I invite you to turn this morning to psalm. As we come to the table, I thought considering a psalm would be right. We'll come back to our study in Joshua shortly. Psalm 91, that's found on page 588 in your Bibles, 588. This is Psalm 91. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. And there ends the reading of God's Word. Well, I thought Psalm 91 would be a helpful psalm to consider with you this morning as we come to the table of our Lord, particularly because I think we live in, we've looked at in numerous ways over the past years, the confusing times that we live, but also I think there's a struggle of a sense in our days with the question of, is God angry with us? There's no shortage of evil and problems that we're facing, and I'm not sure it's all that evident to people that we're making great progress in the faith as previous generations seem to have made, at least that's our perspective of it, in their walks with the Lord. We feel powerless at times, and it feels our whole faith at times feels disconnected from the Lord's care. And I think there's a sense in that question that Moses asks in the previous psalm, We'll look at together today how connected these two psalms are. When Moses asks somewhat of a radically different question than Psalm 91, when he seems to describe the difficulties and the hardships of life, who knows the power of your anger? That's quite a question that Moses asked in Psalm 90. Who knows the power of your anger? We have been consumed by it. And by your wrath, we are terrified, Moses says in the previous psalm. I mean, this psalm 91 is so radically different from that, isn't it? That we've struggled. We kind of can relate. I'll come back to this. We can relate to psalm 90. But psalm 91 is rather confusing. There's a constant fear that tends to govern us that due to failure and due to sin, and there's no shortage of problems with that in our time, sin has been great in our age, has God turned his back on us, is the question. Or has his disposition changed to us when things are going this bad? There may have been times when we seem to experience God's favor, and maybe you can look back in the renewal of the times in which we live where we seem to have a true hunger for the Lord and a hunger for his word, and then there are periods that are just empty, it seems. The Lord's favor doesn't seem to come easy these days, does it? And what I think we need at the moment in considering and coming to the table today is an encouragement from the Scriptures to the unchanging disposition of the Lord to his people. God is a God who does not change. Fundamental attribute of the Lord. And this psalm captures that in a beautiful way and in a helpful way. It's capturing, namely, that the Lord does not change in his care for his people. That's really the summary statement of this great psalm. The Lord does not change in his care for his people. And this captures that in the different ways the Lord cares for us and helps us. And that's what I want to focus on this morning together with you. The psalm begins with a summary statement that is meant to capture everything that he wants to say in the psalm. So the first few verses are the summary of the psalm. They capture the heart of the psalm, the thesis, if you will, of the psalm. Notice what it says in verse 1. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, My God in whom I trust. Those verses summarize the psalm. They summarize his care. The response to the truth, you'll notice there, is the psalmist responds to that great truth. Since that's true, that I dwell under the shelter of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty, here's what I say to the Lord. Here's my response to the Lord. He is my refuge and my fortress. And notice this, this is important. My God, that's how personal that is, I will trust him. I will trust him. Now, that's not an easy thing to do. Nobody thinks that's easy to do. We don't hold that out. The Psalms don't hold that out as something cheaply said. I will trust him. I will trust him, the psalmist says. The psalmist here, the word he chose to abide here means to lodge. In other words, we are lodged under his special sheltering care in life. Under the sovereign umbrella, if you will, of protection. Maybe some of you pulled out the umbrellas yesterday. We never do that in Southern California. But it shelters, it covers. The imagery here that God uses is the imagery of a bird who spreads out her wings over her young and is always concerned to spread the umbrella of protection over her chicks. Think of how we do that with our children. Think of how much care and protection and love all that we do for our children. The psalmist is saying that is the basis for what I will trust in this life that the Lord does that for me. Luther said it this way. This belongs to those who really dwell and do not merely appear to dwell and does not just imagine that he dwells. These are those who truly dwell under the Lord's sovereign care and protection. Now, I guess that's important to say. That's not true for everyone, is it? There are many who have not known this. There are many who have not understood this. There are many who do not sit under the shadow and care of the Lord's almighty protection. And they really cannot say that they have made the Lord their refuge