Knowing God and His Ways • Page 23 of 41 • The website of author Craig Brian Larson

February 22, 2021February 3, 2021

How God Protects You When You Die

When you die Psalm 91:16 teaches that God turns death into salvation.

Psalm 91:16
“With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (ESV)

The last four words of this great, comforting psalm are words of hope: God promises I will “show him my salvation.” That is what awaits you. That is your future.

He is referring to your death. Over the course of Psalm 91 the Lord has promised and described the protection he will give you through the threatening events of life. The Psalm finishes with a promise of long life and then a glorious death—a death described as “salvation.”

Yes, unless you are one of the blessed believers alive when Jesus makes his Second Coming, God your protector will allow you to die. “It is appointed to man to die once,” (Hebrews 9:27). But he is firmly in control of all that precedes this event, all that happens in death, and all that follows as your soul leaves your body. The word God uses to describe those important moments is salvation.

Not the end

He does not use the word extinction, or end.

Not long ago I was discussing spiritual things with someone, and I asked, “What do you believe about life after death? Do you believe your soul lives on after your body dies?”

“No,” he replied. “When you die, that’s it. You cease to exist.”

As he said this, he did not have a happy or hopeful look on his face. That view of death describes an end. No more conscious existence. No more joy, no more hope, no more love or pleasure or sunlight or togetherness. That is the flame of a candle totally extinguished. Snuffed out. Darkness.

God will show you something

No, thankfully to describe the experience of death for his beloved children God uses the word salvation. He says I will “show him my salvation.”

Early one morning last week, when I walked into the kitchen to make my breakfast, my wife, who was sitting at the table in the living room, said, “Come here, I want to show you something.” The table sits beside large windows with a great view from our 20th floor apartment looking west over the city. It was still dark outside. When I came to the window, however, I beheld a large moon shining brightly midway in the heavens. It was not just bright, it was blazing, like a nighttime sun.

I was thankful my wife wanted to show me that. In the same way, when it is time for your body to die, he plans to show you something, and that something is salvation.

With Christ

Jesus said, “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” (John 11:25–26). Notice he said believers “never die.” The obvious meaning is, though the body dies the soul never does. That is because when we die he shows us salvation.

As the apostle Paul discussed the possibility of dying, he said he would prefer actually to die because he said “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:20). Explaining further why it would be gain to die physically, he said, “I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (v. 23). That is far better because that is being with Christ, and that is salvation. The soul is not snuffed out; the soul departs to be with Christ.

Transport

And how does the soul get from here to there, from a dying body in a dying world to a glorious togetherness with Christ in the light of his splendor?

When it was time for the prophet Elijah to leave this world, the people around him knew it. His understudy Elisha was with him, and he knew it. As they walked side by side, they met groups of prophets who asked Elisha, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?” The prophets also knew this was Elijah’s time.

On Elijah and Elisha walked toward Gilgal. Suddenly, “As they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11).

That is salvation!

Angels by your side

For your promotion to heaven, Scripture does not promise chariots and horses of fire. I will not rule it out, but I am confident that when God saves your soul from your dying body in this dying world, you will at least be accompanied by angels.

In Jesus’ parable about the rich man and poor Lazarus, he described Lazarus’s death this way: “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side” (Luke 16:22).

Jesus also describes the involvement of angels with human souls when he makes his Second Coming to the earth: “He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31).

Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.” If one or more angels camp around God-fearing believers at all times, it makes sense that those angels also escort their souls to the presence of the Lord in heaven.

Welcomed by the Lord

Early in the book of Acts we read about Stephen, a man filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit, who was doing great wonders before the people of Israel and proclaiming the gospel with power. Nevertheless, the Lord in his wisdom chose that Stephen would glorify his Lord through a martyr’s death.

On trial before the religious leaders of Jerusalem, Stephen presented the gospel, courageously holding nothing back from those complicit in the crucifixion of Jesus.

His defense was not well received. “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (Acts 7:54–56).

Although Jesus normally sits at the right hand of God, he is described as “standing” at the right hand of God, apparently giving Stephen a glorious welcome into his presence. That is not death; that is salvation. Stephen’s opponents would stone him, but the Lord would save him. The Lord would not protect him from death, but through death, and into paradise.

From beginning to end, to your new beginning, the Lord will never stop protecting and saving you. That is the message of Psalm 91.

