The Lord is My Refuge... Psalm 91

Psalm 91:4-6 says,

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 

So lately I've been having nightmares. They aren't fun. But the other day, a friend directed me to Psalm 91 and it is such an amazing and comforting Psalm. As a missionary, I notice spiritual warfare way more than I ever used to. Satan hates the work that Christians do and he sends things at them to distract them from what God has for them to do. Besides nightmares, I also found out that I have had amoebas for almost a month(the whole city is kind of breaking out with them right now). Satan wants us to look anywhere but at God. His goal is make us think that God has abandoned us or doesn't care about us.  So promises like these in Psalm 91 are beautiful and encouraging. Okay, first off, my God covers me. He protects me and keeps me safe. I don't have to fear anything that comes my way. I don't have to fear sickness, or nightmares, or anything else because my God is always there and always protects. What does it mean when it talks about His feathers and the shadow of His wings? It reminds me of when a mother hen protects her chicks with her feathers. They are safe with her. What a beautiful picture of our Lord hiding us and giving us a refuge in Him and what an intimate picture that is.

Psalm 91:9-12 says,

“If you say, 'The Lord is my refuge,' and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 

Making our dwelling in the Most High God is our choice. It is our choice to stop trying to get through things in our own strength. Because when we give it to God and say that He is our refuge, He will protect us. This also means though that if we do not go to the Lord as our refuge, we can't expect Him to protect us. I am stubborn and sometimes I get caught up in what is happening that I just struggle to fix it on my own. But God gently reminds me that I don't have to. I just have to give the situation over to Him and hide in Him and let Him be my refuge. Building a refuge on my own compared to finding my hiding place in the Almighty God is like expecting a fort made out of cardboard boxes to protect me rather than finding shelter in the huge walled in castle right next door.

Psalm 91:14-16 says,

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” 

He will rescue me! I  never realized how true this is until February this year when I realized that the way  I was living was so far from God. I cried out to Him and He delivered me. He rescued me from the situation that I had even put myself in. He answered me and showed me His salvation and for that I could never show enough gratitude but what I can do is spend my life praising the One that Saved me and constantly point others to Him.

My application this week is to memorize Psalm 91. It's pretty long but I think it's a very important promise to hide in my heart.