Psalm 91

Mark Smith preaching from Psalm 91

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

This morning's reading is Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to my 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 a buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies 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 hand 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 honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. So reads God's word.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Please take a seat, everybody. Uh let me add my welcome to Owens. My name's Mark. I'm one of the leaders here at uh at the church. I want to tell you a story about when I was uh around about kind of 10 or 11 uh years old. I was taken to a seaside town in uh in Northern Ireland called Newcastle. Newcastle is where people with my sort of accent went during the summer to uh eat good mods ice cream and to play in the arcades. And in the arcades, back in those days, I'm not sure if it's still there, um, there was a uh there was a ghost train. And I don't know if you like ghost trains or not, but I thought that I was just the bravest kid that ever lived, and I was going to get on uh the ghost train. And I don't remember anything about the ghost train except for the very end, because at the very end of the ghost train, it uh it entered into this dark room where there wasn't kind of scary pictures or kind of animatronics to kind of put uh kind of jump out at you. There was an actual person. There was an actual person, and he was wearing a scary clown mask, and he came up to my 10-year-old self and started trying clawing at me at on like in the car, like trying to drag me out, and I lost my mind. And ever since then, I have had this irrational fear anytime I see clowns. That's what I'm scared of. Uh, and when I told Philip will remember this, you can uh verify it. When I told uh my university remitts uh that I was scared of clowns, what did they do in order to help me through my fear? Yes, you're right. They papered my entire dorm room in pictures of clowns. Um, so what's your what's your irrational fear? Uh does anybody share the clowns one? By the way, clowns is not uncommon. Okay, there's a couple of clowns, okay? Uh a couple of clown fearing people. There's heights, right? Um spiders, obviously that's a that's a big one. Who deals with the the spiders in your house? Uh maybe it's not eight-legged things, but little furry four-legged things. Maybe it's rodents, uh, rats or mice. What's your irrational fear? Because we all have fears, right? Just told you, man, you can come and tell me yours later. Please don't whatsapp me pictures of clients. Uh that would not make my weekend um very pleasant. But what about uh what about the big fears that we all share? The fear of loss, sickness, the big C, failure, loneliness, having a sense of not measuring up, or just fear about what the future might hold and the uncertainty that that carries. Fear is a really unpleasant emotion to sit with, isn't it? When you feel scared, your heart begins to race, you can kind of hear it in your ears, your mind is utterly focused on the thing that is scaring you, so you can barely think about anything else, and you you run through worst-case scenarios, you feel that kind of fight or flight adrenaline coursing through your veins. Our eyes are fixated on the threat immediately in front of us. What happens when you get scared? Psalm 91, believe it or not, is medicine for frightened people. Whatever you're frightened of now, Psalm 91 speaks to you. It is there to help us when we feel scared. Psalm 90 was asking the question: where do we belong and find a home in a world where everything's fleeting, life is short, where is there a place of permanence and meaning and significance? Psalm 91 is asking a similarly relevant question, which is how do we live in a world that's scary? How do we live in a world where there are fears? Whatever else Psalm 91 does, and I'm really glad of this, is it doesn't minimize our fears. It makes them head on. The lions are still lions, the plagues are still plagues, death is still death. Because the God of the Bible has no interest in just offering you sentimental, oh, it'll be all right in the end, sort of Hallmark card platitudes for the fears that are attacking your heart. No, in order to help us here, the psalmist does three things. We need three things to happen when we feel scared. We need someone to calm our hearts, to correct our minds, and to lift our eyes. And that's what God does. He calms our hearts, he corrects our minds, and he lifts our eyes. That's where we're we're going this morning. First of all, God calms our hearts. Imagine just for a moment that it's two o'clock in the morning, and you're six again. It's two o'clock in the morning and you've just been woken up. You've had a bad dream. Something has scared you awake. You're lying there in the darkness. Maybe there's a a street light outside, maybe there's a night light plugged in in your room, and what it's doing is it's casting shadows. And those shadows have become monsters. What is that moving in the corner of my room? And so your little six-year-old self plucks up enough courage to head out of your room and to pad along a hallway and you go to your parents' room. You'll see mum and dad, or just mum, or just dad. What do you need from them in that moment? What does six-year-old frightened you need? Well, presumably it's not just to be dismissed.