And so we conclude this comforting jour n ey through one of the greatest of God’s psalms. Never fear, child of God. The Lord has you in his hands. God is your protector.

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)

February 15, 2021January 27, 2021

How to Live Long

With God’s protection, you can live long.

Psalm 91:16
“With long life will I satisfy him”

Last night my wife, not knowing the subject I would be writing about today, put her iPad on the dresser and said, “Listen to this!” She tapped the play icon, and a talk-show guest began talking about a Harvard University study on the key factors contributing to long life.

The study isolated five factors: 1. not smoking, 2. moderate alcohol intake, 3. healthy weight, 4. daily exercise, 5. nutritious diet.

What grabbed my wife’s attention was not the items on the list, which are familiar advice, but the number of years added to your life if you practice all five. The talk-show guest said the study found an average of more than 38 years added to a woman’s life compared to women who did not practice the five health factors (25 years for men).

Live long

When you read the list of five factors, did you do a self-test? Did you make any quick resolutions? I did. As long as I can be healthy and productive I would like to live long.

As helpful as the list is, however, it leaves out one all-important factor in longevity: the blessing of God. To those who hold fast to him in love and know his name (Psalm 91:14), to those who dwell in the shelter of the Almighty (v. 1), God promises, “With long life I will satisfy him” (Psalm 91:16).

No one and nothing affects your longevity more than God, for he controls all things, including the number of your days. “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16).

Every good and every perfect thing comes from him (James 1:17), including health, so his presence infuses your soul and body with life and health. His presence, his Spirit, is absolute goodness. Scripture says, “He is your life and length of days” (Deuteronomy 30:20). Notice that not only does he give you life, he is your life and length of days. To unite with God through union with Christ, though the infilling of the Holy Spirit, is to unite with life itself.

Nevertheless, the blessing of longevity from God is not disconnected from factors like those in the Harvard study. Scripture, and especially the wisdom in Proverbs, connects life span with life choices. In Proverbs 9:11, wisdom personified says, “By me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.” For example, Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Since the five factors have proven to be wise, they can add years to your life. And this is from God, for all wisdom comes from him.

Live well

How many years is a long life? Moses wrote, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty” (Psalm 90:10). Surprisingly, thousands of years later and with all our medical advances, that number is still correct. Seventy or eighty years is a long life. Ninety or a hundred is a very long life.

But what good are eighty years if they are full of misery? Notice that Psalm 91:16 promises to “satisfy” with long life. So for those who hold fast to God in love, these are good years, years that make happy and content. Even when our years include suffering, they satisfy us because we walk through suffering with our God, and thus we can rejoice in him, give thanks, experience his love, faith, peace, and hope. Those who know God’s name experience satisfying years even in old age.

And in the Lord’s good time they pass like Abraham, who “breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people” (Genesis 25:8).

Yes, as you walk with the Lord in holiness, he says, “I will fulfill the number of your days” (Exodus 23:26).

February 11, 2021February 5, 2021

How to Become Confident in Your Faith

In the parable of the soils, Jesus said the defining characteristic of the soil that is like the path, into which the seed cannot penetrate and take root, is that the person hears the word and does not understand it. We must understand the Word. We must understand the truth.

In this message we establish why increasing knowledge and understanding is not optional if we want to be immovable in the faith.

By Craig Brian Larson, delivered January 31, 2021, at Lake Shore Church

February 8, 2021January 21, 2021

God’s Protection and Your Troubles

Protection guaranteed does not mean trouble free.

—Psalm 91:15
“When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.” (ESV)

The protection God promises in Psalm 91 is real-world protection. That is, protection for the kind of world Jesus told us we actually live in. He said: “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (ESV); “Each day has enough trouble of its own” (NASB); “Today’s trouble is enough for today” (NLT) (Matthew 6:33). Was Jesus right about trouble, or just a pessimist?

Yes, as always, he was right. Troubles come to everyone, even to the most godly people, as all the stories of notable people in the Bible show, from Esther to Mordecai, from Abraham to the mother of Jesus, from Abigail to David. “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7, ESV).

So Psalm 91 does not promise a trouble-free life. Rather, it promises protection both from and through many troubles.

Every day God protects us from a thousand troubles we never knew could strike. We are oblivious to what could have happened were it not for God’s active shielding of our lives.

