The sermons ofPeter McKnight

God, I Need a Sense of Security

Psalms in the SummerPsalm 91 (approximate)Erindale Bible Chapel, Mississauga, Ontario

Once upon a time there was a man who worked in a dimly-lit office in the city. There was a large, seven foot long fluorescent light fixture above his desk, but the tube was burned out and had been that way for months. He repeatedly asked the building department to replace it, but they never seemed to be able to get around to it.

Finally one day, in frustration, the man went out on his lunch hour to an electrical supply store and bought a new fluorescent tube himself. He brought it back to the office, replaced the burnt out tube, and sat down to a brightly lit desk. He placed the burnt out tube over in a corner of his office beside a filing cabinet.

But then he began to worry. What if someone from the building department came by and found the burnt out tube? They’d know that he had replaced the light, and he wasn’t a member of the electricians’ union. There’d be all sorts of trouble. How was he going to get rid of a seven-foot long fluorescent tube without anyone finding out?

Finally, he had an idea. There was a construction site near where he got off the subway on his way home. He would just take the fluorescent tube along with him on the subway, drop it off at the construction site, and nobody would know the difference.

So when five o’clock rolled around, he got up from his desk, grabbed his briefcase and the fluorescent tube and headed down into the subway. He got on the train, which was pretty crowded, and he had to stand in the middle of the aisle. He held onto his briefcase with one hand, and in the other, he held his seven foot long fluorescent tube.

Everything was going great, except that at the next stop, ten more people got on the train, and five of them grabbed hold of his fluorescent tube, thinking that it was a support pole on the subway car.

That’s when our man came up with a better idea. When he got to his stop, he simply let go of the fluorescent tube and walked briskly off the train. Imagine what the other passengers must have thought when they discovered what they were holding onto for support!

Sometimes in life, we can do the same thing. We can find ourselves holding on to things that cannot hold us up. We seek to derive our sense of security and stability from things that are anything but stable and secure.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow identified the basic needs of human beings. One of our most basic needs is a need for security; a need to feel safe and protected. And getting that need met is a powerful motivator that drives much of our behavior.

So we go through life seeking to find relationships in which we can feel “safe” and protected; accepted for who we are. We seek to live in neighborhoods that are safe and free from threat. We work hard at our careers in order to earn money with which we can provide for ourselves and thus feel secure. People invest in their RSP’s so that, when the day comes when they no longer can work, they will still be secure. We invest in the stock market, putting our money into what we ironically call “securities”—hoping that they will grow into a nice nest egg.

And yet, after we have done all that, we still have a vague sense of unease. In the words of that great philosopher Britney Spears: “If there’s nothing missing in my life, then why do these tears come at night?”

There’s a nagging sense that we’re all alone. And a fear of danger out there—an undefinable sense of threat that something, or someone, could suddenly strike us and take away all that we have—leaving us exposed, naked, and vulnerable.

John Eldridge and Brent Curtis, in their book The Sacred Romance talk about: two strong currents that form the subtext of our lives. They are almost like underground rivers that flow beneath the ground on which we stand. They are longing, and dread. Deep within our souls we experience longing and dread.

Longing is that sudden powerful ache in your heart when you listen to a symphony, or stand on the shore of a peaceful lake hearing the call of the loon, or smell an aroma of cooking that brings back instant memories of childhood. Longing is that keen yearning for transendence and beauty and peace and love. And no sooner do you feel it than it’s gone. And you spend the rest of your life trying to recapture that moment. There’s something out there calling to us, but it’s elusive—it slips through our fingers.

Then there is dread—that underlying fear; that vague sense of unease; that unspoken anxiety and apprehension; that harrowing awareness that danger lurks in the universe—that there is a hideous evil uncomfortably close that can strike at the very roots of our being. Eldridge and Curtis call it the Message of the Arrows.

From the earliest moments of life, the arrows begin to fly at us. The harsh words of a parent that we can just never forget. The snide put-down of some kids in junior high school. The pink slip from a company we had worked long and faithfully for. The betrayal of a mate. The message of the arrows is that you are worthless, you are unlovely, and you are alone. As we grow older, we end up with a collection of these arrows sticking out of our souls. The harder we try to pull them out, the more they fester and spread their poison into other areas of our lives.

