Read Psalm 91:5-13. 5You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. 7A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. 9Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—10no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. 11For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. 12On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. 13You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
As we saw yesterday the YOU in these verses is a singular person. But who? Satan knew the answer. He knew that every psalm, especially this one, is about Christ. That is why he tempted Christ with these verses in the wilderness. Throw yourself off this mountain Jesus. God will give his angels command concerning you. You won’t strike your foot against a single stone.
These verses may appear to promise the covenant Christian a prosperity that prevents any and all evil from touching their lives – no evil shall be allowed to befall you. Yet Jesus himself faced evil all throughout his life, no less in the wilderness.
The Christian must see these promises and their New Testament equivalents (all things work for the good) as promises yet to be fulfilled in the future coming of Christ when the lion-serpent, Satan himself, will be trampled underfoot once and for all. We must never see our hardships as a sign that God has failed to keep his promise of protection. In a very real way, as it was for Jesus, the hardship IS the protection, the guarding of our heart and our faith against the wiles of the Devil.
To live is Christ, is to know how to face the trials and temptations of today with a view towards our future in him, never allowing the false gospel of prosperity to tempt the Lord our God.
You: Have you ever felt unprotected by God?
You in Christ: How does union with Christ allow us to claim these promises of protection?
Christ in you: What wilderness are you in today? Christ is there with you. How does this allow you to trust that the wilderness IS God’s protection?
Pray: Father, I know that you are always with me protecting me, knowing that bad things may still happen to me but not without it being part of your greater protection of my heart. Amen.
To Live is Christ 