WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.379 I'm going to read from God's word for us. 00:00:03.379 --> 00:00:08.580 Psalm 91, the passage that Corey is going to come and preach for us in a little moment. 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:11.660 This is Psalm 91. 00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:17.719 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 00:00:18.379 --> 00:00:22.879 I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God and whom I trust. 00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:26.859 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:31.300 He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:33.899 His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:37.480 You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, 00:00:37.619 --> 00:00:42.480 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:47.200 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:51.420 but I will not come near you, but it will not come near you. 00:00:52.179 --> 00:00:56.019 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 00:00:56.020 --> 00:01:00.880 Because you've made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge. 00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:03.620 No evil shall be allowed to befall you. 00:01:03.980 --> 00:01:09.840 No plague come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 00:01:10.379 --> 00:01:14.400 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 00:01:14.939 --> 00:01:17.140 You will tread on the lion and the adder. 00:01:17.579 --> 00:01:20.439 The young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. 00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:23.879 Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. 00:01:24.340 --> 00:01:26.640 I will protect him because he knows my name. 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:29.120 When he calls to me, I will answer him. 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:30.920 I will be with him in trouble. 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:33.480 I will rescue him and honor him. 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:38.719 With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:47.700 All right, well, with the busy summer travel and the balcony slightly quieter for a few weeks, 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:50.920 I'm going to stay down here if it's okay with the folks in the balcony. 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:58.599 Not that you get too much of a choice, but we are working our way through some of the psalms 00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:01.900 across the summer and the mornings, and today we come to Psalm 91. 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:05.580 Psalm 91, psalms are sung prayers. 00:02:05.880 --> 00:02:12.680 So they're songs written so that we may pray them, and they're there to give us a felt experience 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:13.480 of the Christian life. 00:02:13.540 --> 00:02:14.700 So they're more than intellectual. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:19.719 They're meant to get down to the bottom of the soul and give you a felt experience of the 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:20.360 Christian life. 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:24.860 They grip us emotionally, even more than intellectually. 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:28.819 There's a very famous church father by the name of Athanasius. 00:02:28.819 --> 00:02:35.819 He was very important at the Council of Nicaea, and he wrote a letter in 357, a long time 00:02:35.819 --> 00:02:37.439 ago, and this is what he said about the psalms. 00:02:37.519 --> 00:02:42.379 He said, most scripture speaks to us, the psalms speak for us. 00:02:43.459 --> 00:02:48.019 And so what he meant by that was that the psalms give you a tool to pray when you don't have 00:02:48.019 --> 00:02:49.180 words to pray anymore. 00:02:49.519 --> 00:02:50.280 They're there for that. 00:02:50.359 --> 00:02:51.759 They're there to give you a way to pray. 00:02:51.799 --> 00:02:56.079 So you can take the psalms and you can return them, the words of the psalm, in prayer to God, 00:02:56.500 --> 00:02:57.479 and they give you something. 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:02.299 God provides something for you to be able to wrestle with your emotions before God. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:06.939 And so that's very true today because today Psalm 91 is about danger. 00:03:07.679 --> 00:03:11.060 It's about the dark forests of life. 00:03:11.239 --> 00:03:15.280 It's about the protection that God promises to give us. 00:03:15.959 --> 00:03:20.039 It's about how this world is very unsafe and very dangerous. 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:21.919 And you'll have seen that all throughout. 00:03:22.239 --> 00:03:22.859 We've sang it. 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:25.380 We've read it all throughout the psalm as we've looked at it so far. 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:30.960 Dante, in Dante's Inferno and the Divine Comedy and just the opening line, he says, 00:03:31.180 --> 00:03:36.280 midway upon the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, unexpected. 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:42.760 What he meant by that was that like everybody else, we are walking along through the path 00:03:42.760 --> 00:03:46.000 of life and we find ourselves in dark forests that we don't expect. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:51.039 We find ourselves in situations of danger and being very unsafe in so many different ways. 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:53.419 And it just seems to hit us. 00:03:53.460 --> 00:03:54.580 It just seems to come to us. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:00.039 And in the same way, this psalm is about all the different ways that you can be unsafe in 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:00.479 this life. 00:04:00.699 --> 00:04:02.219 You can feel danger. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:07.400 And so if you just cast your eyes over the psalm, I'll just highlight a few of those ways. 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:11.960 In verse 3, he mentions deadly pestilence, the problem of disease. 00:04:13.020 --> 00:04:18.800 And then just after that, in verse 5, he talks about the terrors of the night, psychological 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:20.600 danger, psychological distress. 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:25.180 The middle of the night is the place where we terrorize ourselves the most with thoughts 00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:27.939 of all that's going to go wrong the next day and with our lives and with this world. 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:32.920 And then after that, in verse 5, he mentions the arrow by day, violence. 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:39.540 And if you go down to verse 6 and verse 7, he talks about 10,000 people falling at your 00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:45.259 right and left hand, war, disease, all the problems of the world that we know. 