16 Jun Psalm 91 – My hiding place

Psalm 91:1-16

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. ² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. ⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. ⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. ⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. ⁹ Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge — ¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. ¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. ¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. ¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. ¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

How many worriers do we have in this place? It is okay you don’t have to lie. Those of you who did not raise your hand, you are probably under 20 years old. I remember back when I was a teenager, I never worry about anything. Life was good. All I needed was $20 in my wallet and I was fine. Back in the day, $20 can get you a lot of things. I don’t understand all the older people who have million times more money in their bank account and they still worry about everything. But as I get older, things began to change. Do you notice that people start to worry more as they get older? The older you are, the worrier you become. Older people worried all the time. They worried about their husband or wife, they worried about their children, they worried about their retirement, bank account, dogs, friends, neighbours, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, cousins they never met, and ultimately they worried about themselves. I remember thinking, “Old people, you need to relax. Chill out. Enjoy life. Stop eating healthy for once and have KFC for a change. Worry does not get you anywhere. It does not help you at all. It is useless. So stop worrying and start enjoying life.” But of course, I get older. And before I knew it, I became one of them. Suddenly the $20 in my wallet was not enough anymore. The reality of this world hits me. People are not as nice as I thought. Bad things happen all the time. I always knew that that bad things happen all the time, I just thought it won’t happen to me. Till suddenly it does. People around you start dying, relational backstabbing, laid off from work, sickness and many others. The world that we live in is broken and it is filled with broken people. It does not matter how awesome, how successful and how well-prepared you are for life, your life can turn upside down in a single moment. In June 2009, all it took to turn my world upside down was a single phone call from my doctor that told me I had leukemia. Bad things happen all the time and there is no way to stop them from coming into your life. And what’s worse, they don’t give you two weeks’ notice and you can’t say no to them. It is a broken world that we live in. That is why many people live with fear and anxieties. But that is not how God wants us to live our lives. He wants us to live our life with peace and confident. So, the question is, how can we live with peace and confident in this broken world? Psalm 91 answers this question for us.

I love the book of Psalms. There are few psalms that I can recite on top of my head. And Psalm 91 is one of them. In fact, Charles Spurgeon said that there is not a more cheering Psalm than Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is called the orphan psalm because we do not know who wrote this Psalm and what is the exact occasion for the Psalm. And this is a good news because it means that this Psalm is applicable to any Christian at any time in history and in whatever circumstance. The message of Psalm 91 is loud and clear – The LORD protects those who trust in him. Let me give you my sermon in one sentence. The reason we can have confident and peace in this broken world is because we know that the LORD will not fail to protect those who trust in him.

So let’s separate the Psalm into three sections. The promise; Manifestation of the promise; Certainty of the promise.

The promise

Psalm 91:1-4 – He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. ² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” ³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. ⁴ He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

The promise of Psalm 91 is massive. It starts off with a bang. Pay attention to the imagery used in these verses. It says that God is a shelter. What is a shelter? It is a place for you to find rest. God is a shadow or it can also mean that God is a shade. This might sounds weird to us but it is an extremely important imagery for the Israelites. Under the scorching hot sun of Middle East, having a shade of shadow to cover you from the sun can be a matter of life and death. It gives you relief. God is a refuge and also a fortress, which mean that God is a place where you can find safety and protection. So we have shelter, shadow, refuge and fortress. If I can sums up these four in one image, it would be a hiding place, a place where you can hide and find rest, relief, safety and protection. Christians, we have a hiding place. But here is what’s amazing. Our hiding place is not a place but a person. It is not a location but a name. Our hiding place is the LORD himself. The LORD is our shelter, shadow, refuge and fortress. Here is a question for us: If the LORD is our hiding place, who can destroy us? The point of all this imagery is to simply say that the LORD himself will protect you. He will not abandon you.

But the most vivid imagery is in verse 4. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge. This metaphor is often used in the Bible to depict a mother bird who protects her babies by spreading her wings over them, protecting the babies from the sun, the rain, and also from predators. I love this imagery. We are familiar with masculine imagery of God as a King and as a Father. We see God as someone powerful, strong and have authority. But if we are not careful, sometime it can feel like God is a distant God. “Well, yeah I know God is powerful but I just do not think he cares about me.” This psalm does not allow us to think that way. Psalm 91 pictures God as a mother bird who protect her babies with her wings. God is not only a powerful God but he is also a God who cares! God is a loving protector.

