Psalm 91 (A Different Spirit, Jeff Kliewer)

Pain. Our happiness does not depend on circumstances, Lord, but we trust in you and you alone. Lord, we pray that you would open this word to us today. In Jesus' name, Amen. We all know the story of Numbers 13.

Caleb and David as Examples of a Different Spirit

As the Israelites made it to the edge of the promised land, it was time to go in, but first they sent in 12 spies. And 10 of the spies saw the people of the land and were very intimidated. They were giants in the land and we look like grasshoppers in our own eyes compared to the size of these people in the promised land, afraid to enter.

But Caleb, we're told, had a different spirit. Caleb had a different spirit. He had courage. He, along with Joshua, said, no, we can take the land because God goes with us. Their defense is gone. God is with us.

We can take the land. Well, the people, of course, did not want to hear what Joshua and Caleb said. The typical response of the people was, no, we can't do this. They were filled with fear and so they said, no, we're not gonna go in.

We're gonna turn back. They began to grumble and complain. We should go back to Egypt. We should find ourselves a different leader. Joshua tried to talk him out of this and they actually picked up stones to kill Joshua.

They would have killed him, but God's glory descended and stopped everything and God was about to wipe out the nation. Moses interceded and prayed and God relented from destroying the nation, but he said, on my name I tell you this, they will not enter the promised land.

This generation will die in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb. Caleb will go in. What I love about this story is that it doesn't end in numbers 13 and 14. The wilderness wandering happens. The generation dies in the wilderness, but when Caleb, 45 years later, now 85 years old, sees that it's time for them to enter the promised land, to take a certain hill that he once spied out, he goes to Joshua as an 85 year old man and he says, Joshua, give me that hill.

Give me that hill. 85 years old, he says, I'm no weaker today than when I was 40 years old. Give me that hill. And with courage, he's given the opportunity and he takes that hill through war. That is a courageous spirit.

I love the courage of Caleb. As you continue in the biblical narrative, you come then to the story of David. And of course, he might be the most famous for his courage. Remember who he faced in 1st Samuel 17?

Goliath. But when Saul was skeptical about whether David could do it, because remember Saul should have been the one with enough courage to face the giant, he tries to talk him out of it and says, you're just a youth, you can't do this.

And David reminds Saul, when the lion or the bear came after the sheep, I chased it down and I grabbed it by the beard and I killed it. I have faced both the lion and the bear and the giant will fall like they did.

David's courage was remarkable. And of course, he fought the giant and prevailed. What we learn from this narrative is that it's typical for people to be afraid. What's different, the different spirit is to have courage.

In both of those examples, the people were ready to turn back. They were afraid and it paralyzed them. But Caleb had a different spirit. David had a different spirit. The title of my message today is, A Different Spirit.

And I see it in the words of David from Psalm 91, if you'll go with me there today. David's unusual Caleb-like courage, over against the typical fearfulness of most people, is available to those of us who hold fast to the God of refuge, who is our shelter.

Dwelling in the Shelter of the Most High

If we'll learn to go under the shadow of the Almighty, if we'll learn to run to Him in His shelter, then when the day of evil comes, the day of testing, we'll be found strong, we'll be found under His shadow.

We will have the courage needed. So let's look to Psalm chapter 91. The first two verses, I love the poetry that we have here, but I want you to notice the safety that's found in the shelter, that's in the refuge, it's in the fortress.

And notice the shadow that is over the one who goes there. 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.

It is axiomatic that trusting in God is a position of strength. Axiomatic meaning it's self-evident, it is clear and obvious that if you trust in God you are in a strong position. If you dwell in the shelter of the Most High, you will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

In other words, if you go to where God is, you find God there. And if God is by your side, you are in a strong and safe position. If you draw near to God, courage is to be found there. Because you know who it is that's standing by you, you are under his shadow.

Courage comes from drawing near to God, spending time in that shelter, in that refuge. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. What is courage? Sometimes I think of courage as, you know, what you have to have when death is facing you and you have to go fight a war.

Courage is braveheart when the people are ready to turn back and he decides, no, let's lead into war, let's go be willing to die. Courage is that, but I like what C .S. Lewis said about courage. Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the focus of every virtue at its testing point.

