My Refuge and My Fortress

[0:00] Well, if we could, this evening, with the Lord's help, turn back to Psalm 91. The Book of Psalms, Psalm 91.

[0:12] And if we just read again in verse 1. He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

[0:25] He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I'm sure that you'll agree that the more we read the Psalms, and the more we sing the Psalms, and the more that we pray through the Psalms, that we are discovering more and more their depth and their beauty.

[0:50] And we ought to treasure the fact that we sing the Psalms. Many seek to disregard them and complain that they are insufficient because they need to sing about Jesus.

[1:03] But Jesus, our prophet, is on every page of the Book of Psalms, which is undoubtedly what makes them a treasure, a treasure to us which is more precious than gold.

[1:17] And every time I come to the Book of Psalms, like even preparing a sermon, I always have John Calvin's words in my mind. I quoted them to you last week about what John Calvin said about the Book of Psalms.

[1:31] And it's probably the best description of what the Psalms are and what they mean to many of the Lord's people, even now and down throughout the centuries, when Calvin said, I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, an anatomy of all parts of the soul.

[1:50] For there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. And I don't think I'll ever tire of quoting what Calvin said.

[2:04] I think it's just wonderful that this Christ possession of ours is one which is able to address all parts of our soul, the anatomy of our soul.

[2:15] But this evening, the part of the soul which the Book of Psalms addresses in Psalm 91, is not actually any particular part of the soul, but rather the Lord's protection of the soul.

[2:31] Because Psalm 91 is a psalm which is all about the assurance of the Lord's protection of us. And like many of the other psalms, Psalm 91, it's full of, it's rich and it's full of comfort.

[2:45] It's one of those psalms that we often turn to in times of sickness or loneliness or distress. Because in it we are reminded that our soul and our lives are being kept safe and secure by the God in whom we have come to trust.

[3:02] And just to quote Calvin again, he said about Psalm 91, he said, This psalm is allowed to be one of the finest in the whole collection.

[3:13] Then he asks, Could Latin, Greek, or any modern language, express thoroughly all the elegancies and beauties comparable to this Hebrew ode?

[3:24] And then he says, The purpose of this psalm is to illustrate the safety and happiness which result from the knowledge of God and the exercise of a steadfast dependence upon his promise and grace.

[3:36] The sentiments are expressed with great force and beauty. And dead, he says, dead, dead indeed must be the soul to every emotion of spiritual and heavenly delight which fails to be impressed by its truth.

[3:53] So let's begin this evening in the hope that we'll share the same sentiments that Calvin had and many others who have, who've had when they looked at Psalm 91.

[4:06] And I'd like us to divide this psalm into three, under three headings. Three headings, the protector in verses 1 and 2, the protection in verses 3 to 13, and then the promise in verses 14 to 16.

[4:22] The protector, the protection, and the promise. So we look firstly at the protector. He describes the protector. He says in verse 1 and 2, He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

[4:40] I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. My God, in Him will I trust. And what we see in these opening verses is that the psalmist speaks to us from his own experience.

[4:55] We saw that last week in Psalm 42 and 43. The psalmist, they speak from their own experience. But this psalmist, he wants to remind us and reassure us that those who trust in the Lord are protected by the Lord.

[5:09] And he wants to vouch for what he's saying. And affirm this truth to us. He wants to affirm it from his own experience. And it's as if he's opening this psalm with a declaration to all of the Lord's people.

[5:23] And he says, This is what I have found the Lord to be for me. This is my experience. This is what I have learned in my wilderness journey. This is what I came to discover.

[5:36] This is my testimony. He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

[5:48] And what a discovery the psalmist made. What a declaration. What an affirmation. That in his experience and in the providences of his life, he was able to confirm that the Lord's people who dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

[6:08] But then the psalmist goes on to say in verse 2, he gives this confession of his faith. And he testifies to the Lord's goodness to him. Because he speaks about the Lord and he says, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust.

[6:30] And the psalmist is saying, this is my experience. This is my testimony. I have come to know and I have come to discover that the Lord is my refuge. He's my fortress.

[6:40] He's my God. But the reason the psalmist shares his experience with us is not only to testify the Lord's faithfulness towards him.

[6:53] He shares his experience so that we will see the Lord's goodness and mercy towards us in our own experience. He shares his experience with us in order to provoke us to confess with him that the Lord is our refuge and our fortress.

