Thank you for reading. I am praying for you. In 2021, we are going to know our loving, awesome God better!
—Craig Brian Larson
Merry Christmas!
No Evil Befall You
Psalm 91:10 promises blanket protection.
Psalm 91:9–10 (ESV)
“Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.”
The psalmist now circles back to repeat several of the first ideas in the psalm, showing again that verses 1–2 are foundational to every promise given. He repeats the covenant name LORD (in Hebrew, Yahweh). He repeats the idea of dwelling in him as a person dwells in a home. He repeats the idea that God is Most High and that he is a refuge.
He repeats these ideas and not the others from verses 1–2 as a shorthand reminder that we should draw all the ideas in these two verses back to mind.
He says, “Because you have made,” indicating that Yahweh becomes our dwelling place and refuge when we make him so. Dwelling in the LORD day by day, moment by moment, is a choice. It is a choice to trust him and believe he is the Most High, the Almighty. We choose to believe his Word and live accordingly. We choose to regard his Word as reality, though spiritual realities are invisible.
So the all-encompassing, blanket promise that the psalmist is about to pronounce is based on that life-changing choice.
He speaks of “The Most High, who is my refuge.” For the second time in the psalm, the psalmist brings himself into the picture (see verse 2). By this he indicates he is speaking from experience. The Lord has proven himself to the psalmist for a long time. These principles are tried and true.
Psalm 91:10, No evil befall you
Verse 10 promises, “No evil shall be allowed to befall you.”
The word “evil” covers every bad thing mentioned or unmentioned in the psalm. After having noted several specific examples of evils from which God protects a person—fowlers and their snares, pestilence, arrows, night terrors, destruction—the psalmist now covers all bases. Any evil you can imagine or encounter. As Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
And then the psalmist uses a word pregnant with theological implications: “allowed.” No evil can strike a person unless it is “allowed.” Who must allow it? The Most High, the Almighty refuge and fortress, the God in whom we can trust (see vv. 1–2). That is what it means to be the Most High, Almighty God. Absolutely nothing can happen unless he allows or does it (Mat. 10:29).
When Scripture refers to God as the Most High and Almighty one, it does not mean approximately so, or “Very High most of the time,” or “in the top ten of mighty ones.” No. Scripture speaks in absolute terms. God is the only Most High, all the time. Absolutely everything that happens in the universe, galactically large or atomically small, he must allow or do.
If you believe that, you will not fear. If you do not believe it, fear will be your regular companion, perhaps even your tormenting lord.
Psalm 91:10, No plagues of judgment
Verse 10 continues, “no plague come near your tent.” This is the first time the psalm uses the word “plague.”
When we hear the biblical word plague, what comes to mind are the ten plagues God sent on Egypt and its idols to judge them and compel them to release Israel from slavery (Exodus 11:1; 12:13).
Moreover, Scripture uses the word plague to describe God’s judgments on Israel itself when they later rebelled against him in the desert (Exodus 32:35), as well as later times in the history of the nation (Exo. 30:12; Num. 11:33; 16:47; 25:8; 31:16; 2 Sam. 24:21).
Plague described punishments Israel would incur if they transgressed the rules of the tabernacle of God in their midst (Numbers 8:19).
So plague is a word tightly connected to divine punishment for sin.
What Psalm 91:10 promises, therefore, is forgiveness and escape from punishment. Like all the other promises of the psalm, it can be claimed by those who make the true, Most High LORD, who has revealed himself in the Bible, their dwelling place, the God in whom they trust (vv. 1–2).
New Covenant Developments
Several hundred years after Psalm 91:10 was written, God gave further revelation to Israel of what that trust entailed. He sent his Son Jesus to earth, who lived a perfect life, went willingly to the cross to die for the sins of mankind, rose again from the dead to overcome death on our behalf, and ascended to the right hand of God as Savior and Lord of the Universe. And he gave this promise:
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16–18)
The protection of Psalm 91 comes to those who draw near and stay near to God through faith in Jesus Christ. It comes to those who confess their sins (1 John 1:5–10) and repent of evil (Acts 2:38), in obedience to Jesus Christ. In this way, they receive forgiveness and escape the plagues—the judgments of God—on evildoers.
Your protection is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you trust him?
And if he wills it, will you suffer for him? That is another development in the New Covenant. While Psalm 91 promises blanket protection, the New Testament qualifies that somewhat, saying, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12) and “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Nevertheless, when we are persecuted, the Lord assures us he will protect us from ultimate evil: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
You and Truth: When You Become Your Own Worst Enemy
In theory we all love the truth. We want truth and truthfulness from everyone else. But in reality there are circumstances when each of us can firmly oppose the truth.
