Well, if you would, I'd like you to open your Bible up to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. This morning, I want to add one more message to our series on the great and precious promises of God made to His people in our Bibles. So many, many promises. We're just scratching the surface. And today I want us to consider the promise of God's protection, the promise of God's protection from Psalm 91. I'm going to read this psalm now in its entirety. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he has 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. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this beautiful psalm. We thank you for the comfort that it brings to our hearts. as we meditate upon its truths. And I pray, Lord, that today it would indeed be a comfort to us to consider the promise of your divine protection, your protection of your people. And may we be comforted, may it take away our fears and our worries and our concerns because we put our faith in you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. D.L. Moody was on a ship from Southampton, England to America. Three days into his journey, while resting on his bed and thanking God for his traveling mercies, D.L. Moody recounts, suddenly, I was startled by a terrible crash and shock, as if the vessel had been driven on a rock. My son jumped from his berth and rushed on deck. He was back in a few moments, saying that the shaft was broken and the vessel was sinking. I did not at first believe it could be so bad, but concluded to get dressed and go on deck. The report, he says, was only too true. Moody found himself consumed with panic by his own admission. And as the day wore on, his fears deepened. And as evening came, he recounts, that was an awful night, the darkest in all our lives. 700 men, women, and children waiting for the doom that was settling upon us. No one dared to sleep. We were all together in the first cabin, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and skeptics. The agony and suspense was too great for words, he says. That night passed, and the next day also. And when that second evening came, Moody asked the captain for permission to hold a service. Moody recounts that nearly every passenger attended. He says this, with one hand clasping a pillar to steady myself on the reeling vessel, I tried to read the 91st Psalm. And we prayed that God would still the raging of the sea and bring us to our desired haven. It was a new psalm to me from that hour, he says. The 11th verse touched me very deeply. It was like the voice of divine assurance. And it seemed a very real thing as I read, he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Surely, Moody says, he did. Moody went to his cabin that night with great peace in his heart, and he slept. About three o'clock in the morning, his son awoke him with the news that a steamer ship by the name of Lake Huron had seen their signal flares and had come to their aid. They would all be safe. Now, as you think about this situation, Moody went from panic and fear to peace and calm. What made the difference? Well, Psalm 91 made the difference. The truth concerning God's sovereign protection of his people made the difference. James Montgomery Boyce refers to Psalm 91 as one of those special psalms that is, quote, especially rich and comforting to which God's people have repeatedly turned in times of sickness, loneliness, and trouble. Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes in his Treasury of David, quote, 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 nobly." Commentator Marvin Tate says, Psalm 91 is a prayer oracle of encouragement to trust God for protection and security. And so here is the comforting and cheerful and encouraging promise that we find in Psalm 91, that God sovereignly protects his people. If you believe that, say amen. God sovereignly protects his people. And so we're gonna be encouraged by this promise this morning. As we begin the psalm, verse one states the theme of the psalm and just beautiful poetic imagery. Look at that verse again. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The Lord himself is the believer's place of safety and security. First here to a secret place, that's a protected place of refuge. It's the place you go to find shelter and refuge and safety in a time of trouble. It's your place of safety. And then this term, shadow, it signifies protection from the elements, especially if you're putting yourself in the Old Testament era and you think about yourself traveling across those desert places in the land of Israel. And you come upon a place where you can find a shadow. It protects you from the blistering sun and from violent storms that may arise. And I want you to think about this for a moment. In order to be in the protection of a shadow, you have to be very close to the object that is casting that shadow. That's the place of refuge. And we're told here that we're to abide under that shadow. The word abide here means to lodge for the night. I think this is a beautiful picture. Picture, if you will, a desert traveler who has found a place of refuge for the night, a place of safety. It's a place where you can relax and close your eyes and get a really good sound night's sleep without fear of some nighttime predator coming upon you or some enemy of the night. You're in a place where you can get a sound night's sleep. Then we go on to verse two, and this verse is written in the first person. This is the psalmist's personal testimony of faith in God's protection. He says, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God. in Him will I trust." The focus of the psalmist's testimony is on the Lord. In fact, if you look at verses 1 and 2, you're going to notice here four divine names that he mentions. First, God is referred to as the Most High in the Hebrew, He's the Most High God. He's the God that's in heaven, in the heavens of heavens. He's the God over all heaven and earth. And then He's called Almighty. The Hebrew is Shaddai. He's the Almighty God, the God who by might and power