Psalm 91
Notes
Transcript
The last time I preached this Psalm was in April of 2020.
This was near the beginning of Covid, it was during the peak of government overreach and medical misinformation. It was during the time of quarantine and sheltering in place… when two weeks to stop the curve had transformed into two months.
It was a heightened sense of fear, confusion, and misused Bible verses.
During this time I had a friend text me about this Psalm because a friend of hers had used it to say that the Lord would protect her from the coronavirus. A few days later, I heard of another instance in which another person was on a ventilator due to contracting covid-19, and they claimed this verse for protection. That person later died.
This passage is not a supernatural vaccine from illness or suffering.
But now we’re in 2025, and I think more of you might be tempted to look at this passage with skepticism.
Few of us are worried about Covid 19. Rather many of you are far more concerned with the surgery you have scheduled for next week, and it’s your 14 surgery in 10 years, or you are worn out from being in and out of the hospital over the past few months, or your barely here because you had a rough night last night.
Where some have used the portions of this passage to claim prosperity - you may even be tempted to secretly scoff at the same verse… verses such as:
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
You might immediately look at those verses and dismiss them thinking “well that’s not true,” or possible even verse 16 with “I wish he wouldn’t.” Maybe you’re upset at God that this wasn’t true of your loved one.
Both of those previously mentioned responses (whether skepticism, or as a spiritual vaccine) view the psalm improperly.
This Psalm is not promising that you will not get sick and die. When we consider both Church history and Scripture we will see that this is cannot be the correct conclusion.
A few examples from Church History:
Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss reformer died in battle. John Calvin suffered from poor health for much of his later life, at one point he saw a doctor about his kidney stones - the doctor advised him to ride a horse - to which he responded that he would but his hemorrhoids were so bad he was unable to sit down, and then finally died following a bad fever. David Brainerd missionary to the Native Americans died of tuberculosis at age 29. He was close friends with the Jerusha Edwards who at age 17 also died of Tuberculosis after caring for Brainerd in his illness. She was the daughter, of the Great Awakening Preacher, Jonathan Edwards who died from complications related to a small pox inoculation at age 54. Charles Spurgeon suffered from rheumatism, gout and kidney disease, he died at 57. Jim Elliot, a missionary to Ecuador, was killed while on mission at age 28.
Even today, Christians are being killed all over the world for their faith in Jesus.
I could continue to go on throughout church history, but I think my point is made. If this text is saying that you will not get sick and die, and that you will live a long life as long as you have enough faith in Jesus - then you are also saying that saints who died young and martyrs did not have enough faith in God to ward off sickness.
If you know anything about these people you will know their lives were dedicated to serving God - and I am certainly not prepared to say that I have more faith in God than them.
It isn’t just church history that poses a problem with that interpretation. It’s the Bible itself - the interpretation of this Psalm that says we will face no evil, that no harm shall befall us, that we won’t contract a plague or illness doesn’t even fit with in the context of the Psalms.
To remind you of where we are in the book of Psalms, this is the second Psalm of Book 4. If you recall our Psalms from last year, book 3 of the Psalter is the dark book full of suffering and despair. Those Psalms speak of the fall of the temple and the collapse of the kingdom. For the reader who has picked up from Psalms 73-89, and then started book 4, Psalms 90 and 91 will cure your depression - but it does not undo the reality of suffering and illness. This Psalm promises that God is bigger than whatever keeps you up at night.
Now if I stop here, it might seem as if I have robbed all meaning from this text.
However, what the text is actually saying, is far more comforting than if it were to simply promise you that you will not get cancer, or covid, or a cold. And this text has much more to say than the person who might think “well that didn’t happen so what good is this Psalm.”
Exposition
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.”
The beginning of this Psalm establishes the significance finding our shelter in God.
While the theme of dwelling place is very big topic in the Bible. (Garden, mountain, tabernacle, temple, Jesus dwelling among us, the Spirit dwelling in us) here we are told to dwell in God, to take our refuge in him. This theme appears in Psalms 7, 11, 46, 90 and others.
To be near to God is to be in a place of protection and comfort. To make God our shelter, to rest in his promise, to rest in his salvation.
This is a remarkable theme for the Israelites who for much of the Old Testament were homeless. In the midst of the slavery, wilderness wandering, exile, captivity - God’s people find their shelter not in land, or in buildings but in their God.