But then there are troubles he in love and in inscrutable wisdom allows past the shield. They are troubles he intends for our good, the good of others, and the glory of God. They are troubles that we may have brought on ourselves through sin and folly, or troubles that spill into our lives from the trouble-filled world around us, or troubles that come from evil-doing people or evil spirits. What Psalm 91:15 promises is he will protect us through the arc of these troubles, from beginning to end, from start to ultimate victory—which is certain. Yes, the victory is certain.

So according to Psalm 91:15—which like Jesus assumes that troubles will come—when God is protecting us through rather than from trouble, what does he promise to protect us from?

1. God will protect you from being alone

“I will be with him in trouble” (Psalm 91:15).

To be sure you are never alone in your troubles, God promises—and he cannot lie—that he himself will be with you. Even when the people who are most loyal to you cannot be with you, no one can stop God from being with you. He himself will protect you from being alone. Your heavenly Father, your loving Savior Jesus, through his Holy Spirit, will be with you and in you and around you, above you and below you, at your left hand and right.

“I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6)

He promises, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2).

When Nebuchadnezzar’s strongest soldiers threw Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego into the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal, whom did they find standing beside them? The Son of God! (Daniel 3:19–25)

When Paul gave his defense before the Roman governor, who stood at his side, helped him, and rescued him from the lion’s mouth? The Son of God! (2 Timothy 4:16–17)

In the same way, he stands beside you in unstoppable loyalty. You are not alone.

2. God will protect you from being unheard, unanswered, unhelped

“When he calls to me, I will answer him” (Psalm 91:15).

It is always a comfort to know God hears our prayers, but at no time are we more desperate to know he promises to hear and answer our prayers than when we are in trouble. Never is answered prayer more precious than when a roaring lion rushes you with open mouth.

Psalm 91:15 promises God will hear your call for help and answer.

Early in 2020 I awoke during the night with pain in my lower back. I endured it for a while lying down, hoping it would pass, but finally it was so bad I had to get out of bed and go to the other room to sit or walk. There I writhed in pain. Of course I did not want to go to the emergency room. Instead I prayed and believed for healing. Finally the agony left me kneeling on the couch, weeping, saying again and again, “Heal me, Jesus. Help me, Jesus. Have mercy on me, Jesus.”

The pain would rise and fall, but not leave. When light finally dawned through the windows, my wife came from the bedroom and discovered my condition. After an hour or so she convinced me I had to go to ER. So we prayed and I committed myself into God’s hands to care for me through the medical people.

Thankfully the emergency room had only a half dozen patients, the wait to get into a bed was short, and I was soon talking to a doctor. They gave me pain killer through IV, and the pain decreased to a bearable discomfort. After an x-ray, the doctor said I had two kidney stones, one of which was now passing. She gave me a pill that would open the passageways and said it might take a few days. I stayed in the bed a short time, used the restroom once, and by the time I was dressed and ready to leave, the pain was completely gone.

Back at home, I was comfortable and ate some food. I had no recurrence of pain. When I went to a urologist for follow-up, she said both stones were gone. Both had passed without my even knowing it.

The Lord heard and answered my prayers. When we are in trouble, painful trouble, agonizing trouble, there is nothing more precious than to know that God is not only with you but that he hears you and answers your prayer. Even before I went to the hospital as I was writhing in the worst of the pain, I was comforted to be able to call out to God and know that he heard and answered me.

The Lord promises he will answer in his time, in his way, according to his will, if you keep believing.

“I will rescue him” (Psalm 91:15). God will not let trouble have the final say.

3. God will protect you from ultimate shame

“I will…honor him” (Psalm 91:15).

In the context of being rescued from trouble, it might seem out of place for God to promise he will honor you. But part of what makes trouble painful for us is it brings a feeling of weakness and the shame that comes with it. When we seem strong, capable, independent, and secure, we feel respectable. When needy, we feel embarrassed.

So God promises to remedy the shame you may feel in your trouble. He will honor you. And when the Lord honors you, it is legitimate and lasts forever. It will completely and forever erase your shame. He will replace it with honor if you walk with him in truth.

When he raised Jesus from the dead, he “highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

When he rescued Israel from Pharaoh and Egypt, as they departed the Egyptians gave them silver and gold jewelry and clothing (Exodus 12:35–36).

Although the apostle Paul endured many, many troubles in the service of the Lord, he knew that a crown of honor awaited him in the kingdom of God (2 Timothy 4:8). A crown is one of the ultimate symbols of honor, and God promises a crown to his true children (Revelation 3:11).

