Instruments of Worship

Psalm 91 | Ep. 10

• Casey Rinkenberger • Episode 10

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Do you need encouragement from God's Word to remind you of the Lord's protection over you?  I hope today's episode will give you the encouragement you need to rest securely in the Lord as you live your life this week.


Discussion Questions -- Try reflecting on your own or with a group:)

  • What did you learn about the character of God through Psalm 91?
  • What is the most impactful description of God to you from Psalm 91? 
  • Explain a time in your life when the Lord has given you the grace to walk through a trial?  What did you learn during that time?
  • Explain a time in your life when the Lord has given you a hedge of protection and has protected you from going through something?  
  • Does it give you more or less confidence that nothing will harm you unless the Lord permits? 
  • Are you dwelling in the shelter of the Most High? Abiding in the shadow of the Almighty? Finding refuge under His wings?  Or are you wondering away from His care? 
  • Are you overwhelmed or afraid of the evil in the world?  How can you fix your eyes on Jesus this week in the midst of it?
  • What is your reaction to verses 11-12?  What comfort can you draw from it?
  • How will Psalm 91 inform your worship of the Lord this week? 


To help engage our hearts in greater worship to Him, check out these songs that relate to this episode!


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SPEAKER_00:

Hi friends, my name is Casey Rinkenberger and I am so excited to welcome you to the Instruments of Worship podcast. This is a podcast dedicated to encouraging and equipping classical musicians to lift high the name of Jesus with their instruments, but also their lives. Today, I'm going to try to make up for last week because last week's episode was a little longer than I was hoping for. So I'm going to try to keep it more brief today. So we are just going to camp out in a psalm and draw from it the truths that we can hold on to as we walk throughout this week. As musicians, but honestly, just as human beings living in a broken, ever-changing world, we face challenges, griefs, hurts, hardships, mundane days, but sometimes relief, celebration, joy, happiness, you name it. But have you ever heard the saying that the only thing that you can know for certain is uncertainty? I think that's definitely something we can relate to. We're all human. It's impossible for us to know the future, what will even happen one second from now. But as Christians, we have something, and by something I mean someone who never changes, and who we can always know and worship for certain. We can have security in the midst of uncertainty. When we don't know what tomorrow holds, we know and trust the one who holds tomorrow, and there is immense security and safety in that. Today, maybe you've been stuck in the temptation to fear and despair what the future holds, what you don't know yet. But I hope that you are reminded of the immense security that comes from being found and trusting in the Lord. So let's jump into the 10th episode of the Instruments of Worship podcast. So today, the psalm that we are going to look at is Psalm 91. And I want to share with you that this is actually the scripture that I depended on the whole week of my wedding. As you can imagine, and if you've been through it, you know that wedding week is for anyone full of so much celebration and fun with friends and family coming into town and so much excitement for a day that has been anticipated for so long. But it also comes with its fair share of stresses. You ask so many questions like, what if this or that happens? What if we forget to bring this thing? What if we forget our passports and can't go on our honeymoon? What if someone gets injured that week? Or what if we get sick and can't attend our own wedding? There are all those things that pop into your head as crazy as it sounds and so much more. Believe me, constantly the what if this, what if that, what if, what if, what if. And I want you to think, is there somewhere in your life that you're constantly thinking of the what if, what if, what if? Are you in a season of life right now that is fraught with worry about the future? Again, fraught with worry about the things that you just don't know. But really, no matter who you are, where you are, none of us know what tomorrow holds. So we need to strengthen our heart today with the truth from God's word so that whenever something comes up that we aren't expecting, we are already standing strong on the rock of scripture. We don't just turn to God when things are bad. We don't just turn to scripture when we need it. We constantly can be saturating our minds with scripture, strengthening our heart, informing it with truth, and constantly turning to the Lord so that it's not anything new when something bad happens, right? You're already secure. You're already safe. So anyways, this Psalm, I will warn you, makes some very bold claims or statements that I know that once we start reading it, you may have a question that raises in your head like, is this Psalm really For example, verse 11 through 12 says, So you might think, is this for me? Are these promises for me? Or are they just promises God made to David since he's the one writing it down? This is also a question I had. And so in light of this, I'm going to try to answer that question based on a little research I did before we even jump into the psalm so that you can know you can hold these promises fast for yourself. So most people agree that this psalm was likely written by David, as many of them were, but that it was actually about Jesus. In many ways, King David points towards Jesus and gives an incomplete yes, but a hopeful foretaste of the King Jesus that would be coming later on. if you remember satan tempted jesus while he was hungry and alone in the wilderness for 40 days and satan used this verse to tempt him matthew 4 6-7 says this is satan talking if you are the son of god he says throw yourselves down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against his zone but jesus answered him it is also written do not put the lord your god to the test Matthew Henry says that this isn't the reason we necessarily believe that this psalm is about Jesus. We mainly believe it's about Jesus just because