The Psalmist opens the psalm by giving us two titles for God. The first is the Most High. A title communicating that God is above all, he is greater than every other power.
The second title is the Almighty. While this asserts that God is all powerful, it also conveys God’s role as protector.
This psalm is filled with language of protection. Shelter, refuge, fortress, deliver, cover, shield, dwelling place, guard, bear you up.
Almighty, Most High God is a protector, and you can, and should trust him.
Verse 3 further demonstrates God’s protection.
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
Fowler - someone who traps birds. This language is often used of satan or demons. But it also conveys those with hidden plots.
Deadly pestilence…
Pestilence, disease and plagues are often what God sends upon his enemies - we see this in the Exodus.
The one who has trust in God has protection from his enemies, as well as protection from what God does to his enemies.
4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
Pinions are feathers - outer most part of the wings - and under wings you will find refuge.
Not only will God protect you from the fowler, but he as a more fearful raptor will chase away the fowler, and cover you with his wings - and shield you with his faithfulness.
This imagery also carries the idea of the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant - this gives us a picture of the throne of God - a place that is as one commentator states “a place of asylum and legal immunity.”
A place of safety from the world around us, and a place of declared innocence before God.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
In verses 5 and 6, The Psalmist writes of the fear of the dark and the terror of the night, and the pestilence that stalks in the darkness. Even as adults, we’re all a little uncomfortable in the dark. We don’t know what’s around that corner, or down that dark alley, or in the bathroom at 2 am.
It isn’t just the dark he writes of he also writes of the arrow that flies by day, and "the destruction that wastes at noonday." It is not just the night that holds danger. Whatever terrors the night may hold, or dangers the day may bring those who have the Lord as their refuge have no reason to fear.
If God is our refuge then nothing can harm us - but if we we only think of harm as injury or an illness we may miss the point. What we must understand is that anything that does occur is something that God has ordained for his glory and our good. But we should never be so near sighted that we believe that our good is limited to this life or our understanding.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
Verses 7 and 8 describe that even though a thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will be protected. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
These verses show us judgment. That which we are most delivered from in this Psalm is not a cold, or cancer, or heart disease but rather God’s wrath upon the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— 10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
Verses 7 and 8 lead us directly into 9 and 10, the truest form of shelter and refuge is that the Lord will deliver his people from his wrath.
Verse 10 is not a prescription to walk into the Hospital and lick a toilet seat declaring immunity from all illness.
Do not misunderstand me, God certainly can, and often does intervene to protect his people from harm, and illness. But this text does not provide us with a prescription that he will.
But to read this text with the interpretation that faith in God grants us a holy vaccine that thwarts off all disease, evil and harm would be inconsistent with the rest of Scripture.
Jesus told his disciples the opposite. He told them that people will hate them. He told them that they will find hardship and trial. Jesus doesn’t promise them prosperity but he tells them that they will be hated for his sake, some of them put to death.
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.
Many people have taken their hermeneutical methods not from Scripture but from Satan when it comes to interpreting and applying this text. And I don’t think I need to say this, but you don’t want to be like Satan. In Matthew 4:6, Satan quotes this text at Jesus. He tells him, if you are the Son of God - throw yourself down off the top of this temple - angels will catch you and protect you - verses 11 and 12. Jesus responds, by doing what we should do with every biblical texts - he interprets scripture by using other scripture. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 and tells Satan not to put the Lord your God to test. Deuteronomy 6:16 in its original context is referring to Ex. 17, where Israel had believed that Moses, and God, had taken them out of Egypt just to let them die - and thus the Lord tells Moses to give them water from a rock.
Satan is using Psalm 91 to say “Jesus, you can throw yourself off the top of this temple, you’ll be fine, the angels will catch you.” It is not a coincidence that at the cross Jesus was mocked and a similar statement was made by those surrounding - if you are the son of God call the angels and they will bring you down off the cross. It is not that Jesus was unable to do this, but rather that it was not for our good, or for his glory for him to come down - but in light of eternity it was better for us that he suffer. And it brought him more glory that he suffer and die, than that he be brought off the cross.