And much of our lives we spend in a desperate attempt to avoid getting hit by more arrows, or to somehow make the pain go away from the arrows that are already there. We want to feel secure; we want to feel safe.

Psalm 91 is a Psalm about security. For that reason, it has been a psalm that many people turn to in times of crisis or danger. Many soldiers have gone into battle with Psalm 91 on their lips. Many hospital patients go into surgery with the words of this Psalm on their hearts.

Because Psalm 91 is a psalm about security—the security of the person who trusts in God. Now what exactly does that mean?

Does it mean that if you trust in God as Psalm 91 says, you’ll never have any problems? You’ll never get cancer, your car will never break down, your children will all turn out okay? Does it mean that if you’re a soldier you’ll never be shot? Does it mean that if you’re a patient, your surgery will always go well? Is trusting in God a talisman, a good luck charm? Is Psalm 91 a divine pain reliever?

No it isn’t. In spite of what some TV preachers claim, the Bible teaches us that believers will indeed go through trials, and pain, and suffering, and even death. And certainly the history of the church confirms that. So what kind of security can Psalm 91 be talking about then?

The answer is to be found in the ministry of Jesus. We believe that all Scripture points to Jesus—even the OT—and Psalm 91 is no exception. As a matter of fact, the “Christological connection” in this Psalm holds the key to understanding it.

You have to understand that Psalm 91 is kind of like a split-track recording. Have you ever heard those split-track accompaniment tapes or CD’s where one track has the music and the other track has the voices? Well that’s what this Psalm is like in terms of the spiritual truth that it conveys.

On one level, it’s what we call a Messianic Psalm. In other words, it talks about the coming Messiah. And it talks about things which would be uniquely true in the life of Jesus Christ. It talks about how he would have a relationship of perfect fellowship and security and protection under God the Father.

It talks about how God would deliver him from death and from the power of Satan. And that all came true in the life of Jesus Christ. These prophecies were fulfilled in him. So that’s one track. That’s the Christological connection.

Earlier this year, the Toronto Globe & Mail reported the results of a major Angus Reid survey of what Canadians believe about God. The statistics show that nationally, 84% of Canadians believe in God. (The highest percentage 93% is in the Maritime provinces.) But the survey showed that while 84% of Canadians believe in God, only 48% of Canadians believe in the devil. This means that over half of all Canadians do not believe that Satan is a real and active presence in the world today.

And yet the Bible says very clearly that he is. He appears from Genesis to the book of Revelation. He is the personal, malevolent force behind all of the evil that exists in the universe. He is why we instinctively feel that sense of dread. He is real, he is on the loose, and he is to be feared.

Now getting back to Psalm 91, this Psalm is unique in Scripture for a very unusual reason. It is the only passage of Scripture we know of that Satan took the trouble to memorize. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he quoted from Psalm 91. That’s the only time that Satan ever quoted Scripture. Why did he quote this Psalm? Because of the Christological connection. This Psalm talks about how the Son of God would ultimately defeat him. Look at verse 13:

Psalm 91:13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. (The Bible often refers to Satan as a great lion, or a serpent.)

Satan knows that this passage of Scripture spells out his doom. it describes the fact that the Son of God would crush him. So Satan made it his business to know this Psalm. Because he knew that this Psalm exposed his own weakness. And so he tried to use this Psalm against Jesus in the wilderness.

If he could just trick Jesus into misapplying, or misusing the truth of this passage of the Word of God, perhaps he could succeed in breaking the power of Jesus and the Word over him.

So the Christological connection tells us that this Psalm is about Jesus’ victory over Satan.

You say: Well that’s nice for Jesus, but what about me? I need victory over Satan too. I need a sense of security.

That’s where the other track of spiritual truth comes in. On the other track, this psalm is tells us about our security as believers. It tells us about our deliverance from the power of Satan.

You see, as believers, we are in Christ. We’re united with Him. Therefore, the things which were true in Christ’s life are also true in our lives. Because Christ is our pioneer. He’s like a big brother who has gone before us and blazed a trail for us to follow.

So that means that if Jesus enjoyed the spiritual protection of God the Father, then we also will enjoy the spiritual protection of God the Father. Now that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to have physical trials, or even emotional, or spiritual trials. But it does mean that we are going to have deliverance from the power and the clutches of Satan.

