Psalm 91:2 “I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”
I am afraid; El Elyon (God Most High) is my hiding place. I am anxious; El Shaddai (God Almighty) is where I find shade from exposure to the brightness of what threatens me. I am threatened; Yahweh (the LORD, I AM) is where I find refuge and shelter from the rain and storm that comes upon me. I am weak; Elohim (God) is my fortress, my stronghold, my fastness.
William Plumer writes on this passage, “Confidence is one of the highest acts of friendship as well as of worship. None except God is entitled to our unqualified and undivided confidence to all the ends of conservation, government and salvation.” (1) Put your trust, your confidence in God.
Beloved, don’t put your confidence in yourself. Don’t put your confidence in money, health, or even how you feel. As we face pestilence and plague the strength of these “so-called” comforters has been called up and they are bankrupt. There is only one refuge from the storms we face; there is only one fortress in this day of attack—The LORD. The one true and living God who is the Creator and Sustainer of all existence; Yahweh, the great I Am. Friends as we stare the weakness and brevity of our lives, put your trust in God. Friends if death should come we will have to give an account to Him for how we have lived our lives. The greatest threat that hangs over us isn’t even illness and temporal isolation. The greatest threat we face is our sin and God’s wrath that we deserve for our sins. Yet, the very God who justly holds all of us to account; He alone is our refuge, a mighty fortress in the gift of His Son. Jesus Christ, lived the perfect life that none of us have lived, and He died the death that we deserve upon the cross. Yet, Jesus is victorious. He conquered death and the grave in resurrection. He rose again from the dead. Jesus is alive. The only hope we have in the face of illness and death is the one who has power over death, Jesus Christ. God is compassionate and merciful. He is gracious. In Yahweh (LORD, I Am), in Elohim (God) we have protection from everything that we would face in this world, because if we trust in the gift of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, at death He will bring us to Himself. In Yahweh, Elohim we have refuge to flee to in the gift of His only Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ we have refuge and a fortress not only from temporal trials in this life, but from the eternal trial of bearing God’s good and just wrath for eternity in hell.
Though our hearts are afraid, anxious, threatened and weak, God is High, Almighty, I AM and our God. Let His perfections be a constant source of help and comfort in the fact that He is our Deliverer and Savior. Trust in Him today for His grace to us in Jesus Christ. As we see sickness and even death preach this truth to yourself. Don’t live based on how you feel, but on what you know about God. Trust God’s protection in Christ. Psalm 18:2, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
A sov’reign Protector I have, unseen, yet forever at hand,
Unchangeably faithful to save,
Almighty to rule and command,
He smiles and my comforts abound;
His grace as the dew shall descend;
And walls of salvation surround the soul He delights to defend.
Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,
Thou Shepherd and Guardian of Thine,
My all to Thy covenant care
I sleeping and waking resign.
If Thou art my Shield and my Sun,
The night is no darkness to me;
And fast as my moments roll on, they bring me but nearer to Thee.
Kind Author and ground of my hope,
Thee, Thee, for my God I avow;
My glad Ebenezer set up,
And own Thou hast helped me ’til now.
I muse on the years that are past,
Wherein my defense Thou hast proved;
Nor will Thou relinquish at last a sinner so signally loved. (2)
1. Plumer, William S. Psalms (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), 849.
2. The hymn, A Sovereign Protector by Augustus M. Toplady (1740-1778).