This is part 5 in the series, “You and Truth.”
Why Do Bad Things Happen?
If, as Psalm 91:8 says, calamities are the recompense of the wicked, how can we be confident God will protect us, since we all sin?
Psalm 91:7–8 (ESV)
“[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.”
Verse 8 is puzzling. It suggests the death or disease that befalls the thousand at your side and the ten thousand at your right hand (v. 7) happens because they are wicked. And it does not strike you because you stay near God.
This is the same, neat and clean, binary, black-and-white reasoning that Job’s friends used to explain his suffering. Good things happen to good people; bad things happen to bad people. If you walk with God, nothing bad will ever happen to you. If you are wicked, sooner or later calamity will catch up to you. You get what you deserve.
How do we interpret this verse?
Psalm 91:8 and calamity
As always, the most important rule of interpretation is to consider the context. What does the rest of Psalm 91 tell us? What does the remainder of the Bible tell us? In other words, we should not interpret this verse in a way that contradicts the meaning of Psalm 91 or the remainder of the Bible. Rather, all of Psalm 91 and the Bible tell us how to interpret verse 8 (because God wrote the entire Bible, and he does not contradict himself).
With that in mind, what meaning should we rule out for verse 8?
What Psalm 91:8 cannot mean
First, verse 8 cannot mean that everyone to whom something bad happens is wicked. The book of Job explicitly forbids that interpretation. The Bible tells the stories of other righteous people who suffered violence or disease: King Josiah (2 Kings 23), John the Baptist (Matthew 14:1–12), Stephen (Acts 7:54–60), the apostle James (Acts 12:1–2), the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7–10; Galatians 4:13–15), and of course Jesus.
James 5:14–16 says, “[14] Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. [15] And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
Notice that verses 15 and 16 imply that there can be a connection between sickness and sin, but sin is not necessarily the cause of someone’s sickness. Verse 15 says, “if he has committed sins.” “If” means sin might or might not be the cause of the sickness.
Each of us sins daily. We need to confess our sins daily. If we fall sick, we need to search our hearts prayerfully with special attention if there is some sin on which the Lord is putting his finger.
But the “if” of verse 15 implies we are not to conclude that one’s sickness is necessarily the result of sin.
What Psalm 91 certainly does mean
On the other hand, the undeniable overall message of Psalm 91 is that there is indeed a connection between experiencing God’s protection and walking in close communion with him. If you dwell in God’s shelter, if you abide in his shadow, if you trust him to be your refuge (verses 1–2), if you hold fast to him in love, if you know his name, if you call on him (verses 14–15), he will protect you.
The message of Psalm 91 is we should trust God for that. That is our default expectation. Protection is the normal experience of those who walk with the Lord. We should quote the promises of Psalm 91 and trust that they will be fulfilled in us. We have a physical, natural immune system and a spiritual immune system. A close relationship with God strengthens both systems.
We must not fear that the exception to the rule will happen to us. We should not live dreading the anomaly, but rather believing the promise. Scripture confirms the message of protection in Psalm 91 in innumerable other stories and promises throughout the Bible (Psalm 23; Psalm 121; 2 Corinthians 1:8–10; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; and 2 Timothy 4:18, for starters).
If the anomaly comes, we trust him and be sure our heart is clean through daily repentance and prayerful self-examination. But when we have done that, we should not live with the crushing assumption that a calamity that has befallen us signals an ongoing failure in our relationship with God, that he is punishing us for something we cannot identify. The comforting promise of 1 John 1:7–9 removes that possibility:
“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Summary
Calamity is not necessarily a recompense for wickedness. Although wickedness always brings the recompense of calamity, calamity is not always the recompense of wickedness. (In the language of formal logic, if all A is B, that does not imply that all B is A.)
Although calamity may befall even a person walking close to God, we should believe we will experience his perfect protection.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
Pillar and Buttress of Truth
One of the common refrains that you hear from people today is that they believe in God, but not in organized religion. In other words, they want God, but they do not want the church.
What 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us is, that attitude is a huge mistake. If you choose to reject the church, then you are opening yourself to falsehood and deception, for the church is a pillar and buttress of truth.
This is the fourth message in the series, You and Truth.
Surgically Precise Protection
God can give you precise protection in a situation where people around you are vulnerable.
Psalm 91:7–8 (ESV)
“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.”
