I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
-Psalm 91:2
Faith Baptist Church
Psalm 91: A Psalm of Protection, 7.7.2024
Good morning, faith family, just nice to see you this morning. Happy Fourth of July, by the way. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this day, and I just pray, Lord, for each heart here that you would encourage them with your protection today. May we call on you, Lord, and trust in your answer. You will deliver us and protect us. What is your word to encourage your church today? We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm going to start with a story or two today about what our Psalm today meant to people before us. You see, these Psalms have been around for a few thousand years. They have been encouraging our great-grandparents, and those before them, proved over and over again, these Psalms, these prayers to God, had been trustworthy and true. And today we're looking at Psalm 91, which is called the Soldier's Psalm. It's often brought into battle. People's pockets written on a piece of paper as a reminder of the protection of the Almighty. And so I want to go back here two hundred years first in the mid-1800s. I want to show you what the Psalm meant to someone then. The guy's name was Charles Spurgeon. He was a fiery, faith-filled preacher in London, and there was an epidemic that broke out of sickness across London in the mid-1800s. And so this preacher was doing funerals almost daily as he was visiting. And he says these words, he says, "I became weary in body and sick at heart. My friends seemed to be falling one by one, and I felt like I was getting sick just like those around me." And as he was walking along the street, he looked through a shoe shop window, looking for some good news, maybe a clearance on a set of sneakers, I don't know, but a faith-filled shoemaker had put in a verse from Psalm 91 in his window. And so here the preacher got to hear God's word through a shoemaker who decided to put the Scripture in a window. The Scripture he put in was the words, "You will not fear the terror of night, nor the pestilence that stocks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday." Spurgeon wrote that the effect was "dramatic in immediate for him." He says, "The effect upon my heart was immediate. I felt secure, refreshed, and fastened with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit. I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm." In the mid-1900s, there's another person that this psalm meant something to. His name is Jimmy Stewart. For those my age or younger who have no clue who I just said, Jimmy Stewart is in, "It's a wonderful life," which is usually aired on Christmas Eve. I can do a pretty good imitation of Jimmy Stewart, by the way. You can ask me later. I promised my wife I would not do it from stage. But instead of sickness, Jimmy Stewart faced the danger of violence as he, in the middle of his acting career, enlisted in World War II into the military. His father, not sure what to tell him, wrote him these words. He says, "My dear Jim boy, soon after you read this letter, you will be on your way to the worst sort of danger. Come on, bankin' on the enclosed copy of the 91st psalm. The thing that takes the place of fear and worry is the promise of these words. I'm stakin' my faith in these words. I feel sure that God will lead you through this mad experience. I can say no more. I can only continue to pray." Jimmy Stewart ended up being a decorated war hero over 20 combat missions as an airplane pilot during that war. During the height of the battle, Stewart would lean on these words in the tattered copy of Psalm 91 that he kept in his pocket. Upon returning home, he told his father, "What a promise for an airman. I placed in God's hands the squadron I would be leading, and as the psalmist promised I, myself, felt lifted up." So here's a shoemaker trying to tell the city around him about the protection of the Almighty. Here's a father trying to tell his family, his children how to find refuge in the protection of the Almighty. So the sermon today is not only to teach us where to find refuge, but how to offer that to others, because we got a world around us, we got family around us that are in danger. And many of them don't know where to look. I love how this Psalm is Psalm 91. And so if you want to remember it, you can call 911, right, for the police. You can look to Psalm 91 verse 1 to call upon an even stronger hand. So think about this in terms of how you would share this with somebody. Verse 1 it says this, it says, "Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. So I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust." Those first two lines in Hebrew poetry is parallelism. Now if you look at that, you might say, he just said the same thing twice. He could have just said it once. But the second line is expanding on the first line. It's saying that a dwelling brings a place to rest. A shelter brings a place of shade. And the Most High brings all might and all power. So just as we go into a dwelling to rest, just as we go into a shelter to find shade, we go to the Most High to find all might and all power. And then it says, so that's a general principle in verse 1 that it opens with. And then in verse 2 it says, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust." It doesn't just say, He thinks it. He says it. The words we speak to ourselves often get to our heart. There's power in what you tell yourself. It's not as crazy as you might think to talk to yourself throughout the day. A lot of times we have an inner voice that shares a lot of nonsense to ourselves. But here it says to say it. And so I thought as a church, maybe you'd humor me. And when I say go, I'd like you to read verse 2 here with me, word for word. So ready, set, go. