Psalms 91 Part Two

The Habitation and Servants of the Christian

Who Dwells with God

 Psalms 91:9-13

 

 By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

One thing for sure in the lives we lead, we will have hardships, trials and struggles. These will occur because we live in a world twisted by the sin of mankind, because evil people wish to do wicked things to us and because we often make bad decisions that bring us serious trouble. We all know the phone number we call when we are facing a dire emergency. We phone 911. I would like to suggest to you that when you face such a horrible tragedy you also consider reading Psalm 91:1 and the verses that follow. In this three part series let’s see what we can discover about our God and ourselves when we face a storm of life.

 

Main Point

The Christian who makes the Lord their refuge will experience no evil because God’s angels will provide protection and the Lord will empower the Christian to have victory over any temptation or satanic attack.

 

Psalm 91:9-13

“For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.”

 

In the first part of this series we learned the necessity of dwelling and taking refuge in the Lord. We learned that “dwell” means to sit down in quiet, to remain, to settle down, to abide and inhabit. It does not mean to casually pass through temporarily. It means to take up residence completely and absolutely in your relationship with the triune God, looking upon God as your Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit as a guide and comforter. Verse 9 here in Psalm 91 tells us that such a Christian has made a choice to dwell and take refuge in the Lord and when this is done no evil will fall upon them. No plague or disease will touch them.

 

This poetic Psalm seems to suggest in verse 9 that a wise scholar is speaking to his righteous student. The scholar appears to compliment his understudy by stating, “You have made the Lord, ‘My refuge.’” A refuge is a place to hide to recover from battle. It is a location that is hidden from evil dangerous foes. It is a place to refresh and gain strength in order to return to battle. Those who dwell close to the Lord take refuge in Him. To recover, gain strength or reclaim composure, they take refuge in the Lord for they believe, know and trust that they will be protected and be refreshed to go back into the fray of battle to bring glory to the Lord once more. No one is impervious to wounds by evil or the trials of life. Our loving God knows this and offers us a safe refuge.

 

Also in this verse it is again stressed and reiterated that God must be our dwelling place if we are to survive what life throws at us. But besides being a place of protection, there is no better place to live than in the holy place of God’s presence. Dwelling in the presence of the Lord means we are bathed in His love, having intimate communication with Him and growing in faith and trust.

 

Verse 10 gives us the result of making the Lord our dwelling place and refuge. Evil will not come our way. Yes, we will have trials and hardships. Yes, we may be pushed to the very limits of our faith and trust in God. But evil will not be allowed to touch our heart and mind. When we are so full of God that we can almost burst, there is no room for evil to take up residence. When we live in the dwelling of the Lord no evil can room beside us. For one, evil cannot stand holiness and that is the atmosphere and essence of dwelling with the Lord. Secondly, God does not allow the souls of His loving and obedient servants to be harmed by evil, whether it is worldly, fleshly or satanic. Physical harm may come at times, if so, always for a godly purpose, but when you dwell in the Lord your eternal soul cannot be harmed by evil.

 

We also see in this verse that no disease or plague will come near where we pitch our tent. A tent symbolizes the temporary home of a wandering servant on a mission for God. As Christians today we are told to consider our life here on this earth as not our home. Our home is in heaven and we are but traveler’s passing through this land called earthly presence. While we are camping in this world, God will not allow disease, plagues, and illness to frustrate His plan or His plan for us. We have to remain true to all of scripture and we do know that God allows His servants to experience sickness and disease, but never against His divine will. Since we trust in God and dwell in His presence we can trust that no meaningless or useless sickness comes our way other than what is divinely allowed for an eternal purpose.

 

How God assures His will is accomplished has many resources and methods, but one main resource of God are His vast army of Holy Ones, His angels. When dangers strive to come close to His servants God will send his Holy Angels to minister and protect the one who dwells in His family. Many people believe that each of us has guardian angels, but there is no scriptural evidence of this. Here we see that the child of God who dwells in the presence of God does not have a single angel that ministers to them, they have multitudes of these Heavenly Warriors sent by God to serve their needs, lift them from trouble and strengthen them in time of need. We know little of angels, but we do know they represent the mighty, loving and powerful God of Scripture. They have insight, wisdom, strength, compassion and character to carry out the wishes of the One who created them for one purpose, to serve God and His spiritual children. God commands His Holy Angels to guard us in ALL our ways, not just some or part of them. When we “dwell” in the Lord our ways are His ways, His thoughts, our thoughts, His will, our will. That is one of the main reasons they protect us when we dwell in Him, they are protecting us because we are in the process of carrying out the will of God and that is a holy will that will ultimately come to fruition.

