Psalms 91 and 93: God Is Protector and King

The real point being made here is, as the psalm slows down, however churning the sea may be, that king we talked about who reigns on high, he's mightier.

He's the mighty one on high. The sea can't undermine his throne, cannot topple him, and therefore we can trust his decrees and enter into the holiness of his house. Depending on what season of life you're in, life can feel chaotic at times. Whether it's the pressures of your job, preparing to go to college and trying to plan your new schedule, simply a full summer with vacations and lots of people you'd like to see, or household jobs you'd like to catch up on, or sickness, juggling appointments and recovery. In those moments when it feels like the floods have lifted up, to quote Psalm 93, where do you turn?

What promises do you cling to? Welcome to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. W. Robert Godfrey has been with us this week looking at the book of Revelation. Well, today and tomorrow, he'll be considering several Psalms from his edifying series, Learning to Love the Psalms. Before we get to today's study, until tomorrow, you can own Dr. Godfrey's 12-part series on the Psalms when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.

Here's Dr. Godfrey to remind us where to turn when the floods lift up their roaring. Book 4 is a relatively brief book, 17 Psalms, Psalm 90 through Psalm 106, and it is a book that begins to help the people of God find relief from the crisis, find faith out of the day of trouble. And so I've labeled book 4, The King's Comfort in God's Faithfulness.

The King's Comfort in God's Faithfulness. And what tends to characterize book 4 is that the Psalms are looking back to God the Creator and God the covenant-establisher with Moses. So, since the crisis is a crisis of kingship, the crisis is a crisis of David's family, the people of God are encouraged to look back behind the Davidic times to God the Creator, who obviously is in charge of all things, but also God the faithful covenant-giver as we see in the time of Moses. So, just as in Psalm 77, we saw that a strategy for God's people in the day of trouble is to look back to God's past faithfulness to encourage them for the present.

So, that's kind of what book 4 as a whole does. It's looking back to God's past faithfulness. And so, it's very telling that book 4 begins with Psalm 90, which is labeled, A Prayer of Moses. This is the only Psalm connected explicitly to Moses in the title.

And so, immediately, we're being told that we're taken back behind David to the time of Moses and those who are taken back behind Moses. And those wonderful, encouraging words at the beginning of Psalm 90, Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. And then, moving from that assurance and that promise to the theme of creation, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You are God. You are the Creator God. You have been with us in all generations.

However great the day of trouble, we can look to You in hope. And then, carrying on that theme, we could skip over to Psalm 92, and Psalm 92 is entitled, A Song for the Sabbath. Well, the Sabbath is the institution that Moses highlights, but Sabbath is an institution that really goes back to creation.

It's a critical point. The Sabbath is not something given by Moses. The Sabbath is given by God for man's well-being in creation. And so, again, Psalm 92, the only explicit reference to the Sabbath in the Psalter draws our minds back to the creation, but also to Moses.

That's a theme developing. And then, this book ends with Psalm 105, Psalm 106, which are both historical Psalms. Psalm 105 reflecting on the good old days in Israel, particularly focusing on Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, when God was with His people and blessing His people.

And then, Psalm 106 is a reflection on the not so good old days of how Israel in its history also fell into sin. And what's important about that is that while book four gives a lot of comfort, at the end of book four, we see we're still in the same place where we started. There's still a crisis. It's not really resolved.

We've been helped, but we haven't been entirely healed. And so, book four takes us forward but doesn't get us all the way there. We have to wait for book five for that.

One of the ways this is marked for us is in book three, the great crisis of the king. There's only one Psalm of David. David's almost absent. In book four, there are two Psalms of David. So, things are a little brighter. David's making a comeback. And then, in book five, we'll see a number of Psalms of David.

So, there are all sorts of pointers, I think, that help us see what's going on here. But I want us to give a little thought to Psalm 91. If both Psalm 90 and Psalm 92 connect us with creation and with Moses, we might expect something similar to be found in Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is one of the relatively familiar Psalms in the Psalter for a lot of people today.