delivers His people. And then He's called the Lord. In the Hebrew, Yahweh. He's the self-existent God, the great I am God, the God who is. And then finally, He's called God in the Hebrew Elohim. He alone is God. There is no other God. He is God. And so we have these four titles of God here, four divine names that are used to focus our attention on God. and get our attention off our worries. And that's how the psalmist found that he could rest then in God's protection. Focusing on the Most High Almighty, I am God, as your protector, will chase away your fears and give rest to your soul. I want you to notice here in verse two, the possessive pronoun, my, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God. The key question for us today is, is He your God? Take that personally. Is He my God? Have you taken that step of putting your trust in God for your salvation, first of all? Is God your Redeemer? Have you put your faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to pay for your sin and to redeem you? You have to take that step first to make God your God and Christ your Redeemer. You have to do that first if you want to experience God's divine protection for His people. So do that if you have not done so. Now at verse three, you'll notice that the pronoun changes from the first person, I, to the second person, thee or you. Here the psalmist is transitioning from his own personal testimony of faith in God's protection. Now he's exhorting, this is his personal exhortation to the reader, to us, to trust in God's protection. And he's going to exhort us by teaching us a lot about God's protection. There's a lot of very important information here in the verses that follow. First of all, we see here that God protects us from all harms. See this in verses three and four. Nobody and nothing can touch your life without God's divine permission. He is your protector, and He protects you from all harms. And as we look at verse 3 here, we see harms of human origin. It says, Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler. A fowler is somebody who traps birds or perhaps other animals. He's a trapper. This implies human agency. There's someone there setting that trap. Archaeologists have found wall art from the Old Testament era that depicts a fowler setting a trap. And in that trap there is some bait or something that would attract that animal to that trap. And so along comes a bird or some other animal, attracted, kind of falls for that bait, and gets into that trap, and all of a sudden, wham! That animal is caught. And there's no hope of escape at that point. You see, God protects us from anyone, whether human or demon or the devil himself, who sets traps with the intent of ensnaring us and doing us physical or spiritual harm. God protects us from the fowler. We're told here that he delivers. This is really quite a dramatic verb in the Hebrew. It's the idea of extricating a caught animal from a trap and delivering that animal to safety. It's a rescue that's going on. God indeed rescues us from the fowler, from the trap set by the fowler. God literally snatches us from the steel jaws of death and rescues us. And so we see God protecting us from harms of human origin, but also harms of natural origin. And last part of verse 3 says, He'll deliver you from the noisome pestilence. Now, how many times have you used that word noisome this week? Not very often, I imagine. The word means destructive or deadly, from the deadly pestilence. And I think this represents a whole category of harms, potential harms that do not necessarily involve human agency. So we would call these harms of natural origin, various sicknesses, plagues, shall I add pandemics, diseases of all kinds. So God is able to protect us from those kinds of harms as well. And I want you to notice that whereas the fowler's trap is swift and sudden, these noisome pestilences often are very slow-moving, gradual, taking away bit by bit, draining the life out of its victim. Yes, God protects us from those kinds of harms as well. The Lord will surely and most assuredly Protect us from all kinds of harms, any kind of harm you can imagine, both those of human origin and those of natural origin, those that are swift and sudden as well as those that are slow and gradual. God is able to protect you from every kind of harm. And we're told here the Lord will deliver and he will cover us with his protective wings. Look at verse four. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. This gives us such a beautiful and tender picture of a mother bird protecting those little birds under her wing. Those little birds are safe and protected there. That mother bird will fight to the death to protect her young. And then the psalmist uses another metaphor, kind of switches metaphors here and talks about God's truth. Now, we could think really here of his truthfulness or his faithfulness, God's abiding faithfulness. It is to us as a large battle shield plus a buckler. Now a buckler is the small round shield that they used to strap into the arm and hold like this while they wielded the sword with the other hand. So you've got the large battle shield and you've got this buckler as well. God is like that. He's like that invincible protection, that defensive shield against the attacks of the enemy. Think about how the enemy would attack with spears and arrows and swords and daggers and these swords, these shields and these bucklers would protect the soldier from all of those things. And so it is the Lord is able to protect us from every attack of the enemy and from every potential injury. One commentator writes this, those who seek to destroy those who stay under the wings of the Almighty will find themselves surrounded by Yahweh's faithfulness like a protective shield. They are the Teflon people whose shield is nothing less than the faithfulness of God. That's right. So we see that God sovereignly protects His people and the psalmist is teaching us about God's protection here. He's taught us the first lesson that God protects us from all harms. The next lesson is that God protects us at all times. We see this in verses five and six. Look at those verses. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night. nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday." You probably notice the alternating pattern here of going from night to day, darkness to noonday. And so we have round-the-clock protection. God's divine protection is 24-7, round-the-clock. He's always protecting us. We see here that he protects us from the harms that come in the dark of night. Two are mentioned here, one in verse five, the word terror. This would represent any nighttime threat on your personal safety. It could be the terror of an enemy attack or a robber or a nighttime predator. Terror in the night is often unseen, hidden. It's the stealthy enemy. It's the criminal who does his evil work under the cover of darkness. It's the nocturnal beast of prey that stalks in the shadows and silently creeps in closer and closer until it suddenly pounces us. So God protects us from all of those kind of harms in the night, the terrors that come by night. When I think of that word, I think of a young child and how easily a young child can become frightened, especially at night in the darkness. No doubt you've experienced this as a parent. You're tucking in your little child at night and they're safe in their bed, in their bedroom. And then what do you do? You turn off the light. A little bit later, you hear those little footprints coming out. Mommy, Daddy, I'm scared. What are you scared of? There's nothing to be afraid of. Well, there's a monster under the bed. There's a criminal hiding in the closet. I'm frightened, I'm scared. So children can become very frightened by their own imagination, terrors at night. Folks, I want you to understand that as we grow up and become adults, we just have adult versions of these. We do. Terrors in the night. Something keeping you up at night. Something you're frightened of. Here's the comforting truth. God protects you from those terrors in the night. He does. If you awaken with some scary thought at night, what do you do? You draw close to God. You abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Allow Him to comfort you, put your faith in His divine protection of you, and then roll over and go back to sleep. Terror's in the night. The reality for that young child is that that child is under the protection of that mom and dad who are close by and will protect them. That child need not fear all those terrors in the night. That child is protected. And so it is for the child of God, and we have it even better, because our Heavenly Father is on duty 24-7. He is always protecting us, and He's able to protect us from every terror that comes by night. So we have terror, and then in verse 6, another thing that can come in the night is pestilence. And notice how it's personified here. This is pestilence that walks in the night. There's movement here. This is poetic. It's something that's stalking and creeping and prowling and slithering in the darkness. Now there may be an allusion here to the 10th plague that struck Egypt. Remember on that occasion, this is the first Passover. Recall at midnight, the Lord passed through the land of Egypt and he struck down the firstborn of every Egyptian household. And yet he passed over every Hebrew household because those households had been marked with the blood of the Passover lamb. And what a beautiful picture that paints for us. Because though there is a pestilence that walks in the night and will strike down those who are God's enemies, yet he will protect us, those of us who are covered by the blood of the Lamb. So we have the assurance of God's divine protection of the pestilence that walks in the night. So those are harms in the night, and then a couple harms of the light of day are mentioned as well. The psalmist mentions the arrow that flies by day. Again, arrows here imply human agency. There is an enemy archer. There is someone who's pulling back on the bowstring and launching that arrow at us. This is an arrow that flies by the day. You're familiar with how the archers used to work. They would often hide behind a solid wall that just had a slit in it. The archer's slit. And through that narrow slit, that archer could identify his target and then take aim and pull back. And he could launch that arrow over a great distance. And something about an arrow, you don't hear like a gunshot. You know, it's almost silent. When it gets close to you, you might hear kind of a sizzling sound in the air, and by then it's too late. And that arrow would pierce you. So the archer's arrow that flies by day. And then he mentions the destruction that lays waste at noonday. The Hebrew word that shows up here that's rendered destruction is a very rare word in the Old Testament. It's a word that literally means a sting or a prick. And this word is associated with things like this, hunger, burning heat, wild beasts, venomous snakes, hail, violent storms, floods, and even the grave itself. These are things that are life threatening. Things that might take our lives. It seems to represent any life-threatening calamity that might just kind of strike us out of the blue right in the light of day. God protects us from all of these harms. Harms in the dark of night and harms in the light of day. I think the important truth here is that God is always protecting us, always, at all times. Whether night terror or archer's arrow, whether slow-wasting pestilence or sudden life-threatening calamity, God's protection is 24-7. It is continuous. He is always, at all times, protecting you. and you can trust in his protection. God has promised he will never leave us or forsake us. And this means that we will never be left defenseless or vulnerable because God is always on duty. Our protective shields are always up and at full strength, able to protect us from every harm at all times. God sovereignly protects his people. This is the promise that we're considering today. This is the promise that we see in this psalm. This is the promise that God wants us to get today. And