 

Verse 12 tells us they will lift us up with their hands. What an intimate way to express how they protect and minister to us. Not with magic or by strange means, but with their own hands they will lift us up. Jesus’ touch while He walked on the earth had the power to heal, to impart forgiveness, to drive men full of greed out of the temple and to receive the mark of the cross that illustrates His ability to save us from our sins. The hands of angels will be empowered by God Himself to lift us up out of our weakness, up out of our exhaustion and prevent us from stumbling on the stones that are placed in our path by the world, the flesh and the devil. A small stone seems inconsequential to a person walking a path, but let that stone touch the right part of the sole of the foot whether it is protected or not and it can cause intense pain and cause someone to stumble. Satan often topples the greatest men and women by a single pea-sized temptation or sinful stone. God knows that we are so weak, that a tiny object might cause us to stumble, especially when we are walking a rough path so He sends His Holy Angels to lift us up so we will not stumble. But angels cannot lift us up if we are resisting the Lord. If we are running from God, they will not always seek to catch us. If we are not dwelling in the presence of the Lord we may, and I say may at times be allowed to walk without angelic assistance in order that we stumble so we come back to the protection of the Lord and walk again in His will. Why would we ever desire to walk out of the will of God and the holy resource of the protection and assistance of His Angelic Warriors? But we do this at times. Let us take this verse as an opportunity to take stock in where we are right now and consider the offer of protection of angels and return to dwelling in His presence if we have strayed from Him. If we see where we have been and recognize we have stumbled, let us return to fellowship with Him, take up residence with Him, dwell in His present, restore our relationship with Him and once again allow His angels to lift us up so we will not stumble even on the tiniest pea of a stone.

 

What we have learned so far from these passages in Psalms 91 is that if we dwell in a strong relationship with the Lord, in His presence if you will, we have not only have protection from evil, we also have the support and assistance of God’s army of angels. But with any protection and assistance from godly intervention, there comes a responsibility. This responsibility is given in the next few verses. Because of our strong personal relationship with the Lord and the protection and strength we have from God we can combat and confront demonic influences and forces. In verse 13 we see that when we encounter attacks and oppression from powers of darkness or those who are enemies of God. Mentioned here are first a lion and cobra. These represent attacks from powerful foes that might be verbal, emotional or even physical. The lion always represents strong predatory power, which we know scripture tells us concerning Satan himself.

 

1 Peter 5:8-9

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith,”

 

But the enemies listed do not stop there, next we have the cobra. The cobra represents the sneaky snare of the Devil. No sooner have we been outright attacked by evil forces and survived, we will next be sideswiped from behind or the side by deceptive suggestions or accusations. But in the Lord we can withstand and overcome these attacks as well.

 

Next comes the yet more powerful lion, the great lion often spoken of as the “young” lion. Young lions have much to prove to others in the pride of lions and sometimes what they lack in wisdom of age, they more than make up for in the vibrant strength of youth. They are called great and powerful because they attack with vengeance and merciless power. They can be more destructive than older lions and thus the mention of them here in this verse. They are an ominous force to deal with when they attack the Christian, but God is more powerful than any sort of evil demonic lion or influence. Next mentioned in this verse are serpents. Just as the great young lion is more dangerous than a common lion, so the serpents are more frightening than a cobra. Serpents here are also similar to dragons that are larger with additional methods of destruction within their power. Whether it is lions or cobras, great lions or serpents, the Christian is empowered to not only tread upon them but also defeat them because of the power and covering of the Lord God Almighty. God could defeat any natural or spiritual foe, but will often use His children to participate in such a battle and victory. Sometimes this happens when we are at our weakest, because otherwise we might attempt to go into battle in our own strength. Much like David defeating Goliath, we are called upon to confront and battle spiritual forces and even worldly foes without human armor but covered by the armor of God and backed by His heavenly host.

 

Hurting people need a refuge from their distress. They need protection to recover. They need a refuge to gain composure. Then when the time is right, when strength has been renewed, when souls have been restored, God lifts His protective wings and we venture back out, a little calmer, stronger and more secure. God protects, but He also calls us to battle for Him and ourselves.

 

Psalms 9:9-10

“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”