Pray to The Almighty

How’s your prayer life? Maybe it’s strong and you pray all the time, and your only problem is not having enough time to get through all the things to pray for! Maybe you wish your prayer life was stronger. Maybe you don’t feel you have the words to say. Maybe you feel like God wouldn’t listen, or that your problems aren’t important enough to pray about. The Book of Psalms is a prayer book from God; God’s way of giving you words to say, giving you things to pray about, and where He even prays them with you. Each psalm is a poem that illustrates our emotions and experiences in light of who God is and what He does. As we begin the season of Lent, we’re going to journey to the cross of Good Friday and the empty tomb on Easter by looking at how the Lord invites us to pray the Psalms.

And Psalm 91 is a wonderful place to start. In fact, it probably sounds similar to the way you might already pray: Lord, I’ve got a monster of a math test tomorrow, please help me to do well on it. Lord, I don’t feel very good. Help me to get over this sickness. Lord, I want to punch that guy in the face. Help me control my anger. Lord, keep our family safe as we travel. If you pray that way, it’s because you believe the same truth that the psalmist does. Psalm 91 calls God the “Most High” and the “Almighty”—God is bigger than all our problems and dangers. It calls Him “the LORD”, Yahweh, and “my God”—Yahweh, or “I am” was the personal name God gave Moses to call Him; He has an personal, protective relationship with you. We pray because God cares about us and He is powerful to deliver us from trouble.

And then Psalm 91 paints a scary picture: hunters who lay traps against us, pestilences, nightmares (sometimes in our dreams, sometimes come true), arrows that pierce, dangers and destruction night and day. Psalm 91 was an Israelite soldier’s prayer, and it sure sounds like it, doesn’t it? “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand.” But the psalm invites you to apply it metaphorically too. If you pray this on repeat, I’m sure you’d identify experiences in your life that are like traps or pestilence, nightmares come true, and things that pierce you like arrows. And that’s what the Lord wants you to do. He wants to hear your troubles, big and small. He wants you to take inventory of your struggles and dangers and sins and laments and complaints and take them to Him. He wants you to depend on Him, trust Him when He says you are His, and believe He is big enough for your troubles.

He wants you to bring Him your troubles because He wants you to pray for deliverance! He calls Himself your shelter; everywhere you go, you always abide in the shadow of your Almighty protector. He is your refuge and your fortress. He’s like a mother bird sheltering you, His little one, with His wings. He’s your shield who goes ahead of you in battle. He is the Warrior God who fights for you. The wicked, even Satan Himself, fall before you. He commands legions of angels to guard you. In Him, you conquer all. So pray! Pray for the Lord to intervene! Be specific about your troubles. Pray boldly!

But there’s probably giant “buts” in your head, aren’t there? But what if God doesn’t deliver me? But what if the worst happens, anyway? But what if He says “No?” But does God really promise to deliver us from every trouble? You have real fears, real anxieties that trouble your heart. And the psalm doesn’t ignore them. But it points you to something even stronger than your worst fears come true. If you only give Psalm 91 a quick read, it sounds like the “true” Christian is invincible: if you really have faith, there’s nothing that can hurt you. And that’s exactly the way Satan interprets it. Psalm 91 is what Satan quoted to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. Satan took Jesus to the top of the Jerusalem Temple and said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” If your interpretation of Scripture matches Satan’s, you’ve got a problem! Yes, we pray that God would deliver us from troubles. Sometimes God does deliver us from our troubles. Satan interprets the psalm to mean that anyone who is of God should expect never to endure troubles. If that were true, martyrs would never exist. Many Christians believe that when they endure troubles, it’s a sign of God’s disfavor or disapproval. But the psalmist doesn’t talk that way.

Instead, Psalm 91 expects troubles and danger and suffering in the Christian life. And the psalmist prays knowing who God is, what God is truly capable of, and what God promises. The Israelite soldier prayed this psalm, not hoping to avoid the battle, and not even hoping he wouldn’t die, but he prayed it knowing God would deliver Him victorious—even if he died! Psalm 91 doesn’t see troubles as the reason to doubt God’s promises toward you; no, they are your reason to run back into His arms and believe God favors you and loves for you! The beautiful thing about the Psalms is that Jesus prayed them too. When you read a Psalm read it twice, once from Jesus’ point of view, and then from yours. Jesus prayed Psalm 91, and He didn’t jump off the Temple that day. He quoted Deuteronomy: “No, Satan, Scripture says, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Jesus doesn’t take God’s protection as a good luck charm to do stupid or ungodly things. Jesus prays Psalm 91 in light of God’s promises, knowing what kind of God the Father is.

So, Jesus in His life prayed for the deliverance of Psalm 91. And then Jesus was betrayed, condemned, murdered, and suffered hell in our place. The Father’s answer to Jesus was “No” so that His answer to us might be “Yes.” Jesus suffered the worst that sin, Satan, and hell had to offer. And then you know what? Then the Father answered “Yes.” He rose Jesus from the dead. He promises the same to you. In this life you will endure suffering and guilt and attack and yes, even death. But just as He did for Jesus, the Lord will also deliver you from the worst of your sins, from death, from hell. We pray Psalm 91 according to God’s ultimate promises.

Our reading from Deuteronomy gives us a glimpse of what it will be like when God ultimately answers our Psalm 91 prayers. The Lord tells the Israelites that when they enter the Promised Land, the first thing they should do is take a basket and fill it with a sample of the abundance of the fruits and milk and honey of their new home and bring it to the Lord and say, “I declare today that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to give us. I was a sojourner and I was treated harshly and humiliated, but the LORD heard my voice and saw my affliction, my toil, my oppression. And the LORD delivered me with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm with great deeds and signs and wonders. And He brought me to this place flowing with milk and honey.” Your Psalm 91 prayers for deliverance will be answered. Sometimes you will experience God’s deliverance in this time, but you will experience His deliverance in every single way in eternity. And when you are finally there, in eternity, in the Promised Land of the New Creation, flowing with much, much more than just milk and honey, you will look back and see all the signs and wonders and might and strength of the Lord for you in this life. Trust in the Lord and His promises. Bring to Him every single prayer. Because in Christ, every prayer for deliverance is “Yes.”