Psalm 91:1-2 - God our Refuge

But what I would like to do today with you is to look especially at the first two verses of one of my favorite psalms psalm 91 And if you have your bibles, we'll just read through it together And i'm going to pause as we read just to make a few comments as we go And then we're going to turn our attention to the first two verses psalm 91 verse 1 he that dwelleth In the secret place of the most high Shall abide under the shadow of the almighty I will say of the lord. He is my refuge and my fortress My god in him will I trust Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence He shall cover thee with his feathers And under his wings shalt thou trust His truth shall be thy shield and buckler or protection Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night Nor for the arrow that flyeth by day And look at the wording of verse 6 And think again Of where we find ourselves today in this world Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand But it shall not come nigh thee Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked Because thou hast made the lord Which is my refuge Even the most high thy habitation And I think many of us have prayed verse 10 in these past few weeks There shall no evil befall thee Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee In all thy ways this was quoted by satan in the temptation of the lord jesus But he misquoted it by leaving out those last four words in all thy ways He was trying to circumvent the purposes and the ways of god They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone Thou shall tread upon the lion and adder the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet Because he hath set his love upon me Therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high Because he hath known my name He shall call upon me And I will answer him I will be with him in trouble.

I will deliver him and honor him With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation And the lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word The other night I was laying awake couldn't sleep And was just praying Trying to speak with my heavenly father about this pandemic And verse 10 Came very forcefully before me And as I got up and went downstairs and turned on the light to read this psalm I thought again of some thoughts that the lord gave me a number of years ago About verses one and two and we're going to look For just a few minutes at these names of god and what they mean And what god has promised his people through the consideration Of these names. This is a messianic psalm If it were not satan would not have quoted it before the lord, even though he misquoted it If you look in your bible psalm 90 is recorded as a psalm of moses We don't usually think of moses writing psalms And this psalm may be a second one as well because the words we're going to look at very closely Match some of his language in deuteronomy 32 And 33 where he's addressing israel for his last time it is in chapter 33 that he says these words That are just immortal The eternal god is thy refuge And underneath are the everlasting arms So as we look at verses one and two in these verses, there are six different names and titles of god Actually throughout scripture There are over 900 names and titles of god And you ask yourself why so many? Well, this is god revealing just another gem of his infinite character to we poor finite human beings Because every one of these names means something And they speak to his character, you know when we're born We might get three names given to us And even though the parents might affix a name to a newborn with a hope That the child will grow into that name. There's no character in a newborn But there is definitely character in the eternal god It's also touching to realize when the lord jesus was born In matthew and luke in connection with his announcement and birth And the days following his birth he's given 12 different names and titles and they all speak to his eternal character So this is a psalm of deliverance of protection of refuge In verse one, we have the names the most high and the almighty In verse two, we have the lord my refuge my fortress and my god And i'm going to go quickly over these names give you a little definition of each one What they speak to and actually where they were first used in scripture, which is a really interesting study the first name The most high is elyon E-l-y-o-n the most high god This speaks of the lofty and supreme god A god who is capable and who loves to reveal grace to all people The first mention then is in genesis 14 verse 18 And this is fascinating It is when abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings Meets a man a mysterious man by the name of melchizedek he was A principal leader In a pagan society a town of salem, which would become jerusalem later But he and abraham upon their first meeting Had instant and amazing and true fellowship together And the reason was that this man Was the priest of the most high god And that's this god who out of a pagan society without israel ever having been formed yet This god chose this man And then he met abraham the patriarch of the jewish people And this unusual old testament figure Became a type of our great high priest when we read about him explained in hebrews the lord jesus who even today Even as we are gathered together Is praying in the presence of god for his people The little phrase he that dwelleth remains he That remains in the hiding place And in psalm 32 7 the psalmist says thou art my hiding place Thou shalt preserve me from trouble So this name speaks of the god of all grace the god of all providence who saves and who keeps the next name is god almighty or el shaddai This name reminds us of god's unfailing promises How often have we sung together? I'm standing on the promises of god This is the all-sufficient god the god who provides David peterson in his wonderful series on job this week Reminded us that this name is found 58 times In the old testament and 31 of those times are in the book of job Many of us were introduced to this name in the year 1983 When amy grant for the first time recorded michael card's wonderful song simply titled el shaddai It was named song of the year that year And it was also named one of the songs of the century This is a wonderful title of god.

