Faith for a Dark Day
Ps 91
The PowerPoint sermon can be viewed here.
The PowerPoint sermon can be downloaded here.
- INTRODUCTION.
- It was the worst attack in American history,
and it burned into our brains a series of heartbreaking images
that will stay with us forever—the Twin Towers falling, the
Pentagon exploding, Flight 93 crashing into the ground, a
firefighter carrying away a flag-draped victim, the twisted
rubble of Ground Zero.
- But, the dreadful events of that day have
been repeated many times over—the bombing of trains in
Madrid, the bombing of busses in London, the bombing of a
nightclub in Bali.
- If the world stands for another million
years, brutality will continue to be a way of life for so
many.
- You see, the events of September 11, 2001
are not really unique in human history. Violence & brutality
have been on this earth for millennia.
- When Cain’s sacrifice was rejected by
God, he called his brother Abel out into the field. We then read,
“When they were in the field, Cain rose up against his
brother Abel and killed him” (Gn 4:8).
- Since the time of Abel’s murder,
brutality has been seen hundreds of times over—whether that
brutality be from the Assyrians, Attila the Hun, Hitler, or Osama
bin Laden.
- As we think of brutality, there is one
question that haunts us to our core, “Where is God in all
of this?”
- Tonight, we could answer the question:
“Where was God on 9/11?”
- Yet, doing so would, in many ways, be an
exercise in futility.
- We saw the devastation of that day, but we
saw it on our TVs.
- We mourned that day, but we mourned for
strangers, not our own families.
- We suffered loss that day, but it was more
the loss of an innocence than it was the loss of someone near and
dear to our hearts.
- None of us suffered personally because of
9/11, but we have all suffered our own 9/11s.
- We have all suffered loss so unimaginable,
words could not express the anguish.
- We have all mourned for those who meant more
to us than life itself.
- Each of us has suffered devastation in one
form or another.
- At those times, if we are perfectly honest,
want to know the answer to one question: “Where is God in
all of this?”
- We can take comfort in the fact that we are
not the first to suffer, nor are we the first to ask such
gut-wrenching questions.
- When Job lost everything, he questioned for
days on end where God was.
- Jesus himself, as he was dying at Golgotha,
“cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema
sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?’” (Mt 27:46).
- In tonight’s text, the psalmist spends
no time questioning where God is, but he firmly puts his trust in
God. We wish to explore this passage tonight in order that we
might have “Faith in a Dark Place.”
- READ TEXT.
- THE NAMES OF GOD USED HERE TEACH US ABOUT
“FAITH FOR A DARK DAY.”
- God is first referred to as “the Most
High” in v 1.
- “Most High” refers to God
as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
- The idea is that God made this world &
God reigns over this world.
- Scripture repeatedly speaks of God’s
reign over the affairs of men.
- “The Most High rules the kingdom of
men” (Dan 4:32).
- The context is the refusal of Nebuchadnezzar
to give glory to God for all that God had bestowed upon
him.
- Thus, the king was driven from civilization
until he was prepared to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over
kingdoms.
- “I heard what seemed to be the voice
of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the
sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns” (Rv
19:6).
- What a blessed thought!
- When terrorists flew planes into buildings,
God was still in control.
- When this nation—or any
nation—goes to war, God remains in control.
- When people go to the polls on November 4 to
elect a President, God remains in control.
- God is also referred to as the Almighty in v
1.
- The Hebrew is literally “El
Shaddai” & likely means “God of the
mountain.”
- The idea, of course, is one of strength or
might. Our God has great might.
- “Once God has spoken; twice have I
heard this: that power belongs to God” (Ps
62:11).
- “By awesome deeds you answer us with
righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends
of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his
strength established the mountains, being girded with
might” (Ps 65:5-6).
- How great it is to know that our God is El
Shaddai, the Almighty!
- Terrorists can come & knock down
buildings in a display of power, but my God has more
power.
- An illness can come & drain my body of
all strength, but my God has all power.
- There is likely a closely associated idea
here & that is that our God is the God of the
patriarchs.
- God says to Moses, “I appeared to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name
the LORD I did not make myself known to them” (Ex
6:3).
- God established his power among the
patriarchs—he gave Abraham a child in his old age, he
wrestled with Jacob, & he promised them all to make of them a
great nation.
- The God who shelters us is the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God who fulfilled his promise
& his power among them.