[7:11] He is our God and that it is in him that we have come to trust. My friend, the psalmist shares his experience with us so that we will see the benefit of sharing our experience with others.

[7:27] And that's what I think we need more than ever, to be sharing our experience. Because at the heart of it, it's basic discipleship.

[7:40] To be sharing what we learn from others who were older than us in the faith and what the Lord taught us through different experiences. Because that's where many of us, you could say tonight, that's where many of us learned our trade, as it were.

[7:57] That's where we were taught. We were taught at the feet of others. We were taught how to pray and how to think and how to live as a Christian.

[8:08] We were taught by the example and the experience of others. We were taught because they were willing to feed the lambs of a past generation, which are now the sheep of today's generation.

[8:23] And the biblical principle, it still stands. The sheep need to be teaching the lambs. They need to be passing on their experience and pointing out the dangers and the pitfalls and the hazards that may crop up in the life of faith.

[8:43] And of course, it's a two-way thing. It works both ways. The sheep have to be willing to teach, but the lambs have to be willing to learn. And I have to admit that there is a generation that is coming up and they think they know it already.

[9:02] They think that they don't need to learn from older Christians. And it's a danger because they think that the older Christians, they belong to a different generation. And an older school that's now irrelevant and outdated for our 21st century culture.

[9:18] And now they have a new school and a new generation of Christianity and a new perspective on Scripture that the previous generation weren't blessed with. But this psalmist, he's reminding us tonight that the testimony of all believers ought to remain the same regardless of what generation we are in.

[9:38] Because the truths of Scripture, they're timeless truths. And so, my friend, it's good to pass on your experience. Pass on your experience. Pass on what you've learned. Share what you've learned.

[9:50] What the Lord has taught you. Because it's good to have fellowship with other Christians. Not just fellowship that consists of theological debate as interesting and as good as it is.

[10:03] Our fellowship should also be sprinkled with Christian experience. Experience which testifies to the faithfulness of the Lord despite our sinful heart.

[10:15] Because that's what the psalmist testified to. He testifies to the protector of his soul. And I just love the way in which he opens this psalm because he gives to us the image of the presence of God.

[10:30] That the assurance of God's protection is to be found in his presence. He says, He that dwells in the secret place.

[10:42] In the secret place. And what's beautifully portrayed to us is that the language which the psalmist is using here is the language of the tabernacle.

[10:53] The tabernacle. Because the words dwells, secret place, rest, and shadow. They all refer to the tabernacle. They're all used in reference to the tabernacle.

[11:06] They're all words that describe what God did as king of his people. Because the purpose of the tabernacle, which was, as you know, God's holy tent.

[11:19] And it was known by the Lord's people in the Old Testament as the tent of meeting. And that's where God dwelt. That's where the Lord met with his people.

[11:29] That's where God sat as king amongst his people. He sat upon his throne. And the throne, of course, was the Ark of the Covenant.

[11:42] That box overlaid with gold which contained in it the tablets of two stones of the Ten Commandments and Aaron's staff that budded.

[11:53] But it was on top of that box, that lid, called the mercy seat. And it was upon the mercy seat that the glory of the Lord dwelt amongst his people.

[12:04] And that's where God sat as king in the Holy of Holies inside the tabernacle. It was in the secret place. of the Most High. But for those under the Old Covenant, as you know, their access into the Holy of Holies was closed off to them.

[12:24] That thick veil which separated them separated them and their holy God. That veil which denied access into the holy place, into the immediate presence of God.

[12:38] It separated them. Separation between God and man. But listen to what the psalmist says. He says, He who dwells, he that dwells, the one who has found access into the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

[13:00] The one who has found our way into the presence of God will have protection. protection. But how did the psalmist have access? How do we have access?

[13:12] Well, we both look, whether we're back in the Old Testament or in the present day, we both look by faith to the same passion and to the same promise.

[13:25] Because we know that this throne in the Holy of Holies, it was once a throne of holiness in which no one could enter. No one could approach God.

[13:36] No one could dwell in His presence. If you entered without blood, you died. But now looking to the promise of God in Jesus Christ, this throne is a throne of grace.

[13:50] It's a throne of mercy, of peace, of reconciliation between God and man. Because upon this throne, upon this mercy seat, there is blood, which has been drawn from Emmanuel's veins.

[14:05] And sinners plunge beneath that flood, as the hymn writer says, lose all their guilty stains. My friend, the veil has been torn in two. The access that was once denied, it's swung open, and a throne that once proclaimed to us that if we approach we will die, it now says to us, if we don't approach, we will die.

