble like Moses’ generation before Him.

But in the end, the Son of God stood firm. And He is the key to the whole Psalm.

THE SECRET PLACE (v. 1)

WHAT IS IT?

The first two verses of this Psalm give us four names of God.

He is the Most High: El Elyon

He is the Almighty: El Shaddai

He is LORD: Yahweh

He is my God: Elohim

And anyone—rich or poor, great or small, male or female—who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

This is a promise with a condition.

IF you dwell in the shelter of the Most High, THEN you will abide the shadow of the Almighty.

The Hebrew word for shelter can be translated as “secret” or “secrecy,” which is the the King James translates this as “He that dwelleth in the secret place...”

This is likely a reference the innermost part of the tent of meeting. The sanctuary of the tabernacle.

The Psalms regularly refer to the place God dwells in the tabernacle or in the temple in Jerusalem as refuge for the people of God as they go to draw near to Him there.

And whoever would dwell there, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

WHAT DO WE DO THERE?

But the abiding in the Almighty’s shadow only occurs if we dwell in the secret place.

To dwell is to remain.

It means that you live somewhere with constancy.

The President of the United States dwells at the White House.

The New York Yankees dwell in the Bronx.

I dwell in Seaford.

The word carries with it a sense of being settled.

No moves foreseen.

HOW DO WE DWELL THERE?

Now, you might say, “I want that.”

I want to dwell in the secret place of the Lord and remain there.

How do I do that?

Well first of all, you have to know how to get into the secret place?

And I will tell you that the key to the door is the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is only one mediator between God and man.

For a sinner to enter the Lord’s holy secret place, they must be holy.

Their sin must be atoned for.

And while there was a time that the blood of bulls and goats was shed, that was just a shadow of what was to come.

There was no power in the Old Testament sacrifices to save.

The Old Covenant worshippers, like Moses, made sacrifice in obedience to the Lord, trusting in His grace and looking forward to a Messiah that is to come.

But that Messiah has now been born to us. He is the incarnate Lord, lowly in the manger.

Born to die for sin.

A Lamb predestined to be sacrificed.

And He lived a perfect life and died an atoning death to reconcile you to God as our Great High Priest.

Hebrews 4:14–16 ESV

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The throne of grace is the secret place.

The throne of grace is the shelter of the Most High.

What was in the tabernacle was just a copy of the greater sanctuary in heaven—the place that Christ ushers us into by His blood, each time we pray to the Lord.

So then—how do you get into the secret place? How do you dwell there?

You get in through Jesus Christ, who is the only way to the Father.

John 14:6–7 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

To dwell in the secret place is to know the Father through the Son—the Lord Jesus Christ.

To know the Father is to trust in His Son Jesus Christ and to have your faith credited to you as righteousness.

To know the Father is to enter into the secret place wearing a robe of righteousness, provided by Jesus, who wore the robe of your sin as if it was His own.

To know the Father is to trust in the Son.

This is why verse 2 says:

Psalm 91:2 ESV

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

You dwell in the secret place by faith in the Son of God, who is your refuge and fortress.

REMAINING AND DWELLING

But as glorious as the doctrine of justification by faith alone is, this is just your key into the secret place.

We cannot forget what the Psalm says— “He who dwells...”

How do we remain in the secret place?

We find an answer in John 15:5-6

John 15:5–6 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

John–Acts (15:1–8. Abiding in Christ)

What does it mean to abide in Christ? It means to relate to Jesus in the same way that a branch relates to the vine. Jesus explains this in verse 5, saying that those who abide in him will bear much fruit, while apart from him his followers can do nothing. Sever the connection between branch and vine, and there will be no fruit. Sever the connection between the Christian and Christ, and there will be no Christlikeness.

Jim Hamilton

We must stay in close relationship with the Son to abide in the secret place.

And Psalm 91 gives us clues as to what that looks like and incredibly, those clues are right in line with what we find in John 15.

First of all, If we are to dwell, we must hold fast to God in love (v. 14).

What does that mean?

We go back to Jesus’ words in John 15:9-10

John 15:9–10 ESV

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

To remain in the love of Jesus is to keep the commandments of Jesus.

When I walked to the dining hall at VCU each day as a freshman in college, I walked past the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

Inscribed across the front of the massive building were the words, “If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments.”

This is one of the ways we remain in Christ.

We hear His Word. We believe His Word. We trust in His Word.

And we demonstrate that trust by obeying His Word.

This does not earn us salvation. Instead, it is proof that salvation has come to our hearts.

Those who dwell in the secret place are those who trust and obey the Word of God.

I mentioned Christ in the wilderness temptation.

He showed us what it looks like to dwell in the secret place. He modeled it for us.

Matthew 4:5–7 ESV

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 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.’ ” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Satan quotes Psalm 91:11-12 to Jesus, but he butchers it. This is what Satan does. He twists the Word of God and offers a counterfeit.

It worked with the First Adam and now he is trying it on the Second Adam.

Satan leaves out, “…to guard you in all your ways.”

Why? Because he knows that is the qualifier.

