Depending on God ( from Psalm 91 )

Do you want to live in a place of safety and security? If the answer is yes, then Psalm 91 has a message for you. I wrote this Bible Study for my Live By Faith Bible Studies blog -link to blog here Live By Faith Bible Studies 

 This is a beautiful and rich Psalm filled with assurances of God's protection and provision. God's provisions are available to each one of us who diligently seek Him. Please join me in the study of Psalm 91 as we go through the entire Psalm verse by verse.

Verse 1 - 

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Here we learn that it is possible for us to actually enter the secret place of God Almighty Himself - not only can we enter but we are to "dwell" here in the shadow of Almighty God. The word dwell means to live or to abide, it is our home. How infinitely humbling to hear these words - You and I can live with God our Heavenly Father safely in His shadow. His shadow is a place of protection, safety and comfort. It is home - our eternal home in heaven but it is also ours here and now while we live here on earth.

Verse 2 - 

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

We must put our hope and trust in the Lord - not in ourselves or in money, our jobs or possessions, friends, family or even in doctors. The Lord alone is our refuge and strength. We must put our full trust and confidence in Him. Lay down our burdens at His feet and allow Him to work through our situations.

Verse 3 -
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

Who will help me? The answer is the Lord God Almighty - He will help me, He will deliver me from the traps of the devil and from the troubles that surround me. A simple explanation for the snare of the fowler and noisome pestilences are our ordinary troubles and diseases that come to us. We trust in God to help us. He sees us in our situation and He is available to come to our aid at all times. We need to come to Him humbly in repentance and faith and not doubt Him even if things do not play out the way we would like them to.

Verse 4 -
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
This verse reminds me of how a mother hen will cover her baby chicks with her wings and feathers. A mother hen will shield her little ones while they sleep and rest and also from any form of danger. Just as a mother hen watches out for her chicks and calls them to the safety of the shelter of her wings so also and even more our Heavenly Father will shield us. We are safe under His wings. He calls us out of danger and as we come to Him, He will "cover" us. Our Heavenly Father cares for us with such incredible love and mercy. God is 100% truth, He only tells the truth, and the Word of God which we find in the Bible is 100% truth.

Verse 5 - 
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
We are not to be afraid of any evil in the night nor in the daytime. God is watching over us because we are His children.

Verse 6 -  
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

We are not to be afraid of the troubles that come to our lives. This could be sickness, loss of a job or relationship, death of a loved one, barrenness, crop failure, or weather related destruction. God is there with us and He will go with us through our hardships. He never leaves us - He is always there. We need to seek Him in our good times and in our hardships.

Verse 7 & 8 -
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
These two verses are hard to comprehend. We know that these verses cannot mean that we will never experience hardships because every one of us does. Christians do experience crises and bad things do happen. So we have to take an eternal perspective on this. Many people will say that the worst thing that can happen is death. Well for those of us who know Christ as our Savior, we know that death is actually only a door - a door that leads us out of this temporary state to our eternal destination. We leave this earth and we enter eternity through the door of death. If we are still alive here when Jesus comes back to earth, then of course we will not need to die. We will be changed and receive our eternal bodies so who knows - depending on when Jesus returns some of us will not need to die. When the non-Christian dies, their eternal destination is separation from our Heavenly Father. This is a place called hell. None of us needs to end up in hell because through faith in Jesus we can be saved to eternal heaven. Jesus died in my place and in your place on the cross. He took our sin upon himself and paid for it all there on the cross. He died and rose again and ascended up to Heaven. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Verse 9 -
  Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
Our dwelling place is with the Lord. He is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. We look forward to our eternal home with the Lord Jesus in Heaven.

Verse 10-
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
We are secure in the Lord. No evil or harm will ever come to us without the Lord knowing about it and having His hand on the controls. What ever He allows into our lives He is also able and willing to help us with. He will never leave us alone in our situations. He loves us dearly. We are His children if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior.

Verse 11 & 12 -  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

These two verses are so very precious. God our Heavenly Father has assigned some angels to take care of us. The angel carries me in his hand. I have a guardian angel whose duty it is to protect me and to keep me as I go about my day. Wow! that is really good news!

