Lent 1 Psalm 92

Text: Psalm 91
The Devil came to Jesus intent on His destruction. IT was not the first time that the devil had set his sights on destroying a man. There had been hundreds, thousands, even millions before. But the first time had been of greatest importance. The first time it was a man named Adam. And for a man created to be perfect he was pretty easy prey. Adam went down, and with him fell the entire human race - you and me included.
But then came the new Adam, the Second Adam, the new creation. A man born from a woman, but not having a human father – this man Jesus. This man spelled trouble for this old tempter, this old devil. Because, where Adam was supposed to have been perfect but was easily tempted and led into sin, this second Adam was a much more difficult case. He was greater, more powerful. This second man was none other than the Son of God, God himself in Human flesh. But still, the Devil took aim. If he could get this Jesus to sin, the entire human race wouldn't have a chance.
And the devil came. He comes to you just the same. He came to Jesus when he was weak, when he was tired, he had just been through an ordeal – a 40 day fast in the wilderness, he was hungry and he needed some rest. The devil always takes advantage of those most opportune moments. He came and he wrestled with Jesus. “Throw yourself down from the temple.” “Make stones into bread.” “Surrender yourself to me and I will give you power.” Great opportunities for a quick fix on power and glory – always sure bets for this tempter. Everyone wants power and glory. Every one wants to get it on the cheap. But not Jesus. You and I would have fallen for it in seconds flat. But Jesus resisted. It took everything he had, but Jesus resisted the devil and he did it for you.
Now, look at the Gospel reading, and then go back and look at our text – the Psalm for the day. The psalm actually shows up in our Gospel text – but in an unusual place. The words of scripture, the very Word of God is used as a tool of Satan. His slippery double-tongue utters these golden words of promise as a means for evil. (Isn't it true that the devil always masquerades as a servant of the Light?)
“Throw yourself down from the temple,” said Satan, “for isn't it written that 'he will command his angels concerning you so that you will not strike your foot against a stone'?”
And yes, it is written. Indeed our Psalm says that very thing. God will send his angels to protect us, to pick us up so that we might not even stub our toes. And there are times that he does.
A steel worker working on the beams of a high-rise office building once stumbled and began to fall from several stories up but felt himself being caught and lifted. He looked and saw a face. God sent an angel to protect the man and to keep him safe so that he did not fall and injure himself. God does truly send his angels to do his work of caring for His saints. Most of the time we don't even know they are there. Sometimes, like this time, God lets us see them.
But does that mean we should test Him? Should we do as the devil urged Jesus to do? Should we force God to choose? Rescue us or let us die? God cares for us according to His mercy, not according to our coercion, and He does so for our salvation and not for our selfish designs of earthly glory. Satan was playing games with the Word of God. Satan was turning God's Word of promise into a magic spell to manipulate God.
Jesus didn't fall for it. Neither should you.
Instead, Jesus tied himself to the rest of the Psalm. Jesus devoted himself wholly and completely to the promise that God is “My Refuge and My Fortress”, The Lord is “My God in whom I trust.” Likewise, so should you.
Our Psalm begins, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will Abide in the Shadow of the Almighty.”
Our Epistle Text from Romans helps us to properly understand what it means to “dwell in the shelter of the Most High and to abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Romans 10 says that “The Word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart.” It then goes on to make the promise that if you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart you will be saved.
It is the Word. The Word of God. It is the Word of God that is our lifeblood as Christians. The Word of God, when we confess it, that is to say, when we believe God and take Him at His Word we are saved. Therefore it is the Word that is the very voice and power of God. It takes hold in our hearts and creates believers out of us.
Today in our worship we celebrate with those who are joining our fellowship of faith. God has hidden His Word in their hearts and they are standing up confessing with their mouths the faith that God put there in their hearts. God has come near to them, just as he has come near to the rest of us, and through His Word and in His Word they dwell with us together in His shelter and we abide together in His shadow. And there is no better place to be.
After all, God's Word promises God's protection. We return to our Psalm...
