Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the error that froth eyes by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent, For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Because He holds fast to me in love, I will deliver Him. I will protect Him because He knows my name. When He calls to me, I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble. I will rescue Him and honour Him. With long life I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation. Amen. There's an old Chinese curse. May you live in interesting times. Interesting times. That's one way of describing our situation, isn't it? Times of fear and turmoil. Inflation and cost of living crisis. Political uncertainty, to put it mildly. Threats of nuclear war. Coronavirus creeping up again, and warnings of an epidemic of flu this winter. Erosion of the foundations of society, increasing hostility to Christian views of morality. It's a time of great turmoil. Daniel 11 predicts a similar time. It speaks of a king who will be enraged and take action against the Holy Covenant. who will place in the temple the abomination that makes desolate. And then it says this, he shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant. Stand firm and take action. Be strong and do exploits, I think was the AV. If we want to be strong, turmoil and in the storms of life. We need to know our God. And a good place to start is with the psalm we've read this evening. Psalm 91 begins with that great declaration of confidence in God. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. See how the psalmist speaks of God in those verses. Six terms piled on top of each other to emphasize his confidence in this God. The Most High. The Almighty. The Lord. My Refuge. My Fortress. My God. This God isn't trapped in creation, limited, hampered like some pagan deity. One God for the hills, another for the valleys, and so on. He is the Most High, as we were reminded in Psalm 121, the Maker of heaven and earth. There's no limit to His power. He is the Almighty. He's not some abstract deity, some remote supreme being that we can only guess about. He is the Lord. The capital letters in our Bibles showing that it represents the covenant name for God, Yahweh, Jehovah. He's the covenant God, the God who commits himself to his people. The God who identifies himself with them, who says, I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. And then the psalmist describes him as a refuge, a fortress, a place where he's safe from attack. In modern terms, a nuclear bunker. Is that how you think of God? Do you find in Him a place of complete safety from every danger? Do you feel you can trust Him unreservedly? That's what the psalmist wants. He has complete confidence in God and he wants others to share that confidence. Notice how in verse 3 he changes from the first person to the second. He will deliver you. He will cover you. You will find refuge. You will not fear. And as the psalmist thinks of how safe he is, he goes on to consider the various dangers that you could face. There's the snare of the fowler. The trap which a hunter lays for a bird. Something that's hidden. Something that may suddenly catch you when you're off guard. There's the deadly pestilence. The plague that could wipe out an entire community. We've heard enough about that recently, haven't we? And if our problems with coronavirus aren't enough, I was reading recently about Ebola in Uganda again. Then there's the terror of the night. The unseen danger that's all the more terrifying because you can't see it. Then there's the arrow that flies by day. The open attack of a hostile enemy. Verse 6 he speaks again of disease, the pestilence, the stalks in darkness, the destruction that wastes at noonday. Again different terms used emphasising whether it's pestilence or some other destruction, whether it's at noon or at night, whatever peril it is, whatever time of day it strikes. This is an assurance that God can cover you from them all. God will deliver you. You don't need to be afraid of them. Even at the height of the battle, the centre of the pandemic, you are safe. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. Or verse 10, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. And more still, he'll command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up. Lest you strike your foot against a stone, you will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent, you will trample underfoot. And at the end of the psalm, God himself speaks, with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Those are tremendous assurances, aren't they? Safety from attack and disease, even when those around you are dropping like flies. Angels to stop you stumbling and stubbing your toes. The ability to trample on lions and snakes. Long and satisfying life. But are these promises real? Or are they too good to be true? Do they match what you know of real life? Or are they just empty words? If they are meant for us, how do we explain accidents and disease and premature death? Maybe you've lost a friend this year. I think of a friend younger than me dying with coronavirus in the first wave. What do we make of these assurances? The first thing to say is that they do not mean that nothing bad will ever happen to you. They don't mean nothing bad will ever happen to you. Let me state the obvious. You are going to die of something sometime. So whatever the promises in this psalm do mean, they're not an absolute guarantee of permanent everlasting health. That can't be the right interpretation. And the second thing I want to say is that this is poetry. It's not the fine print of an insurance contract. The psalmist is using figurative language. We're not literally going to tread on lions and snakes. Those are images which the Bible uses to speak of the powers of evil. When you read the psalmist's assurance about treading on the lion and the adder, trampling underfoot the serpent, we're meant to hear echoes of Eden. You remember how it was in the form of a serpent that the devil came to tempt Eve. And how God told that serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. It's a promise that Satan's evil purposes will be defeated. The third thing to say is that the promises are not given to everyone. The envelope has an address on it. If a letter comes through our door addressed to Vary, I know it's not meant for me. Who are these promises addressed to? Look at verse 9. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. You see the condition attached to that promise. You have made the Lord your dwelling place. You must make the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling. Rely on Him for safety. Trust Him to defend you. You must be at home with Him. Find your rest in Him. Or look at verse 14. Because He holds fast to me in love, I will deliver Him. because he holds fast to me in love. I protect him because he knows my name. God's name stands for his character. To know his name means to recognise what kind of a God he is. When Moses asked to see God's glory, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, pursuing the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. Do you know this God? Do you love Him? If not, those promises don't apply to you. We can only plead these promises if we are among those who love God. And the fourth thing I want to say is that the primary reference for these verses, these promises, is to Christ. They're for those who love God, who know his name, who rely on him, who live in close fellowship with him. And of course that was especially primarily true of Jesus. In the New Testament, of course, the only person who quotes this psalm is the devil. But he quotes it accurately. And he quite rightly applies it to Christ. He reminds Jesus of verses 11 to 12. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Russell Moore comments that Satan didn't just know the proof text. He knew the larger canonical context. He knew to apply this reference to God's ultimate anointed, to Jesus. Satan was, in this instance, a Christ-centred Bible preacher. And if we look at how the psalm applies to Christ, we'll also see how it applies to us. And there are three principles I want to draw out from it. The first is this. God sometimes does deliver in remarkable ways. God does sometimes deliver in remarkable ways. Think of Jesus, the way he was delivered from Herod as a young child. How he was delivered from the various plots of the Jewish leaders. Remember how they rushed him out of Nazareth, intending to throw him over a cliff? But passing through their midst, he went away. It wasn't possible that he should die by accident, by the assassin, or by disease. And in the same way, Bible narratives and church history give us many stories of remarkable deliverances. Think, for instance, of the way that David escaped from Saul time after time. There was that occasion, for instance, when Saul was just about to catch up with him. And a message came to him, the Philistines have invaded the land. He had to abandon his pursuit of David to go and deal with the threat from Philistia. I am immortal till my work is accomplished, wrote David Livingstone. Let me encourage you to read church history. The better you know your church history, the more examples you will find. One of my favourites is the story of Athanasius fleeing in a boat from the soldiers of the pagan emperor. He got to a bend in the river and he turned his boat round and began to row back towards them. And in the darkness they didn't recognize him. They asked, have you seen Athanasius? Yes, you're quite close to him. And he rode past them and escaped while they carried on the other way. Or there was a time when a minister hid in the kiln of a malt house in order to evade the men sent to arrest him. And immediately a spider lured itself over the entrance and began to spin a web. When the searchers got to the malt house and they approached the kiln, they saw that web. No use looking there. The old villain can never be there. Look at that spider's web. He could never have gotten there without breaking it. away they went to look somewhere else and he escaped. God does sometimes deliver in remarkable ways. The second point is this, that nevertheless trouble will come to God's people. Trouble will come to God's people. They don't always get delivered like that. The psalm tells us as much. In verse 15, God says, when he calls me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. Well, God can't be with you in trouble if you're not in trouble, can he? So again, the psalm shows us we're not to interpret the promises as a guarantee of an easy life. As you read the Gospels you find many occasions when Jesus faced opposition from the Jewish rulers. And the time did come when he was arrested and tried and tortured and executed. And in the same way God's people often find themselves in trouble, Peter writes to the Christians in Asia Minor, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. Don't be surprised. There will be trials. Trouble is going to come, despite the promises of safety from attack and disease, of angelic protection, of long and satisfying life. So what is the point of the promises? The point is, thirdly, that God is controlling everything for our good. God is in control. We've seen he's able to deliver even hopeless situations. So if he doesn't deliver us, It's because he has a purpose in the trial that he sends. And that is the point the psalmist is making. God controls everything that happens to us. No arrow slips past his defence. No virus defeats his precautions. And again we see it most clearly in the case of Christ. God leaves everything for our good. Where would we be if he had not suffered and died? It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. God's great purpose of salvation was fulfilled through the death of Christ and so Christ sees the travel of his soul. He is satisfied. So what about the