We welcome you to Stone's Hill today!

A typical Stone's Hill service has:

* music (so feel free to sing out);

* some announcements (things that are upcoming that you can be a part of);

* a message out of the Bible (God speaks to us through his Word);

* and an opportunity for you to respond to the message (either immediately in the case of a decision that needs to be made OR in the future as you live out the message in your daily life.)

So relax and enjoy your morning! We're so glad you are here!

MESSAGE TEXT
Psalm 91:1-16
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INTRODUCTION
As we get older, we come to understand how dangerous a world there is. Things like bereavement (people dying on you), serious illness, relational betrayal, and financial reversal – you realize there’s no way to stop those things from happening. No matter how savvy you are, no matter how much planning, no matter how powerful or successful you are, there’s no way to stop those things from coming into your life. They will come into your life eventually. Believers get sick sometimes, we have accidents, and we have physical complications. We’re like soldiers who have IED’s and mortars exploding around us, and sometimes someone takes a direct hit.
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So how do you get peace and poise in your heart in the face of a world like this? Psalm 91 – some call it the soldier’s psalm. This psalm addresses natural disasters, attacks, accidents, sickness, and destruction. God defeats so much of it in our lives, and when some of it does get through, God loves to do amazing things in our lives even after our worst fears are realized – if we will but walk with Him through it all.
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On a first reading it seems to be saying, “If you trust God, nothing really bad will happen to you. If you trust God, your life will go smoothly.” Of course, that would also imply the opposite, that if your life is not going smoothly, you’re not trusting God. You’re not being faithful to him in some way. If you trust God, everything will go well, and if everything is not going well, it means you’re not trusting God. Is that what it’s saying? Is that how we’re supposed to understand and read Psalm 91?
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The problem with this reading is that it does not seem to square with the testimony of other Scripture texts or the testimony of the lives of God’s children. For example, it does happen that good and righteous people die young (Eccl 7:15) and experience tremendous adversity (Job 1–2). Some suffer for doing good (1 Pet 2:20) and are even persecuted because of their righteousness (Matt 5:10). So Psalm 91 - If you trust God, everything will go well, and if everything is not going well, it means you’re not trusting God. Is that what it’s saying?
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PROPOSITION
“God has got this. God has got you. It will be okay. God has a plan.”
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MESSAGE
Three VOICES can be heard in this passage. The psalmist begins in the first person, claiming his own trust in God. Starting in verse 3 there is a shift into the second person as the psalmist tells the reader that God protects those who are His. Then, in the final section (vv. 14-16) we hear the voice of God as He reiterates that He will in fact protect and care for those who trust in Him.
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Voice #1: The voice of experience that speaks as an individual (v.1-2). Like a soldier going into battle telling yourself: “Remember who your God is. God’s got this.”
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Voice #2: The voice of experience addresses someone else who is a novice (v.3-13) Like a best friend who tells you: “Be encouraged because God has you covered. God’s got this.”
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Voice #3: The voice of God who talks to whoever is afraid (v.14-16) Like an intimate talk with God and you hear Him say: “I love you. I’ve got this.”
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So to run it by you again: Psalm 91 consists of three clear movements marked by a change in pronouns. The first movement is marked by the pronoun I (vv. 1–2). It expresses the psalmist’s personal faith in God. The second movement is marked by the pronoun you (vv. 3–13). It is a word from the psalmist to the reader or listener, his word to us. The final stage is marked by the divine pronoun I (vv. 14–16). Here God speaks to the reader to declare what he will be and do for the one who loves him and calls upon him.
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INVITATION
Psalm 91 points forward to Jesus. The transcendent God became a human being, was born in a manger, became a person who experienced betrayal, who experienced wrongdoing, experienced injustice, and experienced what it was like to die, what it was like to be beaten. The invulnerable God became vulnerable. The invulnerable God became killable. He went to the cross. When he says, “I will be with you in trouble …” That’s the first thing you need to use on your heart when bad things happen to you.
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This psalm doesn’t just point to the incarnation and God being with; it points to substitution. How so? It talks here about rescue. It talks about salvation. The mother bird is spreading over her young her wings to protect the young from the rain. Well, how does she protect the young from the rain? She gets wet. How does she protect the young from the sun? She gets hot. How does she protect from the predators? She gets eaten. She puts herself between the bad and her young. She takes it in herself.
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There’s one time where Jesus Christ identifies with a mother bird. It’s when he’s riding into Jerusalem. It’s in Matthew 23. You can also find it in Luke 13. He’s talking about judgment. He’s talking about the fact that the people of Jerusalem are going to be judged for their sins and wrongdoing, that judgment is coming down. As he’s talking about judgment, that is where he says the famous thing. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I wanted to gather you as a mother hen gathers her children under my wings, but you would not.” In that context he says, “Oh, if you believed in me, I would be your mother bird, and you would take shelter under my wings.” Shelter from what? Judgment. That means judgment will fall on him. That’s how he protects us.
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When Jesus Christ was on the cross, he looked down at people betraying him. He looked down at people denying him. He looked down at people abandoning him. He looked down at people mocking him and jeering at him, and in the greatest act of love in the history of the world, he stayed and absorbed the judgment of God. He took what we deserved. That’s what the Bible says.
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There’s the answer to understanding Psalm 91. If you read Psalm 91 and say, “Well, if you trust in God, God will never let anything bad happen to you …” Well, Jesus Christ is the only person who ever completely trusted in God, the only human being who ever trusted in God fully. Did anything bad happen to him? Yes. Why? Because through it God was going to bring redemption. He was going to bring joy. He was going to bring glory.