Latest / Reformed Thinking / Under the Shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91) | Charles Spurgeon

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Under the Shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. It is a privilege to be here
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with you today. So we have a a pretty massive
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task ahead of us for this deep dive.
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We really do. We are taking a single chapter
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of the Bible, Psalm 91, and we are just going to live in it for
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the next hour or so. Yeah.
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Now, usually when people think of Psalm 91, they think of it as
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a poem, right? Maybe something you read at a
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funeral, right? Or, you know, something you see
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cross stitched on a pillow in a grandmother's house.
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Right, Yeah, it has that reputation of being a comfort
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text, a soft place to land. But as we dug into Charles
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Spurgeon's The Treasury of David for this deep dive, I was struck
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by how much more aggressive this text is.
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Very much so. Spurgeon doesn't just call it a
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poem, He calls it heavenly medicine.
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And that is a vital distinction to make right up front.
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Spurgeon is writing this in the 19th century.
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Medicine wasn't just about comfort back then.
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It was about survival. Wow.
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He quotes a German physician who actually used to refer to Psalm
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91 as the best preservative in times of cholera.
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Cholera. I mean that paints a very
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different picture than a cross stitch pillow.
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Absolutely. We are talking about a time when
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pestilence was a legitimate, terrifying reality for people.
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Yes, and Spurgeon says something striking right at the outset of
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his commentary. What's that?
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He says that the man who lives in the spirit of this Psalm
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would be fearless even if London were to become a Lazar house
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again. A Lazar house that is an old
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term for a quarantine hospital for lepers or plague victims,
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correct? Spot on.
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It is a place of death, man. Spurgeon says even if the graves
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were gorged with carcasses, the person who truly grasps Psalm 91
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stands firm. That is heavy.
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It is. But, and this is the big caveat
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for our reform listeners, we have to be extremely careful
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with how we apply this. Careful in what way?
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Because this text is dangerous if handled incorrectly.
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OK, It is the very text Satan used to tempt Jesus in the
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wilderness. It promises protection, yes, but
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if we read it as a magic spell, you know, saying I say these
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words so I won't get the flu, we have moved from faith into
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presumption, and presumption is a sin.
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That is the tension we need to handle today for you, the
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listener. We want the comfort of the
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promises, but we definitely do not want the bad theology.
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Agreed. So our mission for this deep
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dive is to parse that out. We're going to look at the
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authorship, the specific secret place, the dangers described,
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and the agency of how God protects.
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Us It is the only way to do it justice.
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And we are going to do it verse by verse.
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Let's start with a mystery that I honestly did not know existed
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until I read these notes. Oh, the title.
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Yeah, I open my Bible, I turn to Psalm 91 and there is No title.
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Nothing. Psalm 90 says a prayer of Moses.
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Psalm 92 says a Psalm or song for the Sabbath day.
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But 91 is just blank. Yeah, I have always just assumed
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it was David. Most people do.
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David is the sweet psalmist of Israel, so it feels like his
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voice, right? But there is a very strong
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tradition, one that Spurgeon highlights and agrees with, that
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attributes this Psalm to Moses. Moses.
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Yeah, that seems so unexpected to me.
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Why Moses? Well, first, there's a rule
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among the ancient Jewish doctors.
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The scholars who organized the Hebrew Canon.
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Yes, they argued that when you find an orphan Psalm 1 without a
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title, it belongs to the author of the Psalm immediately
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preceding it. So because Psalm 90 is
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explicitly given to Moses. Psalm 91 is assumed to be the
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continuation of Moses's thought. OK, that makes sense.
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But honestly, that is just a technicality of editing.
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The real proof is in the internal evidence, the texture
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of the language itself. What?
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Do you mean by texture? If you read the Hebrew idioms,
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the phrases used in Psalm 91 sound incredibly similar to the
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book of Deuteronomy. Oh, interesting.
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But more than that, look at the imagery.
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Pestilence. Fiery serpents.
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Scorpions. The destruction that wastes at
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noonday. Yeah.
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Does that sound like David sitting in a cedar palace in
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Jerusalem? No.