However, this promise is not for everyone. Notice the possessive pronouns that the Psalmist used. My refuge, my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. This is very personal. This is a covenant language. That is why the Psalmist also say to dwell in the shelter and abide in the shadow. Dwell and abide mean that you have to stay close. In fact, the word shadow itself expresses nearness. You can’t abide in the shadow if the object of the shadow is far. You have to be in a close proximity to an object to be under its shadow. What does it mean? It means that this promise does not belong to everyone. It does not belong to Sunday church-goers. It does not belong to those who are active in church. It does not belong to those who goes to Bible college. To whom does this promise belong? This promise belongs to every believers who have intimate relationship with the LORD. The loving protection of God belongs to those who have personal relationship with God and put their trust in him. So the Psalmist is saying that, “If you trust God, if you not just know about him but know him personally, if you have personal relationship with him, then the promise of God is that he will not fail to protect you.” The promise of Psalm 91 belongs to those who are his.

There is a wonderful story that illustrates this point. Lord Craven was a Christian nobleman who lived in London during a plague that ravaged the city in the 15th century. Craven determined to flee from the city to his country estate to escape the spreading plague. But as he prepared to leave, he overheard one of his servant say to another, “I suppose by my Lord’s quitting London to avoid the plague means that his God lives in the country but not in the city.” It struck Craven like a lightning. Convicted, Craven cancelled his journey, declaring, “My God lives everywhere and can preserve me in city as well as in the country. I will stay where I am.” So Craven remained in London to help the plague victims and he did not catch the disease himself. God will not fail to protect those who trust in him.

Manifestation of the promise

Psalm 91:5-13 – ⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. ⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. ⁸ You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. ⁹ Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge — ¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. ¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. ¹² On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. ¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

I think the manifestation of the promise in these verses are self-explanatory. You do not have to live in fear. You do not have to be anxious. You do not have to worry when the enemy attacks. You do not have to worry if people around you are dying. No evil and plague will come your way. Picture that with me for a second. You are in the middle of the battle and the enemy drops an atomic bomb your way. Thousands of men on your left died and ten thousands on you right died. But you are unaffected by it. Sole survivor. Why? Because the LORD is your protector. He is your dwelling place and your refuge. You have nothing to fear. The LORD gives perfect protection. Did you hear that? The Lord not only protect 99% of you; he protects 100% of you. He not only cover you from your head to feet but leave your toe unprotected. No. His protection includes all of you. It is a perfect protection. Not only it is perfect, it never stop. During the day and night, sun and rain, wherever you are, you are 24/7 under the surveillance of the LORD. He never sleep nor blink. His eyes is on you constantly. The LORD is always watching over you.

As if that’s not enough, he also send his angels to do the same. When I was young, I was told that I do not have to be afraid because God has a guardian angel watching over me. He watches me when I sleep, when I eat, when I play, fight etc. It’s cute. But it is wrong. Because Psalm 91 does not say an angel but angels. Christians not only have a single angel watching over them but an army of angels guarding them all the time.

There is a wonderful story in 2 Kings 6 that describes this point. The king of Syria was trying to take hold of Israel and kill the king of Israel, but for some reason the king of Israel always managed to evade. The king of Syria was greatly troubled because of it and he heard that the reason the king of Israel always managed to escape was because there was a prophet of God by the name of Elisha who knew all the secret plans of Syria to kill the king of Israel. So the king of Syria decided that he needed to kill Elisha first before he can kill the king of Israel. He sent horses, chariots and a great army to surround Elisha. The next morning when Elisha’s servant woke up, he was frightened by what he saw. He saw a huge army surrounding the town trying to kill Elisha. He reported what he saw to Elisha in fear. “Master, we are doomed. We have no way out. We are totally surrounded. There is no escape. We are going to die. And I am still single.” He probably did not say the last part. Then Elisha replied calmly, “Do not be afraid. For those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” The servant was confused. He looked around and he saw no one but him and Elisha. “Err? Master? I know you are a prophet of God but… I can see that you are getting old. Maybe it’s time for you to get a new prescription for your glasses. I don’t see anyone but the two of us. And last time I check, 10,000 is a lot more than 2.” Elisha probably smiled at him, then he prayed and said, “O, LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened his eyes. And suddenly, the young man saw what he did not see before. He saw and behold, behind the Syrian army, there was another greater army ready to attack the Syrian army. Behind the town, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire ready to protect Elisha at any given moment. A guardian angel is cute but an army of angels is far better.

Psalm 91 tells us that we have an army of angels watching over us. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Did you hear that? The angels will even protect your toe! You think your parents is over-protective? This is your parents times million. God is over-protective of you. He not only watches over you, he also send angels to watch over you. How does angels watch over you? I have no idea. But the point is clear. God pays attention to the littlest detail of your life. He protects you even from the smallest evil. And if God will not fail to protect your toe, you can be sure he will not fail to protect your life. With another word, there is no limit or scope to God’s protection of you! Whatever may come, God is always on your side and he will deliver you.