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Good. I hope your heart heard those words. I think something beautiful too is that as you say that those around you heard your voice. As you said those words, the spiritual forces in the heavenly places heard those words of God's truth and shuttered. Amen. Verse 3 says surely He will save you from the foul or snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. So that word surely it's because. So you're saying He is my refuge. Why are you saying He's your refuge? Because He will save you. He will save you. The foul or snare, that's a bird trapper. Lay bait to try and catch birds. And ironically in verse 4, instead of being trapped and ensnared and enticed and led away to death, we're finding refuge just like a young bird. Those are the wings of its mother being protected and cared for. You ever seen a bunch of ducklings follow a mama goose? They stay so close it's amazing to me. And I saw a video this week of an eagle sheltering its young from a hailstorm. Just protecting its young. Those young are so vulnerable. Those little birds in a nest, they have no protection if mama is away. But when mama is there they're safe. And that's the imagery that the writer of the psalm is calling upon to say, "You know what? I want to cling to God like those little ducklings clinging to their mother." To be so close, so enveloped that whatever is going to get to them's got to go through mama first. So close. You almost can't even see them. All you can see is the hand of the almighty. That's how close the writer of the psalm wants to be to the Lord. He also calls the Lord, "It's shield and rampart. Rampart is the walls of a castle." So here's an image of that. Now in the increase of technology, places like these aren't quite as much the refuge as they used to be. But in the time of the writer, this was a top military fortress. Tough to get through. It's your view of God like that. You offer the world a view of God like this. Verse 5, it says, "You will not fear." So if you're saying to yourself, "The Lord is my fortress, and I trust in Him." It says, "You're not going to fear the frightening things that are out there. The terror of night." It affirms that there are things out there that are terrifying, but it says, "You're not going to fear them," nor the arrow that flies by day. So here's the fear of violence, whether by night or by day. Verse 6 shows the fear of sickness by night and by day. It says, "Nor the pestilence that sucks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys it midday." Both of those bring people a lot of fear. There are a lot of kids afraid to go to school because of the threat of violence. We lived out a pandemic through COVID. There was a lot of fear about sickness. Violence is sickness. They're the two greatest causes of death. It says, "You will not fear those." Now, imagine if you are not putting your trust in the refuge and shelter of the Almighty. Imagine that instead of saying, "In God we trust, you look to the dollar bill for your shelter," or you look to a man-made shelter of your own making. And you say, "This will bring me the shelter I need." You know, the Bible gives a lot of judgments about people who have built and put their trust and other things, and those things tend to fall on their own heads. You see if the Lord is not your shelter, you are in danger. Our world is in danger, and there is fear of these things as a result. They don't have hope. And Jimmy Stewart flying into battle without Psalm 91 in his pocket. Imagine those trembling hands. That tremble would be a reminder to him to look into that pocket and say, "No, I'm covered under the wings of the Almighty. It is him that I seek refuge for surely he will save me." I'll note too here this pestilence that stalks in the darkness, that word for darkness, it's a word of mystery, of the unknown. And as I've observed, one of the worst parts of being on a journey of sickness is the unknown. This idea that something's out there, and I don't quite know what it is. That's what makes problems, big problems. When you can't quite see it, you don't know what's there, and yet the promise is that if you're in the arms of the most high, it doesn't matter what's out there. It's beneath the Almighty. Verse 7 continues, "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked." This is almost end times apocalyptic, nightmarish language. As you look around, all you see is the punishment of the wicked. You see destruction and death, and yet there is a promise for those who have made God their refuge. It will not come near you. You'll see it, but it won't touch you. As opposed to verse 16 at the end, when it says that instead you will see your salvation and your protection. Verse 10, oh, verse 9, I'm sorry, continues, "If you say the Lord is my refuge, so hear the writer is offering this to somebody else." Not just saying, I'm saying this, but he's alongside someone else who's in a tough time and he's saying, "If you say this, if you say the Lord is my refuge and you make the most high your dwelling, no harm will overtake you." That word for harm is evil, "No evil will befall you," the King James says, "No disaster will come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra, you