(The Man God Blesses) Psalm 91 — Zac Poonen

I picked out four psalms, and those of you who have read the psalms, some of them are very familiar psalms, one perhaps not so familiar. We looked at Psalm 1, first of all, where we saw that the man God blesses is one who avoids sin and obeys God's word.

And then we looked at Psalm 23, where we saw that the man God blesses is one who allows the Lord to lead him. And then we looked at Psalm 73, which is not such a familiar psalm, where we saw that the man God blesses is one who is willing to suffer here on this earth.

Psalm 91 and the Protection of God

Now we want to look at the fourth one, which is Psalm 91, which is again a familiar psalm. And this teaches us that the man God blesses is protected by God. I believe we need to have faith in that, in the times in which we live.

There are many people who think that one place is more secure than the other, or one country is more secure than another. But this may have been true in past days, but as we approach the end of time, and we see the fulfillment around us of the words that Jesus said, there shall be wars and rumors of wars.

He said that would happen. And though we pray that every war will be short, we cannot imagine that the word of Jesus will not be fulfilled. We cannot imagine that as we approach the end, there'll be no wars, because Jesus said there will be wars.

And there will be rumors of wars. And Jesus said, you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. We don't see that yet. In some nations, it's a little, there's more freedom, but things are changing.

There was a lot more freedom in India a few years ago, but things have changed suddenly over the last couple of years. There are people being killed who preach the gospel, and a lot of threatening, and people whose names are on death lists who preach the gospel.

We never heard of such things, even a couple of years ago. Things are changing quite rapidly. And in such a time, we must remember that the safest place in all the earth is the center of the will of God for you.

If you can say, Lord, I always want to be in the center of your will for my life, that's different for each of us. God's called me to India, so I believe that's the safest place for me. There's no place on earth safer than that for me at the moment.

The center of God's perfect will is the safest place. Every other place is dangerous. Outside of God's will, wherever you may be, you are in danger. And you will discover that as you approach the end of time more and more.

And that's why it should be our prayer, each of us. Prayer with Jesus taught us to pray, Thy will be done on earth in my life, as it is done in heaven. And if that's the longing of your heart, you can be pretty sure that you're secure.

Dwelling in the Shadow of the Almighty

And Psalm 91 is really written for such people, because it speaks here in verse one of he who dwells in the shelter or the secret place or the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

Now, when I think of shadow, I think of a verse in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, which says that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, God, you know, they were in the desert, in the wilderness of Sinai for 40 years, and they would have all died of sunstroke, heatstroke, if it were not for one thing.

God provided them a shadow during the daytime hours from the sun. It was a pillar of cloud that came from heaven. It wasn't a regular cloud, it was a cloud that gave them a shadow from the heat of the sun.

And that pillar led them. And as long as they followed that pillar, they lived in its shadow. And they were safe because they were following the leading of the Lord. They were moving in God's perfect will, but only it's only if some Israelite got a bright idea to move up on his own, then, of course, he was in danger.

But as long as he was following that pillar of cloud and living in its shadow, he was perfectly safe. All types of enemies could come, the Lord would defeat all of them. So that pillar of cloud symbolized the Holy Spirit.

It was a pillar that came from heaven, symbolizing the Holy Spirit that would come on the day of Pentecost. So this verse looks forward to that time when we would have this divine protection, this cloud of the Holy Spirit over us.

And we seek to follow his leading in everything he says to us. And primarily, you know, very often when people seek God's will to seek to follow the leading of God's will, when we think of being the center of God's will, we're thinking of a lot of practical earthly things like, should I buy this house?

Should I buy this car? Should I marry this person? Or many, many earthly things like that concerning which we have no clear revelation in God's word. But we can't start there. We got to start with the things that are already revealed in God's word.

Which speak to our conscience, for example. If you ever got a grudge against somebody, forgive that person. You don't need to seek God's will about that. It's already revealed. Or if you have hurt somebody, the Lord said, leave your gift there.

Don't pray. Don't don't ever pray in your life if you hurt someone till you go first and ask forgiveness from that person and then come and offer your prayer. Very few Christians who seek to live by these principles faithfully.