[14:29] And that's what the psalmist found at this throne, he found life. He found eternal life, he found protection for his soul in the presence of the Lord.

[14:40] Because when he came to lay hold upon the promise of God, he found rest in the shadow of this King of Kings. And he was given the assurance that the Lord protects his people.

[14:55] And that's what David was talking about in Psalm 27, which we were just singing. That even though the enemies surrounded him, and even though they were still there against me, though one host encamped, my heart yet fearless is.

[15:12] Though war against me rise, I will be confident in this. Why? Because he knew the Lord's presence was with him. He knew the Lord was protecting him. And he says, I have one desire, one desire above all else, to spend all my days in God's house, beholding and admiring his beauty, the beauty of the Lord.

[15:37] And David confessed, he says in verse 5, which we sang, he in his pavilion shall me hide in evil days, in secret of his tent me hide, and on a rock me raise.

[15:53] This beautiful picture of being hidden in the shelter of the Almighty. But before we move on, I want us to notice how the psalmist emphasizes this all-encompassing nature of our protection.

[16:11] And he does so by describing the protector. And he uses various names to describe the different characteristics of God because he uses, as you probably noticed, four different titles for God.

[16:29] He uses the name the Most High, then the Almighty, then the Lord, and he says, My God. So when the psalmist uses the name the Most High, he's highlighting that the God who sits upon his throne, he is King of Kings.

[16:46] He is a king which is higher than all the other sovereigns in the nations and he's above all the false gods of this world. He is the Most High God.

[16:58] But he's also described as the Almighty. He's, which literally means he's a warrior. He's one who not only protects his people, but he fights for his people.

[17:12] He has, and his protection, it's all sufficient, it's adequate for every situation. Then, there is the familiar title of the Lord, which indicates that this king is one who, is a king who keeps covenant.

[17:30] He's the covenant making and the covenant keeping God who is faithful to all his promises. And then lastly, the psalmist describes him as my God.

[17:41] A personal declaration, that the all-powerful God, who has created the heavens and the earth, and whose greatness and glory surpasses all knowledge and wonder, he is his personal God and saviour.

[18:00] He is the God who invites his people into fellowship and communion with him in the holy of holies, in his immediate presence, calls us to come into his presence.

[18:14] And the psalmist says, that's who I trust. Describes who God is, what God is like, how he's such a wonderful protector, and he says, that's who I trust, that's my refuge, that's my fortress, that's my God, that's my protector, that's my protector.

[18:36] protector. And all the time he's wanting us to see from his experience that he's your protector too. So we've considered the protector, the protector.

[18:49] But then as the psalmist progresses, throughout the rest of the psalm, he goes on to describe the protection of the protector. He describes the protection.

[19:02] And he says in verse 3, And so as the psalmist continues to speak from his own experience, he does so by describing the way in which his protector has provided protection for him.

[19:30] But the way in which he speaks is that he applies what he has found the Lord to be for himself. He applies it to us. In other words, he's saying, this is what I discovered.

[19:42] This is what I learned about the Lord. So I expect this to be your experience. This is what I learned, so I expect the same to be for you in your personal experience.

[19:55] Because whatever he did for me, I expect it to be the same for you. That's why he says in verse 3, Surely, surely, surely, he says, surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the noise and pestilence.

[20:12] Surely, in your experience, this God in whom we have come to trust, it's like he's talking to us, in whom we have come to trust, surely he will deliver us from the snare, the snare of the fowler.

[20:29] Surely he will deliver us. And the picture he gives to us straight away is of a bird caught and trapped in a snare, struggling to get free, unable to fly away and fly into the freedom of the atmosphere, away from all danger.

[20:49] But what stops the bird spreading its wings and soaring like the eagle is the snare, the snare that the fowler has set, the bird trapper. And it's this image of Satan as the fowler in which he has set the trap, cunningly put it all together.

[21:11] This false allusion in order to try and tempt us and divert us off the course towards the celestial city. And he wants us to fall into his clutches.

[21:24] But the frightening thing about the snares of the devil are that he draws us in. As he draws us in and he tempts us to the bait and he tries to entice us away from following the Lord.

[21:38] And sometimes he's successful because he brings us closer and closer and closer and to the point that we just the snare shuts.

[21:50] And Satan tightens his grip. And we become trapped and it's when the snare shuts that's when we know we've let the Lord down.

