The Anxiety Psalm - [Psalm 91]

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As you all know, we're living in a pandemic, but not really of a virus, but of fear.
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People are afraid out of their minds. Fear is abounding. It seems like it's multiplying.
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Everywhere you go, there's a feeding frenzy on fear. People are afraid of what people think.
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People are afraid of the virus. People are afraid of government overreach. People are afraid of the future.
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People are afraid of death. People are afraid. How should a
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Christian think through these issues? When difficulty is around the bend, political upheaval, persecution of the church is here, and coming very soon for more persecution, shouldn't the
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Christians act differently than the unbelievers? What should our response be?
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Spurgeon said, there's only one creature that God has ever made that doubts him. The sparrows do not doubt.
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They sweetly sing at night as they go to their roosts, though they know not where tomorrow's meal shall be found.
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The very cattle trust him, and even in days of drought, you have seen them when they pant for thirst, how they expect the water.
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Angels never doubt God, nor the devils. Devils believe in tremble, but it was left for man, the most favorite of all creatures, to mistrust his
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God. This morning, Christian, I wanna remind you that you can trust the
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Lord, that you don't have to be afraid, that the fear of COVID is not the beginning of wisdom.
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It is the fear of the Lord. And so to help you with this, turn your Bibles to Psalm 91.
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In the book of Psalms, right in the middle of your Bible, there are 150 there. We'll look at Psalm 91 today.
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I wanna know what God says about this to put myself in perspective, to put you in perspective.
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Between trials and troubles, plagues and predators, what do we do? Do we flee?
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Do we fight, fight or flight? What do we do? How do you deal with fears?
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And for you, and for me, as we struggle with fear, anxiety, worry, and doubt,
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Psalm 91 is a good balm for your soul. I think maybe after today, you'll go back regularly and read
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Psalm 91 when you get to feel those creeping doubts and those anxieties and that shortness of breath.
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And it could be for COVID. It could be for anything else in life to reset you to think properly,
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Psalm 91. What does God say in His word? And that's always a good place to go because when we look inside and we look at feelings and we look at circumstances and we look at Fox News and we look at the
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Drudge Report, used to be able to, you know, as I preached to you, I'd say, you know, Fox was the conservative and CNN was the liberal.
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Now I have to say Fox and the Drudge, but that's another point. This Psalm will remind you that you can't out -believe
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God. You can't out -trust God. You can take Him at His word. He's faithful. So what we'll do today as we go through Psalm 91, maybe
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I can couch it in, I don't want it to be cheesy, but I want it to be memorable because we all struggle with the sin of fearing man and fearing other things besides God.
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We struggle with the sin of anxiety. So to set our minds right, like a guidance system,
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GPS, every time you get in your car, put your phone on, your TomTom, whatever it might be, and you set the
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GPS, this is kind of guidance for how do you deal with fear, worry, doubt, and a lack of trust.
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And it's gonna be simple. God is G, great. God is P. I messed up in the first service because I gave
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He's great, He protects, and He assures, and that's a GPA. So if you want a high
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GPA, that's the sermon. But if you want to know what I want to talk about today, GPS is
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God is great, He provides or protects, and He secures. It's simple, GPS, Psalm 91.
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We'll get to another book to go through chapter by chapter soon enough, we'll do some psalms in the meantime.
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Today, Psalm 91, you can trust the Lord in spite of anything that's going on internally or externally.
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Who wrote this psalm? Well, we don't really know. It sounds like it's a good follow -up to Psalm 90.
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It sounds similar to Psalm 90, the way it's written. So some people think since Moses wrote Psalm 90, that Psalm 91 and 92 are also written by Moses.
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It doesn't matter if Moses wrote it or not. The Holy Spirit, He did write it.
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And this language is the language that the Spirit of God gives to His children so that they might take security, not in vaccines, not in politicians, not in November 4th, but in the triune
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God. Athanasius, that great defender of the faith who said,
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Jesus is God, said this to his friend. And I say it to you. If you desire to establish yourself and others in devotion, to know what confidence is to be reposed in God, and what makes minds fearless.
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If you'd like to have a fearless mind, you will praise God by reciting the 91st
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Psalm. This is that kind of Psalm where I remember when my children would be very small in a year or two years old and they'd have a dream and I'd go over and pick them up and I would just hold them nice and tightly to demonstrate that they're secure in daddy's strong arms.