The first mention is in genesis 17 1 And this is when god promised a 99 year old man And his 90 year old wife that they would have a son Not just any son But one that would make this old man the father of many nations and as well the son who one day Would become a type of the savior when offered by the father on mount moriah This covenant in genesis 17 Was made all by god. The covenant was all from god It was humanly impossible for abraham and sarah to fulfill this Covenant, but this reminds us that it rests on the eternal immutability of god And since it's impossible for god to lie We can trust every one of his promises Where we read there in verse one shall abide under the shadow of the almighty This means to permanently stay under the defense and the protection of almighty god The next name is the lord yahweh We spell it y a h w e h This is the eternal Self-sufficient god the god who exists outside of time and space And this deals with a god who has a definitive plan and a purpose for our lives This is the most commonly used name of god in the hebrew bible. It's used over 6800 times In the hebrew language, it's just four letters Y h w h we have added a couple vowels to make it pronounceable, but to this day The jewish people do not pronounce this name They won't speak it They won't write it They actually refer to this name as the great and terrible name They have come up in their jewish language with their own name called hashem And it simply means the name This is how they relate to this god And there's still Sadly, so many of them in darkness And we who are believers Instead can look heavenward and by grace call him my father But I came across this a number of years ago.

And when we were in israel, I checked this out with our Israeli guide and he looked at me and he said I have never heard that before But you know what? I cannot argue with it. The four letters represent four words y h w h The word h is hay and it means behold with an exclamation point The first word is yod and it means hand So here is the god of eternity choosing his own name to relate to his own people And he says I want you to understand that my name is hand behold the great hand of god If you have not heard this prepare to be amazed Do you know what the word wav means? So we have hand behold exclamation point The word for wav is nail n a i l The name that god constructed To reveal to his people his hand behold nail behold So in this very name of yahweh He is looking forward to the cross it's no wonder in john 20 when thomas Shows up the second sunday After saying I will not believe When the lord jesus appeared to the disciples with thomas there And thomas went through his protestations The lord reached out his hand And thomas looked and were not told that he ever touched and he said my lord And my jehovah a wonderful name The name of the lord. It's first mentioned in genesis 4 verse 1 when eve conceived the first Human being to be born naturally.

She said I have gotten a man From the lord little did she know But because of her sin and her husband's sin This son would be born and become a murderer And she known that her firstborn would kill her second born son. Her heart would already have been broken But this woman who was called the mother of all living bowed her heart to the eternal god Acknowledging that her son was from him And because it was her sin and adam's sin That caused these boys to sin In the purpose of yahweh the eternal god Was the promise to provide another son Who would come to put sin away? The next title is my refuge. This is the hebrew word moxie M-a-c-h-s-e-h This speaks to the trustworthiness of god God as a shelter A place of safety a place of trust and hope The first time it's used is in psalm 14 verse 6 Where david is quoted and quoting the lord my people are in great terror But god is with the generation of the righteous They would shame the plans of the poor but the lord Is his refuge? So the first mention of this word is god undertaking for the poor and the righteous As they are facing oppression from the wicked We read in verse 9 of our psalm because thou hast made the lord who is my refuge even the most high thy refuge A similar concept is found in the teaching of the cities of refuge.

This is in numbers and deuteronomy and joshua God provided three cities on either side of the jordan For a man to flee to for safety who had taken by accident a man's life. We would call it today Involuntary manslaughter, but if that happened the family had the right to avenge that death And the man who had committed this murder by accident was allowed To run to one of these cities and stay there safely until the death of the high priest We read in psalm 46 1 god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble You know that verse that I mentioned from deuteronomy The eternal god is thy refuge And underneath are the everlasting arms. That's actually a different word for refuge.

It's a feminine version of it And to my way of thinking it would seem to be God's kind nature His compassionate heart His care for us. He really cares And he wants to be our refuge. The next one is my fortress.

That's the hebrew word met suda This speaks of god's strength his power his omnipotence It's first used in second samuel 22 and 2 when david In his song of deliverance from saul as well as from his enemy says the lord is my rock in my fortress my deliverer So this is a god who is a defense Who is a stronghold? in a time of trouble And I think we all agree that we are finding ourselves In a very large time of trouble right now It's often linked with the imagery of a person who's hunted A net a snare a trap and it's often linked with the rock another name of god And we sing it We've sung it often lord. Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine my rock and my fortress my surety divine the last name is elohim the triune god This speaks to god's eternal unchanging character In these days where everything has changed so quickly And the world is completely upside down And none of us have a clue what's going to happen next It's so wonderful to know that at the end of the old testament in malachi chapter 3 verse 6 God says I am the lord And I do not change And then as far as our savior goes in hebrews 13 8 jesus christ the same I believe we could take that as one of the titles of the lord. Jesus.

