Wednesday, December 17, 2025 PM

Psalm 91 as a Sermon of Trust and Divine Protection

Welcome to another Wednesday night. It's my privilege to bring to you guys Psalm 91, and as expected, I have an outline. Are you shocked? So I did simplify this one. This was taken from George Zemeck, who is a former teacher of mine, great guy, and I adapted it.

I'll kind of be referring to this, and then we'll talk about the chart on the other side. Let's pray and ask for God's blessing over our time. Lord God in heaven, thank you so much for the privilege of opening up your word.

Please bless the lesson tonight and teach us what you want us to know so that we can go out into the world and do the work that you have for us to do. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Psalm 91, just read this with me.

I'm reading out of the ESV, so if your language is a little bit different, that's good. 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 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 waits 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 hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Sound familiar? Should. You will tread on the lion and on the ladder, and on 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.". This psalm can be broken up into sermons. Essentially, you have two sermons.

You have the psalmist is giving a sermon, and then God Himself speaks. You see the change in person, you see a change in tone, a change in language, the audience and the speaker within the psalm changes.

You have that main theme there that verse 1, it's trusting in the Lord who protects you from dangers. That's the basic theme. You dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

And then we go into the sermon, His testimony. It's to my Lord. He's saying, this is my Lord. This is who I am and this is who He is. Let me talk to you about Him. So His teaching is, in verses 3 to 4, He describes who God is.

He says He's like a mother hen under His wings and then the pinions is a, at least in my version, pinions are like a wing structure. So the Lord is like a mother hen who gathers her chicks, her broods, protects you from the hunter, protects you from disease.

Verses 5 and 6, He is the creator of light. This is the protection from the dangers of the night, the dangers of the day. Terror and pestilence at night, arrows or destruction during the day. So the idea is 24 hours a day, you're under the protection of the Lord.

And 7 and 8, He is the divine warrior, protection in battle. Next portion, same thing, the Lord protects you. The Lord protects you, the Lord protects you. His testimony again, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, because this is what you have done, because this is who you are and who the Lord is.

Goes into His teaching again, His dependence on the Lord that is His refuge. God's protective deliverance. There's no evil, no plague. Angels will guard you and bear you up. You will tread on dangerous beasts.

This is the psalmist saying, this is who the Lord is and this is who I am in it. And then the Lord responds. He also gives a sermon and He said He pledges to protect those who love and respect His name.

You see that in verse 12, excuse me, in verse 14. He pledges to respond to any believer who prays and calls to Him for help, verse 15. He pledges to satisfy and save those who are His, verse 16. This is a big psalm, there's a lot of promises in here.

Psalm 91 in Its Covenant Context

Does this psalm promise too much? So if you're a follower of God, does that mean that no evil is going to befall you? Because this this psalm promises that it won't. No destruction. Now sometimes when it says evil, oftentimes the Old Testament means calamity.

No calamity, no weather events. We live in Oklahoma, y 'all. No disease. Does He promise you long life and satisfaction? That if you're a follower of God, that you will not die young? You must read Psalm 91 in its covenantal context.

You have to read it in the context in which it was written. Now you know, Michael's talked about this, that the psalms are broken up into books. Psalm 91 is the start of Book 4. It definitely starts with Psalm 90.

But Psalm 89 ends with concerns about the Davidic promises. So if you read Psalm 89, 49, starting there, "'Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by you swore your faithfulness that you swore to David?

Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, how I bear my heart the insults of many nations, with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.'". He's concerned about the covenant that God has made with His servant David, and Book 3 ends.

Book 4 starts with Psalm 90, the Psalm of Moses. And this psalm is taking Israel back to its foundations. It talks about the covenant that God has made with them, starts off with it, rehashes that, goes back over, remember who you are, remember who I am, this is our relationship.

And Psalm 91, starting from that platform, moves on. It actually uses some of the names of God from the patriarchal period, like the Most High, Elyon, or the Almighty, Shaddai. You heard the old song, El Shaddai, God Almighty, that's what it is.

So it uses these ancient names for God, to bring them back. So Psalm 90, Psalm 89, is God still with us? Psalm 90, this is our relationship. Psalm 91, the petitions of Psalm 90 that Moses brings up are answered.

So the petitions of, let's try to look at verse 13, "'Teach us to number our... return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad in our days.