Psalm 91 gives to us the assurance that God will protect us from all different kinds of calamities and disasters. It offers a few examples.
Back in the days of King David, arrows were cutting edge military technology. An archers could take out an enemy from a safe distance, at times even unknown and unseen. The message then, God can keep you safe from military enemies who have powerful and high tech weapons.
The world is suddenly alarmed because Iran is edging closer and closer to possessing nuclear weapons. Neighboring countries are afraid of the sudden threat within their borders. That threat could even spill over into our own country. Not to worry. God can protect you from an extreme Islamic nation, even from a terrorist with a nuclear weapon.
The psalm also mentions plagues and pestilence. A few months ago we were repeatedly warned of the threat of the h1n1 virus. It was supposed to be a super bug that would be hard to fight and that would claim the lives of hundreds. Before the swine flu it was the bird flu. Who knows what flu or what other disease will pose the next great threat to public health. It could turn out to be nothing. It could match the hype and kill thousands. It doesn't matter. God can protect you from the deadliest of diseases.
Car crashes. Cancer. Change. The Future. Taxes. Earthquakes. The weather. The unknown. The dark. Death. Financial collapse. People are afraid of all kinds of things. Your God is god over all of them. He can and will protect you from all of these things and from any one of them.
“Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you. No plague come near your tent.”
“No evil...”
In the Lord's prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, “deliver us from evil”. In that prayer we ask God to save us from all of those things we just listed, but especially we ask God to save us from the Evil One. We ask God to save us from the Devil. As much as we fear so many other things in this world and in this life, there is one enemy who is chief above all other enemies. There is the devil. He sets traps for us to destroy us. He tempts us and urges us to look to our own power and glory, to indulge our lusts and passions, to set aside the true God and replace him with a false god of our own making.
As we have said, this foe, this enemy is too great for us to defeat, too powerful for us to battle, too sneaky and sly for us to out smart. He sets traps for us that we too easily fall into. If Adam who was perfect and without sin couldn't do it, then what chance do we have? Adam was like a champion, a prize fighter, a hero, and Satan took him down with his first try. What chance do we have?
I used to visit with a shut in who would tell about her battles with (as she put it) “that nasty old devil”. He wouldn't leave her alone. He was always pestering her. She would fight him off by singing hymns. I would hear her voice, singing at the top of her lungs as I came down the hallway in her nursing home.
I talked to another man on his death bed and he confessed, in fear, the temptations he faced as the devil did his best to take him down before his time was up.
In both cases God was faithful. He saved them and he preserved them with His mighty hand and his outstretched arm.
Our God, whom you confess and in whom you dwell has just the remedy for you. You who confess His Word and live in His shadow. As the Psalm says, “He will deliver you from the snare of the Fowler. He will cover you with his wings.”
God is like a mother goose defending her goslings. When they sense some danger, they will gather them all together under their wing to defend them and keep them safe. And then if the danger persists she will shield them even with her own body. She will risk her own injury rather than allowing you to harm one of her young.
That is how God protects you. He snatches you away from the devil when he would trap you and then when the devil persists when he refuses to give up and even would claim you as his own, pointing out your many sins and those times that you were caught by his snares and you gave in to his temptations, like a mother goose, the Lord your God, the Most High who is your refuge shields you, even with His own body.
The Lord is a spirit. As such He did not have a body. So he went out and got one so He could shield you with it. He joined himself to us, to our race, to our flesh and blood so that he could use His body as the in-between thing. So He could place His body into harms way, so He could surrender His body to injury and death, so He could take your punishment and your could be saved.
In our Gospel text we see him battling it out with Satan, fighting off his temptations and standing firm the way you and I have not, the way even Adam could not. And He won. Every single time; without exception. The devil went away beaten. Jesus did what we could not do. And then He did what was needed so that we could be saved, so that we could be snatched out of the devil's trap and set free from the destruction that he had planned to bring us to .
God has saved us. God has defended us and protected us. Through faith we live and abide so close to our God that we are covered by his shadow. You and I can say to the Lord together with the Psalm, “My Refuge and My fortress. My God in Whom I trust.”