Psalm 91 is perhaps the most familiar after Psalm 23. It is unclear who the author is although there is a strong historic precedent belief that Moses was the author of this Psalm and the nine that follow it. I don't know that it matters who wrote it but today I want us to once again familiarize ourselves with a classic Psalm that can impact your life.
It was July 4th 1996, and I was camping in the back yard with my two kids in a two man tent. It was about midnight when I heard the zipper unzipping over my head and heard my wife uttering words that didn't make sense. She was holding a cordless phone and telling me it was my brother and that Elijah was dead.
Elijah was my nephew that had been married for about 11 months and was about to finish college. It seems that he had collapsed and was rushed to hospital only to be pronounced dead within shortly after arriving at the hospital. For my brothers family and our extended family that was a storm that will never be forgotten.
All of us no doubt have had some kind of traumatic experience in our lives. If you have not just hang on because somewhere along the line you will hear words you dont want to hear or have to deal with something you don't want to deal with.
Someone said there are only three kinds of people in the world:
The interesting thing is that all three groups are in this room today. You know exactly where you are.
The idea is not that you should sit around waiting in fear for the phone to ring but that you should be prepared for whatever comes and that you have an understanding of the role that God wants to play in these moments of your life.
No matter how godly or spiritual you may be you will walk through a storm. I have noticed that Christfollowers generally react differently than the average person when going through a storm.
The reason we try to push people toward being in community with other people is that when your storm comes you will need other people. Its why being active in a Life Group is so important. Let me quickly add that when I say active in a Life Group I mean that you are there to give as well and not just receive. You do a lot better in storms when you have someone around you that has been through a storm or two.
If you are in this church and you are not connected in any other way except this service you are missing out on a vital part of your faith journey.
I have noticed that people who are in an authentic and vibrant, daily relationship with Jesus Christ have a peace that is rooted in another world. Dr. David Uth calls it being in the I of the storm.
Picture: Describe hurricanes and the nature of the eye of a hurricane.
What we going to read today does not in any way suggest that you are never going to have a storm. What is critical is that you find the I of the storm; that you know the I of the storm. The Enemy of our soul wants to absolutely imprison us with fear. He wants to make it so that you never leave your house or never step out on faith and do something unusual for God. The Enemy wants you to be fearful for your kids until in your over-protection of them you stifle what God could do through them. The devil is like a terrorist that wants us to shut ourselves into our homes in fear to quit living.
John Hopkins University asked kids over thirty years ago what their biggest fears were:
Recently they repeated the survey of children in 2004:
The Enemy of our soul wants us to be afraid and to give up on God. He wants us to become so discouraged and depressed that we turn away from God. It is all a supernatural game of intimidation.
Have you ever heard of Black Bart? He was an outlaw that robbed over 28 Wells Fargo Stagecoaches in the late 1800s. He never fired a shot and rarely carried a gun. He wore a black hood and scared people so bad that when they saw him with the hood they would throw up their hands and surrender. I am talking about being afraid.
When you see the horizon getting dark in your life, dont be afraid. Dont allow fear to overcome you. Find the I of the Storm. Get in the middle where there is peace and safety. When you see things beginning to happen around you that are unpleasant dont run. Find the I of the storm.
What I am going to read to you from Psalm 91 suggest that we dont have to run but that we can enjoy life living in the shadow of the Almighty. I want you to read this Psalm silently with me. I wont have time to do a verse by verse explanation but I want to read this entire Psalm before I make my final remarks to you today.
While you are finding this Psalm in your Bibles I want to tell you about a couple that moved to the Northeastern part of the United States. They were apparently afraid of everything. They heard about mushrooms and how good wild mushrooms were so they went into their woods and sure enough they found some. They had a friend up from their former community and they served the mushrooms. There were some left (never happens when I fix mushrooms) so they scraped them into the dish for the cat to eat. About an hour or so after dinner they heard some weird noises in the kitchen so they went in and found the cat running round in circles, flipping upside down and acting really strange and they began to question the mushrooms they had eaten. They literally rushed to the hospital emergency room and demanded that they pump their stomachs. They were just sure they had picked and eaten poisonous mushrooms. After the ordeal at the emergency room they made their way home about 3 in the morning just exhausted. Someone said, I wonder if the cat survived? They went into the kitchen and found the cat nursing three newborn kittens! That is exactly what the Enemy does in your life. He preys on your mind while you are walking through something and you start believing his lies. You take your eyes off of God and began to be fearful.
The Bible calls this vain imaginations. Its where we take things and blow them up and make them bigger then what they really are. I remember a man one time that always brought up problems. He loved to point out the negative and the problems in every situation. Finally one day we were standing around and one of our mutual friends looked at him and said, I am going to buy you a bulldozer! He said, Well whatever for? He replied, So you can push out those mole hills into mountains.
If you and I dont find the I of the storm you and I will never live the life that Jesus died for us to live. You will live your life paralyzed by fear and worry. You will lie awake at night and the storm will just get bigger and bigger until you are beside yourself.
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust him. 3 For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease.
4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.8 Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished.
9 If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11 For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go. 12 They will hold you up with their hands so you wont even hurt your foot on a stone. 13 You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
14 The Lord says, I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. 16 I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation. Psalm 91:1-16 NLT
The first two verses of this Psalm set up the whole thing. I want to go back to those verses because they tell us how to live in the I of the storm. Look at these words again with me will you?