See, verses 11-12 are amazing because it is indeed a promise that the Lord dispatches His angels (plural, not singular!) concerning our lives.

That is incredible, right? Angels guarding us!

They guard us from physical danger—loose stones that could cause us to slip before our time is up.

But they also guard us from spiritual danger, those stumbling blocks that could cause us to trip as we progress up the narrow road.

But…the verse is not a promise that you can go live like a moral fool and God will protect you.

What is implied is that those who dwell in the secret place do not go their own way.

They commit their way to the Lord. They trust not in their own understanding.

And as they go about God’s way in their ways, the Lord is protecting them.

Satan is tempting Jesus to circumvent the suffering of His life and His death.

He is tempting Him to gain glory through the testing of God as opposed to the obedience of God.

But Jesus knows the verse. He is the Word made flesh. He knows the verse.

So what does He do?

He holds fast to His Father in love, by trusting in His Word and obeying it.

He quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, commits His way to the Lord and in the end, angels do indeed bear Him up—but not because He gave in.

They bear Him up because He holds fast and His is committed to the will of the Father.

Matthew 4:11 ESV

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Jesus showed us the truth of James 4:8 in live action.

James 4:8a(ESV)

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

When you hold fast to the Word of the Lord in the secret place, the Lord of the Word holds you. He delivers you.

He protects you, as one who knows His name (v. 14).

Abide in His love by trusting and obeying the Word and you will dwell in the secret place.

Secondly, If we are to dwell, we must call to God in prayer (v. 15).

When he calls to me, I will answer him...

Those dwell in the secret place pray at the throne of grace.

They entreat the Most High with confidence.

This too, Jesus emphasized as part of remaining in Him in John 15.

John 15:7 ESV

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Those who hold fast to the Lord through His Word will also pray according to His Word.

This is a part of what it looks like to dwell in the secret place.

When you abide in Christ, you will desire what He desires.

Salvation of the nations

Advance of the local church

His name to be counted as holy

And so, you start to pray according to those desires.

Jesus is saying that God will answer these prayers.

They are in accordance with His will and His Word and so He will honor us by granting our requests.

THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY

So then, this is “Remaining in the Secret Place 101”—holding fast in love through the Word and calling out in prayer.”

And if you “hold fast” and “call out,” the promise of Psalm 91:1 is that you will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

A shadow is very personal.

If you want to walk in my shadow, you have to be at my side.

You can’t do that from far off.

You have to be right next to me or behind me or in front of me, depending on the time.

If we are in the shadow of the Almighty, that means we are in His presence.

So then, the great promise of the Psalm is that if you hold fast to the Lord through the Word and call out to Him, dwelling in the Secret Place, you will abide in the presence of the Lord.

The Hebrew word for abide literally means to “spend the night.”

It most often translates to lodge.

When you lodge somewhere, you are staying there.

This is really a synonym of “dwell.”

Meaning, if you remain in the secret place, you remain in His presence.

If you remain in His shelter, you remain in His shadow.

THE BENEFITS OF THE LORD’S PRESENCE

And there are great benefits that come with the blessing of God’s abiding presence.

God will be your Defender and Protector (v. 2, 4, 11-12, 9, 14)

He will be your refuge—a hiding place (v. 2) (v. 9)

He will be your fortress—the strong tower you find safety in (v. 2)

His faithfulness, or His trustworthiness, will defend you like a shield and a buckler—which is a smaller shield worn on the arm (v. 4)

He will cover you with the feathers of His wings—with His pinions and keep you safe like a mother eagle covering her eaglets from predators and precipitation (v. 4)

You will find a refuge there—a word God chooses to be known by three different times in this Psalm.

Do you think the Lord wants you to run to Him instead of all the makeshift, lean-to refuges we settle for in this world?

He will keep the plagues, like the ones that Egypt received in judgment, from touching your tent (v. 10)

As we have already seen, He will guard you with His angels (v. 11-12)

And He will protect you because you know Him personally (v. 14)

God will be your Deliverer (v. 3, 14).

He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler (v. 3)

Hypocrites, enemies of the church and Satan himself will look to trap you like a hunter traps a bird.

Thomas Watson says Satan loves to take people and put a falconer’s hood on them and blind them so that they cannot see.

The Lord keeps your feet from the falconer’s hand and keeps the hood of deception off the eyes of your heart.

He will deliver you from pestilence (v. 3)

Pestilence is deadly disease.

It is pervasive plague.

God will be your Fear Destroyer (v. 5-6)

In verses 5-6, there are four times of day mentioned.

Night

Day

Darkness (evening)

Noonday

These are the four divisions of the Jewish clock.

And in each part of the day, be it the terrors by night or arrows by light—you will not be afraid.

Disease and destruction may come—but He will see to it that your fear is driven back and defeated.

God will be your Avenger (v. 8).

As the One who makes all things right, the Lord will see to it that those who dwell in the secret place, will see justice in the end.

Your eyes will see the comeuppance of the wicked.

God will be Immanuel (v. 15)

He will be with us in trouble.

This is the nature of God—to come to His people when they are in trouble.

And there is no greater example than when Immanuel, God with us, came to earth to be with us in our trouble and to overcome it.