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That sounds like the wilderness. Precisely.
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It sounds like the desert wandering.
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It fits the experience of the Israelites under Moses
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perfectly. Wow, they were surrounded by
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death daily. Scorpions and snakes were a
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literal physical threat every time they set up camp.
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That actually changes how I hear the song completely.
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How so? If David writes it, it is a king
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writing about God's protection from political enemies or maybe
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a specific battle. Right.
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But if Moses writes it, this is a man who watched an entire
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generation die. You hit the theological nail on
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the head there. Remember, the generation that
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came out of Egypt was sentenced to die in the wilderness because
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of their unbelief. Yeah, that's right.
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Moses presided over a 40 year funeral procession that.
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Is such a bleak image a 40 year funeral procession?
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It is, but that is what makes Psalm 91 so weighty.
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Spurgeon points out that there were two men who lived through
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that entire funeral procession. Joshua and Caleb.
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Yes, Joshua and Caleb. They saw 1000 fall at their side
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and 10,000 at their right hand, quite literally.
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And it did not come near them. They were the only two of that
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generation to enter the Promised Land.
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So when we read this as a mosaic Psalm, Joshua and Caleb become
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the living illustrations of it. That is fascinating.
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It is not a theoretical poem about safety.
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It is a biography of two men who dwelled in God while every
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everyone else was just visiting. OK, you mentioned dwelling.
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That leads us right into verse one.
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Let's hear it. He that dwelleth in the secret
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place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
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Almighty. We have to stop right there and
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look at that word dwelleth. It seems simple enough to me,
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living somewhere. In English, yes, but in the
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Hebrew context, and specifically in the Reformed view of
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communion with God, there is a massive distinction between
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dwelling and visiting. Spurgeon is ruthless on this
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point. He asks a very direct question.
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Do you run to God only when the storm hits?
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Or is God your everyday address? The Foxhole atheist idea?
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Yeah, or even the Foxhole Christian.
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Right. Many believers treat God like a
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hotel. A.
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Hotel. Yeah, you check in when you are
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traveling through a rough patch, you stay for a night or two, and
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then you check out when the sun comes up and things are fine
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again. Man, that.
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Hits close to home. That person is a visitor.
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The promise of Psalm 91, the immunity, the protection we're
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going to read about is not for the visitor.
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That is a hard truth. It means the promise is
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conditional. It is conditional.
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It is for the inhabitant. Wow.
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Spurgeon talks about the Holy of Holies to illustrate this.
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In the Tabernacle you had the outer courts where the people
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came to offer sacrifices. You had the holy place where the
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priest went daily to tend the lamps and the bread, but the
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secret place, the seather in Hebrew, was the inner sanctuary.
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Where the Ark of the Covenant. Was yes.
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To dwell there implies a level of intimacy that is almost
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scandalous. It is the elect out of the
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elect. Elect out of the elect.
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Unpack that phrase for us. Well, all Christians are God's
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children, but not all Christians press into that deep, constant
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communion. Some are content to be saved and
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just stay in the outer court. They have their fire insurance,
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so to speak. Right, they just want to be
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inside the gate. But the Psalm is written for the
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one who pushes past the veil, the one who wants to be where
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the ark is constantly. And if you are in that secret
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place, the text says, you abide under the shadow of the
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Almighty. Think about the physics of a
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shadow for a second. To be in someone's shadow, where
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do you have to be? You have to be right next to
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them, close, very close, and if the person casting the shadow is
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massive, the shadow covers you completely.
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I see Spurgeon connects us directly to the wings of the
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Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.
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The golden statues on top of the lid.
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Yes, they stretched out their wings over the mercy seat.
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To abide under the shadow is to live your life sandwiched
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between the wings of the cherubim.
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That sounds incredibly safe, but also somewhat terrifying.
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You are in the immediate, unshielded presence of a holy
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God. And that is why the names of God
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in verse one and two are so critical to understand.
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We cannot just gloss over them. Let's dig into them then.
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We have 4 distinct titles used here in rapid succession.
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Ileon Shut Eye Jehovah and Elohim.
