God Protects his People (from Himself)

Psalm 91 as a Promise of Protection Through Christ

Well, if you turn your Bibles to Psalm 91, we'll read all 16 verses of the psalm. This preaching text will be verses 3 through 10. Please stand for the reading of God's word. This is the word of our risen Savior, Jesus.

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 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 shall 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 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. God bless the reading and now the proclamation of His word. Please be seated. As I said last week when we opened up this psalm, C .H. Pershing thought this psalm to be a most cheering psalm.

While the great Puritan Matthew Henry said that because its promises apply to Christ Jesus and come to us, Christ Jesus' children come to us through Him, they are the more sweet and sure to all believers.

And so this afternoon I want to discuss or preach to you about these promises, these promises that are the more sure, the more sweet for our believers because they come to us through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

What are these promises? I just read through the psalm for you and if we take the psalm in its plainest text just off the surface, it seems pretty all-encompassing, pestilence and plague and arrows and ferocious beasts and deadly snakes, even stones that might bruise our feet, none of this can cause harm to the Christian, right?

Because God's going to protect you from it all. He is your refuge. He is your fortress under His pinions, the furthest extent of a bird's wings. You are protected. You are covered. You have shelter. And so none of these things can do any harm to you in any way, right?

Well, no, not quite right. Experience would tell us otherwise and the psalm itself teaches otherwise. There are many promises in Psalm 91. It is, as Spurgeon said, a most cheering psalm. It is, as Matthew Henry said, more sure and certain and encouraging, I would add, to believers.

But as with anything in the scripture, before we go about claiming and relying and living according to these promises, we need to understand just what the inspired author had in mind when he put these promises of protection, these assurances in this inspired word of God.

And we can ask, did he mean to communicate to us that, for example, in our day, COVID -19 has no claim on those who say, my God, in whom I trust. It will not come near you. I can tell you from my experience just a couple of months ago, it came near me and I was quite ill from it.

Many of you have had the same experience and know people who've had that same experience. Do we have here hope that God will neutralize the deadly venom of a cobra? Cobra is what Adder really should be translated as, that you can actually jump on the back of a lion and trample him down.

Well, of course, the psalmist doesn't mean that and very few of us, if any of us, would go into a zoo, for example, and sneak into the lion's den and jump on the back of the lion and say, God says I'm going to trample you down, therefore be trampled, any more than we would stick our hand into a nest or a coven of rattlesnakes, which are even less dangerous than a cobra.

No, we wouldn't take it that way and that is not what the psalmist means. But he does give great and sure promises. He does give assurances to us that help us in our life of faith, our walk in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He gives us these assurances in the name of the Lord and they are assurances, they are promises that are certain, that are, as it were, guaranteed by Yahweh, the unchanging God, my God in whom I trust, my God, my risen Savior in whom, Lord willing, you trust.

So while we cannot take them wouldn't-ly and literally, there is a literal truth and literal promise behind the metaphorical language that is used. But first, what is this psalm about, especially these verses 3 -10 where we're going to focus just for a little while this afternoon.

Well Psalm 91 is about God protecting his people. And from what does he protect his people? Primarily from God. The late R .C. Sproul used to say what you really need to be saved from is God. We talk about being saved from the devil, being saved from hell, being saved from our sin, all true enough in certain contexts.

But I always liked the way he said that. The one you need to be saved from is God. And I think that's what Psalm 91 can teach us. It's about God protecting his people from himself. It mixes metaphorical language of the poet with the literal language of the historian.

You have metaphorical language mixed with literal historical language. And in verses 3 and 4 we have that very kind of a mixture. This helps us understand these promises that we can then go and rely upon and even claim.

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. So God will deliver you from these things.

Snare and from the pestilence. What's a snare? A snare is a bird trap, of course. In ancient times it was a slipknot of sorts, a noose, if you will. And the bird hunting fowler would lay in the loop of some likely thing, some kind of a lure, some kind of attraction that would bring the poor bird into the middle of the loop, pecking away at this lure, whatever the bait was.

And then the fowler, the bird catcher, would snap closed on the, would pull his end and it would snap around the bird's feet and you're done and you have dinner. Well, you and I are not birds at risk from the snare of a fowler.