it's most applicable to him. But it's through Jesus that these promises are actually for you and me too. 2 Corinthians 1 20 tells us, For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through him, the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. so before jesus came into my life i was an outsider to the promises of god ephesians 2 12-13 says remember that you were at that time separated from christ alienated from the commonwealth of israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope in without god in the world but now in christ jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of christ So we were strangers to the covenants of promise, it says. Strangers to the promises of God. But through Jesus, no matter how many promises God has made, I now get to say, yes, that is true for me now. Paul Carter in an article entitled, Does Psalm 91 belong to me? Just the article I was looking for says once we were outsiders, once we had no legitimate claim upon the promises of God. But now because of Christ, we do. Psalm 91 belongs to Jesus and I belong to Jesus. Therefore, Psalm 91 belongs to me. Thanks be to God for his indescribable grace. So that's really exciting news for us as we jump into Psalm 91 here. This Psalm shows us that nothing can harm a child of God unless the Lord permits it. As we know, sometimes the Lord will allow us to walk through hardship for his glory and our greater good, like we talked about last week. And I would encourage you to go read Romans 8, 28 again, which is kind of at the core of this topic. If he permits hardship, he promises the grace to get through it, though. Remember the thorn in Paul's side? He wouldn't remove the thorn from Paul's side, but he would give him the grace. He would be with him to sustain him through it. However, there are times where God legitimately protects us from things. He puts a hedge of protection around us. And this psalm beautifully describes that here. So we kind of have those two different situations to understand. I think though that no matter what our life looks like, whether it's full of the good or the bad, the easy and the hard, all of our lives typically include a combination of those things. This psalm is still true for us. I don't think we could ever fully imagine all that God protects us from that we don't even know about. So yes, you might be walking through some hard things, but I guarantee you that there are ways that the Lord is protecting you that you have no idea. So remember even those things while you read this psalm today. Okay, so here we finally get started, starting in verses 1 through 2. I'll read it here. 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. It says at the beginning, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, the careful protection of the Most High. Most High, meaning that there is no one and no thing that is higher, bigger, more holy, or more divine than our God. No threat of this world could ever overpower Him. That is the one who protects you. Amen to that. Going on, it says, John MacArthur in my study Bible says, In a land where the sun can be oppressive and dangerous, a shadow was understood as a metaphor for care and protection. So don't think of a shadow here as cold darkness, but rather as relief. Finally, you are safe from the sun and the heat beating down you. There is so much relief being in the shadow of the Almighty. And Almighty meaning all, A-L-L, mighty. All might belongs to him. He is all powerful. That is our God. That is the God who protects us. Envision that in your mind. He who dwells in the shelter of the most high, no one can overpower him, will abide in the shadow of the almighty. There's just release and protection there. This is who our God is. And the right response comes in verse two, which is worship. It says, I will say to the Lord, my refuge in my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Verse two, when it says LORD is in all caps, which we've talked about before, is what people would say when referring to the personal name of God, which is Yahweh. I believe this was episode two. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong that Yahweh This is where we talked about Yahweh. So go back and listen to if you want more info. But the Bible Project explains the exchange of names here like this. How do we go from Yahweh to now just calling him Lord in all caps? It says over the centuries, Israelites wanted to honor the sacred nature of this divine name, Yahweh. So as they read the Hebrew Bible aloud and they came to this name, they stopped saying Yahweh and instead started saying the Hebrew word for Lord, which is Adonai. Now, this practice has been continued throughout the centuries. And so later, when people started translating the Bible into English, they adapted this same practice. Instead of spelling out the divine name, they translated it as Lord spelled in all capital letters. So again, just writing Lord wouldn't be the same thing. They have to put it in all caps to signify that this is what is now God. Adonai, that different word, Adonai, which is what they said instead of Yahweh because it was so reverent to them. And I just think even remembering that this is the glory of our God. People didn't even want to say his name out of reverence for him. He's so glorious. And yet he is their refuge and their fortress, as it says in this verse. And he is our refuge and fortress. Protection against the enemy. Protection against any threat that I may fear. I have the Almighty, the Most High, the Lord, Yahweh, the God. of this world and he is my refuge and my fortress so of course i'm going to trust my god in whom i trust and it says my god i love in scripture where we see hand in hand just god in his being being glorious but also god fully in his being being relational and loving towards his people so it says my god I am his and he is mine. I can trust him. He never changes. He loves me perfectly. His faithfulness has no end. He works all things together for the good of those who love him. He has perfect plans for me. He never leaves me. So I can trust him when he puts a hedge of protection around me, saves me from something, is protecting me. But I can also trust him when he allows difficulty to wash on my shore because I know who he is and He will be my protection through it. He promised that to Paul and he promises that to us. Moving on to