- He is also referred to as the LORD [Yahweh]
in v 1.
- God revealed himself to Moses as
Yahweh.
- As Moses prepares to lead the people of
Israel out of Egypt, he wonders what he should tell the people of
Israel God’s name is.
- God says to Moses, “’I AM WHO I
AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel,
“I AM has sent me to you”’” (Ex
3:14).
- The idea in this name is that God is
eternal.
- The four living creatures around the throne
praise God saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God
Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Rv
4:8).
- What a blessed thought to know that God is
eternal.
- The Twin Towers stood for roughly 30 years
before they were destroyed, but God has always been & he
cannot be destroyed.
- We might live on this earth no more than 65
years or so, but God does not die. He is eternal.
- Because he is eternal, God can aid us at any
point in our life, and he can aid us when this life is no
more.
- The psalmist also references God as
“my God” in v 2.
- The word “God” here is a general
term—it was used of the living God as well as idols made of
wood & stone.
- But, the psalmist refers to God as
“his” God.
- There is an intimacy in this
terminology—there is a relationship.
- It is quite akin as to referring to our
spouse as “my wife” or “my husband” or
our children as “our child.”
- It’s not an affirmation of ownership
as in “my house” or “my car,” but it
demonstrates a unique relationship.
- Because God is my God, he cares about me, he
will help me, he will strengthen me in a dark day.
- GOD’S PROTECTION.
- God provides broad protection here.
- He provides bodily protection.
- “He will deliver your from the snare
of the fowler and from deadly pestilence” (v
3).
- No one will be able to come and snatch by
body like a fowler will a bird & no deadly pestilence will be
able to kill me.
- He also provides protection from
terror.
- “You will not fear the terror of the
night” (v 5).
- Terrorists seek to make us afraid; God will
keep us from that fear.
- He will protect us from unseen
dangers.
- “You will not fear the terror of the
night” (v 5).
- Why do kids often prefer a nightlight by
which to sleep? Simply because they cannot see & that we
cannot see makes us fearful.
- God also provides individual
protection.
- “A thousand may fall at your side, ten
thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you”
(v 7).
- God isn’t just going to protect
so-and-so down the street, but God will protect me!
- God additionally provides miraculous
protection for his people.
- “He will command his angels concerning
you to guard you in all your ways” (91:11).
- We typically think of this verse in relation
to Jesus, for we know this passage from the account of
Jesus’ temptation.
- Yet, before anyone is tempted to apply this
text only to Jesus, let me remind you that it was Satan who
applied this text to Jesus!
- We also know from the NT that angels serve
us: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve
for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” (Heb
1:14).
- I do not understand how angels minister to
us today, but I do know that they do.
- This text says some things contrary to
common sense.
- The text says that no deadly pestilence can
kill me—I am sure the faithful who died during the Black
Death might beg to differ.
- The text also says that if 10,000 fell at my
right hand, I would not suffer. Does that mean that if I had been
in the lobby of the WTC when it imploded, I would not have
died?
- I’m sure my brethren who died on 9/11
might beg to differ.
- From The Christian Chronicle, I know how two
of my brethren specifically suffered:
- One sister at a NYC congregation lost her
husband.
- A police sergeant who is a member of the
Springfield Gardens church in Queens worked inside the WTC. It
just happens that he was on sick leave on 9/11, but he lost his
entire staff.
- If this psalm is true, and God provides
protection for his people, how come our brethren in NY suffered
so intensely?
- WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO APPLY THIS
PSALM.
- Anytime we honestly seek to know what the
Bible teaches, the first thing we absolutely must know was how it
applied to the first readers. How would the first readers have
understood the text?
- That’s why, for example, when I talked
about women wearing veils from 1 Corinthians 11 a few weeks ago,
I spent a good deal of time talking about the significance of
veils in first-century religion. We had to see how the
Corinthians would have understood those instructions before we
talked about modern application.
- So, it is with this psalm. What can we learn
about the original setting of this psalm to help us apply
it?
- We first need to understand that this is
poetry.
- As such the psalm uses poetical license
& cannot be taken literally.
- Some of you may not like the idea of poetic
license in Scripture, but it’s obviously there.
- This psalm itself contains irrefutable
poetic license: “He will cover you with his pinions, and
under his wings you will find refuge” (v 4).
- Is God a bird that he would have pinions
& wings? No, God is spirit, yet we understand what the
psalmist is doing.