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I know Jehovah and Elohim. Those are pretty common, yeah,
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but breakdown the 1st 2 for us Elian that translates to the
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most high right? Yes, Elian speaks of absolute
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sovereignty. It means he is the possessor of
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heaven and earth. OK, if you are hiding under
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Elian, you are hiding under the one who outranks every single
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other power in existence, Satan. He is just a subordinate
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disease, just a servant. Elian is the absolute sovereign
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over the universe. OK and should die.
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That is almighty in my English Bible.
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Almighty is the standard translation, yes, but the root
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of the word is fascinating. Some Hebrew scholars trace it to
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shad, which means breast. Really.
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Yes, it implies not just raw power like a warrior with a
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sword, but sustaining power like a nursing mother.
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That is a beautiful image. It is the all sufficient one,
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the one who nourishes and sustains life itself.
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So we have the Sovereign Ruler who outranks everything, and the
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sustaining Nourisher who provides everything.
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Right. And then verse 2, the psalmist
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makes a very distinct shift. He switches from describing God,
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saying he is this, he is that, to claiming God personally.
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You may read it. I will say of the Lord.
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He is my refuge and my fortress, my God.
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In him will I trust. That little word.
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My fist bird seems to absolutely love that word.
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He really does. He says it is the handle by
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which we grasp God. Yes, you can know God is a
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refuge, but that does not save you.
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You have to be able to say he is my refuge.
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It is the language of covenant possession.
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It reminds me of Martin Luther. Did he not say much of the
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Christian faith is in the pronouns?
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He did. The devil can say God is
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almighty. The devil knows that is a
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historical and theological fact, right?
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But the devil cannot say he is my God and a posture of love and
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trust. That is the exclusive privilege
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of the believer. That is such a good point.
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And Spurgeon has a bit of a rebuke here for the
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intellectuals of his day. And honestly, it applies to
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ours, too. Oh.
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I saw that note in the text. The audacious pretenders to
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culture. Yes, he is talking about the
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skeptics, the people who think it is sophisticated to doubt, to
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deconstruct, to cast suspicion on scripture.
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We have plenty of those today. We do, Spurgeon says.
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In the face of that kind of skepticism, the believer has a
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duty to be vocal. Because the text says, I will
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say of the Lord. Exactly.
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Do not just think it privately. Say it when the world is loud
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about its doubt. We must be loud about our
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fortress. So we have established the
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fortress, we have the walls, the Moat, the drawbridge, we are
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dwelling inside. We are secure.
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But why do we need a fortress in the 1st place?
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This brings us to the darker part of our deep dive.
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The threats, yeah. Verses 3 through 8 describe the
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threat environment and it is comprehensive.
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It is a complete horror show if you read it closely.
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It starts with the snare of the Fowler.
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Verse 3 says, Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of
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the Fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
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Let's unpack that. I have always just glossed over
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fowl. It is just a bird hunter, right?
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It is a bird hunter, yes, but think about the metaphor being
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used. What is the believer being
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compared to? A bird?
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A bird. Not a lion, not a warrior.
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A bird. Silly, Weak, skittish, easily
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frightened and very often hungry and easily lured by bait.
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That is a humbling comparison. It is meant to be the Fowler who
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represents Satan does not hunt with a trumpet and a marching
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band. He does not announce himself.
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No, he hunts in silence. He uses traps.
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He studies the habits of the bird and places the net exactly
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where the bird likes to feed. So the danger here is not a
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frontal assault, it is deception.
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It is pure deception. Spurgeon identifies the snares
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specifically as the pestilence of air and the pestilence of
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sin. The pestilence of air.
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This is crucial for the Reformed listener to grasp.
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We often read Psalm 91 and think about physical protection, car
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accidents, burglars, sickness. But the primary danger in the
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wilderness was not just physical death.
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It was apostasy. It was drifting away from the
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truth. The trap you do not see until it
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snaps shut. Right.
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And notice the pairing in the verse, the snare, which is
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hidden, and the pestilence, which is fatal.
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OK, Spurgeon links them beautifully.
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He says God is a spirit, so he protects US against evil
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spirits. The snare, right?
