Prayer of Rest

Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey PART IV
Dr. Timothy Keller
15 March 2015

Psalm 91
1Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty
2I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

3Surely he will save you
from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence
4He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5You will not fear the terror of night
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7A thousand may fall at your side.
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

9If you say, "The Lord is my refuge,"
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12they will left you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

REMARKABLE PROMISE (CLAIM)
--v1-4 God is a shelter, shade, refuge, fortress.
--God will protect you.
--God's wings - Conveys strength and tenderness of God.
--Mother bird metaphor that protects her young (Feminine image)
--God is not remote nor distant.

MISUNDERSTANDING THE PROMISE
--v5-12 Trusting God sounds like it means life will go smoothly and you won't experience bad times.
--We want so desperately to believe that, so it should give us pause.
--Book of Job sees it differently, except, "his friends" do read it that way concluding Job is not being faithful to God.  God's response to them was "You have not spoken truth about me."
--Satan wants us to read it that way;
--Devil quotes Psalm 91:11 in Luke 4 by trying to tempt Jesus.
--Jacob favors Joseph above all the brothers breaking that family apart.
--Everything went wrong for Joseph, but these led to him becoming a great man.
--Genesis 50:20 You meant all these things for evil but God meant them for good.
--Romans 8:28 All things work together for good to those who love God....
--Bad things and evil will be defeated in the end.
--Luke 21:16-18 - Bad things will happen (to his disciples) and you will be hated but not a hair on your head will perish, but in patience you will posses your soul.
--You must trust God when in trouble

UNDERSTANDING THE PROMISE TO ENTER THE PEACE
--v.15 I will be with him in trouble (meaning trouble will happen)
--So don't misread the middle verses.
--Jesus experiences trouble, so in a sense, God experiences trouble and is with us in trouble.
--God knows what we're going through.
--Mother bird image conveys substitution--the wing suffers while those in shade are protected.
--Jesus on the cross.
--Jesus trusted fully in God, but bad things still happened to him.