We're never supposed to give an offering to God and prayer is an offering. If you've gone, if you've hurt somebody without first going and asking that person's forgiveness, whoever that person is. Now, if you're not sensitive to these little things, which the Holy Spirit has already revealed in his word, we're not following the cloud at all.

We're not in the shelter of the Most High. We're not living in the shadow of the Almighty. We're going to face problems and we'll be like those Israelites, I said, who got bright ideas to move out on their own in the wilderness.

And there are all types of dangers there. Poisonous snakes, wild animals. And that's what a lot of Christians face. So here's the first thing we must remember. The psalm is not written for everyone. This psalm is written for those who want to live here in the shadow of the Almighty, who want to follow the Lord, who don't want to go ahead of him, who don't want to lag behind him.

When the pillar moved, the pillar of cloud moved, they moved. When it stopped, they stopped. They didn't run ahead. They didn't lag behind. It's speaking of a sensitivity in our heart and conscience to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit when he speaks to us.

And if you want to hear the voice of God more clearly. I would say, listen to it in the areas where God's will is already clearly revealed in scripture, and then we can move in the shadow of the Almighty.

The Lord as Refuge and Fortress

And the very first thing it says about a person who's living like that in verse two is, I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress. In the olden days, the way an army used to protect itself was by building a fortress, solid fortresses, many feet thick, and they would stay inside.

They'd be perfectly safe. And here it says that the Lord is like a fortress protecting us from the attacks of the enemy, a place of perfect defense. And then he mentions two enemies in verse three. Now, we're going through scripture verse by verse.

I was mentioning in the earlier studies that there are two ways you can study scripture. One is by topics where you pick up a topic, go to a concordance. That's the easiest way to do it and go through all the verses that speak on that topic, whether it's grace or forgiveness or mercy or sin or love or peace, whatever it is.

And the other is, both are good, is like we're doing right now, verse by verse by verse through a chapter to see what God has to say to us there. And here you find the very next thing that God says here is about his being able to deliver us, verse three, from the snare of the trapper.

There is a trapper waiting to trap us, and he's very clever. You know how these trappers trap animals in the forests? They dig a hole and cover the top with what looks like the rest of the surroundings, grass, etc.

And an animal that doesn't know any better walks right into it and falls. And this is how Satan seeks to trap Christians everywhere. The Bible says Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And there's only one person who can deliver us. Our cleverness cannot. Man is cleverer than the animal he traps. Every trapper is cleverer than the cleverest animal. And Satan is cleverer than every man.

There is a verse in scripture in Ezekiel 28 where God himself says to Satan, you are cleverer or wiser than Daniel. God considered Daniel to be the wisest man, not Solomon, by the way. Solomon's wisdom was earthly.

But among all people that lived in the Old Testament, God considered Daniel to be the wisest. And he told Satan, you are wiser than Daniel. He's too smart for any of us. And that's what should put a little fear in our hearts, a healthy fear, so that we cling to God and say, God, if you don't protect us, we'll get deceived into something which we think is right and we'll be completely wrong.

The Bible says Satan is a deceiver. And he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. So he's a trapper. He will deliver you from every snare. I praise God for that. You know, there are Christians I've heard who say things like, oh, the devil attacked that person.

The devil attacked that believer. I remember once a pastor in India said when he was, you know, bedridden for eight or nine months, he said, oh, the neighbors did black magic on me and I was knocked out for nine months.

And I said, where was Jesus all that time? And who won the victory on the cross, by the way? Was it the devil or was it Jesus? Have we got our wires crossed here? I'm amazed that the number of believers I have met in many, many places who are scared of the devil, who haven't yet heard the good news that Satan was defeated on the cross.

You know, there are two parts to that good news. One is that when Jesus died, he took all the sins of everybody in the world. There are millions who haven't heard that yet. In exactly the same way, there are many other millions who haven't heard that Satan was defeated on the same cross when Jesus died.

And just like those people who haven't heard that their sins were all taken by Jesus on the cross still live under the burden of sin, there are many Christians whose sins are forgiven who haven't heard that Satan was defeated on the cross, who live in the fear of Satan.

It's exactly the same. That's the good news we need to hear. He will deliver us from every snare of the trapper. If your ambition in life is to do the will of God, you can be absolutely sure that no trap of Satan can trap you.