and their strength. They've made everything else their refuge in life. They've given all their attention to everything else to find their happiness. But they're not covered. They're not protected. They have more joy in a Padres game. Now, I'm not beating up you who like Padres. I've finally become a fan, if you can believe that. But it captures the energy and the devotion to things that provide nothing lasting. The psalmist is considering this with us, and he wants us to invite us into this. That's the purpose of the psalm. Come join with me in this. So many people do not. They don't know this. He opens up his arms, if he will, and says, the Lord will do this for you too. And so he breaks into, with this sort of grand call to join in, this is my God, and by the end, God will speak and reciprocate and say, this is what I will do for you. He opens up his arms and says, come and enjoy this. He breaks into all the ways that the Lord gives us protection in life. Notice verse 3, surely he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. It means the one who waits to catch the bird and trap. He will deliver you from the snare. He's talking about all our enemies in life and all the things that come at us in life, all the things in the fallen world that assault us. He is saying he will deliver you from all of that. He goes on, from perilous pestilence. We didn't really see how bad pestilence could be. We didn't live the black plague, which wiped out a third of Europe. Under his wings, you shall take refuge. He's talking about sickness and he's talking about disasters. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night or the arrow that flies by day. That's capturing all the fears that we have in life. Of the things that could happen to us. living in it, living in worry, living in panic, living in fret of these things. He goes on, from perilous pestilence and under his wings, you shall take refuge. Think of the fears we have. What are those that stir our souls? What are the things that stir us up so that we can't even sleep. He will deliver you. And for the destructions that come around you, we have enough of them to worry about today. And many of you sitting here worry about them with your children. From perilous pestilence, verse 5, you will not be afraid of the terror by night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in the darkness, nor the destruction that lays waste at noonday? Think of sickness. It looms over all of us. And it's amazing as you get older how much you worry about health and the bad things and choices that you've made to your own health. If you were to list the various experiences of the psalmist, this progresses to things even scarier. Verse 7, a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked. What is he talking about? One of the greatest concerns. Judgment. Judgment. That's the biggest fear people really do carry around. Moses saw God's judgments on unbelief. The angel of death went through the camp. I can't imagine, though, after the Lord had enclosed the sea on the Egyptians, there stood Moses and Israel behind him looking back, and what did they see? This. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. There's a reason he's saying here, you will only look upon it with your eyes. He who dwells under the shadow of the Almighty, the bigger picture is judgment will not come upon him. And then one more great blessing, verse 9, because you've made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the most higher dwelling place. No evil. Notice what it says. No evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near your tent. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra. He's talking about evil and the evil one. The psalmist is capturing everything in life that could possibly give us fear, anxiety, and worry. It is this. Enemies. It is disasters. It is fear. It is judgment. It is evil. It is everything that you've ever worried about in life. The psalm says, the Lord will not allow it to touch you. Whoever abides under the shadow of the Almighty, none of these things shall touch you. You who have made the Lord your trust. Now what I suspect is at this point in the psalm is I haven't helped you much. Really. You are fearful. This is what sheep are. You fear everything. You fear disasters. You fear the future. You fear judgment. Maybe some of you think I'm going to face that. Sin, we talked about secret sins this morning, how easily you could give into that. Evil constantly rises up against us. I've said a million times, I think, it's so important to say it, the wicked don't seem to fear any of these things. Isn't it something? They don't have a care in the world. It's the most difficult thing, said Thomas Watson, to make the wicked sad and the righteous happy. It's the righteous who seem most afraid and concerned. Why is that? The hardest part of the psalm is, maybe you think, I don't seem to know what he's describing. We've had hard deaths in this church. We've had very sad things happen. We've had a lot of sickness. We've had a lot of fear. We've had a lot of sin. Doesn't it seem this psalm is so disconnected from reality? I think that's a great challenge of the psalm. I think the psalm is pushing us to this, to challenge us with this. This seems like out-of-touch, sweet contemplations