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:50.400 And then all the way down to verse 12, the angels will keep your foot from even striking 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:52.460 a stone, stubbed toes. 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:58.319 A couple of nights ago, I got up in the middle of the night and I caught my baby toe, my pinky 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:01.480 toe on the bathroom door, 3 a.m. 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.020 And that is a dark forest. 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:09.060 You know, it's a danger, but it's mentioned here. 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:14.140 There's all sorts of ways to be unsafe, to feel danger in this life. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:21.040 And though our technology in so many ways, our craft, our ability to craft as modern humans 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:26.160 enables us to flee some of these dangers far more than the ancient person, we still face 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.860 all the same problems that ancient people faced and they like us. 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:36.939 And so we, of course, can speak today of physical disasters, natural disasters, the fires raging 00:05:36.939 --> 00:05:44.879 across Canada this week, of accidents and tragedies of health and disease and pestilence and addiction 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:53.199 and aging and injury and the financial problems and dangers we face, job loss and material poverty, debt. 00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:54.819 Some of us are crushed by debt. 00:05:55.339 --> 00:05:59.319 Markets crashing and scams like never before. 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:02.360 The ancient person didn't have to face a scam like we do today. 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.000 Work and vocation issues. 00:06:05.139 --> 00:06:12.060 Some of us are coming from toxic work cultures, poor management systems, career stagnation, burnout, failure, 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:13.600 lack of achievement in our lives. 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:16.080 But far more than that. 00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:21.560 It's the relational and existential dangers that hurt the most. 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:30.639 So if you are here today and have experienced family breakdown, breakup, betrayal, loneliness, being bullied, bereavement, 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:36.139 that leads you towards existential and spiritual dangers like the loss of meaning, the loss of purpose, 00:06:36.259 --> 00:06:38.680 the loss of a sense of what you exist for. 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:45.500 And that can cause you to wrestle with guilt and with shame and with despair like nothing else in life. 00:06:45.819 --> 00:06:46.699 These are the dark forests. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:47.459 These are the dangers. 00:06:47.459 --> 00:06:53.079 And we could list seven or eight different categories just listed in the Psalm of different ways to struggle. 00:06:54.159 --> 00:07:02.659 One of the great Scottish theologians and ministers, Thomas Boston, he wrote a book called Human Nature and Its Fourfold State 00:07:02.659 --> 00:07:05.740 and talking about the state of corruption and sin that we live in. 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.120 Listen to how he describes this. 00:07:08.199 --> 00:07:08.539 He says, 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:12.759 Who sees not a flood of miseries overflowing in the world? 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:20.279 Where can a person go where they shall not dip their foot or even their head or their ears all the way down into the bog of misery? 00:07:21.060 --> 00:07:29.180 Everyone at home and abroad in city and country in palace and cottage is groaning under some one thing or another. 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:34.379 Now, it doesn't matter if you live in a palace or the worst little cottage in the city. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:36.439 You face the same issues. 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:37.560 You can't escape it. 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:44.780 If you're a first century person, a fifth, sixth, seventh century person or a modern person, we all face the dark forest of danger. 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:53.860 Now, Psalm 91 verse 1 says that it is possible to dwell in the shelter of the Most High. 00:07:53.860 --> 00:08:09.240 And that means that this psalm is saying to you that you as a believer can have an experience of peace in the midst of such an unsafe world, such a dangerous world, by resting in God. 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:28.439 So he's saying that he wants, the psalmist here wants every one of you to know that it is possible for every believer in God and Christ to have a life that has such an inner peace that you can face every danger in this world and still be at rest. 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:32.539 Do you have that? 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:38.039 Have you grown into that space yet as a believer, as a Christian? 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:41.860 Let's think about it. 00:08:42.740 --> 00:08:45.019 Let's see first the reality of rest and peace. 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:47.759 Secondly, what this rest is and what it isn't. 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:49.700 And then finally, how you can get it. 00:08:50.379 --> 00:08:54.960 Okay, so first, the real promise of inner peace and rest in a dangerous world. 00:08:55.740 --> 00:09:02.980 Now, Psalm 91 is laid out in such a way that the psalmist wants you to find this, wants you to find inner peace and inner rest. 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:08.360 And so in verse 1 and 2, if you look at it, you'll see that it is in the first person. 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:15.860 So he says, I will say to the Lord, he who dwells or I who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, I will say to the Lord. 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:20.879 So the psalmist is saying in just the first two verses, this is really the bedrock of the psalm. 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:24.139 I have found this peace in my life. 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:25.180 I've grown into it. 00:09:25.179 --> 00:09:32.839 And it's very similar to how Paul in the New Testament will say in Philippians 4, I learned the secret of contentment. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:36.179 So there's a way of learning something over time to say, I've learned what it's like. 00:09:36.219 --> 00:09:40.219 And then if you look at verse 3 to 13, he turns to you. 00:09:40.419 --> 00:09:42.699 So in verse 3, he will deliver you. 00:09:42.899 --> 00:09:44.259 Verse 4, he will cover you. 00:09:44.419 --> 00:09:45.579 Verse 5, you. 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:50.040 And there are 11 second person pronouns in verse 3 to 13. 00:09:50.580 --> 00:09:53.200 So he turns and says, I found this, this inner peace. 00:09:53.280 --> 00:09:55.639 Now I want you to have it. 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:56.360 Verse 3 to 13. 00:09:56.440 --> 00:10:02.120 And then finally in verse, at the very bottom, verse 4 to 16, you can see that it turns back to the first person. 00:10:02.540 --> 00:10:06.720 And so in verse 14 to 16, he says, I will deliver him. 00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:07.960 I will protect him. 00:10:08.220 --> 00:10:09.700 I will be with him in trouble. 00:10:09.700 --> 00:10:14.400 So at the very end, it goes from the psalmist saying, I have found this. 00:10:14.759 --> 00:10:15.800 You can find this. 00:10:15.860 --> 00:10:18.360 And then at the very end, God's voice comes in. 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:24.360 And you've got to get to the end to God's voice if you're ever going to know how to get this type of peace that the psalmist found. 00:10:24.460 --> 00:10:29.860 And so it lays it out in such a way that he's trying to persuade you and trying to say, you can grow into this as well. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.960 You can grow into inner rest and peace no matter the danger as a believer. 00:10:34.140 --> 00:10:34.720 So what is it? 00:10:34.780 --> 00:10:35.660 What is this rest? 00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:37.160 What is this peace he's talking about? 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:39.520 So verse 1, he says, 00:10:39.700 --> 00:10:46.500 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide, or the word can be translated, rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:54.360 The verb he picks, I dwell in the shadow of the Most High, it's a verb of residence. 00:10:54.660 --> 00:10:57.860 I take my residence up in the shadow of God, in the shadow of God. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:01.820 So it's got this connotation of sitting for a long time. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:07.120 So the verb to dwell can also be translated to sit in the shadow, a residential term. 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:13.820 And so he's saying that I've discovered this peace by sitting in God's presence for a long time. 00:11:13.820 --> 00:11:19.220 And what he really means by that is that being in God's presence is my home address. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.680 It's where I go out from and return to at the end of the day. 00:11:24.020 --> 00:11:27.320 It's the place I long to be the most. 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:32.400 So I think one of the ways to picture it, the way that the verbs are used in the Hebrew text here, 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:38.480 is something like a child sitting in the U.S., we would say crisscross applesauce. 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:41.000 Here I think we just say crisscross legs. 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:46.159 Every little school child comes home, they sit crisscross legs on a rug in the living room, 00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:52.360 and they're nearby their parent there in the living room home, and they're in their parent's shadow. 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:54.860 And because that's where they feel the most safe. 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:57.600 And you never have to argue a child into thinking, 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:03.139 sitting on my living room rug, crisscross legs, in the shadow of my parent is a safe place. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:04.180 It just is. 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:08.259 And in the same way, that's the connotation, that's the idea here, 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:13.500 is that sitting inside the residence of God's near presence is my home address, 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:14.899 and it is where I feel most safe. 00:12:14.899 --> 00:12:21.179 Now, to the psalmist, God is invisible just like God is invisible to us. 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:25.079 So he's not saying here that he goes through some physical front door 00:12:25.079 --> 00:12:27.980 and sits in the physical presence of God, and you say, 00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:30.600 if only I had that, I would feel this way too. 00:12:31.319 --> 00:12:34.000 But no, God is invisible to the psalmist as well. 00:12:34.419 --> 00:12:36.879 And what he's saying, what is he saying? 00:12:36.959 --> 00:12:38.600 How is he saying that this works for him? 00:12:38.659 --> 00:12:39.939 You say, I want this inner peace. 00:12:39.939 --> 00:12:44.539 What does it mean even to sit and dwell in the presence of God's safety? 00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:45.399 Like this? 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.659 And the answer is found in verse 2 when he says, 00:12:48.939 --> 00:12:53.000 I will say, my God in whom I trust. 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:55.100 And so there's the word for faith, trust. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:59.600 So he's telling us that this is by trust, this is by faith, 00:13:00.220 --> 00:13:02.100 that I sit like this in God's presence. 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:05.480 So he's describing this experience of a maturing believer, 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:10.159 where eventually you start to think that faith is not just something where I say, 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:12.919 I believe God exists, intellectually I'm there, 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:17.279 but faith eventually becomes trust, where you say, 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:23.740 believing in God and being near unto God at all times is just my normal life. 00:13:24.419 --> 00:13:25.839 It's just who I am. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:29.319 I've started to not think of faith as a leap of faith, 00:13:29.419 --> 00:13:34.039 but think of faith as a position of life where I can't imagine any other way to be. 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:37.959 This is exactly what it means for me to just live. 00:13:38.059 --> 00:13:40.379 I'm near him because I know he's near me. 00:13:40.459 --> 00:13:41.500 I'm standing in his shelter. 00:13:41.959 --> 00:13:45.319 I might go out from him, but I always come back. 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:46.259 He's my home address. 00:13:47.259 --> 00:13:50.120 And so that's what I think he means here in verse 1 and 2. 