1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust him. Psalm 91:1-2 NLT
Did you hear what the Psalmist is saying? He is saying that those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. The word shelter is a word for secret place or some translators have translated it temple and they believe it to be a description of the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament. No matter what the interpretation what God is saying to us through His word is that when you live in an intimate relationship with Him you will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. When you and I live in the closest relationship possible with Him we will dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. When we wake up every day and ascent our day to Him we will live in the shelter of the Almighty. When you have a continual acknowledgement of His presence you have learned the secret of being in the I of the storm.
When you learn to live in Him you will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. Some translations have this has, you shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. The word for abide is actually rest which is why it is used in more modern translations. It is also the word for endurance. Again when you learn to live every day in an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ you will find the strength to endure.
To rest in this way means that we are fully trusting and that we wont worry because we are TRUSTING. We can hang on and endure when we are in the shadow of the Almighty.
Umbrella
When we learn to abide and live in Christ we will rest in the shadow. . .
When we move away from Christ the further we will get from His shadow. When we move away we begin to get nervous. When we take our eye off Him and start focusing on the problems we get mesmerized by the problem and we will begin to doubt. The more we stay under the shadow of the Almighty the more peace we will know and experience. When we move away the panic set in and we miss the blessing of the I of the storm.
If you and I learn to live in the shelter of the Most High the rest of this psalm is filled with promises for us.
Most High: God who owns everything
Almighty: All powerful. He is a God of might
Lord: It is the name. I Am. Thats what God told Moses to say when they asked who sent him. Tell them I Am sent you.
God: Majesty and Creator
Why four names in two verses of a Psalm? Because every promise that you will find in the rest of this Psalm rests on who He is. Everything you could ever need can be found in Him. He covers every storm that could come your way. God is saying to those of you that can hear Him today that He wants you to dwell/live/abide in Him and when you do He will give you the ability to face any storm.
Let me give you four promises really quickly. I intended to move through these very quickly and have saved them for the last few minutes of this message. We have been already looking at the first one and that is rest.
Rest But then there is also Refuge
4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Back in the days of kings and armies the Kings would position themselves in the middle of their armies. It was considered to be a refuge! It was the safest place to be. It also says He will cover you with His feathers. Remember in Psalm 23, we learned that surely goodness and mercy would follow us all the days of our lives. Why? Because when God is our leader and we are truly following His lead we are in His shadow. He covers us.
National Geographic had a story about a little bird. They were doing reconnaissance work after one of the fires making sure all the hot spots were out. They came across a bird that had her wings spread out but it was burned and dead. They wondered why the bird had chosen to die like that instead of flying away. One of them took a stick and moved the bird and when he did three little baby birds came out from under their mothers wings.
Picture: Like this mother hen demonstrates for us so to God will protect us under His wings. The beautiful thing is that God didnt die. Jesus came up out of the grave. There is no storm bigger then God!
9 If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11 For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.
Youve probably heard this scripture before because Satan quoted it to Jesus in Matthew 4 when he tried to get him to jump off the temple roof. Angels were never created to be worshipped. I hate to mess up your angel collection but angles are all around us. Nowhere does the bible teach that we have personal angles. We have all Gods angels and they do his bidding and work.
Rescue
14 The Lord says, I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.
Reward
16 I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.
A few years ago Louie G. preached a message on Gods conversation with Moses. When God told Moses to lead the people of Israel he was overwhelmed and asked who he should say sent him to be their leader And God said, Tell the I Am sent you.
I need hope and He answers. I Am.
Who could be smart enough to figure all this out? I Am
What works? I Am
What lasts? I Am
Where do I turn in this storm? I Am
Nothing is real anymore. I Am
Who can I trust? I Am
I am not sure who is on my team. I Am
Nobody's listening to me. I Am
I don't have a prayer. I Am
My marriage is sinking and I don't know where to turn. I Am
I cant hold on. I Am
I'm giving to others. Who is giving to me? I Am
Not sure why I am here. I Am.
I'm tired. I Am
I quit. I Am
I need a drink. I Am
I need a fix. I Am
I need a lover. I Am
I need somebody to hold me. I Am
Ive just lost my best friend, now what? I Am
I Am the First and the Last and the Beginning and the End
I opened with the story of my nephew who passed away 15 years ago. There are some images I will never forget from those days of grief. Ive mentioned them before because of the impression they left on me. I remember watching my brother worship on his knees during the funeral and the singing of Holy Holy Lord God Almighty. I remember the sense of joy God gave him during the days of mourning. I remember a tombstone that says Given and Returned. I remember most of all a young grieving widow singing out loud when everyone else turned to go home at the cemetery, This is the day that the Lord has made. . .
so many times I've questioned certain circumstances
Or things I could not understand
Many times in trials weakness blurs my vision
And my frustration gets so out of hand
Its then I am reminded I've never been forsaken
I've never had to stand the test alone
As I look at all the victories
The spirit rises up in me
And its through the fire my weakness is made strong
Chorus:
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy
And the hill would not be hard to climb
He never offered our victories without fighting
But he said help would always come in time
Just remember when your standing in the valley of decision
And the adversary says give in
Just hold on our lord will show up
And he will take you through the fire again