It's full of wonderful promises. 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. There are wonderful promises in this Psalm, wonderful reassurances, yet there's no explicit statement about Moses here. But again, if we know the book of Deuteronomy well, we will recognize there are all sorts of echoes of Deuteronomy 32 and 33 here in this Psalm.

This is kind of a meditation. It's kind of maybe almost a fugue on Deuteronomy 32 and 33. And part of the reason that's important is that Deuteronomy 31 says God is going to come in judgment on His people for their faithlessness. And then Deuteronomy 32 and 33 say, but after that He'll return, and there'll be blessing, and there'll be restoration and deliverance for His people. So Psalm 91 in a sense is a great meditation on that promise that after exile, after suffering, after loss will come days of blessing.

And Psalm 91 then is a celebration of that blessing with extraordinary promises. 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.

Here we have the introductory theme of Psalm 91, if you will. God is near. God is near. He's near to His people as a refuge. He's near to His people as a great bird who's sheltering us under His wings that will protect us. And therefore, we don't need to fear. That's where the Psalm goes next.

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. Now, sometimes it's a little hard to figure out exactly how we apply these Psalms to ourselves. Does this mean if you're a good Christian, you'll never get sick? Does this mean if you're a good Christian and go off to war, there's no chance that you will be wounded?

Well, that sort of answers itself, doesn't it? No, that's not the promise here. But it's a vision of God's faithfulness to His people, His protection of His people, and His willingness to go with His people. I went to a funeral of a friend, and he'd been a Top Gun pilot.

Did I say that already here? And that motto comes back here. The motto his unit had as a Top Gun pilot was, today I am invincible unless the Lord has other plans. And that's kind of the spirit of this Psalm.

We are invincible because, as Paul says in Philippians, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. And this is a wonderful promise then of what the Lord has, both in the present, but also for the future of His people. If we skip down a little bit, verse 9, because you 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. Now, those verses should sound a little familiar. When Jesus in the temptation was urged by the evil one to turn stones into bread because he was hungry, Jesus said, My food is every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And then the evil one, being effective at what he does, said, Okay, if you're interested in the Word of God, let me quote a Word of God to you. Let me take you up to the pinnacle of the temple and cast yourself down, show your power, because after all, the Word of God says, Psalm 91 verse 12, On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. It's always fascinated me how Jesus responds. You know, there are several responses possible. Jesus could have said, You're misinterpreting that Psalm. I know what it means. I wrote it.

And you're not using it correctly. Or he might have said, You know, that's not the tradition of the rabbis as to how we interpret that Psalm. But I think he gives us profound direction as his people in his response. He responds and he says, It is also written. The only way to find the truth of Scripture is to compare Scripture with Scripture. There's no authority to appeal to. There's no pope, there's no prophet who can tell us what the Bible means.

You just have to keep studying it. And Jesus points that out. But we can ask, can't we now, What does the Psalm mean?

If the evil one misused it, how should we interpret it? And I've always been a little bit intrigued by this because, since this isn't being recorded and we can just talk privately amongst ourselves, I've always sort of wondered, Why are there angels? Have you ever wondered why are there angels? God doesn't really need them, does He? I mean, He can do everything directly.

Why would He do anything indirectly? Through angels. On their hands, they will bear you up. Well, why can't God just bear us up? Why do we have to be born to be born to be born to be born to bear us up?

Why do we have to be born up by angels? The best I can do as an answer, and I think it's a pretty good answer, is to suggest we see everywhere in creation God's love of diversity. God hasn't given us a stingy, mingy, dull little world to live in, but He's given us a world just chock full of things, beautiful things, beautiful plants, beautiful trees, intriguing animals. One of my favorite verses is from Psalm 104 where it talks about God giving the leviathan to play in the seas. You know, maybe the leviathan is good for whale oil, but primarily the leviathan was created just because there's a playful dimension to God, that He loves the fullness of things. He loves the diversity of things, and apparently that's true in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm because He's made angels, different kinds of angels, to do different things, not because He needs them. He doesn't need whales, and I hate to tell you, He doesn't need you.