00:13:50.199 --> 00:13:55.079 It's really the bedrock and the foundation of the experience of a living faith 00:13:55.079 --> 00:13:57.199 that offers real inner peace in your life. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:00.759 And so all these metaphors that he's picked throughout the passage, 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:04.080 you can see just how strong they really are, how significant. 00:14:04.560 --> 00:14:05.460 I'll just mention a couple of them. 00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:06.240 He says shelter. 00:14:07.020 --> 00:14:11.100 He says, he used the metaphor of refuge and fortress in verse 2. 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:15.960 Some of the metaphors are translated in such a way to make sure 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:20.020 that modern people aren't going to grasp what they mean 00:14:20.020 --> 00:14:23.180 because he uses words like shield and buckler. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:25.379 I'm sure all of you know what a buckler is. 00:14:25.379 --> 00:14:26.320 I had to look it up. 00:14:26.700 --> 00:14:27.379 What's a buckler? 00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:30.820 In verse 4, he says, he is my shield and my buckler. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:35.700 It's more precisely translated, he is my long shield, my body shield, 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:36.980 and my arm shield. 00:14:37.059 --> 00:14:38.139 A buckler is an arm shield. 00:14:38.299 --> 00:14:43.500 And so it's saying that he's such my protector, and I'm so near to him, 00:14:43.820 --> 00:14:46.460 that he is a full-size shield that covers my whole body, 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:48.659 and he is my arm shield attached to my arm. 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:50.419 You know, that's all the shields you need. 00:14:50.899 --> 00:14:53.799 If you have a long shield and an arm shield, you don't need any more shields. 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:59.219 And he's saying his faithfulness and constancy is that important to me. 00:14:59.799 --> 00:15:02.419 He's that much of a shield to me. 00:15:03.199 --> 00:15:08.159 Even the word refuge and fortress, a more connecting translation for us might be, 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:10.279 he is my mountaintop castle. 00:15:11.019 --> 00:15:15.539 So if you want to know refuge, it's a fortress, a castle built on top of a mountain. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:16.479 It's castle rock. 00:15:16.959 --> 00:15:18.859 And he's saying, so I come back to him, 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:21.300 and I come into the gates of the mountaintop fortress, 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.399 and that's what God ultimately is to me. 00:15:23.419 --> 00:15:28.080 And the metaphors are that thick, that big, that strong all throughout the passage. 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:35.019 Now, everyone here has the same story as the psalmist to some degree. 00:15:35.379 --> 00:15:37.320 All of us, every human has the story. 00:15:37.419 --> 00:15:38.360 It's the story of our souls. 00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:45.440 And we all have a there, a dwelling place, a residence, a shelter, a mountaintop fortress, 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:52.320 where we say, if I could only get there, inside that residence, inside that circumstance, 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:55.080 inside that home, then I would be okay. 00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:57.899 And that's the story of the human soul. 00:15:57.899 --> 00:16:02.039 To find a space of inner peace that's arrived at by way of saying, 00:16:02.259 --> 00:16:05.379 if only I could get this, then I'd be safe. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:07.600 I'd be in the shelter of my most high. 00:16:09.059 --> 00:16:12.059 And the natural, the problem, of course, is that the natural instinct, 00:16:12.199 --> 00:16:13.220 and this is why the psalm exists, 00:16:13.539 --> 00:16:17.120 because all of our natural instincts are to say that 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.779 the way I'm actually going to achieve inner peace is by way of circumstances. 00:16:20.779 --> 00:16:26.259 And so the outside level of security or insecurity 00:16:26.259 --> 00:16:29.939 is going to be the determination of my inside security or insecurity. 00:16:30.220 --> 00:16:34.860 And so we look, of course, this is a tale as old as time, but it's true. 00:16:35.839 --> 00:16:38.459 And it's here in this psalm because it's so true. 00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:43.559 And so we look to circumstances and to other people and what they think of us 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:49.439 and to what our parents think and to our reputation and our achievements for security 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:53.020 before we have the bedrock of dwelling in the residence of God 00:16:53.020 --> 00:16:54.780 as our security at the base of our hearts. 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:57.920 And so you might today in a room this size, 00:16:58.380 --> 00:17:02.880 some of us today will be looking for security and safety and rest in our lives 00:17:02.880 --> 00:17:03.960 from a relationship. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:10.539 And maybe that's a relationship where a person was supposed to have been safe for you, 00:17:10.620 --> 00:17:11.220 but they weren't. 00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:13.480 And if that's happened to you, 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:17.759 then you will live life with remoteness, with a lack of fullness. 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:20.920 If that person was the one that you thought, 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:23.579 they are my bedrock, they are my dwelling place, they are my safety, 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:24.839 they are my residence and security. 00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:30.119 Or it may be another kind of relationship that you've lost 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:32.420 because they've sinned against you in some great way. 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:34.680 And it may be that if they are your bedrock security, 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:36.240 then you'll never be able to forgive 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:39.079 and you'll struggle with bitterness all your days 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.720 and it'll really zap your life away from you. 00:17:41.980 --> 00:17:44.460 For some of us today, it's going to certainly be achievements 00:17:44.460 --> 00:17:48.740 that our dwelling place, our residence, we want to abide the most 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:52.340 and to be thought of by others as a person who has done well 00:17:52.340 --> 00:17:53.799 and who is doing well. 00:17:54.620 --> 00:17:56.259 And a couple of things are going to happen if that's true. 00:17:56.360 --> 00:17:59.299 One is that it could be that if you find your security 00:17:59.299 --> 00:18:00.079 and your achievements, 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:03.140 that it's actually very difficult for you to repent. 