unknown 8:44

Ugh!

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Can't believe you woke me up. Go back to bed. You also don't need a lecture in sleep psychology. Well, actually, the brain is doing it. You don't need a uh uh a lesson in nutrition. Well, you shouldn't have eaten that ice cream before bed or that cheese or whatever it is that has caused your nightmare. What do you need in that moment? The thing that any frightened child needs is to know two things. Do you care and can you help? Do you care and can you help? Psalm 91 doesn't begin with, here's why you shouldn't be afraid. Let me explain away all the fears that might crop up in your life. No, Psalm 91 begins with, let me tell you who's just down the hallway. Let me tell you, when you wake up scared in the middle of the night, who you're running to wake up. Our frightened hearts in our life need to know that God is both stronger than our fears. That's the can you help question, and that he's kinder than our fears persuade us that he might be. That's the do you care question. Can he help us in our fears? Well, the psalmist answers that immediately. Look at how God is described in Psalm 91 as it begins. He is the most high, the ultimate, the one who is above all people, places, circumstances. The one who is in sovereign control. He is the al-mighty. There is no weakness, no deficiency in him. He is described as a fortress. He is described as a shield. Nothing is bigger than him. No battle can defeat him. So no fear can assail him. Can he help? Psalm 91 says yes, he can. Random, he's a fortress. But strength is nothing if he doesn't care. Can you imagine? God has all of this strength. He's the Almighty, He's the sovereign Lord, He's the shield and the fortress, and He doesn't give a rip about any of the fears that you're going through. How awful would that be? And so that's why you need to ask the second question. Does he care the Samus deploys another image? He's not just a fortress, he's a mother bird. He's not just a shield, he's a caring, tender, covering wing over his people. The Almighty isn't just invincible, he's also affectionate, tender, protective, present. The fortress image speaks to our hearts and says, God can protect. But the mother bird image speaks to our hearts and says, God wants to protect you. He's tender, he's protective. He wants you to come to him when you feel scared. The fortress protects us through strength. But the mother bird, how does the mother bird protect her young? When the psalmist says that in verse 4, he will cover you with his pinions. It's just another word for feathers. He'll cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will take refuge. How does a mother bird shelter her young? Through her own vulnerability. The wings of the bird are not impenetrable. She shelters her young by placing herself between them and the storm. But as we read through Psalm ninety-one, there's another question that bubbles away in the background. And the question is: well, who is it that gets this sort of protection from God? It's great that he is a strong and mighty fortress, a refuge. It's great that he actually wants to tenderly protect and to gather up. But who does he do that for? Who does this protection get deployed on behalf of? Well, the Psalm begins. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. It's a singular word. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High. That is the one who always looks to God for refuge. Or if you cast your eye down to verse 14, the one who holds fast to God in love. Who does God protect? Who does God shelter under his wings? Well, the one who always runs to him for refuge. The one who always clings to him, holds on to him in love. And the problem that we have is that after just a moment's reflection, like we were confessing our sins earlier, after a moment's reflection, we realize that we don't do that. That that's not describing us. We don't, by nature, run to God for refuge when we feel scared, when we're under pressure, when anxiety has come and assailed us. Sometimes we run anywhere but to God. We try to distract ourselves, we try to fix it ourselves, we become resentful of God, if anything. We try to medicate the pain and escape in comfort or pleasure or distraction. We don't run to him, we don't cling to him. And so you think, well, how can these great promises of God's loving, sheltering, strong, mighty, protecting, how can they become ours? This is where we need to realize that when you read any of the Psalms, that we're not the first people singing it. It's not primarily for us. And this is kind of a meta point for any of your Bible reading when you come particularly to the Psalms, is to think to yourself, actually, I'm a second singer. I sing as a consequence of another singer, because the Psalms are songs, that's why I'm talking about singing, right? The first singer is David's king. That's who the Psalms are all addressed to, essentially. The first singer is Jesus. And