[22:03] And that's when guilt sets in. That's when conviction takes over. That's when we know we've diverted off the course that we're meant to be on. But, says the psalmist, surely he will deliver you.

[22:18] He did it for me when I fell into the trap. He did it for me when I let him down. He did it for me when I lost sight of my course towards the celestial city.

[22:30] So, surely he will deliver you too. Surely he will open the trap. Surely he will open the shackles and unloose the bonds that are holding you, the bonds of Satan.

[22:41] Surely he will rescue you and he will redeem you. Surely he will set you free. But he will not deliver you from the snares of the devil, him.

[22:54] He says, but also from the noise and pestilence. The noise and pestilence, this flesh eating bug that once you caught it, it would kill you.

[23:10] It was deadly. When you caught it, it meant imminent death. And the effects of this plague of pestilence was that the skin would disintegrate and would be this disgusting effect upon the human flesh.

[23:26] And it's often used as a picture of God's judgment because of sin. God's judgment upon people because of their sin. And what the psalmist is saying is that surely the Lord will deliver you from Satan and surely he will deliver you from sin and deliver you from death.

[23:46] Surely he will set you free from the deadly disease of sin. that's going to bring an end to your life and cause your flesh to see the corruption of the grave.

[23:58] Surely he will set you free from the bonds of sin and death. And do you know how he'll do it? Verse 4 He shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall trust.

[24:14] His truth shall be your shield and buckler. the redemption the deliverance from the deceitful fowler and the plague of sin and death it's to be found under the protecting hand of God.

[24:33] And it's this beautiful image it's all imagery that he's using the image of a hen gathering her chicks together under her wings the only true place of safety and protection for all the chicks and if you've ever seen a hen gather her chicks under her wings they all disappear there's no sight of them they are completely covered there's no access at all to them completely closed off there's this complete protection and that's what the psalmist discovered and that's what he wants us to discover that under the mighty hand of the lord there is complete protection and safety but what's interesting is that the phrase under his wings you shall trust and he uses in verse 4 it's a phrase that should be familiar to us because that was the testimony of Ruth the Moabite when she had come to know and follow the covenant

[25:43] God of Israel Boaz her kinsman redeemer he said to her remember in Ruth chapter 2 when they were out in the fields they had just met the first time and Boaz turns round to his future wife may you be richly rewarded by the Lord the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to trust and whether the psalmist is quoting Ruth or the author of Ruth was quoting the psalmist I don't know the point is that the testimony of the Lord's people is that he is the protector of his covenant people and he is the one who keeps them safe and the Lord's faithfulness to his covenant promises he he goes on to say his truth they shall be like a shield and a buckler a shield and a buckler to protect his people and the purpose of mentioning the shield and the buckler was to highlight the movement of the Christian the movement forward because the purpose of a shield was was to defend it was this large wooden rectangular shape which was quite heavy to carry it was heavy but its purpose was to defend against all the arrows of the enemy all the arrows that were coming in it would cover the whole body but on the other hand the buckler was just this lightweight circular shield that was used in order for it was used for the soldier to progress quickly towards the battle which is why the psalmist goes on to say in verse 5 you shall not be afraid for the terror of the night nor for the arrow that flies by day and he's saying there's no need to be afraid there's no need to fear in the darkness of the night because the

[27:42] Lord he's your buckler the Lord is protecting you as you move forward and there's no need to fear the arrows even the fiery darts of the evil one there's no need to fear them in the daytime because the Lord is your shield complete protection the Lord is protecting you and he goes on to mention pestilence again you don't need to fear the pestilence that walks in the darkness because even though it's seeking to take its next victim you don't need to fear the destruction that can take place at noonday either and what the psalmist is assuring us and reassuring us with all these images repeated images again and again and again of deliverance and the covering of the wings and the shields and the buckler all these images it's an image of complete protection it's like he's emphasizing and re-emphasizing that we get the point

[28:44] God completely protects us he's saying to us that whatever comes your way in whatever capacity or form whether it's sin or temptation or illness or death and even whatever time of day it comes whether it's morning noon or even in the dark hours of the night the Lord is still your protector he's still protecting you even though a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand whatever's going to come up against you they will not be able to spoil the peace of God that passes all understanding and yes we may experience temptation and illness and come face to face with death we're not to pretend that we are immune from these things just because we follow the Lord but when we are in them when we're in the heat of battle and facing the most trying of circumstances the Lord is assuring us