00:18:03.360 --> 00:18:06.539 The calling of the Bible to repent and return to God 00:18:06.539 --> 00:18:07.740 because you'll say, 00:18:07.740 --> 00:18:11.519 my identity is so wrapped up in what I've done by way of performance 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:15.400 that if I say to God or anybody else that I'm not good enough, 00:18:16.259 --> 00:18:19.140 then that's like pulling the rug out from my foundation. 00:18:19.380 --> 00:18:21.000 My achievements are my everything, 00:18:21.180 --> 00:18:23.000 but if my achievements are sinful and lacking, 00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:24.440 then who am I? 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:26.740 And if you come today and say, 00:18:26.940 --> 00:18:29.220 it's about what other people think about me, 00:18:29.460 --> 00:18:31.900 and some of us will definitely be there 00:18:31.900 --> 00:18:33.680 where that's where our security is and struggle. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:38.200 So if we live our life in the fear of what everybody else thinks 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:40.259 as bedrock security and dwelling place, 00:18:41.019 --> 00:18:45.360 what's going to happen to us is that you'll only be as secure 00:18:45.360 --> 00:18:49.019 as the last idea you had of what somebody thought about you. 00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:53.180 You'll only be as secure as the last decent sermon you preached. 00:18:53.900 --> 00:18:55.500 But all the bad ones, you'll think, 00:18:55.580 --> 00:18:56.120 who am I? 00:18:56.160 --> 00:18:56.860 Am I worth anything? 00:18:57.080 --> 00:19:00.680 See, if we find our dwelling place in the shelter, 00:19:00.980 --> 00:19:03.200 mountaintop fortresses in the shelter of anything in this life, 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:06.519 as bedrock, but the most high, 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.660 then it'll leave us insecure. 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:14.299 And here's why God is better than all those things. 00:19:14.360 --> 00:19:17.400 And we're told here because of the four names of God. 00:19:17.500 --> 00:19:18.700 So in just the first two verses, 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:22.519 the four of the great names of God are listed. 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:25.080 So this is how he finds his rest in God. 00:19:25.080 --> 00:19:30.840 He calls God most high, El Elyon, the most high God. 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:34.039 Because in the ancient Near East, there's tribal deities all around. 00:19:34.159 --> 00:19:37.639 And so people are looking for security in the God of grain 00:19:37.639 --> 00:19:41.779 and the God of fertility and the God of the storm and the God of war. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:45.179 And we do the same thing, but by different names. 00:19:45.180 --> 00:19:51.820 And he's saying that the real God is most high, supreme cosmic sovereign, 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.200 not just part of some hierarchy. 00:19:54.620 --> 00:19:58.259 So this is accenting the Lord as incomparably other. 00:19:58.700 --> 00:20:02.160 So if you're the most high, you have the vantage point and the power 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:05.600 and the authority to see everything and do anything to actually protect people. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:10.219 And then after that, he calls them in verse, he calls them in verse one, almighty, 00:20:11.019 --> 00:20:16.899 that famous Hebrew phrase, El Shaddai, which comes from verbs related to mountains. 00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:22.599 And this has a connotation of God's ultimate power, absolute power. 00:20:22.959 --> 00:20:30.459 And then just after that, he calls them in verse two, Lord, Yahweh, the divine name, Exodus three. 00:20:30.460 --> 00:20:34.440 And the divine name Yahweh means I am who I am. 00:20:34.620 --> 00:20:37.480 It's the language of God's self-existence. 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:39.200 He's utterly independent. 00:20:39.360 --> 00:20:40.460 He doesn't need anything. 00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:41.900 He is who he is. 00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:44.059 He doesn't derive his being from anything else. 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:47.660 And then lastly, he takes after those three names, 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:54.039 God who is holy other, unlike these little tribal deities or the little gods we worship in our life. 00:20:54.100 --> 00:20:58.200 The God who is most powerful, almighty, unlike the things we chase after. 00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:02.279 And then the God who is of himself, he is who he is. 00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:05.620 And then at the last in verse two, did you catch what he says? 00:21:05.740 --> 00:21:07.700 He says, Elohim, my God. 00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:11.960 And that means he's saying that the God who is most high, all powerful, 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:16.759 omniscient, omnipotent, all knowing, who is of himself, self-existence, 00:21:16.940 --> 00:21:22.559 is also my personal Lord and has allowed me to come all the way into his presence 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:24.759 and sit underneath his shelter. 00:21:25.259 --> 00:21:28.140 And let me say this to you in New Testament language. 00:21:29.120 --> 00:21:32.400 Because this promise shows up again after Christ has come. 00:21:32.539 --> 00:21:35.440 And this is how Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 6, 18. 00:21:36.380 --> 00:21:38.580 He says, I will be a father to you. 00:21:39.380 --> 00:21:43.819 You will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord God almighty. 00:21:44.519 --> 00:21:45.980 That's all four names. 00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:51.600 Lord, covenant name, God, Elohim, almighty, El Shaddai in the New Testament. 00:21:51.980 --> 00:21:53.880 And he says, and he will be a father to you. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:55.019 You will be his sons and daughters. 00:21:55.019 --> 00:21:59.960 And it's taking all four of those names listed here and saying, this is your God. 00:22:00.879 --> 00:22:05.660 And you can dwell in the shelter of the most high in the exact same way that the psalmist here can. 00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:13.060 And when you realize, when you will take a minute to let your heart and your mind rest on the reality that you have a God like that, 00:22:14.380 --> 00:22:18.400 if you will make him your home address, you will be able to say, 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:25.780 there is a person in this cosmos, the sovereign, in whom I can find inner peace no matter what danger comes. 