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And I would sing them that little song, everything's all right in my father's house. That's the perspective of this, because when we get our mind elsewhere, we will have anxiety, doubts, mistrust.
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So Psalm 91, let's call it the anxiety Psalm. Not inducing, but preventive.
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All right, Psalm 91. Number one,
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God, the triune God is always great, G, great, for GPS, so trust him.
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Verse one, see if you can spot the names of God, the titles of God, to give you a
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God -centered perspective on the issues. Psalm 91, one and two, he who dwells in the shelter of the
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Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the
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Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom
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I trust. Do you see what he's doing there right at the very beginning? He's looking at everything through the lens of who
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God is and his names and his attributes. How many do you count? Well, there are several.
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First of all, the Most High. This is a divine title and it focuses on God is sovereign.
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He rules, he reigns, he's above, right? So at the very beginning, he's trying to tell you, listen, viruses aren't sovereign, governments aren't ultimately sovereign.
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This is the sovereign God. He's not just high and exalted, he's the
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Most High. And when poetry is written in the Old Testament Psalter, the
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Psalms, this is a great title that's used often. God is the exalted ruler of the universe from the molecules and the atoms to the solar system.
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God is sovereign. He's the Most High. My fears aren't the
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Most High, the world isn't the Most High, he is. Do you notice there's another word that describes who
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God is to set our minds away from self, away from events, so we focus things rightly, so that just shall live by faith?
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The Almighty, El Shaddai. Genesis loves this language,
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Moses loves it, Job loves this language. It has to do with strength. It has to do with, you know, if you think about lifting, there's weight lifting and there's power lifting.
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This has the sense of ultimate power and strength. You probably know the song, right? That's how you know this
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Hebrew word, El Shaddai, El Shaddai, right? No, OK, well, you don't listen to much music.
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That's, I guess, a plus. I admit, Michael Smith, El Shaddai, El Shaddai, Elker Common, Adonai.
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What? Michael Card? Well, to his discredit,
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Elker Common is not in any known language, so he just is speaking in tongues, I guess. I don't know.
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Excuse me, Michael Card. Made famous by Amy Grant. Yes, did I get that part right?
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I want to be an expert in the Bible, not pop Christian music. So, you've got a problem, you're worried, you're fretting, you fear.
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By the way, the world is selling this. How do you make people do things? One is play to their greed, scratch this off and you get money, or put it all on black.
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And another way to get people to do what you want is to make them afraid. People sell fear, they make money off of fear.
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The first thing you do is like, I have to see things properly. I have to see things properly that God is the most high,
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God is the powerful one. That's not all. It'd be one thing if he was exalted, but does he care?
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Is he concerned about me personally? And you see capital L -O -R -D there in verse 2. Hebrew is
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Yahweh, that's his personal name. Yahweh the Father, Yahweh the Son, Yahweh the Spirit. He cares, he makes promises, he keeps his covenant.
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Not only is God most high, not only is he powerful, but he cares. And you think the ultimate care, the ultimate concern, the ultimate eminence is the incarnation of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant name for God.
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Seeing the world's events through the lens of who God is, not the other way around.
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And you see there's another one, finally, God, our Elohim. When you see
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Elohim, or just the English word G -O -D, in the Old Testament, it's creator.
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He makes things out of nothing. God creates light. So he's creator, he's sustainer, he provides.
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So right at the very beginning where you're thinking, okay, how do I navigate the world? How do
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I say where I need to go as I'm trekking in my pilgrimage from earth to heaven?
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I have to make sure I do it within the lens of God is great. The problems aren't great, I'm not great,
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God is the great one. He's the most high, he's El Shaddai, he's the
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Lord Yahweh, and he is Elohim. And you'll notice, which is kind of interesting, there's some other words that are used, metaphors, figures of speech designed for you to trust him.
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Do you notice verse one, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow.
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All that is talking about this great God gives great shelter, great shadowing, great oversight, my refuge, my fortress, my
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God in whom I will trust. This psalm is designed for you to trust the
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Lord, to not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will what?
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Make your paths straight. R. King James says what? Direct your paths. You think, okay,
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I have to walk by faith, not faith in faith, but faith in this triune God. Looking to the
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Lord for security even though there are legitimate dangers. He will pile up in this psalm, image after image after image after image to make sure you get that God is great and he protects and he secures.
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Maybe the verse that summarizes the book of Ruth is in Ruth chapter two.