Impossible. We're not to be afraid of the devil. What is the picture you have in your mind of Satan? It's one of the things that comes up again and again in this psalm. Do you have a picture of yourself running for your life and Satan chasing you and you're trying to avoid him here and there?

That's not the picture the Bible gives me of the devil. The Bible says, I resist the devil and he flees from me. Have you read that in James chapter four, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. But the first part of that verse says, submit to God, then resist the devil and he will flee from you.

I am not supposed to flee from the devil. I'm supposed to flee from temptation. That's true. I don't put myself in places where I can be tempted because I'm a weak human being. And I say, Lord, I don't want to expose myself unnecessarily to temptation, but the devil, I don't have to run from him.

I don't see a single scripture anywhere in the New Testament which says run away from the devil. No, it says run away from immorality, run away from idolatry, run away from the love of money, run away from temptation.

And those are the things a lot of people are not running away from. They're not running away from the love of money, they're not running away from immorality, they're not running away from temptation, but they're running away from the devil.

You see how we got it all upside down. We're not supposed to run away from the devil, we're supposed to resist him and he will flee from us. Yeah. So the Lord will deliver us from the snare of the trapper.

Sin as a Deadly Pestilence

And that speaks of Satan. And the second thing he'll deliver us from is the deadly pestilence, that sin. Sin is a deadly pestilence, a deadly disease. Think of the deadliest disease in the world and the smallest sin.

Yeah, I want to repeat that the smallest sin is worse than that. If only we could see that. If only we could see that that thing which you think is just a slight loss of a temper or a little lusting with the eyes is worse than the worst disease.

No disease can ever send you to hell. Do you know that? No disease can send you to hell. People can have the worst diseases and still go to heaven. But it's not the same when it comes to sin. The smallest sin can send you to hell.

Now, think of a small sin like not forgiving somebody, somebody who hurt you many years ago. You still haven't forgiven them. Isn't that a very small thing? That's not a terrible thing like adultery or murder or something.

It's just a reasonable grudge you've got against somebody for his having hurt you. You've got every reason to not forgive him. But Jesus said, if you don't forgive others their sins, your heavenly father will not forgive you.

That's clear. Heaven and earth will pass away. That word will not pass away. I want to tell everyone sitting here. If there is one person anywhere on the face of this earth, I don't care what harm he did to you.

It may be difficult to forgive. That's OK. You ask God for grace then. And you say, Lord, I'm willing to forgive. I want to forgive that person. You can be honest with God and say, Lord, he's done such a terrible evil to me.

I find it almost impossible to forgive him. But because your word says that, I want to forgive him because you've forgiven me so much. I want to forgive. Now, if a person doesn't do that, he doesn't take that seriously, according to the word of God, God will not forgive that person.

And I don't believe there's a single person who can enter the portals of heaven who's got even one unforgiven sin. So what happens to that man who thinks he's a Christian, who went along to meetings regularly every Sunday, but had this small little sin of not having forgiven someone?

That took him to hell, where the worst disease would not take him to hell. I believe one of the unfortunate things I see in Christendom everywhere today is that people do not take sin seriously. It's a deadly pestilence.

It's a plague. And until I see sin for the horrible, wretched thing it is, I will not seek to fight it. I will not hate it. You know why God wants to get rid of all sin from our lives? It's exactly the same reason, like I've always said, why you want to get rid of all diseases from your children.

If your child's got five diseases, you want to get rid of all five. That's how God wants to deal with sin in our life. He will deliver us from the devil, and he will deliver us from sin. Only God, verse four, he will cover you with his pinions.

Depending on God’s Faithfulness

Under his wings, you will seek refuge. You know, God has deliberately made the devil cleverer and stronger than man. Remember, ultimately, that before the devil became the devil, when he was the highest of the angels, it was God who made him.

It was God who gave him the supernatural gifts that the devil has today. God never took it away. He took away the anointing. He took away grace, but he didn't take away the gifts. Just like, you know, if you gave somebody a birthday gift and a year later he turned against you, you wouldn't go back to him and ask him to give back the gift you gave a year ago.