Satan will never be able to deal a fatal blow to the child of God. Because God has made himself responsible for our spiritual protection. Now how does this work? Well, let’s divide this Psalm into two parts:

1. The Basis of our Security

2. The Benefits of our Security

What is the basis of our security? How are we delivered from the enemy’s power? How are we made spiritually secure? Well, Psalm 91 says that our security is based on the character of God himself.

Look at verses 1–2:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Look closely at those two verses. How many names are there for God in those verses? There are four: the Most High, the Almighty; the Lord; and my God.

There are many names for God in the Scriptures, and each one of them reveals something about his character; his personality. Each one of those names is highly significant.

The first name for God in verse 1 is “the Most High”. In Hebrew, it is El Elyon. It is one of the oldest names for God. Back in Genesis 14, Abram encountered a king named Melchizedek. The Bible says that Melchizedek was a priest of El Elyon, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by El Elyon, Creator of heaven and earth.”

Now in Canaan at that time (just a little after the year 2,000 BC), the chief god that the Canaanites worshiped was called El, which means “The Strong One”. All the people living in Canaan worshiped El. Except Melchizedek and Abram— they worshiped El Elyon, which literally means “The One Who is Stronger than the Strong One”. Elyon is the superlative of El.

As a name for God, El Elyon appears most frequently in the book of Daniel. Daniel lived in a time of power politics. He was up against a king—Nebuchadnezzar—who thought that he was the strongest king in all the earth. And he had the resumé to prove it. He had conquered every nation in the world.

And Nebuchadnezzar became drunk with his own power. Eventually, he built a big statue of himself and he wanted everybody to bow down and worship his image, because by this time, he was thinking of himself as a god.

But there were three young men who wouldn’t bow down to the image of this strongman. Because they worshiped El Elyon—the One who is stronger than the Strong One. So Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into a furnace. But El Elyon delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace.

So when you remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, remember that the name El Elyon tells us that God is stronger than the strongest enemy that could ever come against us.

The second name for God in verse one is translated the Almighty. In Hebrew it is El Shaddai, and it literally means the One who is All-Sufficient. The word Shaddai comes from a root word that refers to the female breast—a source of nourishment and fruitfulness.

So the name El Shaddai tells us that God is our source of strength. He nourishes us. Just like a mother nourishes her helpless baby at her breast, He is strong when we are weak. He provides us all that we need.

Do you know where the name El Shaddai occurs most frequently in the Bible? It’s in the Book of Job more frequently than anywhere else in the Bible. Why is that? Because Job was weak. Job was helpless. Job was a broken man.

Job was teetering on the brink of falling into Satan’s clutches. Satan wanted Job as a trophy for his mantelpiece. So Job needed spiritual sustenance to keep on going. And he found it in El Shaddai.

The third name for God is translated LORD (with all capital letters). It is the name Yahweh in Hebrew. It’s a name that the Jews still regard today as so holy, so sacred, that will not even say it.

I was in Israel a few years ago and I heard an American man actually say this name—Yahweh. And the Jewish people who heard him say it were scandalized. They covered their ears, and they told him “Never say that name out loud in this country!”

Why do the Jewish people think that this name is so sacred? Because Yahweh is the name by which God revealed himself to Moses and the children of Israel. It is the name by which he entered into a covenant relationship with them. Now Yahweh not only made a covenant with the Jews; he has made a new covenant with all nations through the blood of Jesus Christ.

So when we think of Yahweh, we are reminded that God is a covenant-maker. He cares enough about us to be willing to enter into a binding relationship with us. He is the God who has made a commitment to us—because that’s what a covenant is; it is a binding commitment. It is not a contract where you do your part and I’ll do my part.

Finally, we see in verse 2 the simple name God. It is the word Elohim in Hebrew and it is the most common of God’s names. It occurs over 2,000 times in the OT.

It is a compound word that comes from two smaller words: the word “el”, which we have already seen means “The Strong One”; and the word “ohim” which is the plural form of the word “alah” which means “faithful”.

So when we put those two together, we get Elohim—the Strong, Faithful One. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. He is faithful. He has the power to carry it out no matter what.