Psalm 91 only really perfectly applies to him. Like he is the one who always entrusted himself to his father, who ran to him for refuge. He is the one who always clung to him in love. This is crucial for our understanding of the Psalms. But we are secondary singers. Secondary because it is through faith in Jesus that we have the fears of our own hearts calmed. Because in Jesus, the Almighty God showed us that he was also the vulnerable savior. It was on the cross that the Most High God spread out his wings to shelter his people from the storm of judgment that our sins deserve. Strength and tenderness are perfectly met in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. And that means that we, through faith in him, can sing Psalm 91 with confidence. That because Jesus clung to God in love, because Jesus ran to him for refuge, and as we sang, our lives are hid in him, safe in him, we also benefit from that mighty and tender care that our Father offers us. And so, what do you do when the voices in your head whisper to you? They happen all the time, rightly. We've all got voices, we've all got voices in our head, and the voices that are in our head love to tell us lies. You realize that? The voices in our head tell us lies about God, and they tell us lies about ourselves. One of the lies that the voices in our head whisper to us is to ask us, does God really care about you? The answer is, the Christian answer is. Well, look at a hill outside of Jerusalem in 33 AD. Look at the cross, where God Himself sheltered you from judgment. When those voices ask us, Well, can God really help you? You look to the empty tomb three days later, where he emerged victorious from the grave, breaking all the power of sin and death, and establishing a hope that can never be taken, a hope that can never be assailed, that this world will not always be the way that it is. This is where the frightened heart finds rest. This is where the scared heart is calmed by a loving and mighty Savior. But if Jesus is the only one who perfectly trusted his father and ran to him for refuge and clung to him in love, why did he suffer? Why did bad things happen to him? This Psalm says, if you cling to God in love, nothing bad will happen to you. That leads us to our second point. That in order to address our fears, God needs to not only calm our hearts but also address our minds and correct our thinking. Consider this scenario for a moment. You've been a follower of Jesus for a few years now. You've been committed to church, you've been coming along to city regularly, you've found a service team, you've been consistent, you've got a community group, you've maybe even led a study or two. You've given your money, you've shared the gospel with your friends, you've invited people along to church. Yeah, you're not perfect, but you're growing. And you're doing all of the right things. And then, in the context of all of that service and devotion and singing and sharing the gospel, the perfect storm hits your life. You're laid off from work, you get sick, your heart gets broken, wave after wave after wave feels like it's hitting your life. You know, the experience of being not, you're just kind of in the in the surf in the sea, and a wave has knocked you off your feet, and you kind of get back up again, but by the time you stood back up again, there's another wave right at your shoulder to knock you down again. You had those experiences in life? You ever been through a season like that? Where it just seems like one thing after another? You know, in Ireland, kind of Irish superstition will say bad things always come in threes, and that tends to be borne out. Why is this happening? Eventually, as you as you catch your breath, you say to yourself, But I did everything right. I did everything that a Christian was supposed to do. Didn't I do good? Why is God doing this to me? There's a comedian that I like to watch from from time to time. This guy called Pete Holmes kind of appears in my uh on my algorithm. He has some funny little lines about kind of uh atheism versus Christianity and things like that. But he is uh he is somebody who used to uh describe himself as a Christian and now no longer does. And there was uh an interview where he was talking about that, and it was because his his marriage had broken down. Uh so he got married when he was 22, his wife was 24, his wife had an affair and left him, and he says this. Let me quote what Pete Holmes says. He says, I thought I had a deal with God. That I didn't smoke, I didn't drink, I didn't swear, I witnessed to people, I believed the Bible, I read, I prayed, I did everything correct. And then I felt like God had just left me twisting in the wind. When was the last time you felt like God was just leaving you twisting in the wind? Is it right now? If it's right now, there will be people down the front after the service who'll be here to pray for you if you would like prayer. You feel these feelings, and then you read Psalm 91, and it seems to say that if you do everything right, then you'll be okay. 