God is able to judge the wicked while protecting the righteous with surgical precision. In even the most dangerous and deadly situations, God can make his people invincible.
Precise protection for two spies
For example, as Israel prepared to invade the Promised Land, Moses sent 12 leaders of the tribes of Israel into Canaan to spy out the land. When they returned, 10 of the leaders gave a negative report, saying the residents of the land were invincible, doubting God’s promise, and advising rebellion against his command. On the other hand, two of the leaders—Joshua and Caleb—confidently testified to their belief that God would give them victory, and they should obey and trust him.
What followed were surgically precise acts of both judgment and protection. Numbers 14:36–38 says:
“The men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land—the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the LORD. Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.” (ESV)
Precise protection for two from a million, for 40 years
God’s selective protection of Joshua and Caleb did not end there. Because of Israel’s rebellious response of believing the 10 spies instead of the Lord and refusing to enter the Promised Land, God pronounced judgment on that generation of men and sent Israel back into the desert to wander for 40 years. Numbers 14:28–30 says,
“As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”
With surgical precision, over the next 40 years God would protect two faithful men—Joshua and Caleb—while ending the lives of an entire generation of unbelievers.
Precise protection during the Passover
The Old Testament tells another story of God’s pinpoint control of both judgment and protection. When the plagues on Egypt were nearing their end, God announced one final terrifying judgment on the idol-worshiping, occult-practicing Egyptians: the destruction of the firstborn in every household.
God would send a death angel throughout the land, and on one night death would sadly fall on all the firstborn. But God had a different plan for the firstborn of Israel. He instructed Moses to tell the Israelites to smear the blood of a lamb on the lintel and doorposts of their homes on that fearsome night, and death would not enter their homes.
Exodus 12:12–13 says, “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”
Passover night was another example of God’s pinpoint control of both judgment and protection.
Pinpoint protection in Goshen
God showed similar selectivity in some of the earlier plagues on Egypt.
During their time in Egypt, Israel lived in the region of Goshen. When God announced to Pharaoh the plague of flies, he said, “On that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. Thus I will put a division between my people and your people.” (Exodus 8:22–23)
The same thing happened when God sent the plague of hail. Exodus 9:26 says, “Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.”
More examples of precise protection
Likewise when God sent a flood to destroy all the wicked people on earth, he carefully protected Noah and the seven members of his family in the ark.
Likewise when God sent a plague on the Israelites at a moment of national rebellion led by Korah, Aaron stood at a line between the living and the dead.
Numbers 16:44–48 says, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.’ And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, ‘Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the LORD; the plague has begun.’
“So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.”
Walking into the face of deadly plague, Aaron with his censor, for that circumstance, was invincible—because he was obeying a specific, personal command from God. We will talk more about that shortly.
God’s protection is normal
So God can give selective protection, selective invincibility.
He does this constantly. The protection is normally invisible to us. We have experienced it every day when we pass through a day free from all harm, for the world is filled with invisible dangers: pestilences, viruses, germs, and bacteria. Yet we pass through our days rarely if ever falling sick. Similarly, evil people who want to harm others normally pass by us. Natural calamities and accidents normally pass by us.
Protection is your normal destiny. It is not extraordinary. Every day you experience the surgically precise, pinpoint protection promised in Psalm 91.
Still, we should protect ourselves
Does this mean we do not need to take normal precautions such as looking both ways before we cross the street, avoiding unleashed, aggressive dogs, locking our front doors, or eating healthful food and getting adequate sleep to have a healthy immune system? Should a soldier in a battle keep his head down? Or for an extreme, contemporary example, if a family member or spouse comes down with covid-19, do we kiss them on the lips?
No, that would be testing the Lord and ignoring wisdom. It would be presumption. The Lord promises to protect us but also tells us to protect ourselves and use ordinary wisdom to avoid unnecessary dangers. Proverbs 14:16 says, “A fool is reckless and careless.”
For example, Paul warned his ministry partner Timothy, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.” (2 Timothy 4:14–15)
Proverbs 22:3 says, “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
In John 8:59, when the religious leaders did not like what Jesus was saying, they “picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”
John 7:1 says, “After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.”
There is a fine line between fearless faith and testing the Lord, between confidence and foolishness. So we are to be confident but not careless, fearless but not foolish, full of faith but not presumptuous (Numbers 14:39–45).
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
You and Truth: The Reality of Deception
Satan’s main weapon against us is deception. Here is how to avoid becoming his victim. This is part 3 in the series You and Truth.
You Fearless
When you love and trust God with all your heart, you become fearless.