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And God is immortal, so he redeems us from mortal sickness.
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The pestilence, the protection, covers both the soul and the
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body. Man, that is thorough.
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And then right after this scary image of the trap, we get verse
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4, and it is arguably the tenderest image in the entire
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Old Testament. It is quite a contrast.
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You shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings
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shalt thou trust. It is shocking language, really.
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Spurgeon calls it transcendent condescension.
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Why condescension? Because God is comparing himself
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to a hen, a farm bird. Yeah, that is wild to think
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about. If you or I wrote a poem about
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the omnipotent creator of the universe, we would compare him
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to a thunderstorm or mountain or a supernova.
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Something majestic. We would definitely not compare
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him to a mother hen protecting her chicks in a barnyard.
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It feels very domestic, almost vulnerable.
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But that is the point. It conveys A warmth and a
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nearness that the word fortress just does not have.
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The fortress is cold. Cold stone feathers are warm
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living things. It implies that God actually
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puts his own life between you and the danger.
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Wow. But, Spurgeon is quick to point
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out, do not let the feathers fool you.
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There is steel underneath those feathers.
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The first continues. His truth shall be thy shield
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and buckler. The feathers hide the armor.
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Help us out with a medieval weaponry here.
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Shield versus buckler. What is the difference?
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The shield the cinna in Hebrew is the large door size shield.
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The kind that covers the whole body.
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Yes, it is movable. You shift it to catch the arrows
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as they come at you. That represents God's act of
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Providence blocking blows day by day.
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OK. And the buckler.
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The buckler, the sotra is different.
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It is more like a coat of mail that wraps all the way around
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your torso. So you are completely
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surrounded. You are encapsulated.
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And what is the material of this armor?
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It says his truth. Not my faith.
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No, and that is a massive, massive distinction for us.
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My faith is weak. Yeah, mine definitely is.
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My faith waivers depending on what I had for breakfast.
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If the shield was made of my faith, the arrows would punch
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right through it on a bad day. That is so true.
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But the shield is His truth. It is objective.
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It is the faithfulness of God to His covenant.
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It is the solid, unchanging reality of sound doctrine.
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That is what actually quenches the fiery darts.
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I love that it takes the pressure off me to conjure up
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enough bullets belief energy to stay safe.
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The safety is in the object of the trust, not the intensity of
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my trust. Precisely.
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You are safe because the armor is strong, not because you are
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holding it perfectly. So we are armored up, which is
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good, because verses 5 and 6 unleash what Spurgeon calls the
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fourfold terror, the onslaught we have, the terror by night,
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the arrow by day, the pestilence in darkness, and the destruction
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at noon day. It covers every quadrant of the
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clock and every possible type of threat.
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Let's break them down for the listener.
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Terror by night. This is the psychological weight
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of the wilderness, the sudden alarms, the spiritual dread.
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The bump in the night. The feeling that something is
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out there. It is the fear of the unknown
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when you cannot see your hand in front of your face.
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And the arrow by day. That is open warfare, the
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visible enemy clots, slander, sudden temptations that strike
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you when you are wide awake and out in the open.
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Then the pestilence in darkness. That is what we would call
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infectious disease too. The miasma, as they used to call
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it in the old medical texts, you cannot see it.
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It walks in the dark. It is the hidden virus creeping
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through the camp. And finally, destruction at
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noonday. Spurgeon links this to things
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like sunstroke, which was absolutely fatal in the desert,
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or open famine, things that are undeniable, public and
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overwhelming. But here is the key, and I think
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this is where many people misunderstand the song entirely.
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What is that? Verse 5 says Thou shalt not be
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afraid. It does not say Thou shalt not
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be shot. That is the crux of the reformed
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interpretation of this text. The blessing is freedom from the
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fear of evil, even if the evil is present.
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This is really significant, so I want to slow down here.
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Are you saying a believer dwelling in the secret place can
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still get hit by the arrow by day?
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Yes, absolutely. OK, If we preach that Psalm 91
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means Christians are physically immortal until they are 100
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years old, we are liars. History just disproves that.
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Church history disproves it on every page.