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And Ruth chapter two talks about how faithful God is. Listen to what
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Matthew Poole said. I wonder if you can say this. Upon that ground that is who
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God is, I will confidently commit myself and all my affairs to God.
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Doesn't a Christian do that? I'm committing my eternal life and my temporal life, God into your care.
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I'm committing the future into your care. I will confidently do that, why? Not because of who
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I am, not because of my faith, not because of what I do, not because of my nation, not because of my status, but because of who
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God is. I'll take refuge. I'll seek safety, comfort in this
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God. The psalms start off this way, Psalm two, blessed are all those who take refuge in him.
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God is great. Dear Christian, when your trials are great, you need a greater
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God to deal with them. When your trials are minuscule, a little kind of pocket pet
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God will do. God is faithful. The text says he's to be greatly feared in the counsel of the holy ones and awesome above all those who are around him.
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So the psalmist right at the very beginning, he says, you know what? I'm gonna have to make sure
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I understand that I see everything through the lens of who God is. GPS, guidance,
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God is great. Number two, found in verses three through 13, God protects.
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Now, what you'll notice as you look at verses three through 13, we have a pronoun change.
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From verses one and two, I will say, I trust, to now you, he will deliver you.
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Verse three, he will cover you. Verse four, you will not fear. Verse five, a thousand may fall at your side.
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Verse seven, verse eight, you will only look. Verse nine, because you have made the
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Lord a dwelling place. Verse 11, he will command his angels concerning you.
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Verse 12, bear you up. You will tread. Verse 13.
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So we've gone from one kind of pronoun, I will say this, to another, you will say that.
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And you know what some commentators say? I don't know if it's true or not, but it would be great if it was. All the
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Psalms are songs. And so verses one and two are sung by this part of the choir.
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And then antiphonally, three through 13 are sung, are repeated back to these.
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I'm gonna trust in God. Now over here, God's gonna deliver you.
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And you hear this kind of back and forth of who God is. He's my personal God, and he's also your personal
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God. When you see all these yous in verses three through 13, you want to know that they are singular.
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He could be preaching to the choir, but he's preaching to individual Christians so that they are not going to, let me see the technical word for this, is to freak out when the world is gonna sell you fear.
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And they are. Verse three, look at the protection.
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God's not only great, but he protects. All this figurative language designed to do one thing, to increase your confidence in who
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God is. He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
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By the way, is this Psalm relevant? Verse three, deadly pestilence. Verse six, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness.
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Verse 10, no plague come near your tent. Sounds pretty apropos for today.
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Here in verse three, he's going to deliver you from the snare of the fowler. What is a fowler?
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What's King James say? Fowler? What's a fowler?
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Well, it's somebody that catches birds. And if you're a good fowler, the birds are at your mercy because when the fowler catches the bird, there's no way to get out.
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And so this language here, this metaphor from the avian or bird world, is
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God will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
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It's almost like he's gonna heap up all these words of comfort with figurative language. And it would like apply to every situation.
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It wouldn't just apply to COVID -19. It wouldn't apply for just my loved one's sick. It wouldn't apply for what about money for the future retirement.
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It could just apply to anything. That's the idea. And he says, from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
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Committed God is to protecting his people. And here we have figurative language.
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A bird can't protect himself or her. Is it bird, him or her? They can't protect themselves. We can't protect ourselves from many things.
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We're helpless in many, many areas, but God will protect. Verse four, look at this language.
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How great is this? It'll make you wanna get a dictionary to look up some of these words. He'll cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge.
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Three times in the Psalm, refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.
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That's so good. It's language to fortify my soul because like me, like you, we're just tempted to follow off into anything that anybody's selling and before you know it, we need a reset.
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It's like, I need my computer rebooted because after hours of watching
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Fox News and CNN and listening to all these things, I'm like, what? And here we have this language.
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Protection, faithful protection. The verse I alluded to in Ruth two, Boaz prays, the
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Lord repay you for what you've done and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the
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God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. That's the exact kind of language.
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Do you see what he's doing here? Cover with pinions. Under his wings, you'll find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield.
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His faithfulness is a buckler. That is great. That's encouraging to my soul.
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I don't have to defend myself. I have a defender, the ancient of days. This language of wings.
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Of course, it's figurative. God doesn't have wings. Now, the whole
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Psalm could have been, God's great and he'll protect you and he'll keep you secure, but with this language, it's memorable.