He doesn't need me. He is in love with what He's made and fellowships with it, enjoys the fellowship of it, and so He's created angels partly just for the joy of it, but partly to be ministering spirits. That means serving spirits. That's what we read in Hebrews 1.14, that angels are ministering, serving spirits to those who will inherit salvation. And so, this psalm picks up on that sort of theme to talk about how God appoints angels to help us. Now, does that mean each of us has a guardian angel? Well, I'm not sure we can prove that out of the Scripture or that it would be useful for us to try to find our guardian angel. That doesn't seem to be at all the point of Scripture, but it is the point of Scripture to say God surrounds us not only with protection but with protectors, and that's part of the blessing here. This is what God is saying here, and the protection that God promises us through protectors should never be reduced to something superstitious or frivolous, and that's what the devil tried to do with this promise.

He tried to make it frivolous. Just go jump off a cliff and see if the angels will bear you up. My suspicion is they won't because that's not what they're appointed for. They're not appointed to be appealed to or used in that way, and that's where the devil was tempting Jesus. As I thought about that psalm, I was intrigued to realize, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew, we find frequent references to the angels in the life of Jesus. The angels are present at His birth.

Well, that's in Luke, but it still counts. And the angels are present with Him after His temptation. Remember, Matthew 4.11 says the angels came to Him after the devil departed. They're with Him in the garden of Gethsemane.

As we read in Matthew 26, they're there at the resurrection, Matthew 28, and they will be there at the second coming, Matthew 25 prophesied. So, the angels are there with Jesus as His protectors, as His encouragers. You remember that in the garden Jesus said He could have called forth legions of angels to protect Him.

He didn't need Peter with his sword. And all of this is part of God's protecting Jesus and Jesus understanding the real meaning of Psalm 91. The real meaning of Psalm 91 is not frivolous, but is important to recognize God will protect us, and as we trust in His Word, will keep us in His Word. The angels help Jesus to do God's will, not to avoid it. And that's what is so important to us and so vital to us, it seems to me. And I think that's part of why Hebrews does say in chapter 1 that the angels are ministering spirits to us, to help us to be faithful. Then in Hebrews 2, we read, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He, Jesus Himself, likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. So, the angels come to help deliver us from the fear of death and from that lifelong slavery to sin that Jesus came to deliver us from.

And their function is not then silliness. Their function is to bring the Word of God, to impress the Word of God, to protect us in God's service. So, this is a beautiful psalm that reminds us of God's presence and God's purpose and God's goodness to us. And so, I've always thought it's intriguing that the devil did not quote verse 13, you will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

But Jesus remembered verse 13, and He trampled the serpent underfoot when He refused to be led astray. In the time we have left, I want us to turn to one more psalm in book four. It's a little psalm. It seems, maybe at first glance, not that impressive as a psalm. It says rather familiar things we've heard before.

Just because we've heard them before doesn't mean we don't need to hear them again. But I thought I would try, I'm not sure how successful this will be, to give you a little flavor of the feel of Hebrew poetry. Now Hebrew poetry, unlike old English poetry, is not based on rhyme. It's based more on rhythm.

And it's very hard to translate rhythm from one language to another. And so I have tried to translate Psalm 93, because it's short, to carry the rhythm of the Hebrew original. And just looking at Psalm 93 on the standard English page, you don't really have any sense that the rhythm changes and grows in this psalm, so that the first verse is really composed of a series of lines that are four syllables long with a slight variation at the end, five syllables and then three syllables. And then verse two slows down a little bit, so the first line is seven syllables and the second line is five syllables. Then the third verse is all seven syllables. The fourth verse is all seven syllables. And then the first line of verse five is nine syllables.