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The apostles were martyred. Godly faithful missionaries die
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of malaria on the field. Faithful people get cancer.
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Faithful people get cancer. So how is the promise true then?
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It says, It shall not come nigh thee.
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Yeah. How do we reconcile that?
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Spurgeon navigates this beautifully.
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He argues that for the believer, the fundamental nature of the
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event changes. How so?
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If a worldling dies of the plague, it is a judgment, it is
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a curse, it is the beginning of their eternal sorrow, right?
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But if a believer dies of the plague, the nature of the ACT is
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completely transformed. It becomes a chariot.
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It becomes a heavenly messenger sent to bring them home.
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So the evil in the ultimate sense of separation from God and
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destruction of the soul cannot touch them.
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Correct. The sting is drawn out of the
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event. The physical shell may be
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struck, but the kernel, the soul is preserved.
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Perfectly safe. Wow.
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Spurgeon says it this way. Sickness is medicine.
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Death is gain. We have to view these physical
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promises through the lens of eternal security.
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That is a hard pill to swallow when you were in the middle of a
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crisis though. It is very hard.
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It requires A robust theology of sovereignty.
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It requires believing that God is so in control that he even
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weaponizes death itself for our benefit.
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Now verses 7 and 8 give us this dramatic picture of immunity.
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1000 shall fall at thy side, and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it
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shall not come nigh thee. It is an incredible visual.
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Spudgin uses some fascinating historical illustrations here.
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He talks about the Great Plague of London.
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He does, and he brings up the stories of the clergy who stayed
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behind. You see, during the plagues in
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Europe, the wealthy and the powerful usually fled the cities
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immediately. They went to their country
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estates where the air was clean. Social distancing, 17th century
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style. Pretty much, but the pastors,
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the true shepherds of the flock, they often stayed in the
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infection zones. Wow.
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Spurgeon mentions the Bishop of Marseille and Montpezil on the
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rector of Ayam. These men voluntarily stayed in
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the Lazar house. Knowing they could die.
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Knowing the risks they preached to the dying, they buried the
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dead, and in many documented cases, they were supernaturally
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preserved through the whole ordeal.
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There is one story in the notes that I absolutely love.
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It is the story of Lord Craven. Yes, this is a classic Spurgeon
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anecdote. Let's lay this out for the
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listener. So Lord Craven is a nobleman
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living in London when the plague hits.
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Grat plague. Right.
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And he decides now, naturally, to pack up and leave.
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He has his coach and six horses at the door.
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His baggage is packed. He is ready to run.
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He is literally putting on his gloves in the hallway ready to
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bolt. And then he overhears a
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conversation. Right.
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His servant Spurgeon notes he was a black man.
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A Postilion is talking to another servant in the hallway.
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Just casual chatter. And the postilion says, I
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suppose by my Lords, quitting London to avoid the plague, that
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his God lives in the country and not in town.
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His God lives in the country that is an absolute dagger to
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the heart. It froze Lord Craven in his
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tracks. It completely exposed his
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unbelief. In that moment he realized that
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by running he was practically confessing that God's
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sovereignty had a geographic limit.
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He was acting out the belief that God is strong in the
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country, but the plague is stronger than God in the city.
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So what did he do? He stopped everything.
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He ordered the horses unharnessed.
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He ordered the baggage brought back inside the house.
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Wow. He said my God lives in London
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and he stayed. And what happened?
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And he was remarkably useful to the city.
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He ministered to his sick neighbors, he helped manage the
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crisis when all the other magistrates had fled, and he
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never caught the infection. That gives me chills every time
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I hear it. It is such a simple cutting
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challenge. Does your God only live in the
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safe? Places That is the question we
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have to ask ourselves when panic sets in.
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We often treat God like a fair weather friend.
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We do, but Psalm 91 is a storm weather promise.
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But this brings us to a very tricky theological Cliff.
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Let's hear it. Lord Craven stayed and was safe,
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but what if I stay and I do get sick?
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This leads us right into part three of our deep dive and
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specifically the role of angels and the danger of presumption.