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You wanna sing it. It lends itself to telling other people regarding God having wings and this idea of under his wings, you'll find refuge.
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Spurgeon said, had it been invented by an uninspired man, it would have been verged upon blasphemy.
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For who should dare apply such words to the infinite God? But as he himself authorized, yes, dictated the language, we have here a transcendent condescension such as it becomes us to admire and adore.
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Does the Lord speak of his feathers as though he likened himself to a bird? Who will not see herein a matchless love, a divine tenderness, which should both woo and win our confidence?
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That's the idea. So you think I've got all these problems. I don't know about the future. Everybody's selling fear for a living and I'm gobbling it up.
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What do I need to do? I need to make sure I understand these truths about who God is. By the way, that's a good reason to read
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Matthew Barrett's None Greater about the attributes of God. Pink, the attributes of God. So many books charnock about the attributes and existence of God to set my mind rightly so I might respond with praise like this 1689
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German hymn. Praise to the Lord who over all things so wondrously reigneth, shelters thee under his wings, yet so gently sustaineth.
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Has thou not seen how thy desires there have been granted in what he ordaineth?
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Praise to the Lord who hath fearfully, wonderfully made thee. Health hath vouchsafed and when heedlessly falling has stayed thee.
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What neater grief ever hath failed of relief. Wings of his mercy did shade thee.
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Christian, God is protecting you. If he gave his son to die for you and the spirit of God, Ephesians one, to seal you to the day of redemption, like an engagement ring.
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With thee I do wed comes the regular wedding ring. And he says, I'm gonna be faithful to you to the very end.
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Why are we so frightened? Why am
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I so frightened? Did not Jesus say something similar to this kind of language?
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Listen, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often
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I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.
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Satan is a roaming lion. God will protect you. Sin destroys,
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God will protect you. For those who have taken refuge in Christ Jesus, the risen savior who's died on behalf of sinners and they've trusted in him, you're fine, safe and secure.
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Verse four says, a shield and a bulwark or a buckler. Probably the root has to do with wall.
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That God's like a wall. You've got a shield to protect you and you probably lock all your shields together if you were in the army back then.
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But then there's also in front of the shield, there's this huge wall that's up to protect you from the enemies.
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He's a buckler. He's a bulwark. He has fidelity.
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He protects. No wonder Paul says to the Christian, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who's at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Not a what, but a who.
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Probably he's talking about Satan. Is Satan going to do that? Then he gets to the what? Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger are soared?
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Might I add viruses, government persecution, and everything in between? As it is written, yes, we do suffer.
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The text knows that. For your sake, we're being killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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Know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
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For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. That's for the Christian. And of course, our eyes are immediately thinking, yes,
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I believe that, but I wish I believed it more. And that's why we look to the Lord Jesus who ultimately dwelt in the shelter of the
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Most High, who ultimately abided in the shadow of the Almighty, who ultimately said to the Father, You are my refuge and my fortress, my
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God in whom I trust, not just at Calvary, but also in the Garden of Gethsemane. And God the
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Father certainly delivered the Son from death itself. Back to Psalm 91, verse five and six.
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I mean, there's some pretty bad things out there. Do you think maybe there might be a bad circumstance that might get me?
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Verse five, 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.
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Do you know what he's saying? Do you see it? You will not fear. I think the writer is saying, you know what?
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I expect you to obey this. Running around afraid of everything except the fear of the
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Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Running around afraid of everything and knowing who God is.
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He's your fortress, your refuge. He's the Most High. He's the Almighty. He's Yahweh.
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He's God. He does all this for his people. If he had the Son Jesus die for you, don't you think he'd protect you?
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And therefore, you must not be afraid. He expects you to obey.
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I am certain that within our church, there are people who are paralyzed with fear because of the virus.
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I'm not saying the virus isn't true. I'm not saying some of our loved ones here have died from it, but I am saying you are not to be fearful of things.
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And the real issue isn't even the virus. It has to do with death. Who conquers death? So he gives some things here, even a merism.
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Remember what a merism is? Easier to find than it is to say. M -E -R -I -S -M is when you say day and night, darkness and noon.
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It's day and night and everything in between. It's just totality. It's just everything. It's a poetry kind of device so you know completeness.
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God is gonna take care of everything. And what do we do when God's enemies fall?
