Psalm 91 and John 10:1-18.
A sermon preached by Oyinlade Oladipo at Ascension church, Custom
House, London.
In Psalm 91, God is a place of refuge.
In John 10, Jesus is the door to the sheep and in Him we find pasture.
For the purpose of this sermon, I’ll focus on Psalm 91 and
reference/land on John 10.
Do you believe that God can protect you from evil or have you seen so
many bad things happen to good people that you have come to the
conclusion that if there is a God, He has given up on this world and that
the only plan He has for you as a Christian is to take you to heaven after
your death? Have you given up on God and His word? Perhaps I should
ask the question in another way, how much do you believe the word of
God and take God at His word or when you see scriptures like Psalm 91,
do you explain it away as something that is really not relevant in our
days. It is a Psalm that speaks of God protecting His people and you
have seen enough evil befall followers of Jesus that your response to
Psalm 91 is a respectful Naaaaa?
The psalmist starts this Psalm on a bold, affirmative, and sure note ‘He
that dwells in the secret place of the Highest, shall abide under the
shadow of the Almighty’. The main characters of this psalm are the
person described in verse 1 and God. Scholars have speculated about
who this person can be, perhaps King David, the High Priest, Israel as a
nation or the Messiah. In Jesus’ temptation narrative, this psalm was
part of satan’s arsenal against Jesus. The subject of this Psalm can be
all that I have mentioned but the temptation narrative place the saviour
Jesus Christ as perhaps the chief focus of this Psalm.
Given that prophecy or scriptures can be interpreted in more than one
level, the follower of Jesus, the body of Christ of which you and I are a
part of can also be said to be the subject this Psalm. Therefore He that
2
dwells in the secret place of the most high can safe read Becca that
dwells in the secret place of the most high or Dwight that dwells in the
secret place of the most high. This Psalm speaks to us and about us
today as it spoke to and about Jesus in His days on earth.
The Psalm primarily shows God as a place of refuge. It does this by
using the following language verse 1 Secret place of the most high and
The shadow/shelter of the Almighty/God of Heaven. Verse 2 uses the
words refuge and protector, I will trust/hope in Him. Verse 3-4 in the
same context shows God as a deliverer who frees from the trap of the
hunter and troubling word (The Septuagint). He provides shelter under
His wings (He shall cover you with His feather, under His wings will you
find shelter and His truth shall encircle you with a shield vs 4).
Because of who God is to the subject of our Psalm in the first four
verses, verses 5-8 then goes on to assure them of protection in specific
issues that they might come across.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
In Jesus’ life, at the crucifixion, he encountered the destruction that laid
waste at noonday when He was nailed to the cross at about that time
(noonday). He welcomed the destruction of His physical body, but He
was not afraid of it. In fact, He embraced it because He knows that God
was His protector, and that God, His Father would deliver Him. God
indeed delivered Him by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. Psalm 91
did not promise that there wont be terrors by night of arrows flying by
day, pestilence or evil words walking in darkness or that there won’t be
the destruction that wastes at noonday. These things will come, trying
times will come but the Psalmists asks us to not be afraid because God
is our refuge! We are safe in Him.
Verse 7 -13 reads like wishful thinking, ‘A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand, it shall not come near you; but you shall
observe with your eyes and you shall see the reward of the wicked’ You
shall not partake of the punishment of the wicked!
Verse 9 explains that all this is predicated on making God our dwelling
place, our place of safety. This takes us back to verse 1. ‘He who dwells
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty’. Verse 14 similarly echoes this ‘Because he has set his love
upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he
has known My name’. The Orthodox Study Bible translates vs 14 as ‘For
he hoped in Me, and I will deliver him; I will shelter him, because he
knew my name’.
Let me land by applying this to our context. I’ll look at two questions in
doing this.
- In the light of Psalm 91, what sort of Church should we be? The
answer to that question depends on us answering my second
question rightly… - In the light of what we have understood in Psalm 91, what sort of
Christians do we want to be? Do we want to be a people or
individual Christians who walk this earth hopeless and dejected
because we think that God’s power to protect and save us from
evil is limited or do we want to be followers of Jesus who takes
Him at His word including Psalm 91?
Do you believe that God can protect you? If not, perhaps you
should spend more time studying God’s word to understand His
power and less time being influenced by the cynicism and unbelief
that is so pervasive in our culture. Spend more time in God’s word
building your faith. Faith comes by hearing the word of God.
Romans 10:17.
Back to question 1, If as individuals we believe God’s word and
lead our lives in line with it, we shall then be a church that believes
that God is our refuge, and we shall as a result of that offer refuge
to other people. Thankfully as a church, we are a place of refuge
through the work we do in the community. May God further set us
on fire for Jesus!
Final thoughts on our passages:
There is safety in God. The Christian life is one fraught with satan’s
attack but in Psalm 91, God promises us protection from these attacks.
This is exemplified by Jesus who though experienced satan’s attacks
was protected from destruction by God the Father and He came out
victorious through he resurrection.
God does protect His own. Psalm 91 gives us hope that God does
this. Be aware of this and set your expectations on God.
Our responsibility is to dwell in His secret place. To remain with him, put
our trust in Him, walk in His ways of righteous living.
Considering Psalm 91 and John 10, as a church, we should be a place
of refuge where the weak and vulnerable can find shelter (helping as
much as we can, being kind to people in our words and actions)
Finally, hear and believe the words of Jesus in John 10: 9
I am the gate. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. He will
come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in all its
fullness.