The focus of every virtue at its testing point. It's love, it's faith, it's hope. When tested, when love requires sacrifice, when the person that you're called to love doesn't love you back, and you're tested, what will you do?

It takes courage to love that way. Hope. When all your hope is stripped away and you're ready to take your own life, hope says, I will have courage to live because I trust in God. Faith. When you're facing the giant, or the lion, or the bear, or the land that you're called to take, you say you believe in God, you say you have faith, but courage comes in when that faith is tested, and there's danger before you, and you choose to go and take the land, like Caleb, rather than fall back and die.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but it's the focus of every virtue at its testing point. It's when you're tested. Courage is cultivated in the shelter before you go to battle. So the one who dwells in the shelter is the one who stands in the shadow when the time for battle comes.

David did not wake up brave. He became brave in the shelter. When he was on that hill as a shepherd and began to write hymns to his God, and he spent hour after hour after hour singing and praying to God alone on that hill, something changed in him.

Courage was born first, alone with God, in the shelter, in the fortress, before the day of battle came. And when the day of battle came, he was found ready. He was strong enough because he had been changed.

When the day of evil comes, it's not a matter of if. We as a church are on a day of grief, the time of grieving. Hearing the story at the funeral yesterday of boys having to help their father sit up one last time, and they did that for him.

They were his strength until he laid down to die. The strength to trust God in that moment. When you hold your spouse's hand and you know she can't understand what you're saying, and she's about ready to go and be with the Lord, and you continue to sing over her and pray over her to comfort her right through death, that's courage.

When you have to lay down a nine-month-old baby and let go and say this is only the body, but his spirit is with the Lord, it's those moments that take courage to turn your eyes to heaven. You have to dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.

We can't make it through this life alone. We don't have the strength on our own. But I would hate for any one of us to make it to that moment of testing and be found like the Israelites. The majority lacked the courage.

They weren't ready for the day of testing. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. We all face the day of death. We all bury our loved ones. Will you go to the shelter? Will you run to the fortress?

That's where the strength is found. Psalm 91, three to six, 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 wastes at noonday.

Look at these dangers. And guys, this isn't a promise that you won't die because we know and David knew that we all die and that eventually some danger catches up with us. This is the promise of resurrection and life beyond death.

And the promise that until God has determined that this is your day or the day of your loved ones, you have nothing to fear. And even then you have nothing to fear. He alone has determined the day of your birth and the day of your death.

He holds you and there's nothing to fear. Now as I read some of these things, I wonder, what is he talking about? He will cover you with his pinions. It's a picture of an eagle with wings spread out and you find refuge under his wings.

His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. And many of you are saying, amen, he's a shield and a buckler. And you turn your head, what's a buckler? What is a buckler? A buckler was that small shield that you grab in your hand, just a small round shield.

You cannot block a sword with your hand. It will do nothing to defray it. But a buckler was that small piece of metal, that small shield that you can use to deflect the sword as it comes against you. You will not fear the terror of the night.

What is the terror of the night? Well actually, that's nothing but fear itself. You will not fear terror, is what it's saying. Many people are paralyzed by fear, not knowing what's around the corner and the real dangers that are there all the time.

Guys, listen, the dangers that are in this world are worse than what we know. It's worse than what we know. The little microbes that are around us all the time, that any one of these could kill us if it weren't for God's protection.

And the fact that as humanity continues, we are not evolving to something better. We are devolving away from the prototype. Adam and Eve in the garden were made perfect in the image of God. And when sin and death came into the world, with each generation, there's introduced more and more genetic problems.

And more and more disease comes. I always crack up about going to my kid's dentist. Hopefully none of you know him. But every time I go there, he points out, he said, you know, when I was a kid, there weren't these kind of orthodontic issues.

Now, almost every kid needs braces. He said, it's just the process of evolution. And I always smile and I think, did he forget that we talked about this? And I always tell him the same thing. Now, if the teeth are getting worse, wouldn't that be called devolution?