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What's our response? Verse 7, a thousand may fall at your side, 10 ,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
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Why? Because God protects. He's not only great, he protects. What's our response? Get them, fight them.
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No, here's what we do. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
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When it comes to enemies that are real, that are people, that are after God's people, what do we do as Christians?
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We just sit back and watch them perish. Has nothing to do with not trying to evangelize them. It just has to do,
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God is going to take care of you so he'll take care of your enemies. You just look on. This reminds me of Exodus 14.
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Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he'll work for you today.
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For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you only have to be silent.
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Side note, our enemies are not Democrats, Republicans in the government or unbelievers.
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They're not our enemies. Verse nine, because you have made Yahweh, there's his personal name again.
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You see some of the language coming back like a good song repeating things. You'll see Yahweh here in refuge.
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You have made Yahweh or the Lord your dwelling place the most high. There's a repeat from verse one as well.
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Who is my refuge? I could say this way, theologically.
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You've trusted in the Lord. You've agreed that he's the risen Savior Jesus. You've assented to that truth and you've put your trust in him.
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And therefore, you know when things go on in the world, you might have things happen to you, but nothing will escape the providence of God.
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And he has not ordained anything that will happen to you that wouldn't be for God's glory and for your ultimate good.
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Verse 11 and 12, people say, well, is Psalm 71 messianic? I certainly think
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Satan thought so. As he, of course, remember taking some of these words from these two verses and gave them to Jesus at the great temptation of our
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Lord Jesus, which thankfully, although Adam was tempted and failed,
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Eve tempted and failed, Israel tempted and failed, David on a rooftop tempted and failed. How many times have
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I been tempted and failed? Is there anybody who's gonna be tempted and will not fail? And even when Satan tries to slip in these verses,
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Jesus doesn't fail. 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.
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Every bit of God's personal care extends to every particular
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Christian. God's faithful. Satan was not able to derail
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Jesus. Of course not. Well, look at verse 13.
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There's some pretty bad things here. Back in those days, what would be the worst thing you could run into? You'll tread on the lion. How'd you like to meet a lion in the wilderness?
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And the adder, how'd you like to meet an adder? What's worse, a young, ferocious lion and a serpent you will trample underfoot.
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These images that he uses of things that can hurt people, kill people, you'll tread on them.
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Okay, now think about this for a second. Fear does what to people? Well, it makes them panic.
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It makes them, I don't know what to do. I'm paralyzed, like inert.
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Is this person who sees who God is, is this great God of protecting God? What happens to this person?
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Paralyzed? No, you will tread on the lion and the adder. It's language for forget the passivity.
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You can be aggressive. Here's what I would say pastorally. You are still called, dear
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Christians, to evangelize, are you not? Well, I'm too afraid of all this stuff. And I can't, of course, if you're older and you can't get out or somebody's compromised,
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I'm not saying that about anything, but I am saying this. Live with confidence, live with trust.
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Use your spiritual gifts. Work, serve, evangelize, live life. Because God is your mighty
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God. He's your saving God. Don't just crawl into a hole and die.
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No, we still live with confidence. Well, how do we get ourselves through life?
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Well, God's great. God protects. And now, if you are with the acronym for GPA, he assures, if it's
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GPS, he secures. Verses 14, 15, and 16.
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So think big picture with me here, Christian. When you're tempted to fear, to be worried, to have doubts, could be about your children's salvation, could be about something with your spouse, could be about finances, could be about health, could be about the future, could be about anything.
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Psalm 91 is a good template to walk through and to preach to yourself.
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You have to regularly preach to yourself. Matter of fact, when you call me for counsel, what do I end up doing?
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I usually preach to myself. Here's the typical conversation in the car when just I'm in the car by myself.
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Quit it. Abendroth, just stop that. Mike, repent. Mike, how could you be so stupid?
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Don't do that anymore. That's the negative side. And then the positive side, God's faithful, Mike. You can trust him.
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Great is thy faithfulness. His mercies are new every morning. God, please wash my mind by the renewing of my mind because I am prone to wander.
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I'm prone to just cycle into, I'm afraid of everything and I'm worried about everything.
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When you call me, I don't call you stupid, but I preach to you and I remind you who
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God is. The whole thing about life in general, it's a Trinitarian solution.
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Who is God? And am I his? Maybe I will change it to GPA.
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So verses 1 and 2, I will, I will. 3 to 13, you are gonna be protected.