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Right. Because there is a fine line
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between faith and stupidity, is there not?
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There is a very fine line and the devil loves to blur that
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line as much as possible. We need to look at verses 11 and
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12. And specifically the text that
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Satan left out when he quoted this to Jesus.
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Yes, the omitted text is everything here.
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Let's start with the promise itself before we get to the
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loophole. He shall give his angels charge
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over thee. Notice the plural.
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There again, angels. It is not just one lonely
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guardian Angel trying to keep up with you, right?
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Spurgeon describes this as a bodyguard of the Princess of the
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Blood, Imperial of Heaven. I love that phrasing.
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It makes you think of the Secret Service, but cosmic.
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That is a very fair comparison. Their function is described
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almost like a nurse carrying a small child.
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They shall bury thee up in their hands.
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It suggests such tenderness. It does, and look at the
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specific detail, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
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Why specify a stone? Why not say, lest thou fall off
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a Cliff or get eaten by a bear? Because we often need protection
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from the small things more than the big things.
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How so? Well, we prepare for the Cliff.
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We look out for the bear. We are vigilant about the
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massive threats. But the loose stone, the
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tripping hazard, we. Do not see those coming.
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Exactly that catches us off guard.
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Spurgeon points out that angels are just as concerned with our
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minor stumbles as they are with our major catastrophes.
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But here comes the condition, the condition that Satan hates
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so much, to keep thee in all thy ways.
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This is the crucial theological anchor for this section.
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In all thy ways implies ways of duty or lawful callings.
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Talk to me about the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4, because
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this is where the theology gets extremely real.
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In Matthew 4, Satan takes Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple
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in Jerusalem. He tells him to throw himself
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down to the courtyard below, and to justify this insane
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suggestion, he quotes Psalm 91. He weaponizes the Bible.
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He says, it is written, He shall give his angels charge
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concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up.
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He sounds very pious quoting scripture like that.
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The devil is a master theologian.
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He knows the Bible better than most of us ever will.
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Yeah, but he is a bad theologian because he twists it.
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He completely omitted the phrase in all thy ways.
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Why is that omission so significant?
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Because throwing yourself off the temple pinnacle was not a
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way of duty. It was not a lawful calling.
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It was a stunt. It was pure presumption.
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If Jesus had jumped, he would have been tempting God, not
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trusting God. So if I am walking in the path
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God has set for me my way, I am covered by this angelic
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protection, yes. But if I decide to go BASE
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jumping without a parachute just to prove God is real, I am on my
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own. Essentially, yes.
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If we go out of God's appointed ways, if we act recklessly,
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foolishly or sinfully, we lose the warrant to claim the
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promise. We step out from under the
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umbrella. We must be in our station and
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calling. Spurgeon uses the illustration
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of Jonah here to make this point.
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Yes, Jonah is the perfect negative example for this
24:07
doctrine. Jonah way, his lawful God
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ordained calling was to go to Nineveh and preach repentance.
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Everybody went to Tarshish. He went the exact opposite
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direction. He bought a ticket on a boat
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going away from his duty. He's out of his way.
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And because he was out of his way, he did not meet an Angel to
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bear him up when he fell into the sea.
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No. He met a whale to swallow him
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down into the dark. Now God still use the whale.
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God is always sovereign, so He used the whale as a severe mercy
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to bring Jonah back, right? But Jonah did not have the
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comfort of Psalm 91. While he was suffocating in
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gastric juices, he was in rebellion.
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So let's apply this to the plague Dr. idea we were talking
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about earlier. If I walk into a hospital filled
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with an infectious disease because it is my job as a nurse
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or because I am caring for my sick mother, I am in my way.
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Correct. You are in the path of duty.
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You can legitimately claim the protection of Psalm 91.
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But if I walk into a quarantine zone just to show off how holy
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and fearless I am. You are tempting God.
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You are acting out of pride, not duty.
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You are out of your way and you should not be surprised at all
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if you get sick. That distinction saves us from
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so much bad theology out there today.
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Yeah, It keeps us grounded in reality.
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It does. It balances faith with
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obedience, which is the hallmark of Reformed thought.
