The answer to the 91st Psalm I want to look at tonight. We know this, you could quote it, I'm sure you could. Looked at it, gone through it many times. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God. In Him will I trust. You living in discouragement and fear tonight? Are there things that are facing you that you're looking ahead of life right now? Maybe things are trucking along pretty nice and things are good, but maybe you're going through a time of life when the future is uncertain. The future has some question marks to it. The future is like God told Joshua, you haven't passed this way before. not that you haven't come this way before, right? I mean, obviously they haven't been there, but they haven't done it like God said, this is a new way you're going to do this. You haven't done it like this before. And you're looking at a stage of life, maybe tonight, that boy, I'm telling you, there's some new things going on. There are some new things you're planning for. and looking at. And so, you know, you might want to figure out how to run from it. Maybe that's how you look at some of the problems in life. Maybe some people, like some, they turn to entertainment to wash it away, to hide it all. Some, unfortunately, turn to alcohol and drugs. Some get so bad in life, it gets so terrible, they actually turn to a thing of suicide. What a sad thing that is. But for the child of What are we supposed to do when the trials and the hard times come? We know that we're not supposed to respond like the world responds. And what are we supposed to do? And when we look at the 91st Psalm, it's a beautiful reminder for us what is available to us as we live this life. G. Campbell Morgan said that this Psalm is one of the greatest possessions of the saints. this 91st Psalm. Spurgeon said this, "...in the whole collection there is not a more cheering psalm. Its tone is elevated and sustained throughout faith is at its best and speaks Now, it's interesting that we don't know necessarily who wrote this psalm. There's no title, it's not attributed to anybody, nobody like that. Some believe it's connected to the 90th psalm, connected to the psalm of Moses, but if you read through this, there's a lot of similarities to the psalms of David. And so, we really don't know And who wrote this? But I know this. Here it is in the 27th Psalm. We see a similar theme of David. It says, For in the time of trouble he shall hide me, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set me upon a rock. And we notice this in this 91st Psalm, the first thing we notice in times of trouble and in the turmoil of this life is we have somewhere to run to. We have somewhere to, we don't need to run away, we need to run to, right? 9-11, remember one of the marks of the fire department of the New York City Fire Department is when the towers were coming down and people were running away, they were running into the trouble and it's kind of not the same imagery but it's the same thought for us as a child of God when the trials come listen we're not running away we're running to the Bible says the wicked flee when no man pursue it but the righteous are bold as a lion why can we be bold as a lion well I'll tell you tonight because we have a secret place that we can hide We have a place that we can go. If you notice here, it says, He that dwelleth in the secret place. That word dwelleth means to have one's abode, right? To have a place that you live. It's kind of like a home. It's not like somewhere you just visit, right? You know, the parkers, they come by and we love it when they come by and what a blessing it is. But they just come by here, right? But they don't dwell here. They have somewhere else they live and they have somewhere else that they dwell, right? But we, this 91st Psalm is talking about to the saints of God, we have somewhere that we just don't come by for a visit. We just don't come by every once in a while. We have a place that we actually dwell and that we can dwell and that we can stay in, right? Not a visit, but a dwelling place." Notice this, "...he that dwelleth in this dwelling place is in the secret place." It's a place that is not known, right? 139th Psalm, verse 15, David speaking about his own creation, God creating him. He says, "...my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret." Boy, before Dr. Damadian invented the MRI, right? Before there is all of these things that we can watch, the process of birth, of the gestation period and of a child. Boy, they didn't know that. They couldn't see that process. It was invisible, right? David said, I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. A secret place is a place that is not visible to others. No, the world doesn't see your secret place. They should see it on our continents, and they should see it how we respond to this world, but no, they never can see where it really is. You know who sees the secret place are those who are dwelling there also, right? They know where that is, but it's not visible to others. It's a place that's inaccessible to the lost and to those that are not in Christ, but it's also a place that is safe. It's a secret place. If anybody's ever been in Salem, Massachusetts, maybe you've gone through and you've seen the House of Seven Gables. It was the centerpiece of Nathaniel Hawthorne's book, The House of Seven Gables. And if you take a tour of that house, Chris, have you ever been there? You ever been up to Salem? Salem's a wicked place. They make light of all the witchcraft and stuff and pentagrams. They think it's kind of funny, but it's not. But the Salem witch trials, you know, all of that fun stuff. And not fun, that was, anyway, never mind. But if you go to the House of Seven Gables, you'll go on a tour through that house and