Yes, troubles come to all who live in this fallen world, but the Lord promises a comprehensive salvation.

February 1, 2021January 14, 2021

Whom Does God Protect?

In Psalm 91:14, God describes two groups of people who receive his protection.

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.” (ESV)

Up to this point in the psalm, the writer has been doing the talking (as inspired by God, of course), but in the final three verses God speaks directly. He gives promises in the first person: I will do this and this and this and this…. In eight ways he promises comprehensive protection to the very end of a long life, climaxing in an end he describes not as death but as salvation.

This is so good. If you have not yet memorized verses 14–16, the time has come, because meditating on these verses will change your heart, replacing fears with calm assurance, if you believe. People pay thousands of dollars to psychologists in hope of getting what these verses offer freely: peace and confidence. In fact, believing what God promises here is the only true basis for peace and confidence.

In verse 14, God bases the eight promises on two conditions: (1) Because he holds fast to me in love, and (2) Because he knows my name.

Because he holds fast to me in love

Can you picture yourself wrapping your arms tightly around God and never letting go? That is the attitude he wants you to have. He likes that and created you for that.

He wants you to cling to him in love no matter what tries to break your bearhug. Trials cannot break your hold on God. Disappointments cannot. Pain and suffering and sickness cannot, nor confusion, nor questions. Persecution cannot, nor betrayals. The failures, backslidings, and apostasies of others, even of leaders, even of family members, cannot. Unanswered prayers and dreams going nowhere cannot break your hold on God in love. For he matters more to you than anything or anyone.

God promises to protect people who bearhug him like that.

But wait a minute. Isn’t he supposed to protect us from all those negative things? Yes, he does, unless he chooses in wisdom to let a higher purpose be served, and if so, he is protecting us from a greater evil and gives us grace to endure faithfully, peacefully, and joyfully what we feared we could never bear, if we rely on him.

But God’s default with us is protection. Either way, we need not fear, only hold fast to him in love.

Because he knows my name

Second, God promises to protect those who know his name. (That is the theme of this blog—knowing God and his ways—so you are in the right place.) To know God’s name is another way of saying to know God. “Name” is shorthand for who a person is. As we might say today, God’s name is his brand, only for him it is never mere marketing. God’s name is everything he is, does, and values. God’s name is his unchanging identity.

God protects people who know his name. That can only happen if we are interested in him, curious about him. Interest in God is what leads a person to read the Bible voraciously every day. We want to know his name, and there is always more to know. It is the most noble and rewarding interest in life. I am bewildered by people who lack interest in God.

Reverence for God’s name

Those who know God’s name never take his name in vain, because we know how awesome his name is. Anyone who jokes about God, or uses his name in profanity, does not know his name, that it is holy and awesome.

In my opinion, most people who use the phrase “Oh my God,” or “OMG,” are misusing God’s name, taking it in vain. They are not actually speaking about God, or to God in praise or prayer, but only using the phrase as a filler, a throwaway line, an expression of surprise, disgust, emphasis, or emotion. In other words, in vain.

Those who use God’s name in vain break God’s enduring command: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). If you are doing that, stop. You probably absorbed the habit mindlessly from media and people around you. Bad idea. Stop! Get to know God’s name by revering it, revering him.

If you do that, he will protect you. If you do not, he might punish you, as a Father punishes a child who disrespects his parent. Foundational to receiving protection from God is treating him with proper reverence. See Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy! The story of Israel in the Old Testament is the narrative of a people who did not know God’s name, and they suffered for it repeatedly.

The first thing you need to know about God’s name is to treat his name, his identity, with reverence, yes, with fear. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10). (See also 2 Corinthians 5:11 and Revelation 15:4.)

Delivered and protected

Verse 14 says those who hold fast to God in love and know his name will be delivered and protected.

You will be delivered out of bad situations, like Israel delivered out of Egypt, like Daniel delivered out of the lion’s den.

You will be protected from bad situations, like the farmer in Malachi 3:6–12 whose crops and vines are protected from pests and blight.

These are just side benefits of the greatest benefit anyone can find in life: holding fast to the One who is infinitely good and rightly knowing his name. Said Jesus, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

January 28, 2021January 27, 2021

God’s Power in Your Life

Where do you need to see the great power of prayer? Is your body sick or in pain? Is your family torn by conflict? Do you need a job? Do you need money? Do you need wisdom? Do your loved ones need to be saved? Do you want the power of the Holy Spirit and his gifts?