He's the way He's the truth He's the life He's the same yesterday and today and forever You all know where this is first used genesis 1 verse 1 in the beginning The triune god Created the heavens and the earth. It's the very first name of god mentioned in scripture And his first mention first mention is in his awesome creatorial power It's found 32 times in genesis 1 And throughout scripture the shortened version l is used 200 times But this name elohim 2,500 times and more It's often used with the name. Yahweh the lord god And it's touching that on the cross in the darkness of golgotha As the savior was suffering for sin And as that private abandonment And the weight and the load of the billows and waves of the wrath of god poured over the lord.

Jesus in the darkness He used this name to cry out to god Eli eli or ali ali Why hast thou forsaken me? Now very quickly these six names and titles of god Afford the child of god with a true sense of the positional And directional safety that this god provides us The name elyon my hiding place speaks of god being around us El shaddai His sheltering wings This god is above us Yahweh the eternal god He is before us Mokse our place of refuge He is between us and the enemy Matsuda our rock fortress foundation He is beneath us And then elohim the almighty god He is for us We've been talking a little about the days in which we live And if you were to tell me that you were not fearful I would smile kindly and say brother sister I I really don't believe you We are all fearful at what's around us And what might be ahead? The more we look at these numbers And the toll of them day after day our hearts just fail within us They fail And I thought of a little poem just this week. I mentioned it to my brother Often on the rock I tremble faint of heart and weak of knee But the mighty rock of ages never trembles under me So as we think of this god who positionally Is around us above us before us beneath us Between us and the enemy and all of these directions Could it get any better? And the answer is yes, it does Yes Because this was the closest anyone in the old testament could ever get to god And there were some I believe that did But for the new testament day of grace christian We have been given a miracle That none of these dear saints in the old testament ever understood or knew or practically felt Because of salvation freely offered by this god through the death of his son willing to Wash our sins away in that precious blood Willing to adopt us into his family Willing to give us an eternal place of safety and rest in heaven with him He has also come to live within the believer We have this god within And this is what should give us the greatest hope and the greatest trust And allow us to realize that this refuge is real There are a number of places in the new testament that deal with the threefold persons of the godhead Being within my favorite is in ephesians 3 In verse 16 paul says we are strengthened by his spirit in the inner man verse 17 That christ may dwell in your hearts by faith And verse 19 that you might be filled with all the fullness of god There you are all three persons of the godhead Are within the believer, but i'd like to pause for a moment Because no doubt there are homes listening today Where there may be those unsaved And not ready for eternity There may be parents listening That as they listen they are praying Their hearts are burdened For their children who are sitting beside them There may be visitors that have been brought in to hear this that have never experienced this My son was just telling me just before I went live That he asked the lord Today To put someone into his life that he could share the gospel with And he prayed specifically for his trip to the grocery store And he was walking out of the store with his groceries and it hadn't happened And a dear black man walked up to him and said Pardon me Would you have ten dollars? And brian said yes, sir, I do if you have 10 minutes And he handed over the bill and for 10 minutes proceeded to give the gospel to this dear man But in this day of uncertainty If there's any listening to the sound of my voice and you are not saved Let me very tenderly invite you to trust this savior He has done Everything for you And he wants to save you today Most of us on this forum are thrilled and will never forget the moment of our salvation It's the most important moment in our lives and while we are in times of unprecedented fear and worry and uncertainty And it's the very reason why we are doing these meetings We can't meet together Assembly christians are loving people. They love to hug To put an arm around a brother or sister a kiss a firm handshake Look right in the eye.

We can't do that anymore We're separated We're apart Yesterday my daughter and two of the grandchildren and i've got 11 of the most huggable grandkids on this planet They came to bring us something from Dairy Queen And left it on the porch and waved in through the front window And when we went out on the porch together, they backed off their their distance their separation of safety And it was just an ache in the heart To not be able to hug those you love Dear friend if you're not saved I think you can say we can say That there's an ache in the heart of the savior Who is reaching out for you wanting to hug you and bring you into the full knowledge of his salvation If you would only accept him But you have taken your distance from him Now is the time More than any time in your life to come And trust this savior So we have looked At the old testament a study of an eternal god that's all around us And a reminder from the new testament That the godhead has taken up permanent residence in the heart and the soul and the spirit of every believer The psalmist also said this in psalm 61 verse 2 From the ends of the earth will I cry unto thee Lead me to the rock That is higher than I And I would just like to close with two verses of a hymn and then i'm going to tell a little story Then we will close in prayer and don't hang up because after we close in prayer I do have one more little announcement to make But in our believers hymn book we have often sung together number 345 and here's just two verses Oh safe To the rock that is higher than I My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly So sinful so weary Thine thine would I be Thou blessed rock of ages I'm hiding in me How often the conflict when pressed by the foe? I have fled to my refuge And breathed out my woe How often when trials like sea billows roll? Have I hidden in thee? Oh thou rock of my soul This then is the god of psalm 91 verses 1 and 2 If you've never heard or read this story, let me tell you very quickly In the 1850s, there was a young scottish man named john payton He had just married a beautiful Young woman his wife was named mary And god laid it on their hearts to take The gospel far far away from scotland to the islands in the south pacific That were once called the hebrides islands. I believe they're now referred to as Vanuatu What was so troubling to all of their families and friends Was that these? Natives on these islands were head hunters. They were cannibals In fact the two men that made it ashore That preceded them with the gospel Were both killed and devoured And the family did everything they could to keep john and mary from going But the lord had called him there And to these islands this young couple went For some reason they were accepted by the people of the islands.