God didn't take back the gifts, but he took away the anointing. He took away grace. You need to note that a man, that can happen to a human being, too. A Christian can seek God in sincerity at a particular time and receive supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit from God and then backslide.

And he doesn't lose his gifts, but he loses the anointing and he loses grace. And we see many examples of that around us today. The anointing is gone. The Christ-likeness of their ministry is gone. The grace is gone, but they still seem to be able to preach well.

They still seem to be able to exercise those gifts because God hasn't taken it away. And the clearest proof of that is the devil himself. He's got gifts, he's got abilities, and God's allowed him to have abilities far more than man.

He's cleverer than man. It's like I was saying in the morning, God allows his people to be weak compared to the enemy so that they will not depend on their own strength. It's always David versus Goliath.

Goliath is the enemy, much more powerful than this weak little boy, David. And David, you and I are like David, we're not like Goliath, we're like David. But Goliath is going to be slain, his head's going to be cut off.

It was by faith in God. So when God allows you to be weak in any situation, and the problems you face to be much bigger, far beyond what you're able to handle, that's exactly how God planned it. That's not surprising.

That's the way God planned it, so that you will never trust in yourself. If you look at your problems and the devil like Goliath, that's absolutely right. But then you've got to see God as bigger than Goliath.

See, that's what happened in the borders of the promised land too. You see, the same story repeated. The Israelites went to the borders of the promised land, and you look at the giants, and all those giants, this is before Goliath's time, were, you know, the forefathers of Goliath, huge people.

And all those Israelites felt they were like grasshoppers in front of these giants, and they got scared, except Joshua and Caleb. They said, well, these are, we look like grasshoppers compared to them, but they look like grasshoppers compared to God.

And that's what made them enter and possess the land. So God, remember this, throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament, God seeks to make his people weak. This is a lesson that I believe many Christians need to have firmly established in their mind.

God seeks to make us weak so that we will depend on him. God didn't want to make the Apostle Paul strong. He wanted to make him weak. If you have a doubt about that, read 2 Corinthians chapter 12 sometime.

It's the second to last chapter, 2 Corinthians 12, where he says, God gave me a thorn in my flesh to make me weak, so that I would not depend on myself. Before that, he says, I was strong. I depended on myself, and the result was I was proud.

But God humbled me, deflated me. And so this is so that we learn to depend upon him. And it says here in the last part of verse 4, his faithfulness is like a shield and a bulwark. God is faithful. And in the New Testament, there's a wonderful promise.

It's one of the most wonderful promises for those who are seeking to live a life of victory over sin. And it's related to God's faithfulness. It's in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. It's been a tremendous comfort to me through the years as I proclaim the message of victory over all conscious sin.

There it says, God is faithful, 1 Corinthians 10, 13, who will never allow you to be tested beyond your ability. That's a wonderful promise. It's based on the faithfulness of God. You know, that's like saying to a student, supposing your son's going to do a third grade examination.

In India, we have finally, I don't know how you have it here in the US, but in India, we have final examinations at the end of the year before a person can be promoted to the next grade. And supposing that boy in the third grade says, Mom, I'm scared whether this teacher will give me a sixth grade question paper.

You've got to comfort him. No, don't worry. You don't have such stupid teachers in the school. They, if you're in the third grade, they'll only give you a third grade question paper. And he's worried.

Oh, supposing I get a sixth grade question paper, how will I ever answer it? I'll fail. Have you ever heard of any student like that? I've seen a lot of believers like that, who wonder, ooh, will that temptation be too much for me?

God is faithful, who will never allow you to be tested beyond your ability. So when a believer says, oh, this is getting too much for me. He's saying, God's a liar. How can it be too much for you? God stopped being faithful.

I have not used the resources of His grace. That may be true. But when a massive temptation comes to you, it speaks of the massive confidence God has in you, that you can overcome that. God is faithful.

He will never allow you to be tempted. And it says His faithfulness is my shield. Whatever the devil says, hey, that's too much for you. The devil says, I say, no, God's faithfulness is my shield. He's promised never, never to allow me to be tested by a trial or a temptation that's too much for me.

I can overcome it. If I ask God for grace, am I weaker than that? Right. I'm like David compared to Goliath. But I can overcome it. God doesn't want me to depend on my own ability. He wants me to trust Him.

