Psalm 91
I Want In!
This psalm begins by telling us of a secret place, a place that God
has reserved for His own. It is not called a secret place because the
saved do not know about it. It is called the secret place because the
wicked cannot get to us there. It is a place of God’s presence, of
God’s power, of God’s protection.
God is inviting us into this place. The question is, "Do you want to
go?"
Let’ study the Psalm tonight.
I. \\#1\\ God’s Invitation Has A Catch
Ps 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of
the most High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty.
A. \\#1\\ is an invitation.
1. If you are saved, you can be the "he" that dwells in God’s
secret place.
2. But it also gives an hint as to where the secret place is
located and that is the catch.
3. To abide in the secret place, one must abide in God’s
shadow.
4. To be in one’s shadow, requires that you be exceeding close
to that person.
5. In the morning and evening, shadows may be long but at
their longest, you must still be close!
5. So the message from the first is that you cannot abide in
God’s secret place and have the blessings of being there
and follow God from afar.
a. It will cost you something to abide in God’s secret
place.
b. You will have to forsake the world, sin, and self to
the place that you can abide close to God for without
that, you cannot abide in God’s shadow and without
being there, you cannot abide in God’s secret place.
B. My parents had a statement that I heard a few times growing
up that is similar.
"As long as you’re under my roof…"
1. Behind that followed something that I was either to do
or not to do.
2. My parents were saying that as long as I was under their
protection, provision, power or authority, I would obey
them.
a. As a child living under my parents roof, I had
certain blessings, but there were also certain
demands that were placed on me. To get the
blessings, I had to meet the demands.
b. Do not deceive yourself concerning the Lord.
(1) He offers great blessings but—outside of
His free salvation—He does expect obedience
in return.
(2) That is part of what this chapter discusses.
c. As a teenager, I had to ask myself, "Are the blessings
worth the demands?"
(1) If they were not, it would be time to leave.
(2) I found that the blessings were always worth
following their demands!
(3) So also are the Lord’s!
C. The question you must ask is do you want the blessing of God’s
secret place? If so, you will be willing to pay the price to
live in His presence.
II. What Are the Blessings? They are many.
A. \\#2\\ God will be our refuge… our fortress.
1. This is a reference to protection.
a. We live in a day of enclosures. We expect everything
to be done on the inside. A few weeks ago, a few of
the men went into the Bibb Country Prison to host a
basketball tournament and witness to the "residents."
It never occurred to me that they did not have a gym.
I got blistered on my head.
b. Even our dogs sleep under shelter.
2. David’s life was not that way.
a. As a shepherd boy, he was used to being under the
canopy of the stars.
b. As he grew, he became a soldier but was still forced
to sleep in the outdoors.
c. During the years of persecution, he had no place to
lay his head unless it was an occasional cave.
d. Even as king, he was often on military campaigns and
sleep in nothing more than a lean to or tent.
e. David was used to having nothing for protection except
the Lord! In fact, at times in his life, David had
nothing and no one but the Lord!
g. God was literally a fort and refuge around David for
protection.
3. How great is God’s protection? God describes it in
several ways.
Ps 91:3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the
snare of the fowler, and from the noisome
pestilence.
a. A snare is a trap. A fowler is a bird catcher. Men
killed their prey with arrows in that day and one
must be pretty skilled to kill a bird with an arrow
so they would often lay out traps.
(1) The difference here is that we, Christians, are
the birds and the devil and sin is the trap.
(2) While in the secret place, the devil cannot get
to us. We are protected.
b. The pestilence was also a very real danger.
(1) Pestilence is not some typical sickness but a
plague that comes upon the people and kills and
destroys them all—leaving few if any survivors.
(2) The word "noisome" means evil or wicked. It
describes the diabolical nature of the
pestilence.
(3) These diseases were real, deadly, and there was
no medicine for them.
(4) Yet, those who lived in God’s secret place, did
not need to fear it.
Ps 91:6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in
darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth
at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten
thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not
come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see
the reward of the wicked.
(5) \\#6\\ Whether in the middle of the day or the
night, God will protect.
(6) \\#7\\\ This is a realistic picture of the
plaque of that day. Thousands, even tens of
thousands dying.
(7) But God promises this diabolical pestilence will
not come near to the child of God who is in the
secret place.
(8) \\#8\\ God promises there will be a difference
in what happens to us and the wicked.
(9) I read once of a German physician who spoke this
psalm as a preservative in times of cholera.
B. But God also promises love and comfort.
Ps 91:4 He shall cover thee with his feathers,
and under his wings shalt thou trust….