God will be your Savior (v. 15-16).

He rescues sinners (v. 15)

He reveals salvation through His Son and He gives eternal life.

Amazingly, all of this, is experienced by those who live in His shadow.

If you dwell in the Secret Place, these are the blessings you will find in His presence.

AFFLICTION, EVIL AND THE SECRET PLACE (v. 7, 10, 16)

But before we close, we need to apply this rightly.

I hope you hear this and you desire to dwell, so that you may abide, but if we are not careful, we could think that God is promising us a life free from trouble.

And that would be confusing because we are not living lives free of trouble.

Does that mean that we are not dwelling in the secret place? Does that mean we are not holding fast and calling out?

This is where we have to be careful.

There is a sense in which this Psalm promises you freedom from death and plague.

Verse 7 says that a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand.

The Bible often uses 10 and multiples of 10, like 1,000 and 10,000 in order to describe a large amount from a human perspective.

Well as Israel trekked through the wilderness, they remembered the death they saw in Egypt. They remember what happened to the firstborn sons.

But it will not come near those who dwell in the secret place.

Verse 16 even promises “long life.”

No death? Long life?

Is this really the experience of all who dwell in the secret place?

The key to avoiding a bad “name it and claim it,” Prosperity Gospel-reading of this passage is found in v. 10.

No evil shall be allowed to befall you.

These eight English words clear up any misunderstanding and will also send us out of here with an incredible opportunity for peace in our souls.

AFFLICTION, NOT EVIL

We have to pay attention to what is said in verse 10.

NO EVIL shall be allowed to befall you

He doesn’t say affliction.

The Lord does not promise that we will be affliction-free.

He promises that evil will not ruin our lives.

“Befall” can literally mean “seek quarrel”

Evil wants to quarrel with us. Satan wants to see suffering become an argument in our heart about the goodness of God.

This was his nasty intention with our brother Job.

But as Joseph stated:

Genesis 50:20 ESV

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

See—here is what those in the secret place understand:

God is using affliction to keep us dwelling in His shelter and abiding in His shadow.

I know you are bleeding.

You have your cancer.

You have your financial woes.

You have your difficult boss and your wearisome job

You have painful grief.

You have chronic pain.

You have depression.

You have dark nights of the soul.

You have anxiety.

You have panic attacks.

You have sorrow.

You have autoimmune diseases.

You have a perishing body.

Psalm 91 is not promising that the secret place is going to keep you from experiencing those things.

Instead, it is promising that if you hold fast and call out, you will go through the affliction beneath the shadow of His wings.

It is promising that He will be your Defender and Protector, your Deliverer and Fear-Destroyer, your Avenger and Savior. Your Immanuel.

And that He is actually taking the affliction and He is working that for your good.

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

And what is the good Paul is referring to?

Romans 8:29 ESV

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

The good He is working for is you becoming more like Christ...

…So that there would be even more intimacy in the secret place

…So that you would call on Him more.

…So that you would trust Him more.

…So that, like Christ, you may abide in the shadow of the Father.

My father-in-law is a non-staff pastor (lay-pastor) at his church. He preached this summer and said this:

You have to trust that whatever God is protecting you from with affliction is worse than what you are experiencing in affliciton.

John Hash

Those who dwell in the secret place and trust in the Lord as their refuge, understand this.

They say, “This suffering is bad, but if it is protecting me from something that would have dragged me out of the secret place, then it is worth it.”

DEATH AND THE SECRET PLACE

Now maybe you will say, “Well, that’s great, but what about this idea that death will not come near us and we will have long life.”

Maybe you would ask, “Doesn’t God’s affliction actually bring some lives to what we would deem to be an early end?”

Was Psalm 91 true for Bonhoeffer when the Nazis killed him for plotting against Hitler?

Was Psalm 91 true for Ulrich Zwingli when he was killed on the battlefield protecting him homeland?

Was Psalm 91 true for Jim Elliott as the arrows of the Auca Indians he was trying to evangelize sank into his chest and drained his life from him?

We would say yes. A thousand times yes.

Because though the affliction that God uses to keep us in the secret place will one day take us out of this world, we know that we will go from secret place to secret place.

From dwelling to dwelling.

From shadow to shadow.

To live is Christ, to die is gain.

Because though thousands fall at each side, the 2nd death will not touch those whose names are found written in the Lamb’s book of life.

And the long life offered in verse 16 is so much better than physical years. It is eternal life.

Life forever under the reign of God’s glorious Son.

For we know the same Apostle who said all things work for good, said:

Romans 8:37 ESV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

CONCLUSION

And then later in Romans, Paul says words that we repeat at the end of just about every worship service:

Romans 16:20 ESV

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Satan the prowling lion.

Satan the serpent.

Well with that in mind—look at one final verse from Psalm 91.

Psalm 91:13 ESV

You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

That day is coming.

Trust in Jesus Christ and enter the secret place.

Hold fast in love and call out in faith.

Abide in the Shadow of the Almighty.

No affliction is wasted there.

Death has no power there.

For in the secret place, there is peace in the presence of God.