Now, let’s stop here for a while. I want us to do a bit of thinking. So far, Psalm 91 seems to say that if you trust God, nothing bad will ever happen to you. Do you get that feeling? You should if you’ve been paying attention. Psalm 91 seems to communicate that if you trust God then everything will go smoothly in your life. If this is true, then the opposite is also true. If you experience bad things in your life, if your life is not going smoothly, then you are not trusting God. “There must be some secret hidden sins in your life. Repent!” Correct? At least, that is the impression I got when I first read it. And this is how Psalm 91 is preached most of the time. But if that is how we interpret Psalm 91, then we miss the beauty of Psalm 91. In fact, I don’t think you can interpret Psalm 91 this way. Can we agree that there are times when bad things happened to us even when we trust God? Anyone ever wake up at night and hit the bed frame with your toe on your way to toilet? I did it a lot. And as far as I can tell, before I hit the bed frame, I was not sinning. But when my toe hit that frame, I may or may not sin with the word that came from my mouth. I leave it to your imagination. But most importantly, this interpretation goes against many things the Bible teaches elsewhere. Scripture must interpret Scripture.

Keller in his sermon on Psalm 91 gives us two reasons why we cannot interpret Psalm 91 this way. One from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. First, in the Old Testament, there is a book called Job. Anyone ever read it? You should. It is a very fun book (sarcastic). The story of Job is the anti-thesis to the surface reading of Psalm 91. Job is a righteous man, a good man who trusts God, yet he experiences everything Psalm 91 says he should not experience. He experiences disasters, he lost all his wealth and children in the same day, and he eventually lost his health. All of the things that Psalm 91 says won’t happen to you if you trust God happened to Job. So the assumption is, “Well, there must be something wrong with Job. There must some secret hidden sins. God is punishing Job for his sins.” The problem with this interpretation is that it is how Job’s three friends evaluates Job’s situation. “Well Job, good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Since bad things happened to you, there must be something wrong with you. Confess!” And do you know what happen to them? At the end of the book of Job, God appears in the whirlwind and he is angry at Job’s friends. Apparently, God strongly disagree with Job’s friends’ theology that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. God tells them that they have not spoken truth about God. Job trusted God and yet he suffered greatly. And the story of Job is in the Bible! So, the book of Job does not allow surface reading of Psalm 91. To read it this way is to become like Job’s friends.

Second reason, the reason from New Testament, is that the devil wants you to read it this way. Literally. Not figuratively. Do you know that in the whole Bible, there is only one time where the devil quotes Scripture? Some of you like, “what? The devil quote Scripture?” Yes he did. Anyone want to guess which part of Scripture he decided to quote? Let me give you a hint. It’s located in the middle of your Bible, the book starts with P, and the chapter is 91. Psalm 91. You guys are smart. So when you are reading Psalm 91, remember that the devil knows this psalm by heart and he quotes it! Where does he quotes it? When the devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness. The devil is trying to set Jesus off-course from the purpose of God in his life. And he uses the most extreme part of Psalm 91, the part where God sends his angels to protect your toe. The devil is very brilliant. You have to give him credit for using Psalm 91 to tempt Jesus. After all, Psalm 91 is God’s promise for those who trusts in God right? So the devil is saying, “If you really trust God, then God will not let you get hurt at all. He will protect you, even your toe! So just jump off the cliff. You trust God right? Then you won’t get hurt. He will send his angels to protect you.” Just in case it is not clear, if the devil quotes scripture, then it must be the wrong way to read it. The devil is a liar and everything he says is a lie. So we know we can’t read it this way. If we read it this way, we are in agreement with the devil. And that’s not a good thing. Anyone want to agree with the devil? Keller says that there must be something extremely powerful in Psalm 91 that the enemy does not want you to understand. That is why he wants you to misread it.

