October 13, 2024 Our Rescuer | Psalm 91

Today we will reflect on Psalm 91, Our Rescuer. This is another of those powerful psalms in which the psalmist is in awe of God and how God is always there for him as his rescuer and refuge. Psalm 8 gave us a “Wow!” look at God through creation. Psalm 91 gives us a “Wow!” look at God through how he is always there for us as our protector and saviour !

Transcript

Our Rescuer

Psalm 91

Psalm 91 is one of those psalms that has become a favourite because it’s a psalm of confidence in the Lord and his ability to save us from whatever is going on in our lives or around us. What fascinates me about this psalm is how Satan uses it against Jesus when tempting Jesus in the wilderness to do God’s plan his way instead of God’s more difficult and painful way. However, Satan twists the verses slightly, missing the meaning completely, giving us a warning to be careful about reading the Bible in context and not isolating verses.

This psalm was likely written by a priest or Levite in the temple to provide reassurance to the people of God. The psalm is written in 2 parts of 8 verses each where the second 8 verses echo the first 8 verses, powerfully amplifying the themes in the psalm, a common literary practice in Hebrew writing. The psalmist begins with the confident declaration, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most-High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” This is echoed amplified in verses 9 and 10, “If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most-High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.” A few weeks ago, we reflected on Psalm 8, a psalm that always brings me to a place of “Wow!” because of how creation reveals to us the magnificence of God, Psalm 91 is another of those psalms of “Wow!” to me as we get a glimpse of who God is, what kind of God he is.

The psalmist is making statements, not prayers or requests. This is who God is to the psalmist and how God relates to his people. God’s a safe place, a safe person you can go to in order to find protection or rest. In Hebrew the word for shelter holds the sense of hiding place or covering, a place where enemies are unable to find you, a place where you can go when you’re seeking somewhere your enemies cannot find you. The psalmist uses the image of a bird, likely a dove, as a place of safety and protection. Doves, both the males and females, take turns sitting on the nest to hatch the eggs and when the eggs hatch, both will take turns finding food and feeding the chicks, with one of the parents always staying behind to watch over the chicks. Since the chicks have no feathers, the parents take turns covering them with their feathers. The doves’ faithfulness in protecting and providing for their young is the image the psalmist gives us here of God’s faithfulness and protection, our shield and rampart. 

These are images of belonging which gets picked up in verses 9 and 10 where the Most-High, El Elyon, the sovereign God of power is our refuge. This is magnified by the Psalmist’s use of the name El Shaddai in verse 1, the Almighty, a God of authority. Now in verse 9 we find the name Yahweh, the Lord, the personal name of God, given to Moses at the burning bush; the eternal God. Yahweh is our refuge, reminding us of the personal relationship between the Lord and his people; we’re part of his household, part of the family. I encourage you to reflect on the Thanksgiving week devotional on the names of God, giving thanks for who God is. For most of us, home is a place of safety and belonging; this is why the psalmist shares with us in this psalm the personal nature of God’s relationship with us, “Wow!”

The psalmist identifies 4 terrors the Lord will keep us safe from, “the fowler’s snare, deadly pestilence, the terror of the night, and the arrow that flies by day.” The fowler’s snare are those unseen or unnoticed traps in life that can catch us by surprise. Many of our sins often fall into this area. Most of us don’t start off deciding to deliberately sin or disobey God and Jesus, and yet suddenly the realization strikes us that we’ve been caught in sin again. A few years back, we had a small men’s group that would get together every couple of weeks to support and encourage each other as men, husbands, and fathers. At one meeting that topic of cell phones with internet access was creating problems for a couple of them. As one man shared, “I start off looking for tools, for sports scores, and then suddenly I realize I’ve started searching for sexual images and other inappropriate sites. That was not my intention, but I end up there anyway.” These snares are so easily to get trapped in. the snares we fall into may be different, but we all have ones that we tend to fall into. 

Then there’s pestilence which could be things like locusts or insects that can devastate your crops or livelihood, there are plagues and disease, things we still see today around the world, in spite of all the advances in medicine. Then there are the arrows that fly by day from enemies who wish to oppress or persecute us. Then there is the terror of the night, all the fears and worries that seem to get bigger and heavier as we lay in our beds at night, our minds taking us down paths where the world and life is dark, where hope is faint and fear is strong. The fear and anxiety of the unknown can paralyze some of us in the dark of night. Yet the psalmist begins with, “Surely he will save you…. You will not fear…,” and yet we do so often fear. 

Scott Hoezee writes, “The main message of Psalm 91 is not “Times are bad” but instead “Times are bad but for that very reason your confidence in God needs to be stronger than ever!”  The threats around us make people nervous, uncertain, afraid, and cynical.  Psalm 91 conveys a counter-message: the poet who composed these words wants to tell us that instead of letting the wider world determine how we feel, we need to let our ultimate confidence in God become the lens through which we view the wider world. God, not current events, is what shapes our viewpoints, informs our hopes, and brings us a confidence that avoids cynicism.” Psalm 91 gives us the confidence that when there are snares, pestilence, terrors, and plagues, even when we’ve gotten snared, we can come to Yahweh, our El Elyon and Shaddai seeking the safety of his arms, he’ll greet us as a father does with a hug. When we make God our refuge and fortress, he’ll accept us, never abandon us. 

This confidence comes through in verses 11 and 12, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” He goes on to say that “You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent;” four powerful and frightening beasts that you might encounter on the path or in the wilderness, echoing the 4 threats in the first half of the psalm. Confidently, the psalmist declares that we don’t need to fear even the most ferocious of beasts because God sends angels to protect us. This verse has been used by many to believe that we all have guardian angels watching over us, which is the spirit of these verses. 

Yet we need to make sure that we don’t misinterpret the Scriptures. Satan uses these verses to tempt Jesus to throw himself off the top of the temple to prove to the people that he truly is the Son of God, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Wesleyan pastor Danny Quanstrom writes, “Satan omits the very important “in all your ways” when he tempts Jesus to throw himself down from the heights, thus turning a confession of trust in God to determine which ways are his ways into an attempt to force God’s hand in meeting our demands at the moment.” It’s important to not twist Scripture for our own agenda, this is why, in the Reformed tradition, we emphasize Scripture interpreting Scripture. 

 We trust in God’s protection because of our relationship with him, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him, I will protect him… I will deliver and honour him.” The Lord, Yahweh, ends with, “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” In the ancient Near East old people were held in honour for their experience and wisdom. Old age was seen as a sign of divine favour for fearing the Lord and keeping his commands, helping us see why Jesus is identified with the ‘Ancient of Days’ in Daniel. Older men were expected to lead in positions of authority and responsibility as elders, as they’re expected to have grown in wisdom through their life journey, learning confidence in the Lord is good and difficult times. 

Psalm 91 reminds us that our God is sovereign, almighty, and desires a personal relationship with us, “Wow!” It doesn’t promise us that there won’t be pain or struggle, but it promises that we can turn to God and he won’t turn us away, he’ll be there for us, giving us what we need to make it through, reminding us he’s always faithful to us.