God is our Refuge
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Ever been inside your home and a tropical storm storm was happening or just when a thunderstorm like the ones we had last week come through? Everything is shut down. No one is out. It’s a wonderful sensation, when you are inside and you know that you are sheltered and protected from the storm, and all you have to do is just watch it and relax.
That is what Ps. 91 is all about…..SHELTER.
Psalm 91 is often called the Soldier’s Psalm. In World War I, the soldiers of the 91st Brigade recited the 91st Psalm Daily. This brigade engaged in three of the war’s bloodiest battles. Other units suffered up to 90% casualties, but the 91st Brigade did not suffer a single combat-related death. Truly a miracle.
Military history is full of stories confirming the POWER of Psalm 91.
Another story is told during World War II. All of England stood amazed at what had happened at DUNKIRK, when the NAZIS had many British soldiers trapped at the edge of the water. They could not get the men off the beaches fast enough to get them back to safety in ENGLAND.
--One correspondent, C.B. Morelock, reported on the unexplainable and miraculous event. In his report there were 60 German aircraft that attacked these men on the ground with machine gun fire. There were 400 men with nowhere to go and take cover. Although these men were attacked with machine gun fire and bombs repeatedly….NOT ONE SINGLE man was hit. Every man left that beach without a scratch. That reporter had interviewed the Navy men who eventually picked up these soldiers and they said that when they were being picked up, they were SHOUTING Psalm 91 at the top of their lungs. God’s protection….no other way to describe it.
These are just a couple of examples of God’s protection.
That’s why Pastor Kathy found and we distributed the Psalm 91 Proclamations to you.
So, in light of the virus and everything else that’s going on it our country. We need to learn how to deal with this in FAITH. The faith that is strong and really believes that God will take care of us.
The way we develop this kind of faith is by learning and applying the WOG.
If you want to strengthen your faith, speak it. Talk about the goodness of God out loud and include scripture when you do it. When you do this, you build your faith.
Who is the God that Is Our Refuge?
Who is the God that Is Our Refuge?
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
I will say… Life and death are in the power of the tongue. What we say either nourishes us or it robs us of our nourishment. We have to verbalize our trust.
Over and over in the Bible, we find this… Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declared their professions of faith out loud in dangerous situations. we need to do the same.
God is our refuge and our fortress, He is our defense against anything that comes against us. He is our protection.
We can and should take all sorts of precautions, but we will never be able to protect ourselves and our families form everything that will come against us.
ILL - you can drive as careful as you like, but when an animal runs in front of you, you are faced with something you cannot be prepared for.
It’s good to take precautions, and we should always plan and prepare as best we can to be safe, but God has to be the one we run to first.
Over and over in the bible, we are referred to as sheep. Sheep have no protection. They cannot fight, nor can they run fast enough to get away from anything that wants to eat them. They are defenseless. ILL have you ever heard of a pack of wild sheep attacking anything? NO
They are also dumb. They walk off cliffs and into rivers and simply get lost.
Sheep are kept alive by the shepherd! God is our shepherd. God wants you and I to understand that He is our true source of protection.
This passage gives us four names of God. Today, we give people names based on popularity or something else. Back then, names meant something. It’s the same with God.
The names of God tell us who he is and what he does. This will build your faith in His ability to be our refuge and protection.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
If the name if God is on you, then you have his help.
Let’s look at Psalm 91
14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
He protects those who trust his name… With the Corona virus, we must choose to trust his name.
10 The name of the Lord is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.
God is all around you and is protecting you. When you are in the name of the Lord… walking in his presence… you are safe.
Let’s look at the names of God in this Psalm and see what they teach us.
Four Names of God
1st Name: Elyon
1st Name: Elyon
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Elyon: Highest One
Elyon: Highest One
Elyon: means “Highest” or “Exalted One.” used 46 times
He is God most high. He is higher than every sickness… every bill… than every problem… than every job lo… and He is higher than the Corona Virus.
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
You live in his presence… when you do this you are in his shelter.
2nd Name: Shaddai
2nd Name: Shaddai
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Shaddai: Almighty
Shaddai: Almighty
Shaddai: means almighty…the mountain one… He makes promises and he keeps them.
An example…
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. 2 I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”
All he has a that point was Ishmael … he was old and descendants were impossible.
God takes impossible situations and reverses them.
God takes impossible situations and reverses them.
You may be listening today and the situation seems impossible. Maybe your job is gone… you have lost friends or relatives or they are sick. NOTHING is impossible with God.
Sometimes it’s easier to believe that God is all powerful, but it’s hard to believe that he will work in your situation. It’s easier to believe that he created the world, but harder to believe that he will take care of your bills because you tithe. It’s easier to believe that he died for the sins of the wolrd than to believe that he will heal my illness…
Shaddai is about the fact that even though God is powerful enough to do anything, but that he is also personal enough to meet YOUR needs. He tells Abraham… I know you wanted kids with Sarah and now you are too old… but you will.
He knows exactly what you need in YOUR situation.
17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
He says that’s going to happen. He is mighty and he is powerful but he is personal.
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
When you live in shaddai, you will be in the shadow of the shaddai...
3rd Name: Yahweh
3rd Name: Yahweh
2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.
so revered by the rabbi’s, they would not even say it… they called it “the name.” It’s in caps.
Yahweh: Eternal, ever existing, covenant keeping God
Yahweh: Eternal, ever existing, covenant keeping God
Yahweh: Eternal, ever existing, covenant keeping God – I am
LORD (Caps) - Yahweh or Jehovah (Eternal, ever existing, covenant keeping God – I am)
Lord - Adonai (sovergn ruler)
2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.
He says about Yahweh that he is MY refuge. He is the ever existing God who keeps his word and is always with you...
4th Name: Elohim
4th Name: Elohim
used 2500 times.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Elohim: Creator
Elohim: Creator
Hebrew word for “God”
He is the creator of EVERYTHING. In Genesis, it says, And God said… he created everything out of nothing. He is too creative to just make everything alike. He is th eGod who delights in creating our glorious world so much so that after he created everything and then man, He said it was very good.
He is all powerful and he creates.
Relate this to the Panic of Corona virus. We need to do the things that wisdom and common sense call us to do…
I want you to believe in the God who is bigger than the virus… financial meltdown… relationship breakdown… He created everything and He knows how viruses operate and He can stop it. That’s why we will pray that he ends it,
2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.
This I declare about the Lord (Yahweh): He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God (Elohim), and I trust him (Storey Version)
He can protect me against everything… He can protect us against his virus ... against other sickness... against job loss... broken relationships... horrible situations...
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High (Elyon, Highest One) will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Shaddai, the almighty promise keeper). 2 This I declare about the Lord (Yahweh, the eternally existing promise keeper): He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God (Elohim, the creator), and I trust him.
Make God big and get close to him and everything is better.
The bigger God is the smaller your problems are
The bigger God is the smaller your problems are
The bigger God is the smaller your problems are… the easier it is to trust him. This is reminding us of who god is and what he does so that we can trust him more.
You are more powerful than … Corona… job loss, problems at school… He is more powerful than anything we will encounter.
When you know him better, you will trust him and he will give you peace… why, because you have the Most High god, the eternally existing, promise keeping, creator God on your side.