He said, devolution? What's that? And we've had this conversation five times, no less. Devolution, what's that? And I said, well, that's when you're devolving. Things are getting worse from the prototype, not better.

And he says, ooh, yeah, that's, I think that's right. And that's the case with teeth. Our teeth are getting worse from what Adam and Eve must have had perfectly straight teeth, bright white, and things are getting worse.

Genetic problems are increasing. There's more cancer. There's more issues to be afraid of. But what I read in my scripture is that we can have no fear. Why? He will deliver you from the snail of the, the snare of the fowler.

What is a fowler? Some of you guys were telling me about a fowler on the basketball court. You know, in junior high when, when somebody doesn't know how to play basketball, they're really playing football out there and every time down the court they're tackling and they're grabbing and hacking.

That's a fowler. But this is a fowler with the W. This is a bird trapper. This is the one who's trying to catch birds. You are like a bird and there are traps set for you to catch you and to kill you.

But our God will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. Some of us, I think, are a bit hypochondriac, just worried about every germ. And it's worse than what we know.

Fear not, because God is our only protection. Now, it doesn't mean you shouldn't wash your hands. Keep washing your hands. Keep eating healthy. But listen, he will cover you with his pinions. Under his wings he will find refuge and his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. My grandfather in World War II had to run a message from one battle front to the other and as he ran, bodies were falling left and right.

And when the war was over, he saw horses and animals all shot dead in the field and human bodies. And at that moment, his heart was broken and he was at the end of his rope and he looked towards heaven and he yelled, why?

Almost that prototypical thing you'll see in a movie. He called out, why? And then he opened the scripture, the little soldier Bible that they give the soldiers. I hope they still do that. And as he opened up, it was to Psalm 91 and he read this passage.

That's why this is called the Soldier's Psalm. We don't have arrows flying anymore, we have bullets. And he had perfect peace. He also went to South America and became a missionary. He was in Guatemala and some other countries after he got back from the war.

You see, the Soldier's Psalm reminds us that God is our shield. He's our buckler. He's our protector. There's nothing to fear because he's on our side. When I lived in Kensington, sometimes missionaries would come in and it wouldn't be unusual that we would be doing some kind of project.

Like I remember one time going up on one of the roofs and we were putting on a silver coat so that it wouldn't leak, the roof wouldn't leak. And some of the missionaries found bullets up there. And I said, they said, well what do we do with these?

And I said, it's a souvenir, take them home. You know, nowadays we don't have arrows but we have bullets. Sometimes you hear them at night, living in Kensington, the bullets that fly. And yet, for all the things that we saw, never came near our tent.

Oh, we looked out and it came close. But the Lord was our shield and our buckler. There was a time in Dallas where a guy pulled a gun on me because his friend had just accepted Christ. I remember the guy had crusty blood on his face.

I think it was, he was a drug addict. And he was so angry, I thought, well maybe this is the time. And I was afraid. I can't just say I was at perfect peace. I was afraid. But I turned and I walked away and I prayed.

And I looked back to see him putting the gun back in his bag. That was it. The shield and the protector. It was up to God. The day of our birth, the day of our death, it's in his hands. That's what this psalm is telling us.

Don't be afraid. We have nothing to fear. Verse seven to nine. Here's a picture of the closeness of the danger. The realness of the danger. 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. Now I say here in the notes, real dangers are only a nose hair away. But they're not near. I mean, they're a nose hair away.

It says a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand. That is real and present danger, isn't it? But yet we're told here it will not come near you. Sounds oxymoronic, doesn't it?

It's not near you because unless God give you over to it, it cannot touch you. You are safe in him. Justice Antonin Scalia, I don't know if he was a Christian or not, but I like his quote. It says, God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools.

And he has not been disappointed. If I have brought any message today, it is this. Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ and have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.

It's a great quote. We live in a world, and I think this is their main bullet. This is their main arrow today. Their main arrow is shame. They will shoot you with shame. If you speak the truth, they'll shame you with some kind of ism.

They'll strike you down. Have the courage to be regarded as a fool, to be held in contempt by the court of public opinion. The sophisticated world will shame you. I think of the woman who is promoting abortion, and she'll say to you, how dare you, you, you, you, you, you man, as if you're being a man, speaking here to the man, as if that were toxic in itself, to just be a man.