They were not killed or brutalized They were accepted and There was great joy in 1859 When john and mary had their first little son whom they named peter however On march 3rd less than a month from his birth Mary was overtaken with pneumonia And she died And john buried her wondering how he was going to take care of a newborn son 20 days later The little boy died And john buried his son beside his wife this is what he said As he went to that grave every day and at times questioned god And wondered why this should have ever happened Missing his wife And this little boy so terribly And so many thousands of miles away from his family in scotland As he went there every day and wept and prayed This is what he said If it was not for the fact that the lord drew near to me in those times of loneliness and heartbreak I know I would have lost my mind Feeling immovably assured that my god and father was too wise and too loving To make a mistake in anything that he does or allows I looked up to the lord for help And I struggled on in his work He got to go back to scotland Believe it or not. He brought a new wife back with him Who was willing to go? And when they left after their work of almost 40 years Some accounts that I have read say that two-thirds Of those natives had trusted the lord. Jesus christ as their savior Here's a man in the depths of change in his life overwhelmed with sorrow Trying to adapt when he thought it would never happen And he looked to the lord who drew near to him And he said in those times of loneliness If he had not come near I think I would have lost my mind Brethren and sisters we're in those times to a degree right now We are suffering loneliness Some of us are heartbroken dismayed fearful doubting Is this really? How it's going to be We're facing life that In two weeks is suddenly so different We have a god who has not changed We have a savior who will never change This salvation is eternal The word of god is forever settled in the heavens That means it's forever settled on earth Every one of his promises through christ are yay and amen that simply means Through the lord jesus.

I will fulfill all of my promises to you So in this time of trouble We have a refuge may we use these days while we're Maybe away from the office or away from work and maybe alone To read our bibles and to get closer to this god And learn in new ways to trust this god Who is? our refuge May god just bless his word. Let's bow for a word of prayer Our father we thank thee that We can turn to thee One day the disciples said to the lord jesus to whom can we turn? You have the words of eternal life And we are doing this now to you our heavenly father who is our rock our fortress our place of safety Father we thank thee first of all for so many Who are gathered online today? This is not how we like to meet, but we're so grateful for being able to meet together thus And we would look to thee and ask thee to increase our faith Help us instead of looking around Help us father to Look up We often say to one another keep your chin up And the reason for this is it's easier to see heaven that way Help us to cast our eyes to heaven To set our affections on things above And realize that that is where our treasure is That is where our savior is That's our eternal home And that's where our god and father is so we thank thee for these wonderful verses these tremendous promises And we thank thee for being our god For any who are on Listening today that are not saved we pray father that even the events of the day Would cause them to want to be saved and to become a child of god even through this work We would love to hear of some trusting the savior So remember all thy people all over the world that are being affected by this even now We are drawn together by the word of god And by thy eternal grace And we thank thee for calvary and for a wonderful savior a perfect man A spotless lamb who went to the darkness of the cross To die bearing my sins in his own body on the tree We thank thee for his death his burial and his resurrection and we look forward to a soon coming lord But again, we pray for salvation For those who are not saved We commit ourselves to your care and thank thee in the name of the lord. Jesus christ.

Amen Amen One final quick word caleb and I when we were talking about this on tuesday This situation is causing among other things tremendous economic impact To the people of god around the world I am probably speaking to men and women Who are out of work Who may have even lost their jobs Who may be facing times of great uncertainty May the lord lay on our hearts those people Who need us right now? And if god has blessed us Brother and sister be exercised To help these ones Who are facing a whole new reality? And along with that our preaching brethren Are now forced to be off the road They don't have their weekends Where they visit the assemblies who have invited them They don't have their ministry or gospel meetings There are no more conferences And sometimes it's out of sight out of mind Don't let these dear full-time workers Leave our hearts ask the lord To lay them on our hearts that we might remember them at this time. They're dependent on us They live by faith Faith in the god that we've been talking about But the god who moves us to give So just consider others in this time of economic uncertainty And might we be as We read in the word of god for the lord's sake cheerful givers Thank you for listening