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Moving on to verse 13, we see the believer victorious.
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Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder.
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Here we have a very vivid menagerie of threats.
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The Lion represents open force, violence and blatant wrath.
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And the adder? The adder represents hidden
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treachery. Poison the snake in the grass.
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Then the verse mentions the young lion and the dragon, which
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implies mysterious cunning and ancient overwhelming.
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Evil. It sounds like we're becoming
25:49
literal dragon slayers here. In a spiritual sense, yes.
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Spurgeon imagines the believer as the true George and the
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dragon. Oh, the old legend.
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Right, we walk through a world absolutely filled with spiritual
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monsters. But how do we actually tread on
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them? I do not feel like a dragon
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Slayer most days. I usually feel like the silly
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bird from verse 3. And that is where the Reformed
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view anchors us firmly. Christ, this text is not about
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your personal superpower. Thank goodness.
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This is a direct foreshadowing of Genesis 3.15.
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The first gospel promise in the Bible.
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Right. God promised in the garden that
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the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head.
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Christ is the ultimate one who treads on the lion and the
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adder. He defeated Satan at the cross.
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Completely and. What about Romans 16.20?
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Paul writes to the church. The God of peace shall Bruce
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Satan under your feet shortly. Under our feet.
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Because we are in Christ, His victory practically becomes our
26:45
victory. We tread on these dangers not
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because our boots are thick, but because we are standing on the
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shoulders of the One who has already won the war.
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That is a massive comfort. Now we are entering the final
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section of our deep dive today, Part 4.
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The whole tone of the Psalm shifts here in the beautiful
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way. It really does.
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Up until now, the psalmist has been speaking about God.
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He is my refuge. He shall cover thee.
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But at verse 14, the voice changes entirely.
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It is a dramatic change in the text.
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God himself steps up to the microphone, so to speak.
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Yeah, the camera turns from the believer looking up to the king
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on the throne looking down. Because He have set His love
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upon me, therefore will I deliver Him.
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Why does God deliver? I think the natural human
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assumption is always because I was good enough.
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That is the default setting of the human heart works
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righteousness. We always think we earn it.
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But the text does not say because he has kept my law
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perfectly or because he's never sinned.
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It says because he has set his love upon me.
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Love, not raw merit. Spurgeon defines the setting
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love in a very specific, helpful way.
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How so? He defines it as a fixed, single
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hearted attachment. It is the love of a limpet
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clinging to a rock in the ocean. It involves completely
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renouncing trust in creaturely comforts.
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Forsaking all others. Yes, it is binding oneself to
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God. It is the soul saying I have no
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other option. I love you because you are my
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absolute only hope of survival. And then the text adds a second
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reason. Because he hath known my name.
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Knowing the name, we talked about the names of God earlier.
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Elian, Shaddai, Jehovah. This is not just intellectual
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trivia for a Sunday school class.
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It is not just being able to pass a theology quiz.
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No, not at all. In the biblical context, to know
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a name is to intimately know the character of the person, right?
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You cannot trust a stranger with your actual life.
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You trust someone because you know their name.
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You know their reputation, their history, their track record.
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You know who they are. It means knowing him as justice,
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knowing him as mercy, knowing him as truth.
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And specifically for us under the New Covenant, knowing Him as
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revealed in Christ. Spot on.
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You cannot know the Father truly except through the Son.
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The result of this deep knowledge, the text says, is
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that God sets him on high. On high.
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That implies inaccessible safety.
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It is a fortress built on a sheer Cliff that the enemy
29:08
simply cannot scale. And then God gives us what
29:11
Spurgeon calls the six I wills. These are incredible promises.
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It is like a blank check signed by God with six distinct
29:19
promises written on it. Let's run through them.
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The first is I will answer him. Now that assumes the believer is
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actually calling out. Yes, prayer is the native
29:27
atmosphere of the secret place. If you dwell there, you are
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praying. The promise is not just that God
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hears. God is omniscient.
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He hears everything but that, He answers.
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The second is I will be with him in trouble.
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This is one of the most moving points in Spurgeon's entire
29:40
exposition. He uses the image of a mother
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and a sick child again. Go on, lay that out for us.