And even if we should step into one of those kinds of traps and the fowler would pull it against our ankle, it's not going to pull us down because these were for small birds. It's metaphorical language anyway.

Just as the next verse which tells of God's pinions in his wings is metaphorical. God doesn't have pinions because God is not a bird and God's faithfulness is not an actual literal metal shield or buckler, which is simply a smaller shield worn on the wrist.

And yet there's a literal truth there. God's faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. God's faithfulness is a protection for us. God who never changes, God whose promises are yes and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ, is a protective shield for us.

His faithfulness, though not being a shield or a buckler, his faithfulness is his very nature, his fealty to his own freely given word. The symbols though, the metaphorical language, though we're not literally birds, this metaphorical language does convey to us literal important truths.

Truth about ourselves, truth about God. Truth about us. We're prone to wander into danger. We're prone to see the lure and not the snare that goes around the lure. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

The world has many attractive lures for us, does it not? Things that draw us in, things that remove our attention from the Lord Jesus Christ and put it on something we can gain in this world. Some kind of instant gratification, some kind of quick pleasure.

Get rich quick schemes. We can see these kind of lures put in the middle of a snare, this metaphorical snare, and yet literally trapped pornography, riches, pride, drugs. We could add more and more and more to that list.

What do we do with something like that? The snare of the fowler, I would admonish you. Do you feel attracted towards something? Look carefully at what that attraction is. Is it from God's word? Has it been bathed in prayer before you step in and reach out for it?

Look carefully at this attraction. Is it gratifying the flesh or is it increasing the spirit? Is it bringing you closer to Christ or is it simply a satisfaction you get now in this world and quickly? So stop.

Don't hop in the middle of the hidden loop that's ready to snag you. Think of the old expression. If it sounds too good to be true, it ain't. If it sounds too good to be true, it's not true. Ask yourself, does this meet with God's word?

The more you want it, the more attracted to it you are, whether it's in that short list that I read a moment ago or whatever your own personal attraction is. Look at it. Look at it carefully. Ask yourself, why do I want this?

Who gets built up by this? Who gets knocked down by this? How does this bring me closer to Christ's image? What would my wife say? What would my children say if they walked in and here I was with this attraction, whichever one it is?

Ask yourself those kinds of questions. Does it meet God's word or is it a cheap substitute? You know, the expression of love between a man and a woman is a gift from God. The easy gratification of it through porn, through adultery, through fornication, is a lure.

The satisfaction of an honest day's work and the food on the table that that honest day's work brings to us is a blessing from God. Get rich quick schemes or a life of constant striving for more and more and more is a lure.

It's a trap. It may put more money in the bank, but it depletes the resources of the soul. So let us use the metaphorical language of the fowler's snare to understand a literal truth that we can be ensnared.

Well, we're not birds at risk from fowler's snares, but at times we're a little smarter. And then there's metaphorical language about God and his opinions. Well, God, of course, is no more bird than we are.

But as it did for us, the metaphor conveys truths about him. As I said before, opinions are the furthest extent of a bird's wings. So the truth of that symbol, the truth of that metaphor, is that God watches over his people to the fullest extent that he is able.

He is able. You can almost wince when you say that, but that's the truth. He is able, as far as he is able. So how far is he able to protect? You know, Nebuchadnezzar, who the fowler caught by putting pride and arrogance into the snare, he finally confessed of God, none can stay at his hand or say to him, what have you done?

So if you're protected by the opinions by the fullest extent of God, what is that extent? Well, it's infinite. There is no end to it. There's no limit to it. God knows all things. God sees all things.

God's decreed all things. God is all powerful, all present, all knowing. He's all everything. And Jesus Christ himself said, nothing shall be impossible with God. So we have a metaphor, opinions. There's an end to opinion.

Whatever bird it is, it's the furthest extent of their wings. But God, in the metaphorical language of opinion, his furthest extent is infinite, and this is the protection. This is the literal truth of that wonderful metaphorical symbol.

I want to make one final observation before I move on from the fowler's snare. God is pictured here as a bird with opinion, or with pinions, doing what? He's rescuing birds. Now you think about it, a sheep cannot help a bird, nor can a fish give aid to an elephant.