Make us glad for our days that you have afflicted us for as many years as we have seen your evil. Let your work be shown to your servants, and let your glorious power to your children be known. Let the favor of our Lord be upon us.

Establish us in the work of our hands. Establish us, establish us, calling out to the Lord.'". Those petitions are answered in Psalm 91. Verse 16 actually uses the same verbs, satisfy and save. "'With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.'".

So Psalm 91 is a promise. It's God's promise of ultimate victory. It establishes Israel in the power of the eternal God and in the foundations of His covenant promises. He promises us because He's in covenant with them.

And Psalm 92 then continues with this godly thanksgiving for everything that the Lord has done. So you see where Psalm 91 is. It's in between. So the promises of verses 3 through 13, this teaching, where it says that He will protect you.

You'll slay thousands, you'll be protected from pestilence, victory over your enemies, you'll dwell with the Lord. They must be understood in light of the covenant that God has made with His people. And this psalm has echoes of that.

So we all understand that the Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant. Blessings for obedience, cursing for disobedience. We see that in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. It's repeated. And everybody understands the Deuteronomy, second giving of the law, so it's kind of a microcosm of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.

So we have a couple of different references here. So Psalm 91 is a rehashing of the covenant. If you keep covenant, these are the blessings that you will get. So do not be afraid. You see that in Psalm 91 5.

So going back to Leviticus 26, I will give you peace in the land, you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. Or, with disobedience he causes panic. And that's verse 16. I will do this to you, I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever, consume your eyes and make your heart ache, and you shall sow seeds in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

Or, in Psalm 91 verse 7, a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. That echoes back to the chasing of a thousand or chasing of ten thousand. And again in Leviticus 26 verse 7, you shall chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.

Five of you shall chase a hundred, a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall by the sword. Blessings for obedience. Or, your enemies will overrun you and you will be vomited out of the land, cursing for disobedience.

You see the same thing in this same chapter. The beasts of the land will be taken out and driven away before you. Or, they will be let loose and they will run all over the place. This Psalm, verse 13, you shall tread on the lion and on the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

Pestilence. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 say that before they will protect you. Or, you will get the cursing of these diseases of Egypt. So if you keep covenant, no evil shall be allowed before you, no plague shall come near your tent.

Verse 10. Or, you'll have the diseases of Egypt. So can you see that this is paralleling the covenant that God has made? So this covenant is conditional. So what kind of person keeps covenant with God?

Psalm 91 tells us, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge. And 14, because He holds fast to me in love, I will deliver Him, I will protect Him, because He knows my name.

The Mosaic Covenant showed God's people that they couldn't keep the terms. Anybody who's read Romans or Galatians or Ephesians knows that. Isaiah 40 through 66 shows that Israel fails in her mission. And eventually, Michael will get to Isaiah 40 and through 66, and we will read about the new servant called Israel who will keep the covenant and bring those covenant blessings.

That is the Christ. That is Messiah. That is whose birth we are going to celebrate very soon. We can't keep this. They couldn't keep this, but Christ can. Christ is the one who responds in full faith and full confidence.

He is the one, verse 9, who has made the Lord His dwelling place. He is the one, 14, who holds fast to the Lord in love and is protected because He knows His name. That is the one that is responding in full faith and confidence.

Christ, the Temptation in the Wilderness, and New Covenant Fulfillment

So, is it any wonder why in 14 and 15, Satan, the adversary, uses the words of this psalm in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 to tempt our Lord? The temptation was for Jesus to demonstrate the truth of this psalm in relationship to His identity.

In effect, He was saying, prove you are the Son of God by showing the truth of 11 and 12, 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.

Show everybody who you are. Show me who you are. Prove it. It's right there in the Bible. Jesus rightly sees this temptation for what it was. It was not a demonstration of trust in God. It was a test, and He responds with Deuteronomy 6, 16, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

He knew who He was. Satan knew who he was, and he knows who his Father is. He didn't need to do that. He can pray Psalm 91. Our Lord Christ can pray this knowing that His Father delivers Him. He demonstrates what it looks like to live a life full of trust, full trust in God.

And He could pray Psalm 91 with full confidence that the Lord answers that prayer, because He says, when He calls to me, I will answer and I will be with Him in time of trouble. And God Himself speaks and confirms, speaks here, confirms the truth of 1 through 13.

