Psalm 91 has caught my eye lately and has been emphasized for me in several different contexts. Several months ago I was rereading Francis MacNutt’s classic on spiritual warfare entitled Deliverance from Evil Spirits. In that book, he mentioned that quoting or reading certain scriptures during deliverance could be effective in tormenting spirits enough that they would leave. One of the scriptures he recommended was Psalm 91.

Then during one of our latest Freedom Weekends, in which we minister deliverance to many individuals, we had a young woman with a strong spirit of witchcraft in her that had come down generationally. Our team had spent several hours commanding this spirit to come out but had not quite driven it from its stronghold. One of our team members began to read Psalm 91 over the young lady, personalizing it for her, and the reading of that scripture broke the stronghold and she was set free.

In just the past few days, I was scanning a little book on crafted prayer by Graham Cooke. In that book, Cooke mentioned that several years ago, the Lord had instructed him to study Psalm 91 for nine months – no other scripture, only that psalm so that he would get every truth in that section of scripture buried deep in his heart. Well, God hasn’t told me nine months but he has been bringing it up over and over so I want to spend a couple of blogs looking at it – for my benefit as well as yours. So let’s begin:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps.91:1)

The word or phrase translated “He who dwells” can mean a number of things: to sit, to sit down, to remain sitting, to dwell, to marry. The word carries the idea of both permanence and intimacy. It reminds me of scriptures that call us to “Be still and know that I am God” and of Jesus’s command to “abide or remain” in him as a branch connected to the true vine. The promises about to be revealed in Psalm 91 are not for the casual Christian or even the highly committed, super-busy Christian who is constantly in the kitchen banging the pots and pans like Martha but who rarely sits at the feet of Jesus like Mary. To know the heart of the Father (or the Son) we have to abide in his presence, to spend time speaking and listening, and to seek intimate connection.

The promises then are for those who dwell, abide, or remain sitting in the shelter of the Most High. The word translated shelter is also an interesting word and can be translated: shelter, hiding place, covering, protection, or secret place. David calls us to dwell in a secret place or a hiding place with God that provides both protection from enemies and from the storms of life. To me, this calls us to find a place with God that is secret, personal, and unknown to others. I think he is telling us that the place to dwell with God is not in a corporate relationship but in a very personal relationship that is ultimately unknowable by others.

It is like a relationship between husband and wife. Many can know about the relationship but not know the deeper things of the marriage which remain secret to the couple – pet names, intimate moments they have shared together that are for them only, embarrassing incidents that will remain known to them but untold to others, and the deepest hopes, dreams and fears of their hearts. Those will always remain hidden or secret to all others because they are so personal that they are only to be shared with a loving and trusted spouse.

That is the kind of relationship God wants to have with each of us. Again…God is calling us to spend time with him – personal time, transparent time, talking, dreaming, hoping, and sharing our hearts with him and his heart with us. Psalm 91 make it clear that all the promises of victory and protection that follow flow out of that kind of relationship so developing that must be our first goal and we must be willing to pay the price of time and intentionality.

In my last blog I talked about the great cultural distraction of busyness. Nothing competes with an intimate relationship with the Father (or a spouse, children, friend, etc.) like busyness. That will have to be dealt with first. Then the sitting, the seeking, and the openness will feel so threatening to many of us – especially men. But that is where the promises are to be found. The question is how badly do we want all that Jesus has for us?

One more interesting implication of this first verse is the suggestion that we meet with God in a secret place. Undoubtedly David was thinking of places where he had hidden from Saul while Saul hunted him. This verse suggests that there are times when we are so snuggled up to God that Satan can’t find us or see us. That is an incredibly safe place to be. You may want to contemplate that a bit as you begin to read Psalm 91 over and over for a few days.

More from Psalm 91 in my next blog.