here's what we've learned so far. God protects us from all harms. God protects us at all times. And the third lesson, God protects us in ways unseen. God protects us in ways unseen. God is like an invisible force field, always surrounding you, child of God. God is always protecting you. And sometimes, his deliverance comes in ways that we just cannot explain. Because things are happening that we cannot see. In the unseen world, things are happening. And sometimes God will even protect us in ways that are miraculous. And that's kind of what the psalmist is hinting at here in verses seven and eight. He says, a thousand shall fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand. Now, can you picture that? Can you picture yourself being in the middle of 10,000 people? I mean, we're talking about like a, you know, a small stadium full of people. And they all die. and you're left standing, would you call that a miraculous delivery? You know, a bomb goes off, you're on a plane and the plane crashes and you're the only survivor? That's God's miraculous hand at work. It says, but it shall not come nigh to thee. It's not even going to touch you. You're going to go into the midst of the fire, and your clothes are not even going to get singed. They're not going to touch you. You're going to go through the flood, and God's going to part the waters, and you're going to walk on dry land. You're not even going to get wet, not even your shoes. What deliverance is this? It's miraculous, divine deliverance. That's the kind of protection that God gives. Verse eight, it says, only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. God knows the wicked. God knows the righteous, those who are in Christ. Those who have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. God sees the difference. And sometimes God makes that difference very evident. And he judges the wicked. and he rescues the righteous. So God protects us in ways unseen. At times it's miraculous, but the psalmist goes on here to make it clear that sometimes God protects us by means of his angels. Verse 10. There shall no evil befall thee, and evil there means really harm or catastrophe. No evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. So God uses his angels. Angels are real. They're real divine beings. They have superhuman powers, but they're created beings made by God. And one of the things God does with his angels is he assigns them to protect us. God has assigned his angels to protect you. So think of it this way. You may never know how many illnesses that you never contracted, or injuries you never had, or fatal encounters you happened to escape, all because God has given his angels charge over you to protect you and deliver you. So God will use his angels as a means of protecting his people. But he's given another means that we can identify in verses 14 through 16, and that is the means of answered prayer. Now at verse 14, there is another change in pronoun, and you really have to pay attention to pick up on this, because now the psalmist has moved from the thou and you pronoun. Now he's actually using the divine pronoun I. This is the Lord speaking. So the Lord says in verse 14, because he, that is the one who trusts in him, the one who loves him, because he has said his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he has 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." And so we have God himself making this promise. He's adding to the psalmist's personal testimony and personal exhortation. Now God himself is attesting that he will protect us. He adds his personal assurance to what the psalmist has already said, that the one trusting in him, the one who loves him, the one who calls him by his name, will be protected by him. And so God promises to be near in times of trouble. He's only a prayer away. God promises to provide great deliverance and honor and longevity of life, satisfaction in life, and salvation to those who love him and to those who call upon him. What tremendous promises we have. So we see that God sovereignly protects his people. The psalmist has taught us three important lessons. about God's sovereign protection of us. First of all, God protects us from every harm. If you were to make a list of your top three fears or worries or concerns, know that God has included those in the harms that he will protect you from. Second lesson, God protects us at all times. There may be times when we find ourselves in a situation where our fears are elevated. And it's precisely at those times that God is protecting us. And at times when we're not even thinking about it, when we don't have a care in the world, God's protecting us at those times too. God is always, always, always protecting you. And the third lesson is that God protects us in ways unseen. And here's where faith comes in. You know, faith is the evidence of things unseen. We cannot see what God is doing to protect us. But God is protecting us at all times. Nobody and nothing can touch you without God's permission. No one. Nothing can touch you without God's permission. He is, to borrow the words of hymn writer John Ryland, the sovereign ruler of the skies, ever gracious, ever wise. All my times are in thy hand, all events at thy command. He that formed me in the womb, he shall guide me to the tomb. All my time shall ever be ordered by his wise decree. Plagues and deaths around me fly. Till he bids, I cannot die. Not a single shaft can hit till the God of love thinks fit. Dear Christian, you can trust in God's sovereign protection of you. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this psalm, for its encouragement to us, for the comfort it brings when we need comfort, for the calming effect it can have upon our spirits when we need to be calmed. We thank you, Lord, for the lessons that we've learned today about your sovereign protection. I pray, Lord, that you will help us to have the faith that the psalmist had, to put our trust in your protection, to not fear what anyone or anything can do to us, but may we put our full trust in you. In Jesus' name, amen.