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, no plague shall come near your tent. So what is going on? In the temptations of Jesus, Satan's second temptation of Jesus is to bring him up to the highest point in the temple, overlooking all of Jerusalem. And he says to Jesus, throw yourself off if you are the Son of God. Throw yourself off. And then he quotes Psalm 91 at Jesus in order to persuade him to do what he's just asked. He quotes verses 11 and 12. He says, 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 upon a stone. What is Satan doing here? Satan, my dear brothers and sisters, is the first ever prosperity gospel preacher.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

If you trust him, if you have faith, he will deliver you.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

If you believe enough, if you cling to him enough, no suffering will happen. And this lie, this lie continues today. Why is my life like this? Oh, if only you had stronger faith, brother. It's like Job's friends. Job sitting in the dust of the earth, and his mates come along. The best thing that Job's friends ever did was shut up for seven days. Because things went downhill as soon as they opened their minds. Because as soon as they started talking, they're like, well, God only punishes the wicked Job, and you're not looking your best. So what hidden sin haven't you confessed? Nonsense. Lies. But we believe them. We believe, even if you just say, well, I don't, I don't identify with uh uh with Job's friends, his comforters. But hey, do you have a secret deal with God? Do you have a secret deal with God that you haven't even really articulated out the line items on it yet? But you know that if suffering came your way and the things that you were building your life upon were taken away, you'd be exactly like Pete Holmes. You go, he's left me twisting the wind. Why am I even following him? Because if you do and something bad happens, then Satan will win because it will cause you to pull away from God. And that's exactly what he wants. Jesus, spoiler alert, refuses to jump off the temple. Why? Well, is it because is it because Jesus, deep down, he knows that Psalm 91 isn't really true? Has Satan called Jesus bluff? No. It's because he knows that Satan loves to twist things and take them out of context. And Jesus has kept on reading. Because you read on and you get to verse 15. When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. God does not promise to keep your life from suffering. What he does promise is to be with you in suffering and to bear you safely through suffering. This is the first and essential corrective that the maturing Christian needs in their minds in order to face the fears that life will throw at us inevitably. That you will suffer. And it will not be a sign of diminished faith in God, nor will it be a sign of God's absence from you. Rather, he is the one who leads you down these paths. In order that you might know the nearness of his presence, and in order that your grip might be loosened on those things that your heart is attached to that that keep you from a maturing, intimate relationship with God who is your father. But still, someone who's still awake right now and has their brain switched on properly caffeinated, might object right now and say, but verse 10 literally says, No evil shall befall you. What is what's going on there? Is it just a contradiction in one Psalm, four voice uh like five voice verses separated, separated? This sort of tension comes up all the way through the Bible. Let me give you Jesus' own words where he articulates this tension. Luke 21, these are Jesus' words. He says to his disciples, you will be betrayed, even by parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me, but not a hair on your head will perish. So that's even closer, that's even fewer verses, just one in between. How is it that Jesus can say, you will die on account of me? And then skip a verse and say, Not one hair on your head's going to perish. The only possible reason that Jesus and the psalmist can say these things is if Jesus and the psalmist have in view a suffering that is worse than death that will not befall you if you take refuge in God. This is the testimony of, well, it's the testimony of the whole of the scriptures, but let's give you another one. Let's give you one from Paul, from that great high point of his letter to the Romans in Romans chapter 8, where he says, Well, what can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? And then he goes on to list a whole bunch of suffering. Why? Because it won't happen, Paul? No, because even though it does happen, you will be ultimately secure under the wings of his protection and brought through all of the trials and tribulations and sufferings of your life like gold refined through the pine of fire, as Peter says. This is the second truth that corrects our