Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Shadow of the Almighty | The Writings | Psalm 91

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

Can we ever be completely secure? How do we find peace when our world is falling apart? How do we face our anxious world with poise and confidence? In today's episode, Keith shares how Psalm 91 encourages us to find our peace and security in the shadow of the Almighty. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 91

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the story of Jim and Elizabeth Elliott, but if you're not, you might want to read up on them because they are incredibly faithful Christians and have a really inspiring story. Jim Elliott graduated from Wheaton College in the 1950s, and he, along with some of his buddies, went to Ecuador to share the gospel with a tribe of Oka Indians. Now the Alka Indians never really had contact with outsiders, and whenever they did have some kind of contact with them, the Indians ended up killing the outsiders.

And that's eventually what happened to Jim Elliott and his buddies, thinking that they were making progress and taking the gospel to this tribe, they were all eventually killed for their faith. His wife Elizabeth wrote a book about that experience, and she called the book The Shadow of the Almighty. Now that title, the shadow of Almighty, is taken from Psalm 91. It's one of my all-time favorite Psalms. Here's how it starts. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge in my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.

The fowler snare is a trap that a bird hunter might use. and in this Psalm, it is being used metaphorically. It's saying that God will save you from all the traps that people set for you in the world. God will save you from all the lies, from the traps of consumerism, or the trap of a particular sin that plagues you. And then the Psalm mentions deadly pestilence. This is something like sickness or disease or the plague. Unfortunately, we're all too familiar with pestilences,

whether they come in the form of COVID or cancer. Back to Psalm 91. He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys it midday. There are so many things to fear in the ancient world. But nothing has really changed that much, right? There are lots of ways to get into trouble in the days that we live, whether that's addiction or foolish decisions or being taken advantage of or sickness. sometimes the bad things that happen to us are our fault, and sometimes we're the victim of other people's choices. But regardless of the cause, can we ever really be secure? I mean, if you eat healthy and make responsible choices and always play it safe, are you sure you're going to be okay?

Can we ever have enough security? Can we ever have enough in our IRA to retire? Can we hire enough TSA personnel at airports to make sure we're safe? Can we ever pass enough laws in order to prevent crime? The bottom line is that people in every age must learn to live with real threats. Psalm 91 tells us that ultimately our confidence can't be in ourselves or in laws, but in God. See, if we let them, the threats in this world will steal our joy. They'll steal our peace and replace joy and peace with fear and anxiety. But there's a way to face the real world that we live in with poise and confidence. And that's by resting in the truths of Psalm 91. God can give us peace that passes understanding regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in. Psalm 91 says that God

is our shelter and our refuge and our fortress. It compares him to a mother bird who protects us. It says his faithfulness is a shield and a rampart. Now all of those images are conveying the same message. God is watching over you. God is protecting you. Nothing harmful can befall you. And therefore, it says, do not be afraid. When you read Psalm 91, though, you're overwhelmed by how confident it sounds.

I mean, listen to this. We pick up in verse 7. A thousand may fall at your side. 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you say the Lord is my refuge and you make the most high your dwelling, no harm will overtake you. No disaster will come near your tent.

You notice there's no qualification here. There's no reservation. There's no hesitation. Notice the Psalm doesn't spiritualize these promises or push them off to eternity. There's no sense in which it says, look, you're going to suffer and die in this life, but don't worry because heaven is coming. There's no sense of it's saying your body will suffer, but your body will suffer, but your spirit will live? No, this psalm is pretty straightforward. It says, God will protect you.

Verse 11, for He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra. You will trample the great lion in the serpent. Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him. I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will be with him in trouble. deliver him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. This psalm makes promises that sound absolute, almost like they are an ironclad guarantee, and it promises that the Lord will take care of you no matter what. But we know that's not

reality. We know that faithful followers of Jesus endure horrific suffering. We know that cancer and car wrecks don't discriminate between Christians and atheists. Christians and non-Christians alike endure so much suffering that these promises almost embarrass us. How could God's word claim such a thing? How do we make sense of this Psalm? Well, sometimes when I preach a sermon, people ask why I didn't answer the question that came to their mind while they were listening. And I have to say, I can't cover everything the Bible says on this topic in 30 days, much less than 30 minutes. Well, the same is true for any passage in the Bible, and specifically the Psalms. Besides Psalm 91, there are 149 other Psalms. There's the entire wisdom literature that the Psalms come from,

and then there's the rest of the Old Testament, and then there's the rest of the Bible, including the New Testament. See, all of that is context surrounding Psalm 91. As we've gone through the 150 Psalms this year, we are confronted with quite a few Psalms of lament, Psalms of grieving, Psalms of complaint. Everywhere in the Bible, sincere believers suffer. Just think of Job, which we finished recently here on TMBT,

Job is described as being righteous and blameless, and yet he suffered greatly. Just go back three Psalms to Psalm 88, and you find there a very dark Psalm. It's almost like Psalm 88 is the opposite of Psalm 91. Psalm 88 says about how bad life is, how much the Psalm is to suffering, how far away God seems to him. And Psalm 91 says, look, no harm is going to come near you. Psalm 88 says, From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death, I am filled with despair.

And Psalm 91 concludes with, he will call upon me and I will answer. Psalm 88's last line is, You have taken my loved ones from me, and darkness is my best friend. So even within the book of Psalms, there's reason to conclude that despite all of the promises of Psalm 91,

we cannot forget that even faithful believers suffer. We also know that if we look at the rest of the Bible, there are so many examples of God's servants suffering. I already mentioned Job, but what about Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets? None of them had an easy time of it. Or in the New Testament, think about John the Baptist who had his head chopped off by Herod. Jesus even promised his disciples that they would suffer for his sake. Think about the murder of Stephen for just preaching the gospel.

We know that most of the apostles were arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and finally executed. Think about Jesus who lived a perfectly obedient life and yet was crucified. But if all that is true, what do we make of the promises of Psalm 91? Where is it supposed to lead us? Well, did you know that Jesus quotes a line from Psalm 91 when he was in the wilderness being tempted by the devil? Satan leads Jesus up to a very high place in the temple and then tempts Jesus to step off the ledge. and Satan says to Jesus, look, you should do this because, and then he quotes Psalm 91, he will give his angels charge over you so that you will not dash your foot upon a stone.

See, the devil knows the Bible. He knows the parts that look like blank check promises just waiting to get cashed. And so the devil says to Jesus, give it a whirl. But Jesus refused. Jesus knew that we're not supposed to try to force God to come through for us. We don't test God. Jesus knew that was the wrong way to read the Bible. What Psalm 91 does say is that no matter what happens, if God is your foundation, if God is your

refuge, if God is your greatest desire, then there are several wonderful things that can never change. The first, and maybe the most important is that God loves you and God wants the best for you and God doesn't wish you any harm. So in faith we can ask God hard questions in the middle of suffering and we can affirm that God uses all the difficulties in life to mold us into his image. But we must never doubt that God is good, that He is for you. Psalm 91 assures us that God is always on our side. It's hard to trust people and you've been let down. It's hard to trust institutions because they

often fail us. But you can be sure that you can trust God. He is faithful. He has never failed you. He has never let you down. Turn to Psalm 91 when life is going well so that you will be prepared when the hard things come. Turn to Psalm 91 when you're in the middle of hard things and you need hope. You need to remember that he is for you. God is your shelter in times of trouble. He's your rock that you can build your life on. He's your shield that protects you from your enemies. Put your hope in him.