Month: November 2017

163. Deliver

 Psalm 91:14a

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him:

The conditional promise of deliverance and protection in Psalm 91 is dependent upon trust (v. 1, 9). Trust is defined in this verse as “set my love upon him,” or “hold fast to him in love.” Love and trust the Lord above all things. All sinful humans break this First Commandment condition, but the promise would still hold true: if you love God, then He will deliver you. We are not able to hold fast to him in love, that is, love and trust in God above all things. Thus we cannot claim this promise because we cannot claim the condition.

But God’s love for me is a certain and undeniable fact; Jesus loves me unconditionally and absolutely; of that there is no doubt; when doubt creeps in I look at the Cross and the Tomb and hear the Gospel Truth; then all doubt and fear is gone. Jesus loves God for me and does for me what I can’t do: love God. Now by faith in Jesus I “hold fast to God in love.” I love Him because He first loved me. Therefore He will deliver me.

 Then all doubt and fear is gone and I can make the next step: pray for deliverance, “But deliver us from evil.” I can be sure He will deliver me because He loves me; I can be sure He loves me because He told me by the Gospel in His Word and he showed me on the Cross by dying for me. Jesus has delivered me from Sin, Death, and the Devil once for all and He continues to deliver me from these enemies daily through repentance and faith. By grace Jesus sets His love on the Father for me; Jesus gives me His love for God and so by faith I also in Christ love God. When a new day with new trouble threatens I turn to Him for deliverance. I name the Enemy, define the Problem, and entrust myself to the Lord to deliver me. Daily repentance, faith, and prayer (“Deliver us from evil.”) sees me through the day with the promise of deliverance.

162. Tread and Trample

 Psalm 91:13

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder:

The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

 Lions and snakes and dragons are metaphorical symbols for Satan and his demons. The first Gospel in Genesis 3:15: “He (the seed of the woman, Jesus the Messiah) shall bruise your (the serpent, embodying Satan, whom God is cursing) head.” Jesus did this decisively and forever at the cross. The fulfillment is in Romans 16:15: “The God of peace will soon (any time and all the time) crush Satan under your feet.” God does the crushing but it happens under our feet. God has done it, He is continually doing it, but it feels to us like we are doing it, because God is using us as His instruments to bring about the defeat of Satan in daily life.

This explains the promises of v. 13: “You will tread upon…you will trample under.” The second person plural “you” refers to the believers in Christ, the Church. The people feel like they are doing the treading and trampling when they proclaim the Gospel, love people, forgive them, and pray for them; but the Lord Jesus Christ is actually doing it through the preached Gospel. The preached Gospel looks like a very weak mechanism, but it is really extremely powerful in the spiritual world to tear down strongholds, topple the gates of hell, crush the head of the serpent, and tread and trample on the dragon. The Gospel forgives sins and frees us from the shackles of death and delivers us from the Evil One.

The promise is awesome: our spiritual enemies are much more powerful than we are, but we shall trample them under our feet. Awesome power resides in the Gospel. Put this promise into effect by hearing the Gospel every day.

161. Bear up

 Psalm 91:12

They shall bear thee up in their hands,

lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 The angels that God commissions to serve and protect those who dwell in the presence of God will bear you up in their hands, so that you don’t stub your toe. Is that really true? People stub their toe all the time and the angels didn’t prevent it. But we can’t really know how many times they did prevent stubbing, and when the toe was stubbed it may be in insistent clumsiness of the human overriding the protecting ability of the angels. Or God prevented their assistance.

We don’t really know how this promise works out in actual fact; we can only take the words as they read and believe the promise it contains. We cannot understand how beings that are only spirits can affect with their hands anything in the physical and material world. That connection between the invisible and visible worlds has been, and still is, the subject of mountains of speculation and experiences that can be neither proven nor disproven. Sometimes these encounters are good ones, like “touched by an angel.” Sometimes they are harmful curses and spells.

There is a vast amount of literature and research involving paranormal activities that are neutral or harmful. Witches curse; healers heal; fortunetellers foretell; psychics contact; UFO’s are sighted; evil spirits connect to drugs and mental illness; and, yes, angels touch. The angel touches for good are just as unexplainable, and uncontrollable, as demon touches for evil. The invisible world of angels and demons is beyond the reach of scientific inquiry; neither will we ever be able to examine the when and how of connection between the two worlds. How do angels hold me up in their hands? I don’t have a clue. Face it: this is a mystery.

If God said it and promised it in His Word I believe it. Faith does not require understanding or explaining or reasoning. I don’t have to explain how angels hold me up; I simply need to know that they do. I trust God to keep His promise and I leave it there. I don’t have to explain everything about how the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin; I just know that it does. I don’t have any idea how my body will rise from the dead, but I have absolutely no doubt that it will. God’s Word and Promise fill in the gaps in my limited understanding. “God is” explains all mysteries.

160. Keep

 Psalm 91:11j

For he shall give his angels charge over thee,

To keep thee in all thy ways.