In this message, let’s continue to build up our faith with the Word of the Lord so that we exert the great power of prayer and faith where we need it.

by Craig Brian Larson, delivered January 24, 2021, at Lake Shore Church

January 25, 2021January 21, 2021

Harmful Creatures

Psalm 91:13 teaches that when necessary, God will protect you from harmful creatures.

“You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.”
—Psalm 91:13 (ESV)

I once worked with a young man, who was just a few years out of college, whose wife had gotten Lyme disease from a tick. As I recall, this happened on a family camping or hiking trip. Although she was young, in her twenties, she struggled to keep up with the demands of life due to fatigue and pain. It was as though the tick had added fifty years to her age.

The creatures in our world still pose a danger. Whether you live in a place where the danger comes from lions and snakes, as Psalm 91:13 notes, or from coyotes, cougars, snakes, and bears, as one still encounters in the wilder areas of the U.S., or from ticks and mosquitos anywhere and the diseases that come with them. Or, where I live, in downtown Chicago, rats.

I hate rats. Ever since I was a kid and we lived in a suburban area near a small swamp, and one year the rats got into our garage, and even briefly into our house, I have hated rats. Sometimes when I walk down the sidewalk at evening, I will see one run across the sidewalk ahead of me. For a time I regularly used a parking lot that was infested with them. I hated that parking lot. When I returned to the lot after a meeting, I would hope none were underneath my car.

So for me, and for you, Psalm 91:13 and its promise of protection from potentially harmful creatures is not an irrelevant promise for people in a faraway time and place.

Psalm 91:13 and Angels

This verse does not merely promise protection. It focuses on the dangerous creatures being under your feet. You will “tread on” and “trample underfoot.” You defeat them.

This may be an extension of the thought from the previous verse about angelic protection: “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone” (v. 12). There again we see one’s foot protected. So we can ask God to have his angels protect us from harmful living creatures.

Mark 1:13 says of Jesus “he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” God protected Jesus from wild animals, which probably included lions and snakes. There again we see angels. They ministered to him, and I suspect they warded off lions, as Psalm 91:13 promises.

Nebuchadnezzar threw Daniel into the lion’s den one night, and in the morning when the king inquired of his welfare, Daniel said, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” (Daniel 6:21–22)

David and the beasts

Treading on harmful creatures suggests not only defeating them but having extraordinary power over them. David certainly experienced that. As he prepared to face off against Goliath, he told King Saul:

“Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” (1 Samuel 17:34–36)

Against wild animals, when necessary David was hands-on and fearless.

Snake bit

The apostle Paul was also hands-on with a dangerous creature, a deadly viper, but not in a way he would have wanted. He survived a shipwreck and then:

After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. (Acts 28:1–6)

God did not protect Paul from the viper’s bite—no doubt for a good purpose—but did protect him from the poison’s effect.

Context

Paul’s viper story is another reminder that we must interpret and apply Psalm 91 within the context of the entire Bible. God wants us to pray and believe for everything Psalm 91 says; but sometimes life does not happen as Psalm 91 describes, and we are not in God’s all-knowing position to explain why.

For example, history tells us the Romans threw Christians to the lions in the Coliseum, and though God may have protected some of them as Psalm 91:13 describes, as far as we know those Christians died.

Knowing that, can I still believe Psalm 91:13? Not only can I believe it, I should believe it. We are always called to believe God’s Word. We are never called to unbelief. We should never fear. Paul, who was bitten by the viper, was also delivered from a lion, and as he sat in Roman custody he chose to believe God for similar future protection, writing:

“The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (2 Timothy 4:17–18)

Fearless

Like Paul we should not live in fear but believe Psalm 91, always take normal, good-sense precautions (for instance, when I hike, I wear calf-high socks, stay out of tall grass, and afterward check for ticks), and trust the Lord in whatever unfolds, knowing he is working for our highest good and his highest glory. He will give us grace to be strong and victorious no matter what happens. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

When necessary, I can even share sidewalks with creep-me-out creatures. How would someone take this truth to an extreme? Snake handling and anything that resembles it, which would be testing the Lord.

January 21, 2021January 21, 2021

Doing the Impossible

We know God can do the impossible, but Jesus says those who have faith can also do the impossible.

by Craig Brian Larson, delivered January 17, 2021, at Lake Shore Church

January 18, 2021December 29, 2020

Misusing Psalm 91

We are misusing Psalm 91 if we use it to test God.