So you've gone from lines of four syllables to a line of nine syllables. And what does that do? It really slows things down. It's speedy at the beginning and then slows as it goes along. Is this crucial to the understanding?

No. But it reminds us that the form of a poem supports the meaning of a poem. The poem really moves through first saying God is majestic, and then it says God is powerful, God is mighty. You can be majestic without being mighty.

Queen Elizabeth at the opening of Parliament is as majestic as you get, but she's not mighty anymore. Then we'll see that God is also mindful of His people, of His purposes. So this little psalm really is delightful, but let me read my not very good translation, only to be commended by getting the syllables right. And notice this opening rhythm.

It's four beats per line in the opening, and it has a kind of rapidity that moves right along. This psalm is part of trying to bring comfort to God's people, and the psalmist wants to open kind of brusquely to bring that home. The Lord He rules, clothed in splendor. The Lord is clothed. With strength He's girt.

You feel a kind of rapid fire of that. There's His majesty. Yes, the earth is firm, five syllables, not reeling, three syllables. So here's how it opens, you see. It's opening in the majesty and strength of God, and then it slows down just a little. Your throne is firm from of old, seven syllables.

Forever you are, five syllables. So now it's slowed down. We've had this rapid fire confession of God's majesty.

Now it slows down a little bit, and then we come to this what might be a little bit confusing center of the psalm at verse 3 where you have seven syllables per line. Lifted up the waters, Lord, lifted up the waters sound, lift up the waters pounding. Why all this talk about waters? Well, because the waters for Israel were the symbol of chaos. Nothing is less controllable than the sea.

Walk down to a Florida beach on a hurricane day, and you'll be dumb, but you'll see the power of the sea. That's what's being focused on here, the power of the sea, the chaos of the sea, the uncontrollable nature of the sea. And then verse 4, again, seven syllables each line. From the sounds of great waters, mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord is mighty on high. So the real point being made here is as the psalm slows down, however churning the sea may be, that King we talked about who reigns on high, he's mightier.

He's the mighty one on high. The sea can't undermine His throne, cannot topple Him. And then the longest line, nine syllables, again states the very heart of things in a lot of ways, your statutes are very trustworthy. That's the point to slow down.

That's the point we really need to take in. The Lord, He rules. Your statutes are very trustworthy. Slow down over that.

Get that clear. That's our connection with the Lord who rules, the reliability of His statutes. And then eight syllables, holiness adorns your own house.

And then seven syllables, O Lord, for all length of days. So we have this form that supports the teaching, the teaching that God is majestic and powerful, and although the might of the sea seems so great, He's mightier, and therefore we can trust His decrees and enter into the holiness of His house. So it's a beautiful little psalm that directs the people to the Lord, but as we close, we see it also directs the people to His Word and to His worship as central in their experience of His rule. It is a great comfort knowing that God is sovereign, even over all the circumstances of our lives, and that we can trust His decrees. This is Renewing Your Mind, and you just heard a message from W. Robert Godfrey series, Learning to Love the Psalms. The book of Psalms is one of the greatest treasures the Lord has given to His people, and in this series, Dr. Godfrey introduces us to this rich songbook and divinely inspired guide for our prayers, and he considers a number of psalms in depth. Request this 12-message study on DVD when you call us at 800 435 4343 with a donation of any amount. You can also give your gift online at renewingyourmind.org. In addition to adding the DVD to your collection, you'll also receive lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, so make your donation at renewingyourmind.org or by clicking the link in the podcast show notes, and thank you for supporting the daily outreach of Renewing Your Mind. Our lives can sometimes feel chaotic, but the world can too as we see injustice and immorality on a grand scale. Tomorrow Dr. Godfrey will share more wisdom from the Psalms and how we should think about the future. That's Friday here on Renewing Your Mind. you