So how do we read the promises of Psalm 91? Let me tell you the story of Jim and Elizabeth Elliot. On January 1956, Jim Elliot and four other missionaries landed on a small strip of land in the jungles of Ecuador. Their hearts were set on reaching the Auca Indians with the gospel. The Aucas were well-known as an extremely dangerous tribe. No one had reached them before. Some had exchanged gifts, but the Aucas always attacked them. For three months the missionaries had been regularly flying over the area, dropping gifts and shouting greetings. When they landed they built a hut and waited for the Aucas to come and find them. These five men knew the dangers. Their wives had discussed the possibility of becoming widows. Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of Jim Elliot, says they went simply because they knew they belonged to God, because he was their creator and their redeemer. They had no choice but to willingly obey him, and that meant obeying his command to take the gospel to every nation. Three days later, three Aucas approached them. They exchanged greetings. The missionaries showed them rubber bands, yo-yos, and balloons. Few days later, the Aucas killed the missionaries. All five were martyred for the sake of Christ. Many years later, Elizabeth published a book based on Jim Elliot’s journal that is titled, “Shadow of the Almighty,” which is based on Psalm 91. In that book, Elizabeth quotes her husband. This is the quote. “I am immortal until my work on earth is done.” – Jim Elliot. This is ironic when you think about the fact that Jim was literally killed because of his faith in God, which is something that Psalm 91 seems to promise will not happen. But Elizabeth understands Psalm 91 correctly. She understands that the absolute protection from God is not a protection from suffering and death in this world, but protection from ultimate death and suffering. And until our work on earth is done, you and I are immortal. After her husband’s death, Elizabeth refused to give up on the Aucas and she continued to live in the region with her 10 months old daughter. When the Aucas saw what happened and the forgiveness and grace Elizabeth extended to them, they were astonished. And because of it, many of the Aucas came to believe in Jesus.

Paul puts it this way. Romans 8:28 – And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Paul does not say that all the bad things that happen to you are actually good things. Neither Paul says “You only need to see the bad things from different perspectives. If you can see it from different perspectives then bad things are actually good things.” No, a thousand no. Evil are evil. Bad are bad. Injustice is injustice. It is wrong to call evil, good. Evil is not part of God’s purpose for us in the beginning. Evil is a result of human’s sin. So what does this verse meant? It means that there is a God who is at work! A lot of times we don’t see it or feel it but it does not mean God is not doing anything. 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 3600 seconds an hour, God is always at work. Even at this very second, God is working in ways that we cannot see and comprehend to accomplish his purpose in us. And what’s amazing is God is working all things together. That means there is no random occurrence in our life. God uses every little detail of our life, every one of our life experience, pain, and joy, and combine them together as part of his work. Not a single part of your life is wasted. What happens to you when you were 3 will work together with what happen to you when you are 40. There is no such thing as mistake in God’s agenda. He can, he does and he will take every little detail of your life and use it for his good purpose. Are you with me? This is God’s absolute protection. Christians are not exempted from evils and pains but Christians have absolute total confident that everything happens under the control of the good and sovereign God. Every bad things that happen to us only leads to something more glorious and beautiful at the end. God’s absolute protection does not remove evil from our lives but sustains us through evil to accomplish his good and greater purposes. And until God’s purpose for us on earth is done, we are immortal!

So let’s go back to Psalm 91 now. What is God saying through Psalm 91? Here is what God is saying. He says, “I will protect you. I will not fail to protect you. My protection of you is perfect and complete. But my purpose for you is so much more than what you can see and feel now. Right now I am allowing many things happening in your life that you do not like because I am writing far greater story than what you can imagine. Yes there will be many things that will hurt you. But none that is outside my will. Whatever I allow to happen in your life is part of my absolute protection of you. There is not a single event that happened outside of my sovereign good purpose for you. There will be many things that you will lost in the here and now but it will only make the end so much more glorious.” Psalm 91 is not telling us to trust God to keep us out of trouble. That is not the right way to interpret it. Psalm 91 is telling us to trust God IN trouble rather than to trust God to AVOID trouble. It is the kindness of God to allow you get into trouble and learn to trust him in it. He is shaping you to be the person he desires you to be through it and nothing can frustrate his plan. Church, do we believe this? Do we believe that we live perfectly secure in the shadow of the Almighty? If we believe this, we ought to be extremely bold in living out God’s purpose for our lives.

Certainty of the promise.

Psalm 91:14-16 – ¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. ¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. ¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

How can we trust the promise of divine protection? Here in the last 3 verses, we hear God himself speaking. This is God himself who made the promise. And this promise belongs to those who trusts in him. And that trust, is described in three ways. Those who trust God, hold fast to him in love. It means that you choose to hold on to him and will not let him go. Those who trust God, know his name. Knowing the name of God speaks about relationship with God. You have personal relationship with God and not just know about him. Last, those who trust God, call on God. It means you are a person of prayer who continually call to him in faith.

But the weight of these verses is not on what we must do. The weight of these verses lies on what God will do to those who trusts in him. The LORD says “I will” six times in these verses. I will deliver him; I will protect him; I will answer him; I will be with him; I will rescue him; I will satisfy him! What a wonderful promise. Sometime we feel like the weight of Christianity lies on our shoulder. It could not be further from the truth. Our “do” is sustain by God’s “I will” from beginning to the end. God will not fail to protect those who trusts in him.