How dare you tell a woman what she can do with her body. And why do they say that? To shame you, men and women, into silence. To make you quiet. To shame you to silence. It takes courage in a culture like this to say lovingly, the child that I'm defending is a human being who has a right to live.

It takes courage to keep speaking when they try to put you to shame. Call you all kinds of names. Will you continue to speak the truth? When you read a scripture like this, a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

No matter what they say, no matter what insult is hurled against you, if you stand in the truth of God's Word and He is your shield and your rampart, your shelter, your fortress, you have nothing to fear, so speak the truth.

Do not be shamed into silence. Verses nine and ten, 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.

And here is the prescription. Here is the why. Here is what we're to do in order to be under this protection that we're talking about today. Look at that first phrase, because, because of what? Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place. He who dwells, who abides in the shelter of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. We must run to the dwelling place every day. This must be where we live, in a spirit of prayer, in the Word, reading the Scriptures every day, abiding in Him.

In John 15, Jesus likened it to being a branch attached to the vine. If the branch abides in the vine, remains in the vine, that branch will bear much fruit. But separated you can do nothing. Separated you can do nothing.

The integrating theme of the Christian life is this John 15 abiding. We have no power in and of ourselves to resist temptation. We have no power to overcome the enemy, to advance like an army on the troops.

We can't kill a lion by grabbing the lion by the beard and killing it with our hands the way David did. But those who abide in God are given supernatural strength. You're given courage that's not normal, it's not ordinary, it comes from the Spirit of the Living God.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord in Zechariah 4. It's not by our own strength. We must abide. Brothers and sisters, when you're driving in the car and you have a choice of what to listen to, ESPN, talk radio, you can do a little of that, but spend time abiding in the shelter.

Listening to a sermon, praying, spend time hearing the Word of God. Abide in the shelter so that when the day of testing comes, you'll be ready for battle. He'll strengthen you. There was a difference between David and the rest of the Israelites, wasn't there?

None of them were willing to go in, but David was different. He had a different spirit. It came from abiding. Abide in him. Verses 11 to 13 now, beautiful imagery. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. According to Hebrews chapter 1, angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit eternal life.

Angels are ministering spirits sent for our sake to serve us. That means when you're driving the car and you lose control and the car flips and you end up on the side of the road and you climb out and you walk out of that car without harm to your body, you realize he commanded his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

He saved your life. The angels made it land just the way it did. How many times have each of us escaped death? Way more times than we know. Is there a guardian angel around each one of us? Probably. I don't know if each angel has a specific assignment that they have to stay with one person the whole time.

I think they'd get a little bored with our lives. They probably ask for a reassignment from time to time. We don't know exactly how that works, but we do know that there are guardian angels. These are ministering spirits.

God commands them to protect you and no angel will overcome them. God will send as many reinforcements as necessary to overcome the enemy to protect a child of God. Verse 14 to 16, 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. Don't you want that relationship with God? 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.

Because of a love relationship with God, prayers are answered. You see this in verse 14, because he holds fast to me in love. Now John MacArthur says, love in our culture has been redefined as a broad tolerance that overlooks sin and embraces good and evil alike.

That's not love, it's apathy. Our culture has redefined love, but genuine love between God and man is a relationship. Here we see, because he holds fast to me in love, your relationship with God, when you love him, when you're close with him, without that wall of separation that you put there when you sin, when you continue in sin, it creates a separation.

The psalmist says, I think it's the 88th Psalm, if I had held on to sin in my heart, he would not have listened to me. If I had cherished it, if I had held it, he would not have listened to me. But here we see, because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him.

Are your prayers being hindered by sin? Or are you in an open relationship with God, with love, that your prayers are being answered? Not always the way we expect or hope, but you can tell that God is with you.

And when you pray, the answer comes. Not always right away, sometimes he tells you to wait. Guys, we need to be reminded that prayer matters. Prayer matters. I will protect him because he knows my name.