it's really fascinating. I could spend a lot of time describing it because I like kind of these little oddities that were in this house. But one of the things that was very interesting in this house is there's this big fireplace and next to the fireplace there's a door that was open like a closet and it was a closet for firewood. And they would stack their wood up in there, and it could dry out until they were ready to use it. And this closet was empty, and it was interesting, and it was pretty. And the individual that was giving the tour, she walked to the back of the closet, and she pushed the wall back, and it exposed a stairway. and we went up this little stairway, remember that, hun? We went up this little stairway up into an attic where a servant's quarters was. It was a hidden place. It was a secret place. It was a place that might have looked that you couldn't have seen, that you could not even tell how to get there, right? Nobody could have really seen that. It was a secret place. It reminds me, just mentioned it recently, of the house of the ten booms and Corrie ten Boom and how their house too had a secret place that led and led to this secret room where they were hiding the Jews until the Nazis. We're told where they were and they found this secret place. This is what he's talking about here is the psalmist is saying his dwelling place is in secret. It is a safe place. It is a secure place. Watch, it's an inner place. It gets deeper and deeper and deeper into the inner sanctum of a dwelling place. Though we went up, those stairways, that stairway into that hidden room of the house of seven gables and though the Nazis found where the Jews were being kept, listen to me, no evil can enter the secret place of God. Listen, Satan can't get there. It's not possible. This lost world can't get there. It's not possible. The government, thank the Lord, they find their way into everything, right? They can figure out how to tax the secret place. They try to figure out how to get there, right? But they can't get there, praise the Lord, right? I'm thankful for that. And this is what David is saying here. Or the psalmist, we don't know who it is. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. Who is that? that is the High, that is the High God. It's speaking of the Most High. It's the word that is used when you're speaking about rulers or monarchs. It is speaking of authority. It is speaking of power. Listen, there is nothing above El Elyon. There is nothing above our God, meaning everything is below Him. Amen? Yeah. There's nothing above Him. Psalm 119, Thou The psalmist said, Thou art my hiding place and my shield, I hope in Thy word. I like that. If you have access to stay in the secret place of the Most High, why would you run anywhere else? Think about that. Because sadly we do, don't we? No, you can agree with that, it's okay, we're all in good company here. At times we run to the wrong place when we could run to where we should be dwelling. Notice this though, in verse one, the secret place of the Most High, what is it? It's not an it, it's a him. Our secret place is a person. Hallelujah. It is a person. Watch this, shall abide, means cause to rest. Cause to rest under the shadow of the Almighty. Under the shadow of the Almighty, a shade, as in a protection. Listen, there's four verses here in the Word of God, in the Old Testament, speaking of rocks. Speaking of shadows, I wrote four of them down here. Isaiah 32, 2, the shadow of a rock. They're all speaking about protection and safety. The shadow of a rock. Song of Solomon, 2 in verse 3, the shadow of trees. Psalm 63 in verse 7, the shadow of his wing. Isaiah 49 in verse 2, the shadow of his hand. The Bible uses this imagery often to speak about the protection that is available to the children of God. I want to show you two things about shadows. Number one, whatever is casting a shadow over you is bigger than you. Amen. It's bigger than you. Not only that, watch, whatever is casting a shadow that is over you means it's close to you. It's close to you. See, God casts a great shadow. He does. Watch, and the deeper that you're into that hiding place, the deeper that you're into that shadow means the closer that you are to Him. And there's safety there. There's protection there. There's rest. There's rest there. Rest. I love that word, Almighty. It's the word El Shaddai. El Shaddai. Most Powerful. I want you to notice this in the first two verses. We see here that our secret place is God Himself. It's God Himself. I want you to notice this here in these verses. In two verses we have four names for God. Four names for God. We have Elyon, the Most High. We have El Shaddai, we just saw here, Almighty. We have Lord, which is Jehovah. And we have the last here, which is refuge in my fortress, my God, Elohim, which is God, plural, singular, but speaking of God in plural. Watch this. Most high is our authority and our power. Almighty. El Shaddai is speaking of His strength. Lord Jehovah is speaking of the personal relationship. It's speaking of intimacy. And Elohim is speaking of exclusivity. There is no other God but our God. Amen. And He is our hiding place. He's our dwelling place. It sounds awful simplistic sometimes. But it's really not. It's really a huge thing. See, we have a place not just to run to. As the cities of refuge, when some problem came, they ran to them. No, this isn't supposed to be a place that we run to in problems. This is supposed to be a place that we are living in spite of problems. No, not a fire escape. This is what we do, right? When time gets tough, we go, oh, where's God? But you notice, watch, you know what you'll see, notice? When the time gets tough and you haven't been dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, when the trouble comes, you'll find more than often you'll run from God instead of running to Him. It's amazing. That's why it's so imperative to stay close to Him, to stay in that place. It's a place of authority. It's a place of strength and protection. It is a place of intimacy. It is a place of exclusivity. To where else can I go? There is none but you. Amen. Yeah. It's kind of ironic, isn't it? Schools and colleges have safe places. And they've kicked out the safe place. They've kicked out God, and now they have to have safe places. Anyway, it won't help them. But if they're listening, I'm telling you, if you just put them back there, you wouldn't need the safe spaces, but that's okay. I'm sure nobody out there is taking notes. I want to show you something here in verses 2 through 13. Our secret place is a protection. Now, verse 2. shows us what He is. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. My God in Him will I trust. This is the Lord. This is Jehovah God. He is our refuge. He is our fortress. He is our trust. It's who He is. But in verses 3 through 13, we are shown here what He does. Verse 3, delivers us from the snare and pestilence. What is a snare? Anybody ever go to try to snare an animal? Put out a trap? Maybe something to snag a bear? Right? I don't know. Not many bears snagging going on around here. There's probably more bears out where y'all are actually than here. Out in that. I thought there's... Anyway, maybe not. I don't know. We have bears around here, but not a lot of them, right? But you can set up a type of a snare. He delivers us from that. You think Satan sets out traps? Man, he's good at traps. He's good at traps. He's good at throwing out bait. Bait. You know what bait has in it? Hooks. Hooks. You know what happens when the bait stays in your mouth too long? Sets the hook. Listen, you know what God does? He delivers us from snares. and pestilence. How does He deliver us from snares? Hopefully the Holy Spirit of God is going to spit it out. Well, it looks so good. Spit it out. Trust me. Right? Before He sets the hook and it hurts. He delivers us from snares and pestilence. Verse 4, He covers us. He covers us. That's protection. Verses 5-6, we don't have fear. The Bible says perfect love casteth out fear, for fear hath torment. And I'm telling you tonight, God does not lead His children into places of torment. He's a good Father. No fear. Terror by night, error by day, pestilence, destruction, and death. No fear. No evil shall befall thee in verse 10. Verse 11, no plague. Verse 12, the protection from He shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Protection, verse 13, God offers us victory. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Hey, we look at all of these things, we look at who God is, and we look at what God does, and He is our secret place, and our dwelling place, and our hiding place. We think, I mean, I don't know about you, but I go to Romans 8.31 when I take all of it in, and I think all of it through, I go to 8.31, where it says, Then what shall we say then to these things? Of God before us, who can be against us? It's that dwelling place of the secret place, the dwelling of the secret place of the Most High. Where are you living tonight? Where are you living? You see our, watch, our secret place is spiritual. No, this is a good thing. Because if it was dependent, if it was dependent on the natural world, it wouldn't be so secure. Hey, listen, because our secret place is spiritual, it doesn't matter what's going on in the material, this can't change this. I love it. Can I tell you this tonight? Bad things happen to good people. You ever heard of these guys, the three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? You ever heard about those? You ever heard about Daniel and that old den of lions? Every time, it makes me think of what Roloff said. Why the lions didn't eat Daniel? Because he was all backbone and gristle. Joseph, sold into slavery. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. I don't know how the Calvinist handles that one, I mean, obviously. by the Holy Spirit of God, it seems like it was recorded that God didn't determine the evil upon Joseph, but his brothers did, and God did the opposite work of using what his brothers did for evil for good. But anyway, hey, Joseph was sold into slavery, man. We've looked at this often times. When you look at the name of his sons and what he named them, listen, he still wasn't that thrilled with being in Egypt. There was still some Not bitterness maybe, but there's still some sadness there about his life. No bad things happen to good people. Can I remind you that we have our forefathers and those saints that have gone before us who have been butchered by the millions? And you read some of their testimonies and you read some of the recorded words and you say, how on earth could they do this? I was reading Richard Warnbrandt's book, Tortured for Christ, and a young lady was at her wedding, and here comes the Nazis in, and I forgot who it was, which group it was, of atheists, of this government, I think it was Nazis. But they came and they took her off. She was a Christian. She was standing there in her gown, she was getting married, and they hauled her off. And she said, what more of a beautiful day to get married to Christ. They took her off and they killed her. How does somebody say that? She was dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. And her outside circumstances had no bearing on that. This is good news, friends. It really is. Prosperity theology has taught us that bad things that don't happen to God's children. Yes, they do. We live in a fallen world. So the protection and the refuge that's offered to us in this 91st Psalm cannot always mean literal