 What comfort it is to know that my Lord commissions His angels to watch over me and keep me in all my ways. Angels are all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). Angels were created to serve me, but only at the direct command of God are they given their mission. When I trust the Lord (make the Lord my dwelling place) I can rest assured that He has commanded His angels to guard me. This is where the unproven, but possible, tradition that God grants every child of God a personal guardian angel at Baptism comes from.

Although I cannot be certain that I have a guardian angel 24/7, I can be certain that God will commission a number of angels to guard me at the right times at His discretion. I can trust Him to know the right angels to send at the right time for the right reason. I am encouraged to, but I do not have to, ask Him for angelic protection when I anticipate a need. I simply make the Lord my dwelling place and then go about my responsibilities without paying attention to the angels who are paying attention to me.

The Devil’s Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness quotes this verse, but it has been said that he omitted the words, “to keep thee in all thy ways,” meaning your ordinary ways of living regular life and not some extraordinary dare to God in order to tempt Him. Do what you always do and God will keep you in your ways.

“No evil shall befall thee.” By happenstance or coincidence Psalm 91:10 came up on the day after the evil church shooting in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 5, 2017, where some 26 good people were killed. Certainly “evil befell” these families. How can this verse, or any verse, give comfort to those good families?

This is the comfort: this evil, or bad thing, that happened is not the last word (the resurrection is the last word); this evil thing is not eternal, for the pain will end and one day God will wipe away the tears. There will be temporary, physical pain and “evil” that befalls us and loved ones will be lost along the way. But that is not the end: spiritual victory, comfort and joy triumphs over all evil: this is the end and this is the promise. 

This may sound like an empty promise, to say no “eternal” evil, instead of “no present evil, will befall you.” It is not a cop-out, but it is real, serious, and truly comforting. And every “evil that befalls” is in reality a reminder of the eternal promise and certain hope that Jesus earned for us. Evil cannot and will not overwhelm us or overcome us. In the end, we win; we look at the things that are eternal.

There is no comfort in getting an answer to the “why.” But there is comfort in knowing the End, the Last Word, the Final Answer is: “No evil shall befall thee.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

159. No Evil or Plague

 Psalm 91:10

There shall no evil befall thee,

Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

 The condition for the Protection Promise is repeated in verse 9: “Because you have made the lord your dwelling place…” Or: “If you place your trust in the Lord, then….” The promise is that Death and Devil will be kept away from you; no harm or danger shall take your life or shorten it before God’s prearranged time; you will be protected from evils and plagues while you dwell in His Presence.

Dangers are always around us; Death stalks in the shadows; the Devil lurks like a seeking lion. But we are in the secret place and evils cannot come nigh our dwelling for it is under God’s protection. If this promise is true, then why do bad things happen to good people? First of all, the promise is not nullified; it still stands and holds true for those who trust.

The defiant, disbelieving question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” yields no satisfactory resolution to inquiring minds. But three issues are raised by this question in relation to God’s Promise, “No evil shall befall thee.”

First, why ask “Why?” God tells Job: “Don’t ask questions about the reasons or the ways of God; the ‘mystery of iniquity’ is beyond your comprehension as a created being; I am God, you are not and you wouldn’t understand even if I could tell you; your response to my working in your life is to trust me, not to argue; I know what I am doing and it is good for you; you: repent and believe.” You can ask why, but don’t expect an answer you will like or can understand. Only believe!

Second, what are “bad things?” We humans consider something bad or evil if it causes pain and loss and suffering to me. Something is evil if God says it is evil (like breaking His Law), not if I pronounce something evil. It is possible, and it often happens so, that something that at first glance seemed terrible actually turned out be something good and of great benefit. It is possible for our spiritual life and faith to be blessed while some physical evil is going one. At any rate, when afflictions happen the first response can always be “repent and believe.” That’s a good thing.

Third, who are the “good people?” There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. No one is good except god alone. Jesus is the only person who ever lived who can claim the adjective “good person.” If I believe God’s word and judgment that I am not good then why should I not accept “bad” things? I am a bad person and of course bad things will happen, in fact, in a sinful world the only thing we can rightly expect are bad things and consequences. It is only by God’s mercy that good things ever happen to us at all, for blessings we have not deserved. Once I have it straight that “I am not a good person” then I will repent and believe and thank God profusely for any good thing that comes my way, since God is good.

The lesson: I repent and believe and place my trust; now I know “evil will not befall me.” For sure, no eternal or spiritual evil that will destroy my soul and keep me away from God forever will befall me. That’s an Amen!

158. Cover with Wings

 Psalm 91:4

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:

His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

 The conditional promises of protection continue, still based on the condition of verse 1: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High.” God wants us to feel the security of the feathers of the Mother Hen, while we sleep serenely under His huge and strong wings. If we see the picture it is easy to trust the reality we don’t see.