Meditating on Psalm 91

So we go to verse five. Here it says, you will not be, verse five and six, we'll read it together. You will not be afraid of the terror by night or of the arrow that flies by day. Here it speaks about dangers in the night and dangers in the day.

Now, I'm also in this process trying to teach you how to meditate on God's word, because a lot of Christians only read God's word. Now, you may have read Psalm 91, but you see how much you have missed now by not meditating on it.

If you had read slowly and thought about each verse, I think you would have thought about the things which I've shared with you this evening. This is how all of scripture is meant to be read, slowly, deliberately.

There are days when I read only one verse, one verse. That's it. And I'm stuck on that verse because I've got to think about it. And the next day, I'm on the same verse again, because God's got something to say to me.

The important thing, now, it's good to read through the scriptures too, and sometimes I encourage people to have one plan to read through the whole Bible in a year, but along with that, to have another time where you meditate on something God's trying to say to you, and have both running simultaneously.

So, we get the overall broad picture of what God's word is saying, which we need. At the same time, we see what God is specifically saying to our hearts at this particular time. So, here it speaks about dangers at night and dangers during the day.

Verse 6, the same thing, of the pestilence that stalks, stalks, you understand the meaning of stalks? You know, following you secretly, trying to capture you. Stalks in darkness, and the destruction that lays waste at noon.

So, that teaches us there are, the daytime temptations are like those open temptations, you know, obvious, I mean, they're obvious, pornography, or the temptation to yell back at someone, these are obvious temptations.

But then there are the night, the night refers to the more subtle temptations, the wrong attitudes, which we don't think of as serious, wrong motives in the good things we do, doing your work for the Lord in order to get the honor of men, things like that, which Jesus pointed out.

So, there are both types of temptations here, and, you know, it's like bacteria. Bacteria is more dangerous than a lion, you know that? I don't think any of us is in danger of being slain by a lion. We steer well clear of lions.

But it's bacteria that's killing people. There's a new disease that I've just read off recently that's spreading across Southeast Asia, which has already knocked out a number of people, and they don't seem to have any cure for it.

It's just a little thing that flies in the air, you can hardly see it under a microscope. Those little things kill. There are these open temptations and the subtle ones, who's going to protect us from them?

Only our Heavenly Father. We're weak. Imagine, I often think of these little bacteria that can kill a human being. I believe this new type of pneumonia has already killed about more than 50 people in different parts.

It's so small, I mean, if a lion kills 50 people, I can understand that, but this thing is just so small, can kill a human being. Aren't we weak? We really are weak. Sin is like that. Our only protection is in God.

Faith in God’s Promises and Victory over Sin

It's not a terrorist bomb, it's a small, teeny-weeny little bacteria, teaching us that sin can be like that. And it says, in verse 7, this wonderful promise, here's how God protects us. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.

You will only look with your eyes, and see the reward of the wicked, or the recompense of the wicked. So that means that, here are 11 ,000 people around me, who don't believe that Jesus can keep us from falling.

Now there's a promise in scripture, in the book of Jude, verse 24, which says, He is able to keep you from falling. Very clear promise. But I have 11 ,000 unbelieving believers around me, who say, no, it's not possible.

As long as we are human, we've got to fall, we've got to fall, we've got to fall, we've got to keep on sinning. I'll keep on losing my temper till the end of my life, my father was like that, my grandfather was like that, and I'm going to be like that.

Okay, according to your faith, be it unto you. You'll keep falling. But, out of all the 11 ,000 people who are like that, here's one person, who stands against the opinions of 11 ,000 Christians, and says, the Bible says, He's able to keep me from falling.

And the Bible says, Romans 6, verse 14, sin shall not rule over you. And the Bible, that's Romans 6, verse 14, the first one is Jude, verse 24. And the Bible says, Romans 16, verse 20, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.

So, I say, the place for Satan, God has reserved a place for Satan that's under my feet. It's not on top of my head. No, that's where he's supposed to be. That's what the Bible says. Now, if you allow him to sit on your head, that's your choice.