minds and settles our hearts in the face of our fears. It is not just that God is with us in suffering, but that no trial will ultimately end in your downfall. No pain will ultimately prevail against you, no suffering will finally destroy you, and even death is just a promotion to glory. This was Jesus' own experience. This is why he didn't throw himself off the temple. He knew that the path laid before him was not a path of ease, was not a path of rescue from suffering, but of victory through it. Jesus experienced all of the sufferings of Psalm 91. He was rejected, he was hunted, betrayed, beaten, killed. And if verse 10 means that nothing bad will ever happen to you, then Jesus fails. And let's just assume for a second that Jesus doesn't fail. And so that means that verse 10 must mean something else. And what it means is that nothing will ever destroy my beloved son, not even the cross. And if it believes, and if it means that, then Easter morning becomes the greatest proof that God is with us in suffering, that he is with us in trouble because he was with his son in the greatest evil that was ever committed by humanity. And it is proof that he does rescue, that he will honor. So what does your fearful mind need to know in the midst of trial? Your suffering is real, but it's limited. It's not a sign that you have failed. What an awful thing. For Christians to teach and pastor suffering believers through. Hey, Pastor, I'm really suffering. Oh well, are you sure you've got enough faith? So not only do I have to deal with the pain that I'm in, but I've also got to deal with the sense that I'm not a very good Christian either. Second, that God is not distant in your suffering. He is with you. He is near. As Paul says at the end of Philippians, the Lord is at hand, literally, he's at He's at arm's length. Don't run from Him. Run to Him. He has not abandoned you. He is with you and will bring you through. Third, that God has not promised you a suffering-free life. But He has promised you that you will be brought through every trial, that you will be rescued in the end, that you will be vindicated in the end, that you will be honored and glorified in the end. This is what leads us to our third and final point. God calms our hearts. He is strong and he is protective. He informs our minds. Suffering now, glory later. And that's what he lifts our eyes to. He informs our minds, and now God lifts our eyes. Why? Because fear, you know, that that hearing the pulse in your ears moment, where you can't think about anything else, suffering does. Being scared doesn't, you shrinks down your vision. You can't focus on anything else. You can barely think straight. Never mind plan for the future. Up until now, we've been thinking about where God is, what he's doing in our suffering. But here, God at the end wants us to look up and show you what awaits you. And ask, how can I face the future without fear? Well, look at what he will do in your future. Up until this point, God has been talked about in the third person. He will deliver, he will cover, he will command his angels. But in verse 14 and 15, it's as though God actually shows up and he speaks. I'll take it from here. Thank you. Let me tell you, let me tell you who I'm going to be for you in suffering. And he heaps up all of these things that he says he's going to do for the Christian, the person trusting in Jesus, sheltered under his wings, sin forgiven. Listen, I will deliver him, I will protect him, I will answer him, I will be with him, I will rescue him, I will honor him, I will satisfy him, I will show him my salvation. You got it yet, God says, I will do it. I will protect you, I will answer you, I will be with you, I will honor you, I will satisfy your soul, I will satisfy the deepest longings of your hearts. It will not always be this way. And at these words, the horizon of our life begins to expand and expand. Because he's not just saying that, you know, I'll bring the suffering to an end, I'll answer your prayers, I'll rescue you. I'll honor you. I'll show the cosmos just how beautiful you are that you have come through this trial. And the angels will go, wow, look at who you have become. The Psalm ends by spilling over the horizon of this life on into eternity. This is the long and glorious life that awaits all who trust in Jesus. A man whose earthly life was cut short, the age of 33, but who now lives again, never to die? And so it is. So it has been for the history of the church. The people have looked beyond the beckoning grave, from the martyring of the apostles to thousands of faithful Christians whose earthly lives are cut painfully short, and still today in places like China and Sudan, Iran, northern Nigeria, whose long life now stretches out before them in the presence of God who has borne them safely home. This is the promise and hope of the gospel. This is the promise and hope for every suffering and fearful and anxious heart that everything Christ has secured, he has