- We also need to understand that this psalm
was written with a specific situation in mind.
- The situation from which this psalm has come
has been lost to history.
- Many have identified this psalm with either
Moses or David, but that’s conjecture.
- Even though that’s conjecture,
let’s use that to understand the idea of chronological
context.
- If Moses wrote this psalm, perhaps it was
written for Joshua so that he could have confidence as he crossed
the Jordan—for him, ten thousand would fall at his right
hand, but no evil would befall him; he would not die by
pestilence; or by terror.
- If David wrote it, perhaps it was a promise
to Solomon that he would have this divine protection in a literal
sense.
- While we do not know the identity of the
person, it’s certainly plausible that these promises
applied to a specific person in a generally literal
sense.
- Thus, there would be a very narrow
application of the specifics of this passage just like the
command for Timothy to bring Paul’s cloak that he left with
Carpus (2 Tm 4:13). We cannot fulfill that command any more than
we can seize the literal promises in this passage.
- What should we do with this passage
then?
- We can & should learn the promise of
divine protection.
- God still provides protection for his
people: Paul says to Timothy: “The Lord will rescue me from
every evil deed” (2 Tm 4:18).
- I’m confident that the Lord will
protect us today from every evil just as he did Paul!
- But, the truth of the matter is that a
promise of protection will not keep us from dying in some great
calamity.
- We know that from experience. How many good
brethren suffered directly as a result of 9/11? How many good
brethren have we personally known who have left this
world?
- While we get that idea from experience, we
also need to grasp it from Scripture. The Scriptures speak of
God’s protection while they also speak of death.
- Speaking to his disciples about the
destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus says, “You will be hated by
all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will
perish” (Lk 20:17-18). But, immediately before this
statement, Jesus says at Lk 20:16: “You will be delivered
up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and
some of you they will put to death.”
- We know Rm 8:28 by heart: “We know
that for those who love God all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose.”
- Does that mean everything in our lives is
good? Absolutely not!
- In that same context, Paul says, “Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or
sword?” (Rm 8:35). Just because “all things work
together for good” does not mean we won’t face famine
or nakedness or sword!
- Now that we know that this psalm has a
specific context & that’s God’s protection
doesn’t rule out disaster, how should we understand this
passage?
- God protects us from disaster because God
allows disaster.
- When Satan attacked Job, he had to have
permission from God to do so.
- Satan was only allowed to take away
Job’s property & his children because God allowed him
to do so.
- When that did not succeed at getting Job to
curse God & die, we read that Satan again went before God.
God says to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare
his life” (Job 2:6).
- Job did not die from that illness. Why?
Because God said, “Satan, you cannot do
that!”
- Thus, if I had been in the lobby of the WTC
when those structures collapsed, God would have allowed it. I do
not know why he might allow certain people to die & certain
others not to die, but I’m confident that any disaster that
befalls me, God has permitted it. My confidence, therefore, is
that God remains on his throne!
- If I had been on the top floor of the WTC on
9/11, my body would surely be no more (it’s possible
nothing would have been found to bury), but I would not have
died.
- Yes, Tammy would be a widow & my
children would be fatherless, because my body could not have
survived, but God would have miraculously saved me.
- Here is my point—and this should be a
great source of comfort: Regardless of what happens in this life,
I shall not die!
- My body can die (unless Jesus comes first,
it will), my body can be shot with a bullet, my body can be
racked by illness—but Justin Imel CANNOT die!
- This is not just semantics: We must
understand that our true existence is housed inside this flesh
& is not this flesh.
- We know that regardless of what happens to
the bodies we inhabit, we shall not die.
- “Do not fear those who can kill the
body but cannot kill the soul” (Mt 10:28).
- Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and
the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he
live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never
die” (Jn 11:25-26).
- We previously mentioned 2 Tim 4:18.
- Quite purposefully, I did not read the
entire passage. In its entirety, we read: “The Lord will
rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his
heavenly kingdom.”
- Paul writes these words perhaps only a few
days before a sword severed his head. God would not protect Paul
from every evil deed by keeping that sword away from his head,
but by saving his soul.
- Therein lies our hope & our
security.
- Shortly after 9/11, President Bush &
Congress founded the Department of Homeland Security.
- While that Department has foiled several
terrorist attacks, they are not the best protectors available:
The Department of Homeland Security can protect our bodies, but
God can protect our souls!
- Are you his child tonight? Do you have that
protection of your soul?
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