accidents that happen to God's people? Those illnesses, those premature deaths? Verse 10 tells us, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near your tent. Let me read you Spurgeon's comments on that verse. It is impossible that any ill should happen to the man who is beloved of the Lord. The most crushing calamities can only shorten his journey and hasten him to his reward. Ill to him is no ill, but only good in a mysterious form. Losses enrich him. Sickness is his medicine. Reproach is his honour. Death is his gain. No evil in the strict sense of the word can happen to him, for everything is overruled for good. Happy is he who is in such a case. He is secure where others are in peril. He lives where others die. Well you can't complain, Spurgeon didn't know what he was talking about. That quotation spoke of crushing calamities. Well imagine yourself in Spurgeon's position as a young preacher, just 22 years old. You've been so successful that your church can't hold the crowds that want to hear you. So you hire a hall that will seat 10,000 people. And the first time you're due to preach there, the crowd's pressing far beyond that seating capacity. Then someone shouts, fire! Someone else yells, the galleries are collapsing! Seven people are killed in the panic that follows as people rush for the exits. And dozens more are injured. How will that affect a sensitive mass? One close friend and biographer said, I cannot but think from what I saw that his comparatively early death might be in some measure due to the furnace of mental suffering he endured on and after that fearful night. And then there was the great physical pain Spurgeon endured. He suffered from gout, rheumatism, inflammation of the kidneys. Over the last 20-odd years of his ministry, he was off work because of illness about a third of the time. He also suffered recurrent bouts of depression that could see him crying like a baby for no apparent reason. In addition to that, there was a lifetime of ridicule and slander, sometimes the most vicious kind, not only from the newspapers and other secular sources, but also from fellow ministers. So we need to take him seriously when he says that it is impossible that any ill should happen to the man who is beloved of the Lord. Elsewhere he says, the good that I have received from my sorrows and pains and griefs is altogether incalculable. Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister's library. We'll take Johnny Erickson. Paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident as a teenager. What does she say about it? I wouldn't change my life for anything. I even feel privileged. God doesn't give such special attention to everyone and intervene that way in their lives. I'm really thankful that he did something to get my attention and change me. You see what they're saying? Bad things do happen to God's people. Being a Christian, loving God, being devoted to his service doesn't exempt you from affliction. You may have to endure suffering and heartache and loss. But those things don't ultimately damage you. They actually do you good. When trials come, they come by God's appointment because he knows what is best for us. Whether he stops that arrow or allows it to hit, he's in control, working everything for the good of his people. Just sang a hymn that expressed that confidence. Now, what we sang was a modernized version of it. But just to quote some of the lines of the original. Sovereign ruler of the skies. Ever gracious, ever wise, all my times are in thy hand, all events at thy command. Times of sickness, times of health, times of penury and wealth, times of trial and of grief, times of triumph and relief, times the tempter's power to prove, times the taste of Saviour's love. All shall come and last and end, as shall please my heavenly friend. Flagues and deaths around me fly, till he bids I cannot die. Not a single shaft can hit till the God of love sees fit. In John 11, 25, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Jesus obviously didn't mean that those who believed in him would not physically die. But that physical death is not the end. The promise of long and satisfying life in Psalm 91 is not ultimately fulfilled in this life. It's fulfilled in eternal life. Life which begins here, but continues and grows forever. And in that, of course, Christ leads the way. Has he experienced that fulfilment? Paul tells the Romans, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. As Hebrews says, he lives by the power of an indestructible life. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. And his resurrection is the guarantee of ours. He is the firstfruits. We are the full harvests. And because we have that prospect, as Jim Packer says, if your time on earth proves shorter than expected, that will not be unfair deprivation, but rapid promotion. If life be long, I will be glad that I may long obey. If short, yet why should I be sad to soar to endless day? I love the way that C.S. Lewis ends the last battle. The things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them, and for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world, and all their adventures in Narnia, had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before. Psalm 91 promises long life. That's what it's talking about. A story which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before. God cares for his people. He's with them in every trial. He delivers them from trouble. No lasting harm can come to them. Even things which in themselves are harmful and evil do not ultimately harm God's people. They're overruled for their good. And ultimately, God brings them to glory. That's what this psalm is telling us. How do we respond? Firstly, we must trust God. Make the psalmist's words your own. I will say to the Lord my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. He is a safe stronghold, a God in complete control, a God in whom we can have complete confidence. Trust him. Rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Those of you who are old enough, do you remember Ronald Reagan's slogan in the nuclear disarmament negotiations with Russia? The Soviet Union, I should say. Trust but verify. He's quoting a Russian rhyming proverb. But of course, if you need to verify, you're not really trusting. You may be starting with goodwill, with the assumption that the other person means what they say, but you're not relying on it. And that's not the way to treat God. You must trust him completely. That leads to our second point. Do not test God. Don't test God because you have those promises. They're given to encourage faith, not foolishness. The Psalmist is talking about the troubles that come to us as we live our daily lives trusting God. Not about trouble that we go looking for. If you deliberately walk into a busy road without looking, don't expect God to send his angels to save you from the traffic. And that's where the devil was wrong in his application of the Psalm. because there was no need for Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, which was what Satan encouraged him to do, quoting the son. To ask for a miraculous sign to prove that he was God's son would have indicated a lack of trust in his father. A guarantee is only valid if you use the product the way it's meant to be used. And these promises are those who love God and call on him, for those who want to go his way, not their own. As I say, to encourage faith, not foolishness. When the plague came to Wittenberg in 1527, Luther refused to flee. Together with his colleague Johannes Bugenhagen, Luther stayed there to care for the sick and the dying, preaching the gospel, administering the sacraments, visiting the sick in their homes to provide pastoral and practical care, eventually converting his own home into a makeshift hospital. This is how he described his policy. I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed, in order not to become contaminated, and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what was expected of me, and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbour needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith, because it is neither brash nor foolhardy, and does not tempt God. Great balance there. I'll use the appropriate means, but I'll rely on God, not on the means, and I won't avoid danger where I'm need. So trust God, don't test God. And then don't fear the future. Maybe you're facing open hostility, the arrows of abuse or slander or ridicule. Maybe you know that traps have been laid in your path. Or maybe there's just a blackness ahead. A dark night that may contain all kinds of unknown terrors. And there may be dark days ahead for you individually. for the church, for the nation. But if you're relying on God, he will go through those dark times with you. He's promised he will never leave you, never forsake you. He says to you in this psalm, I will be with him in trouble. You'll find that command, fear not or don't be afraid, many times in the Bible. God knows that we are fearful creatures. that we do tend to become afraid. He doesn't usually just give us a bare command, fear not. He usually gives a reason to encourage us. A reason that reminds us of who he is. Let me give you just one example. We sang James Montgomery's hymn, How Firm a Foundation. That's picking up the opening words of Isaiah 43. Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not. Why? For I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. Don't be afraid. Even when you're going through the floods or the fire. Why? I am the Lord your God. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Don't think if you're in trouble and distress, you'll have to go through it on your own. Hear again the words of the Psalm. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honour him. When you're in trouble, cry out to God for help. Plead the promises of this psalm. Remind yourself of the greatness of the One who invites you to call on Him, to take refuge in Him, the One who promises to hear and answer your prayer. The Most High, the Almighty. Remind yourself of His love and care. He preaches it in verse 4 as a care of a mother bird for its chicks, and then as a military defence. You have heard of Columba, who brought the Gospel to much of Scotland. He was a man who led a very adventurous life. Perhaps you know the story of his encounter with the Loch Ness Monster, or whether that's true or not. He certainly often found himself in danger as he sought to spread the Gospel, and a hear of his expresses his confidence in God. Alone with none but thee, my God, I journey on my way. What need I fear when thou art near, O King of night and day? More safe am I within thy hand Than if a host should round me stand. Thy destined time is known to thee, And death will keep his hour. Did warriors strong around me throng, They could not stay his power. No walls of stone can man defend, When thou thy messenger dost send. My life I yield to thy decree, And bow to thy control in peaceful calm, For from thine arm no power can rest my soul. Could earthly omens err upon the man that heeds the heavenly call? The child of God can fear no ill, his chosen dread no foe. We leave our fate with thee, and wait thy bidding when to go. Tis not from chance our comfort springs, thou art our trust, O King of Kings. May God give us that confidence. that trust, even in the face of peril. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for the promises of that psalm. We thank you for what it tells us of who you are, the great God, and yet the loving, concerned, compassionate God. Help us, Lord, to put our trust in you, that whatever comes to us, whether good or ill, we may see that it comes to us from you and it comes to us for our good. Help us to look to you, to live in the light of your promises, that whatever the situation, we may be calm and confident in you, We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.