Psalm 91:11–12 (ESV)
“He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

These verses, which we examined last week, are quoted in the New Testament, and it is vital to consider what Jesus says about them so we properly apply not only these verses, but the entire psalm.

Surprisingly, Psalm 91 makes its appearance in the New Testament on the lips of Satan! Jesus is in the wilderness of temptation, enduring 40 days and nights of fasting. At the end of that time, Satan comes and tempts Jesus to turn stones to bread. Jesus refuses.

Matthew 4:5–7 continues, “Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”'”

Satan is quoting from Psalm 91:11–12. Satan is correct in his interpretation of Scripture: God will protect you. He will command angels to protect you, angels that have the power to bear you up when necessary to protect you from injury.

When necessary

Bear you up when necessary. In fact, when necessary, Jesus could walk on water. Perhaps he was stepping on the hands of angels when he did that. When necessary, at the proper time, Jesus could defy gravity and float—fly—from earth and ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of God (see Acts 1:9–11). So if it had been necessary and fitting in the will of God for Jesus to jump off the temple and be gently born to the ground on the hands of angels, he could have done so safely.

But it was not necessary. And because the idea of jumping from the temple was Satan’s idea, Jesus knew it was not God’s will. Just as Satan had twisted God’s words and purposes in the Garden of Eden with great subtlety when he tempted Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit, so Satan was now misusing Psalm 91.

Right interpretation, wrong application

Jesus instantly recognized it. He saw the sin to which Satan was leading: the sin of testing God. So “Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test”’” (Matthew 4:7).

Satan had correctly interpreted Psalm 91 but had misapplied it, saying to Jesus, “Throw yourself down.” If Satan had pushed Jesus off the pinnacle of the temple, the angels would have born Jesus on their hands to the ground safely. But Satan was not there to kill Jesus; he was there to deceive, confuse, and tempt him into sin. That would have defeated all God’s purposes in sending his Son to earth. If Jesus had sinned, he would have lost the ability to die as a substitute for our sins and save us from condemnation. He would have died on the cross for his own sin.

If God had told Jesus, “Throw yourself down,” Jesus could have done so safely. But it was Satan who gave the order.

Testing God

What does it mean to test God? It can mean deliberately sinning to see if one can get away with it. This is testing God by pushing the limits, like a child who knowingly disobeys a parent’s instructions to see if the parent will punish him. This is what Israel did in the desert time and again when they grumbled against the Lord.

Testing God can also mean trying to force him to act in the way you want. This is testing God by trying to manipulate him. It is playing God. Israel also did this.

There is a world of difference between (a) asking God to do something and believing he will answer your prayer based on the promises of Scripture and (b) presuming God must do something that is your idea. There is a difference between God’s telling you to do something, Satan’s telling you to do something, and your telling yourself to do something.

The place for caution

By no means do I want to make it complicated to trust in Psalm 91. But people are misusing Psalm 91 when they think it gives them grounds to do reckless, unnecessary things God has not commanded.

When God commands you to do something, it becomes necessary. When he commanded Israel to invade the Promised Land, it became necessary. Apart from that command, however, the invasion was utter folly, doomed to failure. (See Exodus 14:1–45)

We are called to deal with worldly dangers much like those who do not believe in God and his protection. We should not fear like those who distrust the Lord, but we should use the same common sense, observing normal precautions and protections.

For example, Christian pilots should check the plane before each flight to make sure it is safe and follow the limits about how many passengers and how much cargo weight the plane can carry. They should not fly into massive thunderstorms. Christian doctors and nurses should wear the same protective equipment as others.

Misusing Psalm 91

What we have learned from Satan’s misuse of Psalm 91 with Jesus is that interpreting the Bible is one thing; it is another to apply the Bible to our lives correctly. We can get the interpretation perfectly correct but completely mishandle the application. In fact, we can misapply a correct interpretation so badly that we sin.

Therefore when we determine to live a fearless life based on Psalm 91, we must not abuse it. That will keep us from bad consequences and increase our faith, because we will understand why some who try to walk confidently in the promises of Psalm 91 do not experience the protection they are expecting. We will understand why Psalm 91 did not “work” for them or perhaps for us.

When we need him, God is faithful to protect us. When we are doing God’s will, we should be fearless.