00:22:27.160 --> 00:22:34.840 Now, some of us like me will respond to that and say, but I do not feel that peace. 00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:38.759 It is not something I've come to in my life. 00:22:38.900 --> 00:22:40.019 I've not learned it yet. 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:45.839 So, secondly, briefly, what is this promise and what is it not? 00:22:45.980 --> 00:22:49.279 That's very important to address, and especially in verse 3 to 13. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:54.500 So, in verse 3 to 13, he says, you can have this too, 11 times, second person plural. 00:22:54.839 --> 00:22:55.759 This is for you. 00:22:56.279 --> 00:22:58.460 He goes out of his way to say it over and over again. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:00.839 And just listen. 00:23:00.839 --> 00:23:04.220 If you cast your eyes across 3 to 13, I'll highlight just a couple of things. 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:05.899 Listen to how he says it. 00:23:06.379 --> 00:23:11.279 He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, a person who catches birds and nets, 00:23:12.099 --> 00:23:15.299 and from pestilence, that's diseases that birds catch. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:17.679 So, he's calling you a baby bird. 00:23:17.899 --> 00:23:18.699 That's how he starts. 00:23:18.980 --> 00:23:19.639 That's the metaphor. 00:23:20.679 --> 00:23:25.379 And then, right after that verse 4, he says, God will cover you in his pinions. 00:23:25.419 --> 00:23:27.939 There's another word that I certainly didn't know. 00:23:27.940 --> 00:23:31.759 So, maybe you knew, but pinions are the long feathers of a bird. 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:36.019 And then, right after that, when it uses the word wings, that's the short feathers or the 00:23:36.019 --> 00:23:36.600 tail feathers. 00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:42.039 So, he's saying he will, in this metaphor of a mother bird, a hen, take all the wings 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:43.539 the bird has and cover you. 00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:47.120 But then, as it goes on, you start to get this sense. 00:23:48.279 --> 00:23:53.519 You know, verse 7, a thousand people may fall at your side by disease, by war, by violence, 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:57.880 but when you dwell in the house of God, when you make God your home address, you won't 00:23:57.880 --> 00:23:58.160 fall. 00:23:59.280 --> 00:24:02.640 No evil will ever come to you, only to the wicked, not to you. 00:24:03.260 --> 00:24:07.720 And then, verse 9 and 10, because you've made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:09.500 who, by the way, is my refuge. 00:24:09.560 --> 00:24:12.200 He says, I have made the Lord my dwelling place, the psalmist says. 00:24:12.540 --> 00:24:14.280 No evil will befall you. 00:24:14.900 --> 00:24:16.620 Now, there is a way of reading this text. 00:24:16.740 --> 00:24:21.320 It sure sounds like this, doesn't it, as you work through verse 3 to 13, where it sounds 00:24:21.319 --> 00:24:27.240 like the text of saying, if I believe in God and make Him my dwelling place enough, if 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:33.339 I find my residence in the shelter of the Most High enough, then I will be protected in this 00:24:33.339 --> 00:24:36.359 life from every type of danger there is. 00:24:36.899 --> 00:24:38.480 No evil would ever happen to me. 00:24:39.099 --> 00:24:40.679 I'll be safe in Him. 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:47.000 And that means that the logic is, if you're not safe today, if you have had danger come 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.299 into your life in any of the forms, relational danger, mental health danger, physical danger, 00:24:53.060 --> 00:24:58.960 and boy, have we, then that means that you have not dwelt in the Most High enough, and 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:00.240 you have not had enough faith. 00:25:01.380 --> 00:25:08.200 And if you read the text that way, then what's going to happen to you is this horrible consequence, 00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:13.180 and the consequence is going to be that because harm and danger is coming to you and has come 00:25:13.180 --> 00:25:19.140 to you, has befall, evil has befallen you, you will be forced to say either, I didn't believe 00:25:19.140 --> 00:25:24.640 enough and I didn't dwell in His shelter enough, or this promise isn't true, one of the two. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:30.380 And you will say, this God is not the God that I read about here, and you will start to withdraw 00:25:30.380 --> 00:25:34.120 and pull away from God, and you will start to walk away from the faith. 00:25:34.119 --> 00:25:38.879 And how many can tell that story, how many have had that story in their lives, because 00:25:38.879 --> 00:25:41.279 they've read passages like this in that way. 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:44.599 And here's why we have to see today that this is not the point. 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:51.699 We could think of a place like Job, where Job is blameless, a lover of God who sat in 00:25:51.699 --> 00:25:56.539 the shelter of the Most High all the days of his life, and his friends told him, the reason 00:25:56.539 --> 00:26:00.500 all this terrible stuff has happened to you is because you didn't dwell in the shelter 00:26:00.500 --> 00:26:01.619 of the God Most High enough. 00:26:01.619 --> 00:26:06.079 And at the end of that story, remember, God says, you tell those friends they were wrong. 00:26:06.379 --> 00:26:08.119 That's not the right way to read Psalm 91. 00:26:08.259 --> 00:26:11.059 It's not the right way to read Job or life or history. 00:26:11.379 --> 00:26:13.779 But even more than that, this is most important. 00:26:15.959 --> 00:26:25.919 I think Satan only directly quotes one full verse, one full section of the Bible from the 00:26:25.919 --> 00:26:30.139 Old Testament in his work we read about in the Gospels. 00:26:30.140 --> 00:26:30.780 Only one. 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:34.200 Satan quotes Psalm 91 verse 11. 00:26:35.040 --> 00:26:40.780 And you remember when he goes to Jesus, when Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, and he takes 00:26:40.780 --> 00:26:46.880 him on top of the temple, and he says, now Jesus, throw yourself off, and the angels will 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:47.500 catch you. 00:26:47.560 --> 00:26:48.060 Verse 11. 00:26:48.500 --> 00:26:53.880 For he, your Lord, will command his angels concerning you, and not even your toe will get 00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:54.960 stubbed on the way down. 00:26:55.340 --> 00:26:56.360 He will protect you. 00:26:56.359 --> 00:27:00.319 And Jesus says, do not test the Lord your God from the book of Deuteronomy. 