Men rescue animals of all kinds. We see those clips of firemen rescuing dogs or cats. We see people who rescue birds from oil spills and clean their wings, and such like that. But the rescue that we have pictured here is of a type where the rescuer or the protector is like the one being rescued or protected.

God's pinions makes him out as a bird in metaphorical language. And what's he rescuing? Those who are caught in the fowler's snare, or about to be caught. I think the language there is kind of important, where God pictured as being like the one he rescues.

In Exodus 7, verse 1, we see God saying to Moses, see I've made you like God to Pharaoh. John 1, verse 14 says of Jesus Christ, and the Word, and we know what the Word is, the Word is Jesus Christ, the Word is the eternal Son of God, very God of very God, Jesus in whom the fullness of the deity dwells bodily, Jesus who was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

That Word became flesh and dwelt among us. See in Christ, God became as we are in order to rescue us. Now I know I'm stretching the language of the God having pinions and rescuing birds from the fowler's snare, but it just struck me that we have God pictured as a bird rescuing birds, God becoming like that which he is rescuing in metaphorical language.

But Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the never-ending second person of the Trinity, he did literally, not metaphorically, but literally became as we are in order to rescue such as we. In Jesus Christ, God became what we are, man, to rescue us from what we are, sinners.

Let's move on to the pestilence. The pestilence sent by God, the pestilence which brings death, the pestilence which is God's judgment on sinners, the pestilence in verses 3 and 6, the terror of the night in verse 5, the it of verse 7.

All of those refer to the same idea of this pestilence that he is protected from that will not come near him, this one that I last week called the hero. You recall that when he hears, he who dwells in a shelter of the Most High, for he will deliver you, for you will not fear.

It's the choir calling out these encouragements of this hero who's ready to go out on some great spiritual venture, David, Joshua, Moses going out to meet the enemies of Israel, perhaps the high priest going into the holiest place to intercede on behalf of the people.

Well, the pestilence is not the metaphorical language of the poet, but I think it's the literal language of the historian, the hero in his endeavors, this warrior going out to battle, the high priest, whoever it is.

And he's being reminded that he is safe from the one from whom safety is most needed, which is God. And Jesus made this very clear in Matthew 10, 28, when he said, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. The key word here is pestilence. In Hebrew, it's deber, pestilence. In Hebrew, it's five times in verses three through 10. I'll go through these again real quickly.

Verse three, it's pestilence. Verse five is terror of the night. Verse six is pestilence. Verse seven, it will not come near you, is the pestilence. And verse 10, plague, which in meaning is very similar to pestilence.

This word is used roughly 50 times in the Old Testament. It's something deadly. It's something against which there is no defense. And most importantly, in all but a very few cases, it is something sent specifically by God.

It's a specific act of God as a specific act of judgment against specific people. Now, C .H. Spurgeon thought that the allusion was to the fiery serpents that we've come across in Numbers chapter 21, where God sent the serpents as a pestilence, as a plague, as a judgment against his people.

Now, I agree with him there, but I would go further, and I would liken the pestilence to the entire Exodus event, especially the 10th plague. Pestilence from God is what worried Pharaoh's advisors. That's Exodus chapter 5, verse 3, and 9, 15.

They saw how the plagues were ruining Egypt while having no effect on Israel. It did not come near them. The pestilence of darkness was over all the land, but you recall from Scripture, there was light where Israel lived, in Goshen.

God sent one pestilence after another against his enemies, all the while covering his people with his pinions, if you will. Israel was being saved from the one from whom they most needed to be saved, which is God.

I mean, who else can tell the pestilence, go this far and go no further? Who can tell the pestilence of the 10th plague, strike that household, but pass over this one with the blood on the doorpost? Only God can do that.

I mean, who alone can say to the pestilence that he sends, touch not my anointed ones? Only God, who sends the plague, can decree the limits of the plague or the pestilence. Well, this is how the promises of Psalm 91 work in real life.

This explains why Christians died in the current pandemic or in the Spanish flu in the early 20th century. Now, while we can unabashedly credit God as the ultimate agent of COVID -19, the current plague is different from the ancient one.