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You're protected. You're protected. You're protected. And now we hear something else.
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Verses 14, 15 and 16. Look carefully as you read your Bible. Do you see a quotation mark that starts verse 14 and ends verse 16?
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The answer is yes. Someone is talking. Someone who hasn't talked before.
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And now we hear from God himself. We hear from God himself. And here's
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God's response. And this is how he gives great assurance, great security, great protection.
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This is the pledge of God. If I could figure it out a GPP, I would.
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This is the pledge of God himself. What does God say about it? Well, my governor says one thing.
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My spouse says one thing. The world says one thing. Political pundits say something.
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I'd like to know what God says. Who gets the last word? In this Psalm, he does. And in your life, he should.
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God is great. He protects and he secures. Verse 14, 15 and 16.
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Because he holds fast to me in love, I, God, will deliver him. Now watch all the
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I wills. I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name.
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When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and I will honor him with long life.
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I will satisfy him and I will show him my salvation. God is committed to you,
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Christian. If the son died for you, does he now just go, well, you're on your own. I hope you'll make it.
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No. Commentators call this an overriding commitment. I will deliver.
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I will protect. I will answer. God promises. What's the text say here in verse 14?
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I like this. It's marriage language, by the way. Because he holds fast to me, that's cleaving, where you hear husbands and wives are to leave, husbands are to leave and cleave.
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That's that holds fast to me in love. That's a passionate desire one might have in marriage.
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I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. That's also marriage language.
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Adam knew his wife. This is language of a relationship with God and his people that marriage reflects.
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Think Ephesians chapter five, where we have Christ and the bride as a great picture for a man and a woman, not originated in time, but in eternity past and the counsels of the triune
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Godhead as the father and the son come up with a plan to redeem the elect and the father sends the son, the son goes and the spirit of God attends.
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God is the one doing the talking now. God is preaching to those people who are worried and weary and fearful.
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Verse 15, what kind of a great father is God to his children those trusting in Christ Jesus for their salvation?
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When he calls me, I might answer. I might be around when he's in trouble.
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Does the text say that? Of course it doesn't say that. When he calls to me, I will answer him.
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What a great thing, the goodness of God as a father. I think I probably told you the story many times when my kids were little,
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I'd always have them stand up on top of whatever car we had from, I don't know what my first car here was a
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Pinto or something and stand up there to the wind star, wind bag, whatever it was and I would have them,
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I'd say toes on the edge and when daddy says jump to daddy, you jump to daddy and they would, after a while, they would just jump, they wouldn't even think about it and I'd go farther back and farther back and catch them and as my back got worse,
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I couldn't go as far as back as I used to and I would catch them and I would just hold them securely, daddy caught you, you can trust your father.
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And then that one day I read that account where a dad put his kid up on a car, a son, said jump to daddy and the kid jumps to daddy and obeys his dad and then the dad steps back and lets the kid just crash.
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And he goes, the lesson today, son, is don't trust anybody. If I'm a good dad and I'm sinful, how much more you think about, here's what
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God says, okay, God, I'm afraid, God, I don't know what to do,
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I'm hurting, I'm sinning, please forgive me, I need help, when you call him, guess what he does?
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He answers and what probably is better than even answered prayer and the assurance that God hears is that middle phrase in verse 15,
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I'll be with him in trouble. I don't have to go it alone. Think Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, there was one more person in there, was there not?
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The second person of the Trinity. Daniel, although we're not particularly told this, it's true,
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Daniel is in the lion's den and he is not alone. Jesus, when he gives the great commission, it could be a template for the entire work of Jesus.
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And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So why am
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I freaking out and being paralyzed with fear? And then it says in verse 16, with long life,
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I will satisfy him. Probably thinking about temporal length of days back to the covenant in Deuteronomy.
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But of course, as Christians, we see where this is going. And it's not just temporal salvation for us as we know, it's ultimate salvation and show him my salvation.
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What a great truth of God's refuge, his deliverance, not just in the covenant established in Deuteronomy, keep these commandments and live in the land, but ultimately the ultimate promise of God.
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Do these words, dear Christian, wash over your soul and guide it.
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Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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In this, you rejoice. Oh, now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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The Christian life is we put off one thing, fear of anybody but who God is, and we put on something else, trust, confidence that yields itself into praise.
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I just wonder if my own life, if my praise meter, my trust meter, or my fear of everything that's gonna happen, not because of the virus, but in light of the virus, what is going on?