will trample the great lion and the serpent." Here's what I take from this. There is such a thing as evil in the world, otherwise it wouldn't say that you'd be protected from such. There are such things as evil. There's sickness and violence and sin in the world. There's also spiritual demons in the world. There's such a thing as evil. And yet there's such a thing as spiritual forces of good. Sometimes as people study what the Bible says about angels and demons, they focus so much on the evil. They forget the other side of the coin here. They forget that when light shines, the darkness has to flee. Darkness cannot approach upon light. Darkness can only reside where the light is off. So as a church, we turn on the lights. We cling to the refuge of the Most High and His promises. And then as we cling to these promises, they say, "No evil shall befall you." I love how when Jesus walked the earth, the supremacy He had over the spiritual powers of evil, He'd show up and they would immediately kneel and say, "Son of the Most High, what are you going to do to me?" I love the supremacy of that. That is the Jesus that shields and covers His church, His bride, His children, His family. Mentioned at the end about treading the lion and the serpent, surely that could mean the animals, Daniel was saved from the lion's den, the apostle Paul was saved from a snake bite. But following the spiritual theme here, Satan himself is referred to as a lion walking about like a roaring lion seeking to whom he made of our. Satan is mentioned as the great serpent. I find the irony in that Satan chose this passage up in verse 11 to tempt Jesus to tempt him to prove that he's God and Jesus said, "Don't put the Lord to the test." I think Satan willingly forgot verse 13 that he would be tread upon and trampled underneath the feet of an almighty God. Church as you are in Christ, wherever you set your foot, you bring the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness has to flee. I remember when I was twelve years old, I was on my first mission trip with my church's youth group. I had just started reading my Bible daily, having a devotional time in the morning, and I had come across Colossians chapter two that morning. And later that day as a youth group, we were talking about spiritual battle that's out there. When you're old, that was kind of scary. Our youth group trip was six through 12th graders and our youth pastor is doing a fine job sharing about the truth of God's word on the matter, that there is such a thing as evil out there. But I could sense kind of a sense of panic and fear amongst the kids. And for the first time ever, God recalled in my mind a scripture to share. I'd never had that experience before, but I said, "You know what, I have a scripture to share with someone else. Not just for me, but I'm going to offer this to somebody." And so I said, "Guys, this is reminding me of what I read this morning." Ever had that happen? Yeah. This is reminding me of what I read this morning. Colossians chapter two verse 15, which says that Jesus has disarmed the powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. An attitude in the room just, oh, that's a lot less scary knowing that Jesus has won. Check the end of your Bible, Jesus has won. Fear is he that is in you than he that is in the world. There's no fear. Verse 14 continues showing the attitude that God has towards those who call upon his name. It says, "Because he loves me," that word for love is an attachment love, "because he's attached to me." It says, "The Lord, I will rescue him. I will protect him. For he acknowledges my name. He will call on me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With a long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." The Psalm ends with the term we get Yeshua in Jesus. Show him my covering of Jesus Christ. That's how we bring this full circle to the gospel, is that Jesus is our refuge. He is our dwelling. He is our shelter. He is our covering. He is our fortress. He is our shield. He is our castle wall. Through Jesus, God says, "You got to go through me before you get to my kid." And Jesus proved that on the cross, like a parent covering their child in a hailstorm. He took the blows upon his own body so that no evil shall befall you, Church. He took all the wrath, all the punishment, all the evil upon his own body through his body and blood shut on the cross. He did that for you, for me. And for the person you're going to share this scripture with. Next time you're at a hospital ER visit. Next time you see someone in panic, you're going to extend to them just like that shoemaker, just like that father. You're going to say, "You know what? I got some words that have been tested and true through the centuries to share with you. And I implore you to say that the Lord is my refuge. I implore you to make the most high my dwelling. I implore you to trust in God that you might not fear that which is frightening." God will provide you that security. As he did for Charles Spurgeon, you might walk your days fastened with immortality, knowing that you have life eternal through Jesus Christ. And that whatever comes your way went through Christ first. And if they're suffering and it's being allowed for a good cause, God is going to use that. But you are by no means an object of wrath or a recipient of evil. You are protected by the blood of Jesus Christ. To that we're going to sing some more songs. To that we're going to celebrate the body and blood of Jesus Christ.