verses 3 and 4, it says, For it is he who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. I love the picture of verse 4 when it says he will cover you with his pinions. Pinions are the outer part of a bird's wing. So picture with me baby birds under the big strong wings of their mother. Maybe an eagle or something, some big bird. But when you first approach the nest, you can't even see the babies because they're safe, warm, and shielded by their mother's wings. Loving wings. But these are also the wings that are powerful and can rise up and cause harm to threats if necessary. If you are the baby bird, which this passage is saying here that we are, why would you ever wander away and leave the protection of your mother's wings? So I just want to encourage us, as silly as it might sound, stay under the Lord's wings. Outside of them, there are active threats. Inside of them, though, there is nothing to fear. I'm not saying don't ever do anything out of fear. Actually, it's the opposite. We can go and do in such confidence now because of God's protection. But there's a way to do it while remaining under his wings nonetheless. Just stay close to the Lord, near to the Lord in all things, not aimlessly wandering away from him, but staying near to him in all that we do. And I love that picture. Just staying under his wings, the protection of his wings wherever you go. The end of verse 4 says, His faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. And again, just picture a shield, another defense mechanism, and a bulwark is defined as a defensive structure. Praise God for the way that he defends us in the ways that we see it and even in all the ways that we don't. And we don't thank him nearly enough for this, right? So you could even go through the psalm and thank him for being your shelter. Praise him for being the most high. Thank him that we get to abide in his shadow. Praise him for being the almighty. Praise him and thank him for being your God who is trustworthy, the one who delivers you and the one who covers you with his wings, who keeps you close And is your refuge. Thank him for his faithfulness. That he is a shield and a bulwark to you. These are words that can transform your prayers too. Moving on to verses 5 and 6. It says, It's hard to even catch that word in there. but God will even keep us from the fear of the dangers because as Matthew Henry says about this passage, whatever is done, our heavenly father's will is done. And we have no reason to be afraid of that. Whether at night, like it says the terror by night, when our imagination can run wild and we can't sleep or while we're trying to sleep or during the day, it says when the arrow flies by day, sometimes in the day, it's even scarier because we can see the threats all around us. Even so, we are secure in the Lord and he will keep us and we need not be afraid because even the things that he allows to wash on our shore, we can trust him through. We know his character and we can trust him through it. Verse seven through eight says a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you. You will only look on with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. So here it's describing, I mean, a thousand falling around you, 10,000 at your right side. It's describing a situation where things look really hopeless. But I believe that it's encouraging us to press on when things around us look really hard and really bad. You are still not alone. You are divinely protected. God is on your side. He is your refuge. But to remind you, only if you let him, if you choose him, submit to staying under his care and not wandering off on your own. proverbs four twenty five to twenty seven says let your eyes look straight forward fix your gaze directly before you give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways do not turn to the right or to the left keep your foot from evil So we have to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. If you let your eyes wander, you will drift and you will start to despair when you see all that's going on around you. It's like that metaphor. You've maybe heard it, but you just think of two people waiting in the ocean, just you and a friend chit-chatting. But if you don't keep your eyes kind of checking in with your stuff on the beach to kind of ground you to know where you're at, if you don't, Before you know it, you've drifted far, far away from where you first started. And if you do keep your eyes there, you know, okay, I need to kind of veer more and we need to push back a little back towards where our stuff is. We've kind of been drifting or that sort of thing. It's so important that we keep our eyes on the Lord and keep pursuing him. Make the Lord your refuge. Stay under his wings. Don't try to stand in the middle of danger alone. Verses 9 through 10 says, Matthew Henry regarding verse 9 says, And then it shall be our privilege to be at home in God. He's referring to when it talks about, I love how he says, Make the Lord your habitation. I had never thought about that before. But being at home in him, being at home under his wings, I would just say the week of the wedding, I'm so thankful. I did find so much peace under his wings. I found peace that if I got sick that week and am sick on our wedding day, I can know that's because God wanted me to get sick. And I know his ways are higher than my ways and he's working everything for my good. So if that happens, I don't have to fear because it's God's good plan. But I also knew if God didn't want me to get sick, I could have been surrounded by a hundred or thousands of sick people. And by golly, I would not have gotten sick. So when it says no evil will befall you, Matthew Henry says, though trouble and afflictions befall thee, there shall be no real evil in it. For it shall come from the love of God and shall be sanctified. It shall come not for thy hurt, but for thy good. And though for the present it not be joyous, but grievous. Yet in the end, it shall yield so well that thou myself shall own no evil befall thee. It is not an evil and only evil, but there is a mixture of good in it and a product of good by it. And I just thought that was a beautiful way of describing that even if something unexpected or something you didn't want to happen happens, that there is a mixture of good in it and a product by it. And I don't think there's really anything