protection deliverance. No, there are times we have it, absolutely. How many of you have seen God show up in your life in a miraculous way? How many of you have seen God heal a body or maybe your own body? How many of you have seen God supply material needs over and over and over and over again? Absolutely, we have all seen. We're not discounting this. Yes, there is real protection and yes, God intervenes in health at times and yes, God keeps us out of harm's way at times. How often have we driven home the same way and that for some reason we go another way home and we have no idea why. I'm telling you, sometimes it's just a providential protection of God, absolutely. But not always. God allows things to come into our life that are not good. We still live in a sin-cursed world, friend. Hey, listen, expecting to live in this world without problems is kind of like building a house in Oakland or in Philly and expecting not to have to lock your doors and expecting a life of peace and quiet. Well, you're delusional, man. You're nuts. It's not happening. And listen, if you think you're going to live in this life without being scathed by any problems, I tell you what, it's not true. Not true at all. So often I think of the words of that hymn, must I be carried through the skies and flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. Yeah. How do we do it? How did they do it? They found that inner sanctum. They found that inner hiding place that they didn't just visit, they dwelled there. They stayed there. See, I think the greater and the more powerful and the biblical application of Psalm 91 is a spiritual deliverance. Verse 4, "...he shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings thou shalt trust..." Listen to this, "...his truth shall be thy shield and buckler." Truth is the shield. Truth is the buckler. It's that little, the little shield and the big shield and the little shield, right? The buckler. Listen to verse 15. And he shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him, right? The very fact that deliverance is needed proves that not all bad things are stopped. Yeah. Life doesn't turn out like we expect, right? See the greatest truth of this psalm. Watch this. No outside attack can affect our relationship with God. We lost a house. Okay. Lost a job. Okay. You know, somebody's been slandering us. Okay. I mean, fill in the blank. We've all lived there. Do you know not one of these things in this life has any bearing on how close we get under the shadow of the Almighty and into the secret place of the Most High. It's a spiritual place. He is our dwelling place. He's our secret place. He is our shadow and confidence. When life's falling apart, you can get to the secret place. When relationships are disintegrating, you can get into that secret place. When sickness and disease is overtaking your body, you can get into that secret place. When everything you've labored for takes wings and flies away, you can get into that secret place that never changes and never moves. Actually, it's kind of better than preemptive deliverance, actually. Because it's in the secret place that we get to know God. Come on, you know it's true. Some of the greatest, hey listen, some of the greatest times you've had in coming to a deeper understanding of God is under trials. When you've chosen to dwell in that secret place. and you come out, hey you come out, the world doesn't understand it, and carnal believers don't understand it, but you come out of a deep trial and you said, if this is what it took to learn what I've learned about God, I would do it all over again. The world goes, I don't get that. Because you dwelled in the secret place. Last thing. I think it's last. Our deliverance, I'm sorry, access to our secret place is conditional. Never depend upon God. He hasn't moved, He hasn't changed. I'm the Lord thy God, I change not. He hasn't moved. It's us. Look at verse four. Notice this in verse four. He says, He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings thou shalt trust. His truth shall thy shield and thy buckler be. Look at verse nine, because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation. I mean, we're going through this discourse here, but in verses 14 through 16, in the first ones, the psalmist is speaking all through here, but notice in verse 14 that it changes, and now it's God who's speaking. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him, I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him with long life. Will I satisfy him and show him my salvation? God's establishing the conditions here. Because he has set his love upon me. We made a choice. Draw an eye into God, He'll draw an eye into you. You make the first move, God always makes the next. You see this? The only thing, listen, the only thing that keeps us from the secret place is us. Draw an eye into God, right? And He'll draw an eye into you. Purify your hearts, you double-minded, right? James 4, 8, the Bible says, when we choose to go to other things for safety, What happens, that means we have exited the dwelling place and we have gone to visit, not dwell, visit other things, right? The psychologist, the physician, the banker, the politician, the entertainment, the food, the alcohol, the drugs. They're choices, right? When we choose to go for other things for safety, we're not dwelling in the secret place. You know what else keeps us out of the secret place? Sin. The last half of James 4.8, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Matthew 5.8, Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Isaiah 59.2, that your iniquities have separated you between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. Good reminder for us tonight that God is holy. He's purized in the look upon