Our Refuge, Fortress, and Redeemer (Psalm 91)

I’m going to do something a little different today. I’m going to read Psalm 91, it’s 16 verses, but there are so many verses in this chapter that apply in the middle of this global pandemic that I couldn’t just pick one or two or three. So just let these words from God soak in. And then I want to lead us to pray according to them.

“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. 1,000 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 under foot. 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.”
(Psalm 91)

Oh, there is so much here in Psalm 91. Now, there’s so much here that could be misunderstood. You could read this Psalm and think, “Okay, no plague will come near my tent. Psalm 91:10. Therefore I don’t have to be concerned at all about getting the coronavirus, and I don’t have to take precautions, or this or that.” That would be a misuse, misinterpretation of Psalm 91.

The whole Psalm is a picture of God being a refuge and a fortress, being a rescuer and a deliverer, a satisfier and a Savior for all who trust in him in the middle of pestilence, in the middle of plague, in the middle of, if I could use the term pandemic, that God is a refuge, and a fortress, and a rescuer, and a deliverer, and a Savior who gives life.

Father, we rejoice that even in the middle of a pandemic, You are redeeming sinners. Help us to proclaim Your gospel that many more will trust in You.

So if you follow along the Pray The Word podcast each day, you know we’re praying for specific people who are sending in specific prayer requests, and I want to share, and by the way, you can send those prayer requests to radical.net/prayerrequest. Just go there and put in your name and prayer request there. And we’re just picking different ones to pray for each day and there’s so many. I’m going to try to get to as many as possible.

But this one, I’ve got to just share, in light of God being the rescuer, deliverer, Savior, life giver, refuge, fortress. I want to read this from Grace. Grace mentions Llewellyn who she has been praying for amidst all of this to come to Christ. And Grace writes, “Llewellyn trusted in Jesus today. She saw his love and mercy and wrath and forgiveness, and is going to walk with him for the rest of her days. She saw his love and mercy and wrath and forgiveness and she put her trust in Jesus.”

God Is Drawing People To Himself To Answer Their Prayers

I think about, we were just praying on previous podcast episode for specific people by name who don’t know Jesus. And so to see this from Grace saying, “This person I’ve been praying for, Llewellyn, has trusted in Jesus.” To see that amidst so much sickness and even death, God is bringing life. God is bringing life today. He is drawing people to himself. And in this I want to encourage us as we continue to pray that God would draw people to Christ, to know that God is answering those prayers, that God is bringing people to life. He’s bringing rescue and deliverance and long eternal life satisfaction, salvation, in the middle of all of this, and at the same time for all who do trust in him, he is a constant refuge and a constant fortress to whom we can always turn.

We Praise God For His Presence And His Word

So God, we praise you. You are the Most High. You are the Almighty. And we praise you that today we abide in your shadow, that we dwell in your shelter. You are our refuge. You are our fortress. We put all of our trust in you amidst deadly pestilence around us, amidst plague, amidst pandemic. All of our trust is in you.

And we praise you for your word, Psalm 91:14, “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name.” God, we call upon you and we pray for your deliverance, your protection, your help in trouble, your rescue, your salvation. We praise you for how you’ve brought that about and Llewellyn’s life. All glory be to your name for drawing her to Christ. We pray for her today as she has begun new life in Christ, that she would know you as her refuge and her fortress from this day forward for all of eternity.

Psalm 91 Wants More People To Be Drawn Towards God

We praise you for what you’ve done in Llewellyn’s life. And God, we continue to pray that you would do that in more and more and more people’s lives, and more of our friends’ lives, and more of our family members lives, God, and people around us in our neighborhoods, God, draw more to faith in you, to life in you, to satisfaction in you, just like you did in Llewellyn’s life, that multitudes more might know you as refuge and fortress, as help and deliverer during these days.

So God, please draw many people to look to you and trust in you even as we say today to you, our Lord, Psalm 91:2, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Jesus, we praise you for making salvation, refuge, trust like this possible through what you did on the cross for us. All glory be to your name, the Most High God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.