00:27:00.579 --> 00:27:01.959 In other words, what does Satan want you to do? 00:27:01.959 --> 00:27:03.779 He wants you to read this Psalm that way. 00:27:04.579 --> 00:27:10.000 He wants you to think that this Psalm teaches that if you would only trust enough, God would 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:13.039 protect you from every danger in life, and he will not even let your toe be stubbed. 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:14.979 And that means I'm in trouble. 00:27:14.980 --> 00:27:21.980 And the reason that you know not to read it like that is because this is exactly how Satan 00:27:21.980 --> 00:27:25.759 reads it when he goes to tempt Jesus in the wilderness in the New Testament. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:28.000 He's trying to get you to think of it that way. 00:27:28.099 --> 00:27:33.480 And so instead, how should we think about this promise, this prayer of rest and deliverance 00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:33.920 for you? 00:27:34.420 --> 00:27:35.759 And it says, here's the question. 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:42.480 Does God protect us from all sorts of problems and deliver us in this life from all types 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:43.059 of disasters? 00:27:43.299 --> 00:27:44.440 The answer is yes. 00:27:44.839 --> 00:27:45.779 Of course he does. 00:27:46.299 --> 00:27:51.379 Boy, we don't even know all the ways God has delivered us from worse circumstances that 00:27:51.379 --> 00:27:52.039 could have come. 00:27:52.619 --> 00:27:55.960 And so, of course, God delivers us from all sorts of problems. 00:27:55.960 --> 00:28:04.200 But what this Psalm is actually saying, to use the words of another preacher, this Psalm 00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:11.700 is saying to you, he sometimes chooses to deliver you in this life, but he will always cover you. 00:28:13.160 --> 00:28:15.920 He will always spread his wings over you. 00:28:16.340 --> 00:28:22.759 He sometimes chooses to deliver you, but he will always cover you until the day he finally 00:28:22.759 --> 00:28:23.420 delivers you. 00:28:23.420 --> 00:28:26.940 That's the promise that's being conveyed here in the text. 00:28:26.980 --> 00:28:27.600 And here's the key. 00:28:27.740 --> 00:28:28.560 It's in verse 15. 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:32.500 And it's when God says this, when he calls to me, I will answer. 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:35.660 I will be with him in the trouble. 00:28:36.900 --> 00:28:39.960 So this is how you know, because he says at the end, here's the big conclusion. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.340 I will be with you in every danger, in every trouble that you face. 00:28:44.680 --> 00:28:47.600 The promise is not, I will prevent every evil from your life. 00:28:48.140 --> 00:28:52.420 It's when you walk through that dark forest, I will cover you. 00:28:52.420 --> 00:28:53.680 If not, deliver you. 00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:55.120 And one day I will deliver you. 00:28:56.320 --> 00:29:02.080 And that means that what we're being told here is God uses your trouble to deepen your 00:29:02.080 --> 00:29:02.600 rest. 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:04.080 He uses your trouble. 00:29:04.180 --> 00:29:04.860 He uses the dangerous. 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:06.039 He uses the dark forest. 00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:21.799 As difficult as this is for us to enter more deeply into the peace and rest of dwelling in the shelter of the Messiah, to learn how to abide in the residence of God and how to sit crisscross-legged in his shadow. 00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:24.559 He uses the suffering to teach us that. 00:29:25.339 --> 00:29:28.099 Simone Weil, famous philosopher of the 20th century. 00:29:28.879 --> 00:29:32.220 I was brought to this quote this week by a writer. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:37.599 She was a Marxist, a Parisian Marxist, a Bolshevik. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:40.959 But later in life, she became an arch critic of communism. 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:47.159 And toward the very end of her very short life, she started to really connect with Christianity. 00:29:47.459 --> 00:29:51.279 We don't know if she came to faith or anything like that, but she was very interested in Christianity. 00:29:51.659 --> 00:29:52.639 And this is what she says. 00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:58.160 I want to quibble with the first half of the quote, but I won't do that now, but I want you to hear the last half of the quote. 00:29:58.259 --> 00:29:58.860 This is what she says. 00:29:59.420 --> 00:30:09.640 The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, but a supernatural use for suffering. 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:18.780 And you see, the first part's a little bit wrong, but the second part, the extreme greatness of Christianity is that it seeks a supernatural use for suffering. 00:30:18.779 --> 00:30:25.399 So while everybody else, every other philosophy is trying to escape suffering, and boy, will God deliver us from it? 00:30:25.460 --> 00:30:25.759 Yes. 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:34.139 What the brilliance of Christianity is, is that it tells you that there is a supernatural use for the dark forests. 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:43.339 And the Christian message doesn't promise escape from fearful circumstances in this life now, but that he will cover you until one day he delivers you. 00:30:43.859 --> 00:30:45.339 And sometimes he does deliver you. 00:30:45.420 --> 00:30:46.660 That's the promise of the psalm. 00:30:48.779 --> 00:30:50.859 I have to finish. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:51.660 How do you get it? 00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:53.619 How do you get this in a rest? 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:55.200 Let me finish with this. 00:30:55.279 --> 00:30:57.399 Verse 15, the very last section. 00:30:57.799 --> 00:31:01.279 He tells us, he tells you, I will be with you in trouble. 00:31:01.879 --> 00:31:05.700 He will cover you with his wings in every danger believer that you walk through. 00:31:05.700 --> 00:31:19.140 But if you go back through the passage and say, verse 9, because you made the Lord your dwelling place, no evil will be allowed to befall you. 00:31:20.080 --> 00:31:24.600 Verse 14, because you hold fast to him in love, he will deliver you. 00:31:24.599 --> 00:31:28.719 Because you know his name, verse 14b, he will protect you. 00:31:29.439 --> 00:31:33.699 When you call to him, because you have, he will answer you in that trouble. 00:31:34.399 --> 00:31:46.500 Now, if you go through that and you say, if he will deliver me because I have always dwelt in the shadow of the almighty, boy, are we in trouble today. 00:31:46.500 --> 00:31:53.339 Because we can all look at those conditions and say, that is not what I have done. 00:31:54.119 --> 00:31:57.200 I don't even remember him on Sunday afternoon. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:00.819 I have not dwelt in the shelter of the most high. 00:32:00.900 --> 00:32:05.220 I've been far more anxious about everything in this life and chased after every little God more than him. 