shared. Everything that he has won, he now gives to us. He secured the defeat of death and life beyond the grave, and so now he shares it abundantly with his people. We don't merely admire Christ's victory, we participate in it. His resurrection becomes ours. His future becomes ours. And so nothing separates us from the love of God because Christian, not because Christians don't suffer, but because Christ is victorious and shares his victory with his people. What movie do you watch over and over and over again? Everybody knows what my answer to that is. Everybody who knows me. It's Lord of the Rings, right? What movie do you watch over and over and over again? You got to the point where you know what happens. You can think back to your first watch, to those scary scenes, to those scenes of uncertainty and tension where you where you wondered, well, would anything end happy? What how is the hero going to get through this? What's going to happen? And now on your 57th watch, you you know exactly the path that's going to be taken, and you know that it's going to end well. You know that there's going to be the great victory at the end. But as you watch those scenes, those scenes of tension, fear, emotional stress, you still cry. Why do you still cry? I'm just talking to myself right now. You just still cry because it doesn't remove the pen. The frightening scenes don't get deleted. But you do now know the end. That's the way the Christian life is. There will still be frightening scenes. There will be still still be scenes in your life that are painful to watch. Tears will still be shed. Bones will still break. But we know the final scene. That is why Christians can suffer differently. Not because we enjoy suffering. Not because we pretend that it doesn't hurt. It's because suffering has lost its ability to define our ending. Death has become a doorway. The grave has become a servant. And Satan is a defeated enemy and a dreadful liar. The worst thing that can happen to you is no longer the worst thing that can happen to you. What does your frightened heart need today? Not merely reassurance that tomorrow will be better. It might not be. Not merely reassurance that you'll recover. You might not. Not merely reassurance that life will go back to normal. It may never. No, what your heart needs is something much stronger. Much deeper. Much more satisfying. It needs the certainty that whatever happens Christ has secured your future. And your best days are yet ahead of you because of him. That the healing that ye long for t will come eventually. The longings of your heart will be satisfied in him. Eternally. Nothing that you experience today can steal you from the future that he has won from you. Not failure, not persecution, not disease, not dementia, not death. Everything that truly matters is safe in Christ. So remember where we began. We began as children waking up after a nightmare, didn't we? We wanted to know two things. Does God care and can he help? The answer of Psalm 91 to both of those questions is yes. He cares enough to spread his wings over you at the cross. He is strong enough to walk out of the grave. And because he has walked out of the grave, everyone who belongs to him will one day walk out too. So what the frightened people need to know when fear grips your heart. You need to know who God is. That he is stronger than your fears. And when the suffering clouds roll in and cloud your judgment and your thinking. You remember what God has promised you. Not a life free from trouble. He has promised you himself in the midst of trouble. When the future fills your life with uncertainty, he lifts your eyes. You know, the safest man that ever lived has already gone through suffering, through death, into resurrected life. Because we're united to him by faith, his indestructible life becomes ours. And one day God will keep every promise of Psalm 91. He will rescue you. And on that day, every fear will be finally silenced. Not because your life was easy, but because your Savior was faithful. Let's pray. Just take a moment of silence for your own prayers as you bring your fears, your uncertainties to God. Does God need to calm your heart this morning? Does God need to inform your mind? Do you need to think about the circumstances that you have found yourself in differently? Do you need him to lift your eyes so that you can see the future that is in store for you because of Jesus? Which is it? Come to him now, and then I will pray for us. To the raging seas, and they were still speak peace to our fearful hearts now. And as we come to your table, lift our eyes to the victories that you have won and stir faith to follow you along all the paths that you might lead us in. And as we eat bread and drink wine, may they be a reminder of your nearness to us in every season of our lives. And may they stir hope again that one day we will see you face to face and be safe with you forever. For it is in your name that we pray.

unknown 46:59

Amen.