Verse 15, when he calls to me, I will answer him. When David calls, God heard and God answered. When Caleb called, God answered. Go dwell in that shelter and learn to pray. Learn to go alone in your closet, your prayer closet, when it's just you and him.

Maybe you're cleaning the house, you're by yourself in a room, you begin to pray. And you call on God. Call on him for what it is you need and recognize he hears your prayer. I need to be better at praying.

Anybody else like me? You just need to be better at praying. You need to go to him more often. Call on him for everything. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him. So brothers and sisters, take this lesson in courage.

Why do I say this is a lesson in courage? In closing, I mean it's a promise of protection. We see that. Why is it a lesson in courage? Because we're told not only that we'll be protected, but you will not fear.

Verse 5, you will not fear. Fear can be paralyzing, but courage is the opposite of fear. In all areas, in your love, in your faith, in your hope, courage is when you trust the one who guards your life.

That's courage. It's to know God, to trust God. I will not fear. It's not just that I will be safe. It's that I know that I will be safe. Not afraid of the terrors of night and the pestilences. You will not fear the terror of the night.

Today, let's decide that we will become men and women of courage, willing to speak the truth, the hardest truths. And we do that by the quiet time in the shelter with God. Take David's lesson in courage.

Fight lions, bears, and giants. Make the Lord your dwelling place. Claim not only the promise that you are safe in him, but also the promise that you will not fear. Like Caleb, venture to take the ground.

Take a hill, even in later years. Some of you who are closer to the 85 than the 40, it's not too late for you to take a hill like Caleb did. It's not too late. I close with the story of Winston Churchill.

I've gotten into him, listening to about his life a little bit recently. I don't know if he was a genuine believer. It seems like early in his life, when he was a young adult, he turned decidedly away from Christianity.

And there's some things he wrote that denied it. But later in his life, I read some things from Al Mohler that he explained that looks like he might have become a believer near the end. But what I love about Winston Churchill is that he had this sense that God would protect him.

He just felt like it was his destiny that God would protect him and that he would be used for something great. When he was born, he was born premature and almost died. And growing up, he brushed with death time and time again.

He was in a plane crash. He was in car accidents. He was in wars where everybody else was dying around him. He has this quote where he says, nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

He brushed with death many times. But when his greatest hour came, he stood up with courage and rallied the nation to fight against Hitler. Here's two things about Churchill that I want you to remember.

He saw evil for what it was, even when it was the popular thing. This is before all of us looking back on Hitler and Stalin. Everybody can look back and say, wow, Hitler is synonymous with evil. But in the 1930s in Germany and even beyond, even here in America, there were many that were fascinated by this new thing, this fascism.

Same thing with Stalin and communism and socialism. Those of us who know history can look back and say it's evil, and nowadays some are being enamored with it again. But when evil is on the rise, the popular thing to do is to embrace it.

Churchill saw evil while it was ascending, and yet he had a calm joy about him. They said he could wake up in the morning and eat a long, leisurely breakfast before going about the business of saving the world.

There was some kind of settled sense of destiny. And whether he knew God or not, he was trusting in the God of the Bible from his Anglicanism. He knew enough about Providence to know that God was in control.

He knew at least that much. Brothers and sisters, we know so much more than he did. Every one of us in this room should be more courageous than Winston Churchill, because we understand Christ and his sacrifice.

We know the God of our salvation. We have the words of Psalm 91. We are protected. Do not be afraid. Live with courage. Speak boldly. Speak the truth. Do not be afraid. I just remembered this one. We'll end with this.

Promise. The command, do not fear, is given 366 times in the Bible. One for every day, including leap year. Do not be afraid. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not afraid, for I am your God. I will comfort you.

I will strengthen you. I will uphold you in my righteous right hand. Do not fear. Little lambs, do not fear. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for Psalm 91. You speak courage over us. Here we are in the shelter, Lord.

This is the fortress. Your word, as we run into it, we are safe. Steal our resolve right now, Lord. Purify us in this furnace to remove all draughts, so that when the day of testing comes, our faith will be shown to be pure gold.

It will resist the temptations, and it will be shown that this faith comes from you. It will resound to your glory. So, Lord, help us to go into your shelter. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the altar.