Jesus uses the same picture language in reference to His sadness and disappointment when looking over the city of Jerusalem. He sees the majority of the contemporary Jewish people rejecting the salvation and protection of the Messiah sent from God. He loves them, but they reject Him: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Luke 13:34). Rejecting the Savior and Messiah leaves one outside of the protecting wings when the enemy comes around. Thus Jesus predicts the Fall of Jerusalem 40 years later by the enemy, the Roman army: the city and the people rejected the offered protection and salvation from and the defeat of the spiritual Enemy. The Romans and Jerusalem were the physical object lessons of the spiritual truth: Jesus will protect us from the Enemy if we make Him our secret shelter (believe in Him). He dreadfully desires to do just that. Let Him cover you with His wings by entrusting yourself under His wings.

The second picture of protection is that of a shield and buckler. Jesus is The Truth; His Truth will be your shield and buckler. The “shield of faith” is that piece of armor that quenches the flaming darts of the evil one. Jesus places His Truth (Himself) between the Enemy and you. You are well protected.

157. Deliver from Destruction

 Psalm 91:3

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,

And from the noisome pestilence.

 The conditional promise of v. 3 is based on the condition of v. 1: if you “dwell in the secret place of the Most High.” Not only will the Lord keep you safe in his shadow but He will also deliver you from the destruction of predators and from diseases.

The metaphor of the fowler setting a snare for you, the clueless bird, shows us that the Lord sees the hunter (Sin, Death, Devil) setting a temptation trap to entangle you in a web of problems. The Lord sees what is going on and delivers us from the impending danger; and we may not even be aware of the danger and the deliverance. We just believe it is so because God says it happens: snares are set, often unawares, but God sees and delivers. When we dwell in the secret place we do not even know how many times the Lord has delivered us from Satan’s snares.

The promise also includes delivering the “dwellers” from pestilence, plague, epidemic and infectious disease. All pestilence comes from Death as the enemy of life in its full abundance and enjoyment. God’s “hiders” may not always avoid contracting deadly viruses, but we can be absolutely certain that Death and Disease will not have the final victory, but we do: we live forever in perfect health. Jesus gave abundance evidence of His Victory over Death by healing dozens of people afflicted by various diseases and disabilities. He “delivers from evil” and grants life and health to all who dwell in Him.

156. Abide under Shadow

 Psalm 91:1

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High

shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

 This Psalm promising protection is guaranteed to those who place their trust in the Lord. The Conditional Promise: if you dwell in the secret place of the most High, then you shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. How does one dwell in the secret place? Where is the secret place? The secret place is a secret to the world so that the enemies can’t get to you; it is not secret to the believer for he knows where it is and how to get there. The secret place is the Presence of God in the invisible, spiritual world on the earth that exists alongside the physical world.

Believers enter into the secret place of the presence of God in their hearts by coming before God in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ: “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” (Romans 5:2). When we believe in the heart and confess with the mouth we are standing in the Presence, which is the secret place of the most High. We may not feel any different, but we believe the word and promise of God and we know where we are hiding.

By faith we know that we are abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, living, remaining, and staying under God’s protection. “Under the shadow” means we are very close to God and the shadow hints at the wings of the mother hen gathering her chickens underneath the wings. This picture is designed to provide for us a clear sense of security and safety. We can also enter in to His Presence by praying this picture specifically: picturing our self under the shadow in the secret place. In the secret place God speaks Gospel to us: “I love you, I forgive you, I am keeping you.” Listen to Him!

If we could only see those huge and strong wings overshadowing and covering we would feel completely safe and comfortable. But we don’t see, so we believe the description of what is promised and we know we are safe and secure.

156. Abide under Shadow

 Psalm 91:1

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High

shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

 This Psalm promising protection is guaranteed to those who place their trust in the Lord. The Conditional Promise: if you dwell in the secret place of the most High, then you shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. How does one dwell in the secret place? Where is the secret place? The secret place is a secret to the world so that the enemies can’t get to you; it is not secret to the believer for he knows where it is and how to get there. The secret place is the Presence of God in the invisible, spiritual world on the earth that exists alongside the physical world.

Believers enter into the secret place of the presence of God in their hearts by coming before God in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ: “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” (Romans 5:2). When we believe in the heart and confess with the mouth we are standing in the Presence, which is the secret place of the most High. We may not feel any different, but we believe the word and promise of God and we know where we are hiding.

By faith we know that we are abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, living, remaining, and staying under God’s protection. “Under the shadow” means we are very close to God and the shadow hints at the wings of the mother hen gathering her chickens underneath the wings. This picture is designed to provide for us a clear sense of security and safety. We can also enter in to His Presence by praying this picture specifically: picturing our self under the shadow in the secret place. In the secret place God speaks Gospel to us: I love, I forgive you, I am keeping you.

If we could only see those huge and strong wings overshadowing and covering we would feel completely safe and comfortable. But we don’t see, so we believe the description of what is promised and we know we are safe and secure.