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What's my heart? And it's like that man that said, you know what, Lord, make my heart sit down.
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I need to be calmed. I need to be rebooted in my mind. Every single
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Saturday night, I reboot this computer to make sure it doesn't go haywire when I'm preaching. It's like I'm so focused on something that I just need to be reminded, hey, hey, you're thinking too temporally.
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You're thinking too focused on feelings. You're not focused on the Word. Why do we go to church on Sundays?
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There's lots of reasons. One is to hear some good news, and the good news is God can be trusted.
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He's faithful. And you, dear Christian, need to have a realization that you can confidently entrust your soul to the living
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God. God here, it could be a whole sermon I need to close. God wants you to have assurance.
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So many people, I'm gonna take your assurance away. If you drink the wrong thing, eat the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, don't have your
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Bible devotions, don't do this, don't do that, all your assurance is gone. God knows our frame. He's mindful that we're but dust.
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He knows we sin, but since He sees us in Jesus, we're good. You look to yourself, you're not gonna get much assurance.
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You look to Lord Jesus, you're gonna get a lot. You look to this God who's the
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Most High, who's Almighty, who's the Lord, who's God, who's the refuge, who's the fortress. Say, I wish
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I loved Jesus more. That's true, but my standing isn't based on do I love Him? That has nothing to do with gospel, that's all law.
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Did I bear enough through the Spirit? How firm is my faith? How faithful am I? Is my faith solid enough? Do I love God enough?
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Do I read my Bible enough? Do I love the lost enough? Have I confessed enough? Have I repented enough? Have I believed enough?
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Wrong. I want you to do those things, but in light of God who says, you know what?
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I will deliver you, I'll protect you. You know my name, I'll call. When you call, I'll answer,
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I'll be with you, I'll rescue you, I'll honor you, I'll give you salvation. Why? Because of Jesus. What's my kind of strategy for life?
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Well, I have to have a strategy that says, you know what? In light of who God is, maybe I could answer with Romans 8, 1.
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What should we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be what? Against us.
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To what degree would God be for me? Verse 32 of Romans 8, He did not spare His own
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Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
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Christian, God is great, so trust Him. God protects you, so trust Him. God secured you,
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He gives you a pledge, so trust Him. The Lord Jesus knew and proclaimed that God was great.
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He knew that God protected Him, and He knew that God would raise Him from the dead. I close with a wonderful account of Charles Spurgeon regarding killer plagues.
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In the year 1854, Spurgeon said, when I had scarcely been in London 12 months, the neighborhood in which
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I labored was visited by Asiatic cholera, and my congregation suffered from its inroads.
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Family after family summoned me to the bedside of the smitten, and almost every day I was called to visit the grave.
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I gave myself up with youthful ardor to the visitation of the sick, and was sent from all corners of the district by persons of all ranks and religions.
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I became weary in body and sick at heart. My friends seemed falling one by one, and I felt, or fancied, that I was sickening like those around me.
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A little more work and weeping would have laid me low among the rest. I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear, and I was ready to sink under it.
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As God would have it, I was returning mournfully home from a funeral, when my curiosity led me to read a paper which was wafered up in a shoemaker's window in the
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Dover Road. It did not look like a trade announcement, nor was it, for it bore a good, bold handwriting.
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"'Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, "'even the most high thy habitation, "'there no evil shall befall thee, "'neither shall any plague come night thy dwelling.'"
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Expersion. The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girded with immortality.
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I went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit. I felt no fear of evil and suffered no harm.
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The providence which moved the tradesman to place those verses in his window, I gratefully acknowledge.
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And in remembrance of his marvelous power, I adore the Lord, my God. Sounds like somebody who needed
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Psalm 91. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much that you're so great, that you protect us and that you have assured us through your securing hand.
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Thank you for that pledge. And we can realize with the writer of Hebrews that you'll never leave us nor forsake us.
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And if you give your son the greatest gift, wouldn't you give us everything else? So, Father, we would confess that we all too often are afraid and fear and worry and doubt.
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Would you please forgive us? Would you forgive me? Would you help us to be those who certainly can be wise, certainly can take precautions, but can be bold and fearless, knowing that the government and the virus isn't the most high.
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The government and the virus is not almighty. The government and the virus is not the
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Lord Yahweh. And that we serve a God who sits in the heavens and does whatever he pleases.