If we use this text as license to put ourselves in unnecessary danger we are putting God to test. If we use this text in a manner that makes God our servant we are using this text improperly.
In the final section of this passage, vv. 14-16, the speaker changes. Now the Lord who is speaking:
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. 15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
ALL of this finds it’s culmination in the God-man Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that we find our deliverance from sin, those who know Jesus find protection from God’s wrath because they know his name, Peter quoting Joel tells us that all who call upon the name of Jesus will be saved.
It is when we call upon the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that we find our salvation. As Peter states in Acts 4:12 - “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Two I have already mentioned:
Prosperity gospel - this would be the idea that this text is a supernatural perscription - which I hope I have clearly demonstrated is not only shortsighted but also wrong.
Skepticism that would lead us to believe that God is not working, and this would also be completely inconsistent with the Bible. It can be really easy to look at this text and think - well God CAN do this, but he won’t. That is a really easy temptation and overreaction toward this passage. I myself even struggle with this. This is at it’s very heart faithlessness.
Instead I would assert that the right view is understanding that God indeed takes care of his people, and that God is capable of shielding us from all sorts of calamity. But we must remember that our good is not always exactly what we understand. God is working all things for our good, but we may have the wrong definition of good. We may never know what God is doing - but we can trust that he is good. Be reminded of Joseph in Genesis how he tells his brothers that what they intended for evil the Lord meant it for good - and consider the legacy of that. Because of a Joseph , the people of Israel ended up in a Egypt, which of course leads to slavery but more than that it leads to their redemption. We may not understand what the Lord is doing on this side of eternity - but we can take shelter in him to know that He is in control and he is good. Psalm 91 certainly shows us that God is capable of delivering and shielding us from all sorts of tragedy, but this text does not promise that he will.
Just because God can doesn’t mean he will.
Just because he didn’t doesn’t mean he can’t.
Just because he did, doesn’t mean you deserve it.
God is still God, and he is still Good even in the midst of a virus, or a positive cancer diagnosis, TIA, pulmonary embolisms, kidney stones, heart failure, a miscarriage, the loss of a loved one. Just because your world may appear to be crashing does not that God has stopped being good. Nor does it it mean that he is not a shelter, or protector.
When we pray we are communicating to God that we are unable to do anything about our surroundings but we understand that he is. When you are at your wit’s end turn to the scriptures to find wisdom for how to navigate our issues, or to take comfort in the one who is holding the hold world in his hands. It is in those prayers, and those times of study when you take shelter in God.
God is not threatened or surprised by whatever health issues may happen - But rather he is sovereign over those issues, and he is still working all things for our good in this midst of this.
The issues that cause you to pray, trust God, and to take shelter in him are working for your good.
The promise of this passage is greater than avoiding illness or injury. This passage is a good text to pray through in the midst of illness and suffering - but it is ultimately a reminder God is still good - and a shelter in suffering. In light of eternity, our suffering is meaningful but it is temporary and working for an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.
Jesus on the cross has taken all of the wrath that our sins deserve. So what we see in this text is not a promise to protect us from illness, but it is indeed a promise to protect us from God’s wrath. Which is far better. At the end Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead - and those who have placed their faith in Jesus will not face the wrath of God, but instead be seen as righteous. And his saints will spend eternity in his presence.
Conclusion
I mentioned Jim Elliot earlier. His wife wrote a biography about his life, and martyrdom called Shadow of the Almighty, drawing it’s name from Psalm 91:1.
The title of that biography demonstrates that Elisabeth Elliot understands this passage better than most of us.
John Piper in an article about the biography writes this:
The title was not a slip — not any more than the death of the five missionaries was a slip. But the world saw it differently. Around the world, the death of these young men was called a tragic nightmare. Elisabeth believed the world was missing something. She wrote, “The world did not recognize the truth of the second clause in Jim Elliot’s credo: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’”
"She called her book Shadow of the Almighty because she was utterly convinced that the refuge of the people of God is not a refuge from suffering and death, but a refuge from final and ultimate defeat. “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24) — because the Lord is God Almighty."
We can take comfort in knowing that nothing shall come near you, except that which the Lord has ordained for your good. The greatest shelter we can seek is in the one who is still holding the whole world in his hands. The safest that we will ever be in this life or in the next is when we take shelter in the Shadow of the Almighty.