Psalm 91:5–6 (ESV)
“You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.”
Here is one of the sweetest promises in Psalm 91, in fact in all of Scripture. “You will not fear…”
Fear is torment. Ask someone who has had panic attacks. Fear is slavery, for we will do, avoid, or pay almost anything to escape what we fear. Fear locks up people alone, in a cold sweat, in their homes.
Fear, baseless fear, drove King Saul insane. He feared the most loyal man in his kingdom: David. Saul feared he would lose his throne to David, and so he descended into an expensive, paranoid, demon-intensified determination to kill him that lasted for years. Saul was the King, but he was a slave—to fear.
Fear of anything can drive you insane.
Fearless in four ways
If you live in the truths of Psalm 91:1–4, “you will not fear.”
Psalm 91:5–6 lists four categories of things we will not fear.
- “The terror of the night”: This is out-of-control fear, middle-of-the-night panic attacks. Fear is worst in the middle of the night. Singer Frank Sinatra said, “Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night—be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels.”
You don’t need drugs or whiskey to get you through the night; you need the conviction that God is the Most High, the Almighty, your fortress and refuge, your God in whom you trust.
- “The arrow that flies by day”: This is violence. This is the fear of people with guns, knives, explosives, nuclear weapons and the like. Here in Chicago people fear bullets and those who shoot them. Every week the news media report how many dozens of people were shot and killed over the weekend. I know people who have an app on their phone that shows where crimes have recently happened in the neighborhoods around them, and they check those apps regularly. But if a person believes that God’s faithfulness is a shield and buckler, he will not fear the arrow—or bullet—that flies by day.
- “The pestilence that stalks in darkness”: This is killer disease. This is the fear of coronavirus, or any of a hundred other diseases or cancers that could snuff out your candle or mangle your life. How do newspapers, magazines, and TV shows get readers and viewers? They write headlines that tell us there is some disease to fear, and they are sure to have an audience. We live in a fear-driven society of people seeking safety, and most people are looking in the wrong place. If you believe God will deliver you from the deadly pestilence, you will take reasonable precautions but you will not fear.
- “The destruction that wastes at noonday”: This is calamity and disaster, such as fire, earthquakes, floods, tornados. When God sent a flood big enough to wipe out all life on earth, he was able to preserve Noah and his family on the ark. No matter what the destructive force or its cause, when you truly believe your God is almighty and Most High, you will not fear even calamities as big as a hurricane.
The four fears in this verse are all extreme. Which means that dwelling in the shelter of the Most High dispels not just things you fear, but things that terrify. Faith in Almighty God can handle the worst.
Nothing is too big or small, from hurricanes to viruses, for our God to handle. You can get complete victory over fear. The secret is knowing and believing in God as he is described in Psalm 91.
Misplaced faith
Fear is the symptom of misplaced faith. Fear is strong faith in what can harm you, and little faith in God. The way to overcome fear is to reverse your faith and put it in God and his Word.
Correct knowledge of God vanquishes fear. If you are full of fear, it reveals that you do not know God as he is or fully believe God is who he says he is in Scripture. The key to fearless living is to believe the truths in Psalm 91:1–2. If you have fears, you need to memorize and meditate on verses 1 and 2 until you believe them without wavering. You need to read the Bible until all fear is gone. Whenever fear returns, read the Bible more. It sounds simplistic, but it is true.
Fear and focus
Psalm 91 conveys another way that knowing God rightly dispels fear. Fear becomes a problem when we are overly self-focused and deficiently God-focused. When my life is all about me, I will struggle with fear. When my life is all about God and his glory, I will not.
Psalm 91 describes a relationship with God that is the focus of your life: Dwelling in his shelter (Psalm 91:1), abiding in his shadow (Psalm 91:1), trusting in him (Psalm 91:2), holding fast to him in love (Psalm 91:14), knowing his name (Psalm 91:14), calling on him (Psalm 91:15).
Thus when you dedicate your life to obeying the first commandment of Jesus, to loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30) , you will have far less fears as an indirect result. The goal of your life becomes glorifying and knowing God rather than protecting yourself. Of course we want to have protection; we should have that natural desire, for God gives it to us for our welfare. But when you love God preeminently, self is no longer your obsession.
Adam and Eve had no fears prior to eating the forbidden fruit. The first thing that happened after they disobeyed God was they experienced fear. When God came to the garden for fellowship with Adam and Eve as usual, he called out for Adam, “Where are you?” Adam replied, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10).