evil. To behold evil, canst not look upon sin, He said over in Habakkuk. He's holy. He can't fellowship with sin. Can I tell you tonight, when unconfessed sin, is allowed to say in our lives, it's impossible to get into that secret place. Most likely, if we had stayed in the secret place, we wouldn't have been in the problem in the first place. So we need to live in such a way that we can dwell in that secret place, not frantically running there when we need it. That's not what this psalm is saying. The one who dwells there, the one who dwells there, cause and effect, the one who dwells there shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. How do we dwell in that secret place on a daily basis? The Word of God. Have you, listen, have you ever gotten close to somebody by not talking to them? Yeah. Have you ever gotten close to somebody by not knowing about them? Sometimes it's hard to not like, it's easier to like, to not like somebody you don't know. Sometimes the more you know somebody, it's harder not to like them. You ever had an enemy growing up and you thought, I don't like them, and then somehow you work together, this happens to you, you know, you get to know when I'm born, you're kind of like the guy. How do we dwell in the secret place? Well, we dwell in the secret place by staying immersed in the Word of God. How do we dwell in the secret place? When we stay in a place of prayer, pray without ceasing, we're told. An attitude of prayer, I believe, I don't remember if it was, if it was, what's that fellow's name? He gave me a great book by him. I read the whole thing in one flight. It was a good book. It was on the joy of reading. C.S. Lewis, there he was. And a book on books. It was a good, that was the kind of book I like. And what a blessing. I believe it was Lewis who said something to the effect of prayer is like breathing. It's just like breathing. Is that your prayer life? How do we dwell in that secret place? Walking in the Spirit. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? It's called obedience. At every moment, at every crossroad, you're obeying the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Listen, you're walking in the Spirit. And it should be a daily basis. Let me ask you tonight. world's full of trouble, our lives are full of trouble, nobody gets out of this life unscathed, I say it often. But where are you dwelling tonight? Where are you dwelling? What are you looking to? Are you trying to drown it out with other things? I was telling my wife this morning, one of the things that just marks the difference in David's life is when trouble came to his life, he always went to God, not away from God. And watch, he never charged God that it was ever his fault. Why? Well, he was dwelling in the secret place. He was always quick to the... I think that's why, you know, it was said, you know, God is... I think it was G. Campbell Morgan who said the entirety of the Bible is relationships. God is about relationships. And if you notice, David was a man after God's own heart. Why? David was about his relationship with God. It was the whole of his life. No matter what was going on, even when sin came to his life, he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this wickedness in thy sight. Relationship. He wanted the relationship restored. The secret place. I don't know what you're going through tonight, but I've got to ask you, where are you living? Where are you dwelling? Are you replacing the person of the Lord Jesus Christ with something else? to numb it, to deal with it, to get through it? Or are you looking and running and looking and dwelling in Him? It's really that simple, isn't it? Our Father tonight, thank you for a great reminder of your presence, of your love, of your ability, of what is available to us, if we would just dwell close to Thee. Now Father, there may be somebody here tonight, there may be somebody watching online. And Father, they are going through trials, they are going through tribulations, they are going through struggles, and they are looking to other things besides You. If they would be honest with themselves, maybe there is a little blame going out. As in, why have you allowed it to happen? Father, would you help us there? Would you help everyone who's there? Would you help them? That we would get back to where we, where the real, where the real help is. Which is close to thee, in that secret place. Lord, we ask you to do that work tonight. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Stand with me if you would, please. The piano is going to play for an invitation. Have the Lord spoken to you tonight. Where are you living tonight? Not where are you visiting, where are you dwelling? Where are you dwelling? Does life seem like the waves of the ocean coming over you? Seems like it's just wiping you out one after the other? If you get up into that secret place, it couldn't quite do the damage that they would if you're away. Can I give you one word that undergirds, that is the foundation of that secret place? One word, trust. Trust. You trust Him. Yeah. If I was a kid and I had my tree fort and I said, come on, hide it, I know the hurricane's coming, come up on my tree fort, you'll be fine. I don't think you'd trust that very much. But the Creator God of heaven, who has saw fit out of His own heart and desire to reconcile us back to Himself by the blood of His own Son, so that we could call Him Father. He says, trust Me. Dwell in the secret place of the Most High and you'll abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I love it. Trust Him. Let's be dismissing the word of prayer tonight. Saturday morning we'll have men's prayer and we'll be outdoor knocking. Lord willing, I think the weather It's supposed to be pretty warm.