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He says when the child is healthy and running around the
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estate, the mother might leave him with the nurse or the
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servants. She goes about her business,
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right? But when the child is sick, When
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the fever spikes in the middle of the night.
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She dismisses the servant. She sends everyone away.
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She sits by the bedside herself. She holds the cold cloth to the
30:04
forehead. She says I will be with him.
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God's presence is most intimate in our deepest trouble.
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The angles might carry us when we are just stumbling along, but
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God himself sits with us when we are truly suffering.
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That completely changes how I view trouble.
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It is not an evidence of God's absence.
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It is actually an opportunity for His nearness.
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Precisely, it is an invitation to intimacy.
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The third promise, yeah, I will deliver him.
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That is the actual rescue. Sometimes it is a physical
30:35
rescue. The fever breaks, the car
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accident is narrowly avoided, right?
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Sometimes it is spiritual. The temptation is finally
30:40
overcome, but the deliverance is absolutely guaranteed. 4th.
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I will honor him. This is surprising.
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You would expect God to say we'll save him and that be the
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end of it. But honor?
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Yeah, that seems like a bonus. God confers dignity upon the
30:54
delivered St. It is not just a bear survival,
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like a shipwreck victim watching ashore half dead on a piece of
31:01
driftwood, right. It is a victory parade.
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We are, as Paul says, more than conquerors. 5th With long life,
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will I satisfy him? Now we need to interpret this
31:12
carefully based on what we said earlier.
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Does this mean every Christian lives to be 100?
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We already established that is not the case.
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We know many godly, faithful people who die young.
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So what does long life actually mean then?
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The keyword in the Hebrew here is satisfy.
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Satisfy. Spurgeon argues that the
31:30
believer leaves Life's Banquet like a guest who has had enough
31:34
to eat. Oh, I see.
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Whether they are 30 years old or 90 years old, they are content.
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They have fulfilled their God-given purpose.
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They are completely satisfied with what God has given them.
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Contrast that with the world. The wicked are often dragged
31:45
away from the feast, kicking and screaming for more time.
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Grasping for one more day. Or the worldly person lives to
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be 100 but is empty, bitter and cynical about everything.
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They are never satisfied, but the Saint, whenever their time
32:00
comes, says it is well with my soul.
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And the final promise, the grand climax of the song, I will show
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him my salvation. This is the Beatific vision.
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It is the full unclouded reveal. Show him, not just tell him.
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We see through a glass darkly right now, we see hints of
32:19
salvation and we see the shadow of the Almighty.
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But in the end, we see the face of the Almighty.
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It is looking from the heights of Amana and Lebanon to the
32:27
ultimate eternal rest. It is the moment faith finally
32:30
becomes sight. So what does this all mean for
32:32
us today? We have unpacked a massive
32:35
amount of theology over the last hour.
32:37
We have. We have seen that real safety is
32:39
found only in the secret place in dwelling, not just visiting
32:42
on the weekends. We have seen the balance of
32:44
divine sovereignty that God completely controls the
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pestilence and human responsibility, that we must
32:48
trust and stay in our lawful ways of duty.
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It brings me back to that question from Lord Craven's
32:53
servant. I honestly cannot get it out of
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my head. It is the question we should
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definitely leave the listeners with today.
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It is the ultimate diagnostic question for our faith.
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Does your God live in the country?
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Or does he live in the infected city too?
33:08
Is he only God when the bank account is full and the blood
33:11
work comes back clean? Yeah.
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Or is he God in the ICU? Is he God in the bankruptcy
33:15
court? We need to challenge ourselves.
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Each of you listening needs to examine your own heart.
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Are you just visiting God when it is convenient, or are you
33:24
dwelling with Him? Because the promises of Psalm 91
33:27
are exclusively for the dwellers.
33:29
That is the defining lesson. Dwell in the secret place and
33:33
the shadow will cover you completely.
33:35
Absolutely. Well, thank you for joining us
33:37
on this deep dive into reformed thinking.
33:40
We hope this heavenly medicine strengthens your heart today.