But that's not the place God's reserved for him. It's under your feet. But 11 ,000 people say, no, it's not possible. It's all theory. Okay, they don't experience it. 10 ,000 fall on one side, and 1 ,000 fall on one side, but it doesn't come near you.

You stand there. It doesn't touch you. Because you believe that God is more powerful than these little sins, and the big sins, and the devil. And He's able to keep you. He can give you that power through His Holy Spirit within.

That's the whole purpose with which He gave the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. That we can stand. The law of the Spirit, it says in Romans 8, verse 2, has set me free from the law of sin and death.

Some wonderful promises like that in Scripture, which the devil doesn't want you to know about. It's a wonderful song. You will only look with your eyes. What can you do? I've seen around me multitudes of people who find some comfort in seeing that other people are also falling.

Well, this person's falling, that person's falling, so what? What does the Bible say? Are you willing to be one among 11 ,000? Like it says in verse 7, let them fall. They don't have faith. Can you believe that God's word is still true?

I believe that God wants witnesses like that in Christendom today. Who will proclaim by their lives that God's promises are true even today. I remember hearing an incident where there was a man who had a tremendous problem with anger.

And he was always getting defeated, but he longed for victory. And I remember him testifying in a meeting once and saying these words. He said, I always see God when I finish my work in the office. Say, God, please help me not to lose my temper when I go home today.

And every day I fail. And then he said, today, before I left office for home, I again prayed and said, God, please help me today not to lose my temper when I go home. Then he started weeping. And he said, but I fell today again.

And he was going to sit down. And the elder brother said, stop. He said, no, don't sit down yet. You got to say one more sentence before you sit down. You got to say, but Satan, it won't always be like this.

One of these days, I'm going to overcome. You say that and then sit down. That's faith. Never mind if you've fallen 10 ,000 times. Say to the devil, one of these days, I'll know the secret of victory.

Sin will not rule over me. I learned the secret of Jesus keeping me from falling. My brothers and sisters, hold on to that faith. I don't know which is your besetting sin today. Whether it's the lust of the eyes or an uncontrolled tongue or whatever it is.

But whatever it is, hold on to God's promise and say, God, your word is true. And the devil's a liar. Get up every morning and tell the devil he's a liar. He is a liar. And that God's word is true. If you haven't experienced it, it's because you haven't believed till now.

But things are going to change from now on. You will only look and see. Because you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the most high, your dwelling place. In other words, you've decided that God is your permanent dwelling place.

God as the Believer’s Permanent Dwelling Place

This is not a God whom you visit once in a while. Now, I don't believe that we can live a life of victory if God is a person whom you visit once in a while, on a Sunday or for half an hour in the morning.

No, where God is your permanent dwelling place. God, I want to live with you morning till night, every day. Everything I do, I want to do with you. I don't want to go to any place where I can't go with Jesus.

I don't want to sit and watch a television program, which I can't watch along with Jesus sitting next to me. If he is not happy to see it, I'm not happy to see it. I don't want to go and visit somebody whom Jesus doesn't want me to go and visit.

And I want to have Jesus with me when I go to work, when I come back from work. I want to, God is my permanent dwelling place. That's true discipleship. And that's the best life you can ever live. It's the most secure life you can ever live.

But you've got to make a decision to choose that. And even if you have half-hearted, compromising believers around you, even in your church perhaps, whose standards are lower than yours, don't judge them.

That's not our business. God is their judge. But you say, Lord, I want to follow you. I don't want to judge anyone, but I want to follow you. I don't want to participate in anything which I cannot do in fellowship with Jesus Christ.

He is my permanent dwelling place. That's true Christianity. And when we live like that, listen to this, no evil will befall you. Afflictions, yes. Problems, plenty. Evil, none. Isn't that wonderful? No evil will befall me.

That's God's promise. That means that even when someone tries to do something evil to you, because of that wonderful promise in Romans 8, 28, for all those who love God, God will make that evil work for my good.

In some wonderful way, he'll turn it around. And there are many examples of that in scripture. Of the evil that Joseph's brothers did to him that worked for good. And there's a wonderful story in the book of Esther.

That's even more exciting. Well, there was this man called Haman, who sat all night with his wife to make a 70 foot high gallows to hang a Jewish man called Mordecai the next day. And the Bible says, you got to read that story.