God affirms that He will deliver this Son of David and all those who follow Him in faith in fulfillment of these covenant promises and blessings. And in the context of the New Testament, for us in the New Covenant, for whom Christ is our mediator and our High Priest and our sacrifice and our temple, for those of us in the New Covenant, verse 16, long life I will satisfy Him and show Him my salvation.

This is complete salvation and eternal life. Now that Christ has come, that's what that means for us, because we are in covenant with God because we are in Christ. So the faithfulness of Christ guarantees that those who are in Him experience the fullness of these covenant blessings.

So when? When does that happen? Well, at His first coming, He brings salvation in the New Covenant. He's brought that. He inaugurated the kingdom with a death, burial, and resurrection and ascension at the right hand with all power and authority.

He commissions His people to share the good news of this kingdom. And the covenant blessings have been given to all the nations. Is this not Genesis 12? All the nations of the world will be blessed through you.

What does Galatians 3 tell us? That the blessing to the world that was promised through the seed of Abraham, it is the Holy Spirit. That is Galatians 3 .14. The blessing of Abraham to the nations is the Holy Spirit and that comes through Christ and Christ alone.

So we are joint heirs, we are sons of God, we are sons of Abraham, we are joint heirs with Him. And that's how Galatians 3 ends. That Holy Spirit is the down payment, it is the guarantee of the future inheritance.

It's Ephesians 1. But we also have another promise. Christ promised us, in this world you will have trouble. There is a promise of persecution. There is a promise of trouble. There is a promise of suffering until He comes again.

He experienced that. He was persecuted. He was murdered. Did God not deliver Him? God absolutely delivered Him and exalted Him and He rules as King of kings. Talk about deliverance. But it was through suffering that He won that victory.

At His second coming, so that's everything from the first coming that says, so when? When do we have the covenant blessings? Well, first one's happened. Second, at His second coming, Christ brings the fullness of this kingdom and His people will experience the promises of Psalm 91 in their fulfillment at His final victory.

Living in the Safety of Christ Between His First and Second Coming

Okay, so what? Important question to ask. How do you apply this? Why is this important to you now? And Psalm 91 was written a long time ago. You know, Christ fulfilled it. He got the temptation. He went through the temptation.

So, you know, this is done, right? Why this is important to you now is to understand that between His first and second comings, there will be hardship and suffering. You don't get to read Psalm 91 and says, I am good, I can go play in traffic.

You only do that once. So yes, you will have suffering. Yes, you will have hardship. And yes, some of us die young. But those who believe in Jesus Christ can live in the full confidence of the promises of Psalm 91 because nothing can defeat, ultimately, the child of God.

No disease, no pestilence, no enemy, no calamity can ultimately harm the one who is in the secret place of protection. Verse 1, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

Where is that safe place for us? In Christ. Right. Romans 8, verse 1, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1, been predestined before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him.

You're safe. In Him, you are safe. Ultimately, Psalm 91 8, you will look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. All enemies will be defeated. He will have all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Christ, who tramples the serpent of Genesis 3 .15, tramples the serpent with His followers. So we have that you will tread on the lion and on the ad of the young lion and serpent you will trample underfoot, verse 13.

Romans 16 .20, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Nothing separates us from the love of Christ, not danger, perils, nakedness, sword, persecution, prison, nothing.

That's Romans chapter 8. As you read Psalm 91, keep in mind its covenantal context and who has won the blessings because you're in Him. And if you're a joint heir with Him, you have access to those. Doesn't mean that you won't have suffering in this life because our Lord suffered in this life and He has been exalted and He will win the ultimate victory and you are in Him.

These are not my words. This is Richard Belcher. It was just so good. I wrote it down and we'll end with this. Through Christ our King, our mediator, who keeps the covenant, who dispenses covenant blessings and wins our victory, we are more than conquerors.

Pray Psalm 91 because Christ prayed Psalm 91. Understand its context and understand who won the victory and know that you are safe in Christ alone. To Him be the glory. Let's pray. Oh God in heaven, thank you for our time.

Thank you for the victory that is won through Christ. Help us to know you better through the Psalms, through our singing, through our meditation on them. And thank you that no matter what, nothing separates us from your love in Christ and it is in His holy name we pray.

Amen.