[29:50] I will be with you I'll be with you and I'll be protecting you I'll be keeping your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forever more and in some miraculous way he says as he goes on to verse 8 we will be spectators in the whole thing just looking on as it were our eyes shall see the reward of the wicked for sin illness temptation death they'll be destroyed and we may ask why why is the Lord so good to me why is the Lord so good to me the psalmist says verse 9 because you have made the Lord which is my refuge even the most high your habitation there shall no evil befall you neither shall any plague come near your dwelling what the psalmist is affirming to us is that because you have come to dwell in the secret place of the most high under because you've come to to find shelter and shadow under the almighty and he says this is what I have experienced too this is what the psalmist he's assuring us from his own experience that that this will be the experience of all the Lord's people too this is what I experienced this is what you experienced therefore we ought to be assured of the Lord's safety and his security we ought to be assured of it and when reading

[31:37] Spurgeon's commentary on these verses in his treasury of David I'm sure some of you might have it at home Spurgeon confessed the psalmist is talking about this is my experience this is your experience Spurgeon says this was my experience this was my experience he found the Lord to be his safety and his security because he says in his commentary I'll just read what he's written before expounding these verses I cannot refrain from recording a personal incident illustrating their power to soothe the heart when they are applied by the Holy Spirit in the year 1854 when I had scarcely been in London 12 months the neighbourhood in which I laboured was visited by Asiatic cholera and my congregation suffered from its inroads family after family summoned me to the bedside of the smitten and almost every day I was called to visit the grave

[32:38] I gave myself up with youthful ardour to the visitation of the sick and was sent for from all corners of the district by Persians of all ranks and religions I became weary in body and sick at heart my friends seemed falling one by one and I felt or fancied that I was sickening like those around me a little more work and weeping would have laid me low among the rest I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear and I was ready to sink under it but as God would have it I was returning mournfully home from a funeral when my curiosity led me to read a paper which was wafered up in a shoemaker's window in the Dover Road it did not look like a trade announcement nor was it for it bore in a good bold handwriting these words because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the most high thy habitation there shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling the effect upon my heart was immediate faith appropriated the passage as her own

[33:51] I felt secure refreshed girt with immortality I went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm and peaceful spirit I felt no fear of evil and I had suffered no harm the providence which moved the tradesman to place those verses in this window in his window I gratefully acknowledge and in the remembrance of its marvellous power I adore the Lord my God my friend what a testimony what a testimony at Spurgeon as great as he may have been he testified to the assurance of God's protecting hand that kept him each and every day but the psalmist doesn't even end there doesn't stop there because he goes on with his description of the Lord's protection and he points out that even the angels are involved in this protection he says in verse 11 for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways they shall bear you up in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone you shall tread upon the lion and adder the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet you may recognise in verses 11 and 12 they were the verses that Satan quoted to

[35:22] Jesus when he was being tempted in the wilderness and even though we don't know much about angels or what their role is exactly we are given here a beautiful picture of the Lord's care and concern for his people that he would command his host of angels to protect us they look into our salvation and they wonder and yet the Lord has commanded them to protect us the word which the psalmist uses here when he says the angels will keep us in all our ways it's the image of watching over us guarding us protecting us protecting us from evil they will keep you throughout your journey their protection will be such that in the hollow of their hands they will lift you up they will lift you up they will carry us they will bear us they will look after us because of the Lord's commandment to do so but what we must notice is that on our journey towards the celestial city their main task of the main task of the

[36:35] Lord's angels is to protect our feet to protect where our feet go they shall protect their feet from tripping against a stone dashing your foot against the stone and they will enable us to tread upon the lion and the adder the lion the most powerful animal strongest animal in the animal kingdom the adder the deadliest reptile it's full of venom the threat of a venomous bite and yet the Lord assures his people that even his angels even his angels will minister to us and guard us guard us from danger and protect us from whatever threatens to take our life but the psalmist is not only one who received the assurance of the Lord by saying all this and he's trying to assure us at the same time I think that Jesus also received assurance of the