So here we have four names for God, each of them telling us something about his character. He is

  • El-Elyon, the Strongest of the Strong

  • El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One who supplies our needs

  • Yahweh, the Covenant-Maker who makes an unconditional commitment to us

  • Elohim, the Faithful Promise Keeper who keeps his commitments.

And our spiritual security and deliverance from Satan is rooted in who he is. When he enters into a relationship with us…

  • his character—not our character

  • his intentions—not our intentions

  • his performance—not our performance

are what guarantee the integrity and security of that relationship.

You ask why are there four names for God here? Because there are four threats to us in the following verses: there is

  • the fowler’s snare

  • the deadly pestilence

  • the terror of night

  • the arrow that flies by day.

Each of these threats has an element of stealth or of surprise.

A bird blunders into a fowler’s snare. You catch pestilence, or plague when you’re not even aware of it. The terror of night overtakes you when you’re least expecting it, and the arrow strikes before you can even react to it. And that’s what Satan would like to do to bring you down.

And then there are four deadly animals mentioned in verse 13: the lion, the cobra, the great lion, and the serpent.

These are all images of Satan, and of what Satan wants to do to us. Either by sly cunning and stealth, or by a roaring frontal assault like a man-eating lion, Satan wants your soul. He wants to ruin you. And he could do that except for that fact that God stands in front of us.

He covers us with his feathers and under his wings we find refuge. His faithfulness is our shield and rampart. God himself is the basis of our security.

Have you ever felt like you were under spiritual attack? What’s the best way to handle that? The best way to handle that is to focus your mind on who God is. Meditate on the attributes of God. Bring the truth of the Word of God to bear on that situation—it is the Sword of the Spirit—and Satan will flee. He has no choice because he cannot fight against El Elyon.

So the basis of our security as children of God is rooted in the character and the attributes of our Father.

What are the benefits of our security?

1. Angelic protection.

Psalm 91:11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

When Satan tempted Jesus by taking him up to the highest pinnacle of the temple and inviting him to jump,Satan wanted Jesus to abuse that benefit—to go out of his way to act recklessly in order to prove whether God would really bail him out. And Jesus rebuked Satan for that.

But God does provide us with angelic protection, and that is one of the great benefits to being a child of God.

Hebrews 1:14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

God appoints angels to watch over us and protect us. There are times when Satan would like to get at us and attack us. And he would do so except for the fact that one of God’s angels intervenes.

Again, we see that this was true in the life of our Lord Jesus. Who warned Joseph in a dream to get Mary and Jesus out of Bethlehem and flee to Egypt? It was an angel. Who ministered to Jesus after he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness? The angels did.

And likewise, what was true for Jesus is also true for us. God’s angels minister to us in times of spiritual testing. And his angels give us spiritual protection from the Enemy when we need it. We may not even be aware of them doing that, but they are there for us.

2. Victory over the power of sin in your life.

In verse 13, the Psalmist says that you will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

Now that was certainly true of Jesus Christ. He crushed the head of the Serpent when he died on the cross and rose again, because he took Satan’s hammer—Death—and he broke it. And because he did that, the truth of this verse is now true for us.

These words indicate a decisive victory over Satan. We tread upon him and trample him. It’s not like we just scare him away and he comes back another day. In Christ, we have ongoing victory over him. His power in our lives is broken.

Does that mean that we’ll reach the point as Christians where we’ll never sin? No, it doesn’t. Because we never perfectly abide in fellowship with God moment by moment as Jesus did when he was on this earth.

But when we do abide in fellowship with God, the power of sin in our life is broken. We are no longer slaves or hostages to Satan.

If you are dealing with a particularly troublesome sin in your life—perhaps it is a sinful habit. Or perhaps it is something that you have become addicted to. Whatever it is—you know that it’s displeasing to God, but you just can’t seem to break its hold on your life.

Look at verses 14—15

Psalm 91:14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

Have you ever called out to the Lord. I mean, have you really cried out to God for deliverance? Have you come to the place where you realize that you just can’t do it alone? And all you have left is to cry out to God?

God says he will deliver you and honor you.

Psalm 91 is a psalm about deliverance and security. Not security from pain. Not security from problems. But security from the power of the evil one. And ultimately, that’s the only kind of security we really need.

So be encouraged!