St Peter’s Hornsby

Psalm 91  A sermon, (with slight modifications)  by Robert Denham delivered on 21/2/2010

Truly I tell you, if you have faith & do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up & thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. That was Jesus’ reply in Matthew 21:21, to his disciples’ astonishment at a fig tree withering at his command. Since then, many have called on God seeking great and near impossible things, and have called on others to ask for them too.

Psalm 91, which we heard read today, is filled with the same sort of tone as Jesus’ reply. Psalm 91:3-8 ?For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler & from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, & under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield & buckler. ?You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.  A 1000 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 & see the punishment of the wicked.

These are promised for those who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,? will say to the Lord, “My refuge & my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” And just in case we did not quite get it, v9-10 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. 

After all I experienced in 2009, the confidence that seems to surround this Psalm, and the bold claims from it made by people seeking the triumphant, successful life which supposedly comes from a true faith, makes me feel like being quiet, & maybe giving up. For last year included a heart attack, sicknesses, death of a grandson, and many more personal tragedies and upsets. Hearing the confident claims of some who take the claims of Psalm 91 literally, means my disasters make me question if I have real faith.

But what is happening in Ps 91? Is it a blanket approach to true faith brings good health, good fortune & no miseries? Or is that too simplistic? Have I missed something in my reading of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, to properly understand this passage?

To answer that, I began to look at the words and promises used in the passage, and where they were used elsewhere in the Bible.

And after some searching, I found another song. A Psalm is a song. And in Deuteronomy, there was another song, this time by that well known singing star… Moses. He sang his only other recorded song when they crossed the Red Sea, & then, near the end of his life, he penned a second song which was to be sung as part of the “To-remember” list for the Israelites when they entered the land. It was intended to be one of those songs which would get into their heads and not be forgotten, a sort of song-that-never-ends type song, that would buzz around in the back of their minds for generations. Then, when history wound through & the people did eventually ignore God & follow after other gods, then this song would go “Aha! Aha!” in their heads.

The first half of the song reminds them of God’s selection and protection of them. Deuteronomy 32:11-12 says As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him; no foreign god was with him.

But the second half speaks of the times to come when they will be unfaithful to God, and flaunt themselves to other gods. God says he will hide his face from them, and will see what their end will be. Their unfaithfulness has led to God’s wrath being revealed. He declares in 32:23-24 I will heap disasters upon them, spend my arrows against them: wasting hunger, burning consumption, bitter pestilence. The teeth of beasts I will send against them, with venom of things crawling in the dust. Then in v30: How could one have routed a thousand, and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, the LORD had given them up?

The 2 songs have a lot in common in their lists of disasters. One forewarned that if unfaithful God’s wrath would come, and one as claiming we have avoided these expressions of God’s wrath because we are faithful.

Psalm 91: You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday.  A 1000 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 punishment of the wicked.

Psalm 91 is saying because we honour the Lord, and trust in Him, then we will not face God’s judgement & wrath. The song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 said that if they were unfaithful, then amid their daily problems of life, God’s people would face the much weightier & more terrible judgements of God. They would come in what appears to be natural occurrences, such as disease, war, and the uncomfortable parts of living in a world filled with dangerous animals etc, but they could rest assured that those destructive things were not simply the things that go bump in the night… they were God’s wrath being revealed.

However Psalm 91 reassures us that if we are trusting God as his faithful people, then we should not interpret bad events as being his wrath on us as judgement. I love the confidence of this Psalm when understood that way. But have I misunderstood it? It is easy to misunderstand, and in the Bible we have the classic misapplication of this Psalm.

In Mark 4, while Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan quoted part of this Psalm when he took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and told him to jump off. If Jesus really was the Son of God, then this Psalm would directly apply to him, and Psalm 91:11-12 says For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. ?

Jesus rebuked Satan by saying You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Satan was trying to tempt Jesus to doubt God’s promises, just as he had tried successfully in the Garden of Eden with Adam & Eve. But Jesus resisted. He faithfully bore all the pangs and pains of this life faithfully, and then bore much more as he accepted God’s wrath in his crucifixion and death for us.

So have I misunderstood the Psalm? In Romans 5:1-5 I found the help I need not to be unsettled by the claims of those who use Psalm 91 to make me feel embarrassed about sickness or disasters. It links in with the understanding of Psalm 91 in light of Deuteronomy 32.

Ssince we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

As a Christian, trusting God through Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit, my sufferings are not his wrath on me, but are a painful yet wonderful way to help me grow more like Jesus.

So how does this understanding of Psalm 91 differ from the literal view?

1. Instead of seeing the Psalm as a promise that no evil or sickness or war will ever afflict God’s faithful one, my understanding of it focuses on the meaning of what is happening when bad things happen. If the literal were true, then it may be argued that the world would still see ancient Christians and faithful Old Testament Jews triumphantly living today, without sickness, disasters or the ravages of war (like heaven on earth).

2. Psalm 91 stresses that the people are in a right relationship with God, trusting him. In line with the positive and negative covenant promises found in Deuteronomy 32 (to which there are many connections in the wording of the Psalm), it becomes clear that the confident boasts of the Psalm are referring to protection from those disasters which are part of God’s wrath upon his unfaithful people. So the faithful will not experience this wrath of God (which is the interpretation of the Psalm’s confident claims).

3. We are faithful people as we trust in Jesus, relying on the forgiveness and righteousness we find in him (even though we may/do still sin, we repent and seek on-going forgiveness). Deuteronomy 32 (and even Romans 1) states that the wrath of God will be revealed on the persistently rebellious, who refuse to repent & accept God’s grace.

4. Therefore, as we face the turmoils of life, faithful Christians can rest assured that the disasters are not the expression of God’s wrath upon them. However, through the sufferings, God wants us to endure, growing in character and hope. In other words, he is changing us to be more like Jesus.

O Lord, let me be a quick learner, so I suffer less! But Lord, thank you for being with us. Thank you for not pouring your wrath on us! & help us to learn quickly through suffering, to grow in endurance, & character & hope. & help us to understand how to live in this world of pain, so we don’t blame you for suffering, but to grow in hope. Amen.