[37:36] Lord's protection because even though Satan quoted verses 11 and 12 to Jesus when he was tempting him and calling him to throw himself off the pinnacle of the temple if Satan had only quoted verse 13 he would have known his own end because it seems to me that verse 13 is a very fitting description of what Jesus did at Calvary because at Calvary the one who went about like a roaring lion seeking who may devour was silenced and the serpent who had deceived the woman and infected her with the venom of sin in the garden of Eden his head was crushed at Calvary under the foot of the saviour and it's a wonderful picture that one verse it's a wonderful picture of the salvation which we have in Jesus Christ a saviour who has not only granted us access into the secret place of the most high but he's also one who has provided complete protection for us in his own blood and so this evening the psalmist of psalm 91 is reminding us of the protector and he's explaining to us his all-encompassing protection but lastly and briefly he closes with the promise he closes with the promise but when we read these words we have to read them from the perspective that

[39:16] God is speaking it's God that's speaking this is God's promise now to the believer because he says because he has set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him I will set him on high because he hath known my name he shall call upon me and I will answer him I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and honour him with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation it's a wonderful promise to the believer the believer who has found shelter and salvation in the Lord and the believer who confesses that the Lord is my refuge my fortress my God but not only that it's for one who confesses that they love the Lord and that they have set their love upon the

[40:17] Lord in which they declare as we did when we began our worship this evening I love the Lord because my voice and prayers heeded here I while I live will call on him who bowed to me his ear it's a favourite Psalm 116 of many of the Lord's people because of that very declaration I love the Lord and what's so amazing about this Psalm is that everything that the Psalmist testified to in his own experience and what he had learned about the Lord and from the Lord and what he affirms will be our experience too what I learnt you have learnt too and everything that he's learnt and everything that we've learnt the Lord is here promising to do exactly that for his people because he says because you have set your love upon me

[41:19] I will deliver you I will rescue you from the snare of the fowler and from the noise and pestilence because you have set your love upon me I will lift you up I will exalt you I will command my angels to bear you in the hollow of their hands because you have set your love upon me because you have said I love the Lord when you call upon me I will answer I will cover you with my feathers under my wings you will come to thrust because you have set your love upon me I will be with you in trouble I will deliver you therefore there's no need to be afraid of the terrors of the night nor the arrow that flies by day nor the pestilence that walks in the darkness nor the destruction at noonday you don't need to be afraid because you have set your love upon me because you love me promises the Lord I will honour you literally it means

[42:21] I will glorify you I will glorify you with long life the blessing of life that shall never end life eternal and in that promise of eternal life the very last words I will show you my salvation who is the Lord's salvation salvation but Jesus himself he is the salvation call his name Jesus salvation that's the promise because you have set your love upon me I will show you Jesus it's a wonderful promise I will show you Jesus face to face my dear Christian friend we are a privileged people protected people as those who have set our love upon him we do it only because he loved us first yet we have a protector we have the assurance that of his protection all the days of our life goodness and mercy following us and we have the promise of protection we have the promise of protection what more could we want as the people of

[43:48] God and to know the Lord as our protector may the Lord bless these thoughts to us let us pray O Lord our gracious God we marvel that thou art one who is so good to us and we thank and praise thee that despite our failures despite O Lord what we are in and of ourselves thou art one who loves us with an everlasting love and yet thou art one who promises to us that because we have set our love upon thee thou wilt be so good to us thou wilt be one who delivers us and will bring us to that eternal haven to see Jesus face to face and yet O Lord we confess that our love is not what it ought to be our love is often cold towards thee a love that is distant but yet we marvel that in our insufficiencies Lord one who is all sufficient one who provides for us grace to help even in time of need

[44:52] O bless us Lord we plead help us to keep going on in strength of God the Lord that even the psalmist could say as we were singing that against me though one host encamp my heart yet fearless is though war against me rise I will be confident in this that our one desire would be to behold the beauty of the Lord to say as one of old sir we would see Jesus bless bless us then we plead keep us in our homes and families remember us in our providences Lord whatever is befalling us at this moment that thou wouldst undertake for us and help us to be found and to know that we are in the shadow of thy wings cleanse us and do us good for Jesus sake Amen We shall conclude by singing in that Psalm 91 Psalm 91 in the

[45:58] Scottish Psalter page 352 and we'll just sing the promise verses 14 to 16 Psalm 91 verses 14 to 16.

[46:41] Please wash us to God's praise. He hath known, I will instead on high.

[47:22] He'll hold on me, I'll answer him. I will be with him still.

[47:38] In trouble too, deliver him. And honor him, I will.

[47:55] With length of days unto his mind, I will in sight.

[48:09] What is mine, I also my salvation will cause his eyes to see.

[48:28] Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.