Psalm 91

This anonymous Psalm, ascribed by some to Moses who wrote the previous Hymn, has attracted a great following.  It promises protection and deliverance to those who walk deeply with God.  But it does not give the saint a free pass with respect to the difficulties of life.  It promises deliverance (v3), including from Satan, the fowler who seeks to ensnare.  It promises God’s truth to be a covering for the pilgrim (v4).  He will not need to be afraid (v5-6).  He will not experience the evil that comes upon the wicked (v7-8).  He will be protected and encouraged in the face of life’s difficulties (v10-13).  But it also says that God will be with him in trouble (v15). 

Jesus gave the sense and application of this Psalm when Satan himself quoted 91:11-12 in one of the temptations (Matt. 4:5-7).  He refused to test God by requiring God, so to speak, to deliver Him from falling.  In another passage Jesus noted those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Matt. 10:28).  Every saint in Scripture faced tribulation, beginning with our Lord and each of His Apostles.  This Psalm does not indicate we will have no trouble; it promises rather perfect protection for the soul regardless of the trouble.

To put ourselves intentionally in danger would actually deny the very condition for this Psalm that is seen at the start (91:1-2) and again in the middle (91:9).  That is where we need to spend time in meditation.  God, by His truth, will be the refuge for the one who dwells in the secret place of the most High.

·        To dwell is to sit down, to remain, or to stay somewhere.  It does not speak of a short visit or merely passing by.  We take the name of the place where we dwell.  Those who dwell in Israel are Israelites.  Those who dwell in God’s holy habitation are holy ones or saints (Deut. 26:15).  Under the New Covenant it is to abide in Christ (John 15).  And yet at the same time it is for Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17).  It is to answer the knock on the hearts door and to welcome the Savior for deep fellowship (Rev. 3:20).

·        The secret place is the place where nothing Satanic or evil or destructive to the soul can ever enter.  It is God’s tabernacle (Psalm 27:5).  Christ was in that place in Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal.  He bids us enter into the same place to find help (Heb. 4:16).   How can this be when we are on this earth, so far from our eternal home?  It is because …

·        Our dwelling place is God Himself (91:9; 90:1).  As 91:2 says: I will say of the Lord … my refuge and my fortress!  This is not magical nor mystical.  It is frequent and deep fellowship with God through prayer and His word.  To pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) is to be at home in the secret place.  It is nothing between my soul and the Savior; the ongoing experience of His forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9).  It is the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices, our only reasonable worship (Rom. 12:1).

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.