1. \\#4\\ God will be our covering, like feathers.
a. That’s an expression of closeness. A chick would have
to be close to the hen to be covered by the feathers.
b. That’s an expression of care.
(1) A chick under the hen’s feathers will be cared
for by the hen.
(2) The phrase reminds me of Jesus weeping over
Jerusalem.
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!
c. That’s an expression of comfort.
(1) \\#4\\ The covering wings are mentioned in close
proximity to the terror \\#5\\.
(a) Have you ever been terrified? Not scared or
afraid but terrified?
(b) When a person is terrified they lose
themselves to their emotions.
(2) A child terrified usually wants to be held.
(a) They jump into your arms and you
instinctively hold them tight.
(b) It is as if you are trying to protect them
from the air itself!
d. Together, these is an expression of love!
2. All of this and more is offered and God asks us, "Is this
what you want?"
III. What Are Our Duties?
A. We have already mentioned that being in God’s shadow requires
something from us.
B. Three conditions are listed in this chapter.
1. There are more actions on our part that are mentioned in
this chapter and I have noticed that some add those in
to the conditions for being in God’s secret place, but if
you will look closely, I believe you will see that the
others are actions we do WHILE we are in God’s secret
place.
2. The three that get us into God’s secret place all start
with the word "because."
C. \\#9\\ "Because thou hast made the Lord… thy habitation"
1. This is additional information to what was given in
\\#1\\.
2. We must dwell in the secret place of the Most High.
a. Where is the secret place?
Psalm 31:20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of thy presence…
b. The secret place is to be in His presence.
3. The difference in verse 1 and verse 9 is that here God
called His presence a "habitation," a place to live.
4. Living close to God is not just a layover. It is a move.
5. This is one of the reasons we do not instantaneously
receive all of the blessings of God.
a. God is not just interested in a weekend with us. God
wants a permanent relocation.
b. Prayer, worship, righteousness, faith, the Word -
(1) These are not things we will try to see if they
work or not.
(2) These are things we will do whether we ever get
another blessing from God or not.
6. Anytime someone tells you, "I tried that Christian stuff
and it didn’t work." You can immediately know why. It
is because they were just visiting not moving to God’s
shadow.
D. NOTE: There are two more but they are found in \\#14-16\\, but
the pronouns change.
1. Instead of the Psalmist referring to the worshipper as
thee and thou, he refers to him as he and him.
2. Instead of the Psalmist referring to God has the Lord, he
refers to Him as Me and I.
3. God has stepped out of His role as the impartial God of
the universe and into the role of the personal God of
the secret place.
4. In the early days of my ministry, I could not type and
Kathy had to do all of my correspondence. Sometimes, I
would give her the thoughts and let her write the letter,
but I would always put my signature on it. That was the
personal touch. God is giving His personal touch in
these verses.
E. \\#14\\ "Because he has set his love upon me"
1. God gives entrance into the secret place because we love
Him.
2. God wants to be loved.
a. Is there anything that we have neglected more than to
love God?
b. I do not even know what love is. I have thought I did
but the more I live the more I realize I have never
understood it.
c. America’s home are missing love!
(1) More than 50% of marriages end in divorce.
(2) 3/4 teenagers drink regularly.
(3). 1/20 get drunk once a week.
(4) Average age of unwed mothers is 13.
(5) Some parents may still rebuke. Some may still
spank, but what our kids need more than anything
is to be loved!
d. Let us make sure that we love God.
F. \\#14\\ "Because he has known my name"
1. Knowing a name shows importance.
a. Using our first name shows care and concern.
b. Using a private name shows intimacy and a
relationship..
2. To enter into that secret place, we must learn God’s
names.
3. It is more difficult in the English Bible than in the
Hebrew to see that after an experience with God, the
person who had the experience would call God by a new
name, a name that grew up out of that experience.
Gen 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that
place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day,
In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
a. Jehovah Jireh means "God will provide."
b. It came out of God telling Abraham to sacrifice His
son, Isaac.
c. As they were walking up the hill, Isaac asked Abraham
what they were going to sacrifice. Abraham
answered:
Gen 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his
father, and said, My father: and he said, Here
am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and
the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they
went both of them together.
d. When it was over and God has provided, God and that
place had a new name.
4. To get into God’s secret place, you are going to have to
through some valleys and hard times and learn God’s
names.
5. That will come by staying in His shadow during those
desperate hours, but it will come.
Do you want God’s power, protection, provision? You need to enter
into God’s secret place!
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