from a prosperity guy. I mean, those are my options, right? Isn't that an option that maybe that's what the prosperity and health and wealth people just got this right? If I just have enough faith, that will be my experience until one of them dies, right? It really helps to have a little bit of background here of the psalm to help us with this. And it's important to ask who wrote the psalm. And there is no name given. So we seem to be left in the dark on that as to where this psalm came from and who wrote it. But there's a statement in the Talmud that said when the author's name is not mentioned, this was a common Jewish thought. This was of the scholars of the Hebrew's thought. That when the name is not mentioned, you have to assign the psalm to the previous writer. It's right out of the Talmud. That would mean the psalm is written by who? Moses. So that would mean this is a follow-up to Psalm 90. Listen to Psalm 90. You turn man to destruction and say, return, O children of men, for a thousand years, and your sight are like yesterday when it's passed, and like a watch in the night, you carry them away like a flood. They are like sleep in the morning, they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up, in the evening it's cut down and withers. For we've been consumed by your anger and by your wrath. We're terrified. You've set our iniquities before you. Awful thought. Our secret sins in the light of your countenance. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are 70 years. And if by reason of strength, we might get 80. Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for soon it's cut off and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger? Ah, I can relate to that psalm. Maybe. Doesn't that seem to make a little more sense? And yet Psalm 91 comes along and describes the complete protection from all of that. What gives? What gives? Well, I think you have to put the Psalms together. If Psalm 90 describes the real struggles of life on the face of this earth and the face of enemies and death and sin and all the realities as we suffer through them and struggle through them, if Psalm 90 captures that and all the pain that comes with it, this is why we always consider Psalm 90 at the end of a year, in the beginning of a year, because we will read the list of deaths after that happened in the congregation. Psalm 91 takes a step back, and it gives us all another take. In reality, in the face of the sense that God has withdrawn his favor, it gives us the greater perspective that in light of all the difficulties of this life, God has and God always will deliver all his people. Moses wrestled with this. Remember what he said? When everything failed, when he first went before Pharaoh, he was livid. And he comes back, and this is what he said to the Lord. Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you've sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done all this evil to your people. Neither of you delivered your people at all. How often have you felt that? When you're in the middle of that you don't feel deliverance. God seems to do nothing for you. God does not seem to help. That's the experience. God seems at time to abandon. God seems to leave. God seems to leave us in the affliction and the woe. None of it makes sense. And we have to come. This is why I think we have to be honest with music and church. It's not always the praise song. There are deep laments in this altar for a reason because that's pretty real to life. You can't just come on and put on the fake show. All of this kind of requires real questions. Is God faithful? What is he doing? Is he going to deliver? Can I trust him? Now, that may be a different answer for you depending on where you are right now. This is why we've always said when you say life's good, get ready for tomorrow. And what is intended here? Well, in great contrast from Psalm 90, it's as if he sees the big picture to it all. When God came in judgment on Egypt, Moses saw what verse 7 says. He saw thousands fall at his side, 10,000 at his right hand. He saw the judgments in the wilderness too for unbelief. After all those plagues, as they passed through the land, enemies surrounded them. Remember the Amalekites? They set snares for them. All along the way, they faced the harsh conditions of wilderness life. They face pestilence. They face death. Notice the language, terror by night. But there was a cloud there the whole time. A pillar of fire leading them. When you're able to look back on life after walking through the valley of the shadow of death, what does one see? That's the question. You won't see the whole picture until you stand back from it. that's our problem. You won't see the whole picture until you stand back from it. Why do these things happen the way that they do? Think of Job. He lost. Think of how the assaults of Satan came on him. In one day, the man lost his livelihood. All of his belongings in life, his children, the house fell on them and they died. And then his health in one day. None of us guarantees that won't happen to you. Job cursed the day he was born. You think you could have read Psalm 91 in the middle of that? This is great. I don't think so. In fact, here's his complaint. Oh, that I knew where I might find him. And that I might even come to his seat. I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty? And why do those who know him never see his days? Ah, that's what he felt. That's what he experienced. That's so far from the beginning, it seemed, of Psalm 91. He who, think about it, dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. When you're in the middle of the heartache and loss, Job didn't seem to know God's care and understand it. But we're able to look behind the scenes in the story. What did Satan say about Job? Here's what Satan said about Job, and I quote. Satan's words. Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything that he has? You have blessed the works of his hands so that his flocks and his herds are spread throughout the land. What Satan saw the whole time was that the Lord had hedged him in and put a giant canopy over him and sheltered him. That's what he saw. And he was under the shadow of the Almighty and God allowed Job to suffer those things. Why? To prove that nothing could change that even though he didn't see it. So that by the end of it, Job blesses the Lord But when faced with hardship in the truth of the matter, what came out was, there was never a point, ever, ever, when he was separated from the sheltering wings of the Lord. Ever. The psalm is capturing that. The end of the road looking back in the resurrection. And what is the truth of the matter? And that's why the psalm's calling you to trust. When we stand back from it all, and we're able to see back in the resurrection one day, when this is all said and done, listen to me, this is what you will see. This is what you will see. God delivered you the whole way through. He was with you the whole way through. He cared for you the whole way through. And at the end of the day, none of those things led to your ruin, you who trust the Lord. Will you struggle? Will you suffer? Will you face tribulation? Of course you will. But notice the promise here, that the Lord is with us. That's the power of the psalm, verse 4. His truth will be your what? Shield. it's wrapped around you, his truth. And he promises you to shelter you in that truth, to keep you in that truth. That's why the greatest of afflicted saints we see in this life are those with the greatest testimonies of God's preserving power. That's how he strengthens. His promise is to give, notice in the psalm, salvation to those who trust him. Verse 11, for he shall give his angels charge concerning you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. As far as I know, that's the only verse the devil quoted in the New Testament to Jesus. When he tempted Jesus away from his mission, the one who had come down here for us, And went into the trials and testings of this life for us. Remember what he said? When he tested and tempted him. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you. In their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. What he didn't quote. The following verse. You shall tread the lion and the cobra underfoot. It's an encouragement to us today. As Christ overcame all sin and temptation, as Christ became sin for us, what he's telling us here is that those who trust in him have the absolute assurance of the Lord's care all the way through. And in him you are lodged under his shadow. He will give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. So that these blessings because of Christ are true for us. He went to the cross to secure them. He died and rose victorious to give us that victory. And that's why the psalmist is saying in the midst of the Psalm 90-like experiences, remember the rear view look of this all. Put your trust in the Lord today. Believe him. have faith in him, know and see, taste and see that the Lord is good. And God speaks that way to us. Notice this. Because this is true, notice it's the beautiful end of this. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. See it? I will rescue him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Seven promises are right there at the end of that song. When you stand back in glory, and if you're given the ability to look back in the resurrection, this is the truth that you'll see. This is the basis for every tear wiped from our eyes. This is the hope that he gives us. And so that gives us an entirely different outlook on life. Make the Lord today your trust. These are the kind, this is the heart the Lord is calling us to as we come to the table. He gave his son to die for you. He rose triumphant for you to secure this kind of blessing and perspective. Trust him and you too will abide under the shadow of the Almighty all your days, and you'll know the joy of what that is like. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us today, and thank you for your gospel. And we pray, O Lord, that these words would greatly encourage us to know that this is the truth of the matter. And even when we are tried and tested, you will uphold us through the victory of the one who overcame. Bless this to our hearts today, and now as we come to the table, give us great joy and confidence that the Lord is our refuge and strength, and that we dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. So may our confession today be the same as the psalmist. We will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I will trust. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.