But I want you to pay attention to verse 15. “I will be with him in trouble.” This one sentence tells us how to read Psalm 91. Psalm 91 does not offer us trouble-free life. Psalm 91 offers us God’s full protection in trouble. It does not say God will prevent trouble from happening to us but he will be with us in trouble. This is very different. God’s absolute protection is not FROM trouble but IN trouble. How do we know that God is with us in trouble? That’s a good question. We think that it simply means that we will feel the presence of God in trouble. Yes that’s cute. But God went a lot further than that.

Do you know what God had to do to be with you in trouble? He is all-powerful, all- knowing, all-sovereign God. How could he experience trouble? Good question. Here is the answer. He took on human flesh and became one of us. He lived 33 years of his life as a righteous man without a single blemish. But he experienced betrayal, wrongdoings, injustice, beating and enormous pain of crucifixion. Why did he do that? To tell us that he knows what we are going through. He experienced the trouble that we experiences. In fact he experienced the pain that we experienced times one hundred. He was spotless and  without blemish yet he suffered more than we will ever suffer. And because of it, today we can confidently say that he is with us in trouble.

But that’s not the only amazing thing about Jesus. He is not only with us in trouble but he protects us. How? By becoming our substitute. Remember the imagery of mother bird from verse 4? We find refuge under his wings. Do you know how the mother bird protect the young from the rain? She gets wet. How does she protect the young from the sun? She gets hot. How does she protect the young from the predator? She gets eaten. She puts herself between the young and evil. She takes it in herself. Do you see what happen? This is what Jesus did. Listen to his words.

Luke 13:34 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you are not willing! This is very powerful. The context of this verse is judgement. Jerusalem will be judged for their sins and wrongdoings. And here we have Jesus longing to protect them like a mother bird protects her hens. Jesus said if they would believe in him, if they would trust him, he would save them from judgement. How? By taking the judgement upon himself. That is how he protects us. Jesus takes on the full wrath of God upon himself. He endured the cross for our sake. He took what we deserved and gave us what he deserved. Jesus is the only perfect man ever lived but he died a miserable death for us.

This is why we cannot interpret Psalm 91 to say that if you trust God then nothing bad would ever happen to you. Jesus is the only man who trusted God completely without blemish yet he experienced all the bad thing one could ever imagined. Why did he do it? Because he knew that through his suffering, we are welcomed into his family. We are forgiven, we are adopted, and we become heirs of the eternal kingdom because of what Jesus went through. And that is why today we can live with confident that nothing but what is ultimately good will ever happen to those who trusts in God. Even when it seems that God is against us, God is for us. The cross of Christ made sure of it. The cross of Jesus is the guarantee that God will not fail to protect those who trusts in him. Jude 24-25 – Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Let me close with an illustration. There is a man who was very nervous on his very first airplane flight experience. He made sure he fastened his seatbelts and he made it through the take off. And as he started to relax, suddenly the turbulence hit. The man was extremely anxious. He feared that the plane would go down. Then he looked next to him and saw a little boy calmly sitting next to him. He asked the boy, “Boy, how can you be so calm? Are you not afraid that this flight would go down?” The boy looked at him and answered, “No sir, I am not afraid. My father is on this plane, in fact, he is the pilot of this plane. He knows that I am on board and he is not going to allow anything bad happen to me.”

What a confidence this boy had on his father as the pilot of the plane. My friends, do you know who is the pilot of your life? It is none other than the God of the universe. Your heavenly Father is your pilot. He knows that you are on board. Turbulence will come. But he will not let anything bad happen to his children without his permission. God is not only the pilot of the plane but he is also the commander of the turbulence. You will make it to the destination that he has set for you. You and I are immortal until our purpose on earth is done. This is the promise of Psalm 91. You and I can live with peace and confident because God will not fail to protect those who trusts in him.

Discussions:

1. We know that the problem of worry and anxiety is extremely common in our day and age. What aspects of our culture you think might have contributes to it?
2. What is the promise of Psalm 91 and to whom does it belong?
3. Read the explicit description of the manifestation of God’s promise in verse 5-13. To what extend does God promise to protect his people?
4. “If you trust God, then God will make sure that everything will go smoothly in your life.” Explain why this interpretation of Psalm 91 is problematic.
5. How does Elizabeth Elliot interprets the message of Psalm 91? How is this message consistent with the rest of the Bible?
6. How does the Jesus fulfil the promise of Psalm 91 for us?
7. After understanding the message of Psalm 91, how does it enable you to live with peace and confident in this broken world? Share your thoughts with each other.