Sin always leads to fear. Not just the grosser sins that come to mind when we think of sin, but the socially acceptable sins like self-centeredness and pride and the failure to worship and thank God in all things and for all things.
Love and courage
On the other hand, holiness brings health. A right relationship with God brings peace.
It was because David passionately loved God that he unhesitatingly stepped forward to fight Goliath.
It was because Mary Magdalene passionately loved Jesus that she courageously went to Golgotha when Jesus was crucified, and to his tomb on Sunday morning to embalm his body.
It was because the apostle Paul passionately loved Jesus that he courageously traveled from place to place boldly preaching the gospel even though he knew persecution awaited him wherever he went.
It was because the prophet Deborah knew and loved the God of Israel that she courageously accompanied Barak to Mount Tabor to battle the hordes of the Canaanites.
Live in God’s tent always (Psalm 91:1), and you will not fear.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
You and Truth: Getting Help from the Spirit of Truth
There is good news for anyone who sincerely wants to know and follow the truth. You are not on your own trying to understand Jesus and the Bible. You are not left to your own intelligence and reasoning powers. Finding the truth is not like signing up for an advanced math class in college that may leave you feeling as though you are in over your head, as though you have jumped into the deep end, and now you may drown. No, when you choose to follow Jesus and the Bible, God gives you another helper, the third person of the Trinity, who is the Holy Spirit.
The Shield of God’s Faithfulness
God’s faithfulness must be your conviction.
Psalm 91:4 (esv)
“His faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”
You will be unshakeable in your confidence in God’s protection when you are immovable in your conviction that God is faithful to his words and faithful to you.
Examples of faithfulness
A compass is faithful and true when the arrow correctly points north.
A plumbline is faithful and true when it correctly displays a vertical line.
A solar and lunar calendar is faithful and true when it correctly predicts the times of the rising and setting of the moon and sun.
A friend is faithful and true when she shops at the grocery and brings food to the home of her sick friend.
A husband is faithful and true when he remains sexually pure and keeps himself only for his wife all their married lives.
A company is faithful and true when it keeps its product guarantees.
A woman is faithful and true when she keeps her promises exactly as she stated them.
A man is faithful and true when he fulfills his vows to God.
John, the writer of the Book of Revelation, describes Jesus, at his return at the end of the age, in this way: “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11).
Jesus has many names, and one of them is “Faithful and True.”
God’s faithfulness
God is perfectly faithful to his words. He is perfectly faithful to his promises. He is perfectly faithful to his righteousness and justice. Perfectly faithful to his people and covenants. Perfectly faithful to truth. For he is the Truth, and he cannot deny himself. He cannot lie.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
Until heaven and earth do pass away, as surely as day follows night, as surely as morning comes day after day, as surely as the sun rises and sets even though obscured by clouds, so it is certain that God is faithful.
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23).
The shield and buckler of faithfulness
Psalm 91:4 says your confidence in God’s faithfulness is like the large shield that a soldier carries into battle and like the buckler, which was a small shield the size of a frisbee used in hand-to-hand combat. With shield and buckler a soldier suffers no harm from a hail of incoming arrows or stones, or the thrust of a spear, or the stroke of a sword.
When you are convinced of God’s faithfulness, the sharp, swift arrows of fear cannot sink into your mind. Rebuffed by your certainty that the Lord is faithful and true, the arrows of fear fall to the ground.
When fear tries to take hold of your thoughts, it is time to meditate on the sure faithfulness of God. Meditate on the promises of his faithfulness as long as you need to until once again the conviction that God is faithful and true guard your heart like a shield and buckler.
You then rebuff those fears as easily as you hang up the phone on an unwelcome telemarketer.
Scriptures for meditation on God’s faithfulness
Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Psalm 89:33–35 says, “I will not remove from [King David] my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.”
Psalm 100:5 says, “The LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”
Psalm 119:75 says, “I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”
Psalm 143:1 says, “Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!”
Isaiah 11:5 says, “[5] Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.”
Isaiah 25:1 says, “O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”
Isaiah 49:7 says, “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: ‘Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’”
Lamentations 3:22–23 says, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Matthew 24:35 says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
2 Corinthians 1:18 says, “As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 says, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
2 Thessalonians 3:3 says, “The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”
2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”
Titus 1:2 says Paul wrote to his fellow worker Titus “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.”
Hebrews 2:17 says, “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
Hebrews 6:18 says, “It is impossible for God to lie.”
Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 11:11 says, “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.”
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Revelation 19:11 says, “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True.”
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)