August 22, 2007

Psalm 91 Part 2

Time to start the next part to Psalms 91.

"You will not be afraid of the terror by night." Psalm 91:5a

Verses 5 and 6 cover every evil known to man, which are divided up into four categories. The first is the terror by night and includes all the evils that come through man- kidnapping, robbery, rape, murder, terrorism, wars! It is the dread or horror or alarm that comes from what man can do to us.

God says, "You will not be afraid of any of those things...because they will not approach you." I don't know about you, but with everything going on the world, this is greatly comforting! The very first part of this verse talks about fear. Jesus said over and over again -'do not be afraid.' Why is it that He was continually reminding us to not be afraid? Because it is through faith in His Word that we are protected, and fear is the complete opposite of faith. He knows that fear will keep us from operating in the faith that is necessary to receive protection.

So, how do we keep from being afraid? When you think about it, fear comes when we think we are responsible for our protection. It's wrong to think, "Oh if I can just believe hard enough maybe I will be protected. " The protection is already there; it's been provided whether we receive it or not. Faith is the choice to receive what Jesus has already done.

The answer is the blood of Jesus. Even in the old testament, though their covenant wasn't as good as ours, Exodus 12:23 tells us that when the Israelites put blood on the door facings, the destroyer couldn't come in. The animal blood serves as a picture of the blood of Jesus, which ratifies our better protection in our better covenant.

When we say out loud, " I am covered and protected by the blood of Jesus.", the enemy literally cannot come in. It is heart and mouth- believing it in our heart and confessing it with our mouths. Nothing that has happened in this world has caught God by surprise. He has made provision for all things, even germ and chemical warfare, or what about the contaminated foods that have sickened many this past year? Here He says, "But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and He will remove sickness from your midst."Exodus 23:25
If we find ourselves being afraid of the terror by night, that is our signal that we are not dwelling and abiding close with the Lord- we are not dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. When our eyes are not on God, fear will come. We have to choose to believe the Word rather than what our eyes may see, however real the attack may be.

"We walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7


The author then tells a story about a friend of her daughter, named Julee. She was getting ready for church one Sunday morning when someone knocked on the door of her apartment. Never dreaming it wasn't someone she knew, she opened the door. She was then knocked over by a strange man who shoved his way in and attacked her. Remembering that God said, "You will not be afraid of the terror...it will not approach you!", Julee started using the Word of God as her defense. In the natural there was no way for a young girl to escape from a strong man, but she was confident in her covenant that she never gave up!
After 45 minutes of spiritual battle, and him coming at her time and again, her persistence in quoting the words of Psalm 91 brought confusion and immobility on him- thwarting every attempted attack. During one of those times when he was at a standstill, she was able to get out the door and escape unharmed.
Later, after he was caught and held in custody, she found out that he had sexually assaulted numerous young women, and she was the only one who had been able to escape without harm.

We do not have to be afraid of the terror of what man can do to harm us. Praise God for His higher law!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed this post trememendously! I have never read Psalm 91 and now will read both that and the book you reccomended.

Thank you so much. You have shown the Bible is as alive and vibrant as it has ever been for our daily lives.

Anneatheart said...

Hi Blessedmomma,

I am so glad that these posts have helped you see what God has made available to us through His LIVING Word :) I plan to put the phone number and address of how you can get the book at the end of the series too, if you can't find it online.