I can add to that. He puts it so eloquently, wraps it all into just one really, really long sentence. But I think it gets the point across. Another way of saying it in a little simpler terms, John MacArthur in my study Bible says, nothing can harm a child of God unless the Lord permits it. And I know that if the Lord permits it, it's for my good. It's not out of anger. It's out of love. And it's ultimately for his glory. So what unimaginable, personal to you, precious protection from God's mighty angels. That is God's charge to them. They protect you down to not even letting you stub your toe. Matthew Henry's commentary says, They are able to bear up the saints out of the reach of danger, and they do it with all the tenderness and affection, wherewith the nurse carries the little child about in her arms. It speaks us helpless and them helpful. I know some of his old way of speaking is a little hard to understand, but it just says, think about a nurse carrying a little child about in her arms. That's how the angels carry us, really, like this verse is saying, because God asks them to. We are helpless, but they are helpful. They protect us because God charged them to. And remember, this is interesting. This is the scripture that Satan quotes to try to test Jesus with in Matthew 4, 6 through 7. In verse 7, Jesus answers, though. It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. It's funny but understandable that Satan didn't see the need to go on to quote verse 13. Verse 13 is when it says, Some scholars interpret verse 13 differently. in a very similar way like all the rest of this passage to be a metaphor for God's protection against deadly attacks. But others interpret this verse as referring to Satan and Jesus's ultimate defeat of him. 1 Peter 5, 8 describes Satan as a roaring lion. It says, be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We see that, you know, it has a lion and a serpent in this. which we also, of course, see the devil as a serpent in Genesis 3, who tempts Adam and Eve. Even from then, though, in Genesis 3, 15, God promises Satan would be defeated. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. Here in this psalm, you could read it as you, meaning Jesus, will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down. Kind of almost another way of saying Genesis 3.15. Jesus defeated death and sin at the cross. He totally disarmed Satan, as Hebrews 2.14-15 says. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity, so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives have been held in slavery by their fear of death. Praise God for Jesus and the salvation and security we have in him. Like we said in the beginning, it's because of him that we are now brought into the fold. We are children of God. We get to claim these promises for ourselves. The work that Jesus did on the cross just can never be minimized. It changes everything. He is our refuge. He is our fortress, our provider, protector, the most high, the almighty, who yet keeps me in the shadow of his wings. So go in peace and confidence knowing that nothing can harm you outside of God's control. To close it out, verses 14 and 16 give us these comforting words straight from God. This is God's mercy towards His people. Remember that God wants our hearts. The word for loved in verse 14 means a deep longing or a clinging to God. This is pleasing to God. He said, because he has loved me, I will deliver him. He wants my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. He says, I will deliver him, whether that's in life, might be, or in death. As a Christian, we know he will deliver us for sure in death. he says i will set him securely on high because he has known my name he says he will call upon me and i will answer him he also says i will be with him in trouble he may give you a hedge of protection and rescue you or he may give you the grace to walk through it if the latter though matthew henry says he will take notice of their sorrows and know their souls in adversity will visit them graciously by his word and spirit and converse with them, will take their part, will support and comfort them and sanctify their afflictions to them, which will be the surest token of his presence with them in their troubles. He says, I will rescue him and honor him. He says, with a long life, I will satisfy him and let him see my salvation. Matthew Henry says again, those are truly honorable whom God puts honor upon by taking them into covenant and communion with himself and designing them for his kingdom and his glory. So praise Jesus for rescuing us and gifting us eternal life through his shed blood on the cross. No matter what your life looks like as we live life on this earth, through Christ, we can say yes and amen to these promises. This security can only be found in the Lord and we worship him for it. Don't look to the world for this security. It will never last. It will never keep you this safe. It will never protect you like the Lord can. And I hope that these promises are an encouragement to you to praise the Lord through them. You can use this chapter of the Psalms as a for your prayers. But I hope it gives you immense encouragement of the mercies of God, his love for you, his desire to protect you. And even if he allows hardship to wash on your shore through Jesus, no matter what happens in this world, we have everlasting life with him in heaven, in paradise. This world is not our home. We have a much greater home that awaits us. And so in the meantime, we can go out in confidence, trusting in the Lord to protect us as he sees fit and being not near to us and loving us all the way praise god for that So thanks so much for spending part of your day with me today. Make sure to check out the description for more worship songs that I hope will encourage your heart in worship and give you greater insight into some of the things we've talked about today. Also in the description, look for some discussion questions that you might reflect on by yourself or with a group. If you think you know someone who might be encouraged by this podcast, please send it to them and make sure to download, follow, and subscribe wherever you are listening. I hope that this scripture from Psalm 91 has strengthened your heart And I pray that we will never get out from under the protection of God's strong, glorious, but loving wings. See you next Monday.