Under His Shadow, Part 5
I have been studying Psalm 91 for the past four weeks. Today, I want to continue by examining a specific promise in this Psalm: God’s provision.
Believing in and trusting God for provision is essential. Have you ever felt desperate for it? Many of us have. The key to maintaining peace during times of scarcity is cultivating a strong relationship with the Lord and having confidence in His promises regarding provision.
Psalm 91 illustrates the security believers find through their faith in Christ. The secret place is found` in the Lord and reflects the Old Testament’s approach to teaching personal faith. Today, this personal faith and understanding of God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ.
The Promise of Provision in Psalm 91
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16 NKJV
The last three verses present beautiful promises of care and protection from God. They demonstrate His commitment to answering, providing, rescuing, honoring, and blessing those who love Him with a long life.
Let’s continue examining the promises of: God’s presence, peace, protection, perspective, provision, and power. I’ll summarize the first four from the last two weeks and examine the promise of provision this week.
God’s Presence. His presence brings His peace, joy, and comfort.
“I will answer your cry for help every time you pray, and you will find and feel my presence even in your time of pressure and trouble.” Psalm 91:15 TPT
Psalm 91 is about abiding in the Lord, sheltering in Him, and being clothed in His presence. As I’ve shared, the Holy Spirit indwells the believer’s life. We are in Him and share His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4 NLT).
At times, we think, “If I can just believe hard enough!” But that’s not true! God’s presence and protection are already with us; they have been provided through Jesus! Faith is simply the choice to accept what Jesus has already accomplished!
Further, you and I are not alone! God promises to be with you always:
5 Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. 6 This is why we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, and I won’t be afraid. What can people do to me?” Heb 13:5-6 CEB
God’s Peace. You can feel secure always, even in unknown territory.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and His desire is to impart his peace, the establishment of His rule, and His government in our souls. His peace, ruling in our hearts, is greater than the trouble that surrounds us. His birth and subsequent death secured our peace.
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27 NKJV
When He promised peace, there was political oppression, religious oppression, disasters, and hardships. This was true then and is still true today. But the Prince of Peace promises to give us His peace as we follow Him.
The same peace that Jesus experienced during the storms is available to you and me as we live in him. The peace in Jesus was greater than the storms.
God’s Protection. As you follow Jesus, God promises to keep you safe.
9 If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11 For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. Psalm 91:9-11 NLT
The psalmist expresses his confidence in God’s protection, which wards off not only imminent danger, expressed in terms of battle and deadly disease, but even the fear of it. Those who take refuge in God will remain immune to evil…1
God’s Perspective. God gives an eternal view of life that keeps you steady.
Psalm 91 promises us that we will experience the fullness of salvation as we faithfully trust in and follow God—both now and through eternity.
“I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.” Psalm 91:16 NLT
Scripture declares there is a future resurrection for the follower of Christ:
“51 Listen, I’m telling you a secret: All of us won’t die, but we will all be changed— 52 in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet. The trumpet will blast, and the dead will be raised with bodies that won’t decay, and we will be changed…58 As a result of all this, my loved brothers and sisters, you must stand firm, unshakable, excelling in the work of the Lord as always, because you know that your labor isn’t going to be for nothing in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15:51-52, 58 CEB
Being confident in our salvation through faith in Christ assures us that as we depart this world, we are with Him! There is a hopeful future of resurrection and eternal life.
Maintain an unwavering, eternal perspective. You are united with Christ in His resurrection, life, and victory, and nothing can separate you from Him or His love!
God’s Provision. As God guides, He provides!
“When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.” Psalm 91:15 NLT
Are you confident that when you call upon the Lord, He will respond? To receive the provisions you need, you must know the Lord intimately and be fully convinced of His promises to provide in His Word.
In Genesis 22, God instructs Abraham to take his son Isaac to Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem and offer him there as a sacrifice. This story serves as a “type and shadow” of what the heavenly Father has done for us by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be our sacrifice for sin and restore us to a right relationship with the Father.
Abraham is about to slay his son, and an angel cries out “Stop, do not lay a hand on the boy!” Just then, Abraham sees a ram caught in the bushes near him. God provided a ram for the sacrifice!
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” Gen. 22:13-14 NLT
This is the first occurrence of God’s covenant name, Yahweh-Yireh (or Jehovah-Jireh), in the Bible. It translates to, “the Lord will provide.”
God is our provider! Above all, He has given us His Son, Jesus, the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world for our sins! God has provided a way for us to escape the penalty of those sins. That’s wonderful news, securing us in His love, peace, protection, and provision!
The English word “provide” in Gen. 22:14 comes from a Hebrew term that means “you see and experience all this need of mine and make provision for it.” God not only sees our needs but also experiences and understands them!
Consider the Lord’s Prayer (or prayer model):
2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Luke 11:2-4 NKJV
Notice how we begin our prayers with reverence and worship of God. Then, Jesus instructs us to ask for our daily bread or our daily needs. Understand that we don’t live by bread alone or material things (see Deut. 8:3), but primarily, we live by the truth of God’s Word to us. That is our starting point!
However, Jesus tells us to pray, “Give us day by day our daily bread.” Just as God provided manna in the wilderness each day for the children of Israel, Jehovah-Jireh promises to provide for us daily as well! He encourages us to ask, believe, persist, and expect!
The Bread of Life
In John 6, Jesus reveals Himself as the Bread of Life after multiplying five loaves and two fish for 5,000 men, along with women and children. Twelve baskets of fragments are left over, and the large crowd declares that this must be the promised Prophet (Messiah) spoken of by Moses (Deut. 18:18).
Jesus withdraws to the wilderness, because He perceives the people are ready to make Him King! (John 6:15). After all, who doesn’t want a bread-Messiah?! One who will just give you what you want when you want it?
God promises to meet our daily needs, but He also wants us to live by the bread of His presence, by His very words that are Spirit and Life (John 6:26-35; 63). The people desired Jesus to perform another miracle of food multiplication the following day, and when Jesus redirected them, they then asked for a formula to multiply food!
They didn’t understand that the Bread of Life, Jesus, primarily seeks a relationship. To partake of Him means trusting Him to meet our needs—not our wants!
God promises to meet all your needs. As we seek Him first, along with His kingdom and righteousness, we can confidently trust that God will care for and provide for us.
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matt. 6:31-33 NLT
Notice in these verses that God already knows what we need. Also, observe that those who don’t believe in Jesus often feel overwhelmed with worry about their daily needs. Jesus is stating that this should not be the case for those who follow Him. Instead, we are to seek Him first, follow Him wholeheartedly, and trust God to provide for our daily needs.
Paul declares this truth about God’s provision for His people:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:19 NKJV
I encourage you to memorize the above passages and believe that God will provide for you! He may not provide how or when you expect, but He will!
In 45 years of walking with God, I can attest to this truth time and again—God will provide what you need! God faithfully provides food, resources, and finances when we need them.
It may seem like the midnight hour, but God is faithful! Declare His promises and trust Him!
Can you declare confidently with the Psalmist:
1 The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd. I always have more than enough. 2 He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss. Psalm 23:1-2 TPT
I will conclude this series next week by exploring the promise of God’s power from Psalm 91. Have a blessed week!
FootNotes
1 Gordon D. Fee and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., eds., The Eerdmans Companion to the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011), 342.