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:10.460 And that's why in verse 14 to 16, you got to look one more time and notice the language. 00:32:10.460 --> 00:32:15.720 Because, notice the pronouns, he holds fast to me, God speaking. 00:32:16.460 --> 00:32:17.460 I will deliver him. 00:32:17.700 --> 00:32:20.000 I will protect him because he knows my name. 00:32:20.680 --> 00:32:23.759 I will be with him in trouble because he calls to me. 00:32:24.200 --> 00:32:25.579 Who is this talking about? 00:32:27.640 --> 00:32:31.500 See, this is, at the very end of the psalm, God the Father starts to speak. 00:32:32.039 --> 00:32:40.000 And if you think about it, who is the only one who has ever held fast to God the Father in love and dwelt in his almighty shadow at all times without remainder? 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.720 Who is the only one who, verse 14, knows the name of God? 00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:47.960 Therefore, God the Father will protect him at all costs. 00:32:48.019 --> 00:32:55.880 Who's the only one who calls out to God with perfection so that God the Father answers him and says, I will be with him in trouble. 00:32:56.319 --> 00:33:01.140 And the answer, of course, is that this is language between God the Father and God the Son. 00:33:02.180 --> 00:33:04.119 Jesus Christ himself that was to come. 00:33:04.119 --> 00:33:11.219 And you say, if those are the conditions of safety in this life, dwelling in the shadow of the almighty at all times, I'm not safe. 00:33:11.299 --> 00:33:12.079 I am unsafe. 00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:16.479 And that is why it is so important to believe in the substitutionary atonement. 00:33:16.480 --> 00:33:29.660 Because here, the Father is speaking of the Son, and it's saying that only Jesus is the one who could ever say, because I loved him, my God, Elohim, Yahweh, all my days in his shelter. 00:33:29.660 --> 00:33:41.800 Where God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit sent the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to the cross so that when he spread out his wings at the cross, you were included underneath them. 00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:49.519 So that now, when God the Father says, because you have called out, he will come to you in your trouble. 00:33:49.620 --> 00:33:53.600 Because you have dwelt with him in the shelter of the Most High, he will come near to you. 00:33:53.680 --> 00:33:54.500 He will protect you. 00:33:54.500 --> 00:33:56.160 How? How? You didn't. 00:33:56.440 --> 00:33:57.259 But Jesus did. 00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:00.500 He spread his wings, and you're underneath him. 00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:03.500 He's like a mother hen to you. 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:06.220 All of his wings are underneath you when he goes to the cross. 00:34:06.519 --> 00:34:10.679 And that means by way of his representation of you, you are included in him. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:13.579 And you get every single promise that's included right here. 00:34:13.940 --> 00:34:18.320 He will deliver you one day because Jesus Christ was delivered. 00:34:18.619 --> 00:34:22.019 But he will cover you now because of the cross. 00:34:22.019 --> 00:34:24.679 And so what do you got to do this morning? 00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:29.599 Let me give you a few very brief sentences, and I'll pray. 00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:30.659 Here they are. 00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:37.019 First, you've got to identify where you are trying to locate your ultimate rest in peace. 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:42.440 You know, you've got to say honestly to yourself, this is what I actually rest in far more. 00:34:42.659 --> 00:34:45.619 And this is why I struggle with such insecurity in my life. 00:34:45.619 --> 00:34:50.219 And then you've got to look at that thing and say to yourself, like the psalmist does, it will not work. 00:34:50.319 --> 00:34:51.159 It has not worked. 00:34:51.239 --> 00:34:52.039 I've got to give it away. 00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:57.440 And then after that, you've got to say, there must be thirdly a great exchange that takes place. 00:34:57.859 --> 00:35:03.799 I give away the false security I've been chasing in one of the little tribal deities that I love in this life. 00:35:04.139 --> 00:35:09.579 And instead, I lastly turn and behold the Christ who spread out his wings over me. 00:35:09.659 --> 00:35:10.699 I contemplate him. 00:35:10.699 --> 00:35:14.719 And I look at the only one who perfectly trusted on my behalf. 00:35:15.239 --> 00:35:18.159 I have to see that he faced the trouble for me. 00:35:18.299 --> 00:35:21.659 And so he will cover me until one day when he delivers me. 00:35:22.299 --> 00:35:23.519 Look, here's the promise. 00:35:23.619 --> 00:35:26.460 He has already given you safety and deliverance. 00:35:27.079 --> 00:35:34.159 And so what this psalmist is saying is you've got to learn to take hold of it in your inner life more today because you do have it. 00:35:34.399 --> 00:35:35.739 He's already covered you in his wings. 00:35:36.059 --> 00:35:37.480 He's already kept you safe. 00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:43.699 And so that means the rest of our life is cruciform in his pattern. 00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:53.260 In Luke 21, Jesus says to the apostles, the disciples, you are going to go out for me and you're going to go to the sword and you're going to die. 00:35:53.940 --> 00:35:57.480 And then he says, and yet not a hair on your head will perish. 00:35:58.099 --> 00:35:58.920 How could it be? 00:35:59.340 --> 00:36:01.519 He will go and die, yet not a hair on your head will perish. 00:36:01.519 --> 00:36:05.800 Because he's saying, I will cover you until one day when I deliver you. 00:36:06.139 --> 00:36:07.460 Not a head on your head will perish. 00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:09.000 That's the place of rest. 00:36:10.019 --> 00:36:17.559 That as you go and you face the dark forest and you trust him more, the promise here is that your inner peace will grow. 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:18.960 It's real. 00:36:19.079 --> 00:36:20.340 You can truly have this. 00:36:20.860 --> 00:36:21.300 Let us pray. 00:36:21.300 --> 00:36:31.560 Father, we ask that you would teach us now as we sing by your spirit that our hope rests firm in you and that we can only find safety in the shelter of the Most High. 00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:43.840 In El Elyon and El Shaddai and Yahweh, our God, we pray to you now and ask that you would come and meet with us now and rip away the things that we're searching for, 00:36:43.840 --> 00:36:51.380 for false securities in life and rediscover the bedrock of true peace, which is your, your residence, your dwelling place. 00:36:51.460 --> 00:36:52.559 And so we ask for that in Christ's name. 00:36:52.920 --> 00:36:53.200 Amen.