Both are under God's sovereign control. Both were sent by God. The difference is that our pandemic, this COVID that's been around for three or so years, it affects us all. It affects everyone. I don't presume to know God's mind, but I can say from scripture that if God has done it, and he has, then he did it for the sake of his own glory.

He did it that men might see how frail they are and how short this life is, that they might repent and come to Christ for salvation. The pestilence of our Psalm of Exodus, the pestilence that will eventually sweep through the whole world when Jesus returns, is a pestilence that is only predicted or given as a type.

In the ancient times, this is the pestilence from which you are delivered. When the Psalm says in 91 .3 that you will be delivered, it's this pestilence, this one sent by God. This is the pestilence that 91 .5 says will incite no fear because we're in Jesus Christ and because we are in him, we are safe from the wrath of God.

Believing Israelites were saved by the inward working of faith and the outward working of putting the blood on the doorpost. And so, in the same way, we're saved by our faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, which covers, as it were, our doorposts.

The pestilence in Psalm 91 all references back to this great Exodus event, which all shoots forward to Jesus Christ and his life and his death and his burial and his resurrection. That's why we can look at COVID and understand that it could affect the whole world and even the Christians.

And understand the Psalm, which says, but the pestilence will not come near you. Because the pestilence of the Psalm are these direct, specific judgments of God and ultimately direct, specific judgment of God with the pestilence of eternal death.

For those who, when Jesus returns, have still rebelled against him. This is why we can say, yes, we are covered by his pinions. This is why we can say, yes, I know that this pestilence will not come near me.

We have to have the right pestilence in mind. Now, COVID might come near. For many of us, it has. But the pestilence sent against those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, that pestilence has God-given limits.

It will not touch those whose faith is in Christ. Verses 7 and 8 say that a thousand may fall at your side, 10 ,000 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.

Was this not fulfilled in the Exodus? Did not Israel see Egypt fall? Did they not see with their own eyes the waters return to their course and drown the pursuing Egyptians with their chariots and spears and arrows?

Now we can understand verse 9, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place. And remember verse 2 where he says, I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. And now he interjects the most high, who is my refuge?

Dwelling under God's pinions. Dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty is the great protection that we have. And all this is a matter of faith in Jesus Christ, his death on your behalf, his burial, and again, most importantly, his resurrection.

See Psalm 91 does not promise us protection against every danger. Too many martyrs have died to God's glory to hold to something like that. It does not promise immunity from any disease, much less COVID.

Psalm 91 does promise that those who are in Christ Jesus by faith are safe from the pestilence God sent and sent and will send against his enemies, a pestilence that will strike them dead just as the 10th plague struck the Egyptians dead.

But not a single hair on a single Israelite's head was harmed. So in Revelation 6, we read of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the first horseman on the white horse, the one in the lead, the one in charge, the one who's sovereign.

That's, of course, Jesus Christ with the three following him and doing his will. You think of the red horse, verses three and four there, that brings violence to the world by taking away the institutions that had maintained peace.

In verses five and six, the black horse, that rider brings economic insecurity, if not collapse. But then verse seven and eight we have, when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come.

And I looked and behold, a pale horse, and his rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

That's the pestilence of eternal death, of eternal dying in the presence of the Lord. It's what scripture calls the second death, eternal condemnation, or hell. It's the ultimate pestilence, the one that is anticipated by the others.

Psalm 91 .3 says that God will deliver from this pestilence. 91 .5 says we will not fear it, and verses seven and ten say it will not come near you. So who is protected and how are they protected? Well, the who is those who trust in Jesus Christ.

Who alone can protect you from God, from God who sends the pestilence? And the how is faith. To believe that the pestilence is what you deserve for your sins, the foul or snare you fell victim to because you wanted the lure more than God, to believe in your heart that Jesus Christ on the cross died for your sins, that he in his body as he hung on the tree suffered the pestilence that you and I deserve for our sins.

This is the protection that God gives to those whose faith is in Christ. This is why we can say the pestilence will not come near you, not the COVID pestilence. That's nothing compared to this other, and this is the one from which we are because of faith and because of Jesus Christ in him alone immune.

Psalm 91 is a treasure trove of promise. His true promise is that by faith God protects his people and protects them from himself. Amen?