Verse 13 - 
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Here the lion, the adder, the dragon represent evil that we encounter in our lives. We encounter evil almost daily as we go about our daily lives. Godless people all around us are doing godless things and though we do not want any part of what they are doing, we live in the same world and therefore see and hear things that are very upsetting to the Christian heart. But we are encouraged here in this verse to "trample it under our feet". We must be careful to put evil away from us. Abstain from every form of evil. With the Lord as our Protector, He guards our hearts that the evil all around us does not cause us to stumble and fall into sin.

Verse 14 -
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
The Lord sees and knows those who are His own and those who truly love Him. The Lord says that those who are His own, He will set on high. What does it mean to know His Name? - It means to have an intimate relationship with the Lord, we live in His Presence while we are here on earth.

Verse 15 -
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
We are to call on the Lord. Pray, pray and pray some more. The Lord promises to answer us when we call on Him. He promises to be with us in our troubles and to deliver us. Those are sweet words to ponder for me today! He also promises to honour us as we call on Him. I believe this means that He will stay true to His Word and His promises and will not let us down. We can put our full trust in the Lord. He will make things right and those of us who do put our trust in Him will be rewarded in eternity.

Verse 16 -
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
As we live in obedience to the Lord, He will bless us. In Him is life abundant. We live with hope in our hearts. We rest assured that this life is not all there is - we are on a journey to that heavenly kingdom where there is perfect peace and happiness for all eternity.

God Bless.

Daily in God's Presence

Psalm 16: 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Often times we will hear people say that God seems so distant in their lives - there is no doubt we have all felt that distance at some point in our walk with Christ. There are a variety of reasons why this happens which would include a physical ailment or sicknes that just drains the strength out of us, or something more serious such as unconfessed sin in our heart. I think a very common reason though is the simple fact that we are forgetful people. We go about the busyness of our daily work and our thoughts are not on the Lord simply because we are focusing on what we are doing - that is not a bad thing. But we also must admit our best days are the days in which we have been in regular communication with the Lord Jesus throughout the day. Personally I like to consider that every thought I think and every word I say is as spoken to the Lord. I also suggest keeping something ( it could be a marble, or a small rock, or cloth etc - whatever you choose) in your pocket to remind yourself that the Lord who loves you is with you at all times. I have done this and what a blessing it is to have such a constant reminder.
I want to look at Psalm 15 and in doing so get a glimpse of what it is to live in God's presence daily and I want to find the answer to the question that is asked in verse 1 of Psalm 15 -  Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
The question is asking -  Lord, what does it take to find favor with You? How can I spend time with You?
The answers follow in the rest of Psalm 15.
Verse 2 - He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
At the point of our salvation, we also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit - the abiding presence of the Lord in our heart. So from this point on, the Lord walks with us and enables us to put off the sinful ways of our past and gives us the grace and help we need to live uprightly and be truthful. He commands that we live holy for Him.
1 Peter 1: 15-16 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Verse 3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.  The words we speak are to be pure and kind words - not slandering or filthy.
Verse 4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. The righteous person hates what God hates and rejects the wicked ways of the enemies of God. Within the pages of the Bible we find what God considers sinful behavior. He is the One who sets the standard - we are the ones who must live accordingly. When God says lying, cheating, gossiping, drunkeness, homosexuality, murder, lust, idolatry, fornication, immorality etc is sin - we agree with God that it is indeed sin. Sin separates us from God so we must rid ourselves of every sin through the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which He shed to redeem us to God.
Verse 5  He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
A righteous person is a man or woman of his word. You can count on this type of person to do as promised even if keeping the promise requires hard work and brings difficulty. We do not look for a way out.
 He that doeth these things shall never be moved. In Christ we are secure not only in this life here on earth but our eternal salvation is also secure. As Christ followers the Lord Jesus is our foundation. Through faith in Him we are saved. Jesus is our Savior. He bore our sin and paid it for us when He was crucified on the cross and died there. He was buried and rose again on the third day. He has promised to return and take us up to be with Him for ever. We eagerly look forward to His return!