SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 9/6/26

It is true that Cheyenne is a secure place to be. But what we discover in our Psalm today, is that there is an eternally greater fortress for the Christian. That fortress is God Himself. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

SERIES: SUMMER IN THE PSALMS
TEXT: Psalm 91
TITLE: My God in Whom I trust
PREACHER: Tom Wilkins
BIG IDEA: Because our God is a mighty fortress, trust Him!

POINTS:
I. God is our mighty fortress
II. We must trust God in the darkest of times

SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes and text emphasis are taken directly from the pastor’s notes.

ILLUSTRATION: Cheyenne Mountain Complex - one of the most fortified places on earth with granite armor, blast doors, and indestructible interior

“It is true that Cheyenne is a secure place to be. But what we discover in our Psalm today, is that there is an eternally greater fortress for the Christian. That fortress is God Himself.”

“Since the fall of mankind into sin, our world has become a dangerous place: physical threats and enemies of our soul lurk around every corner: war, disease, accidents, tyranny, governments, murder, theft, loss of income, storms, death, loss… Yet, our problem is that we are surprised when we suddenly find ourselves in danger. A hard situation is coming, and we cannot avoid it. Things can get really dark really fast.”

RUNNING APPLICATION: Q. When this happens, where do you go for help? Where do you go to find refuge? What do you fly, drive, or run to? In times like these, It is all too easy to forget and even abandon deep abiding truths that we dearly hold. Our hearts sink! Our faith plummets! We are not going to survive this!

“Psalm 91 is good news in the face of our worst circumstances! In fact, it sounds too good to be true. But it is infinitely good and true! Spurgeon describes this as one of the most ‘cheerful’ Psalms! And here is why we can believe that Ps 91 is most cheerful: Because our God is a mighty fortress, trust Him!”

“No matter what trouble makes it way to you, trust Him! No matter what terror crouches near, trust Him! Q. Who will rescue you in the darkest of hours? Q. Where will you go when your very life is threatened? Q. What will protect you from the gravest of circumstances? Psalm 91 ANSWERS our deepest concerning questions! God is our mighty fortress!”

“The truth claim of the text is found in Vs 1 and 2. ‘He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.’ These two phrases repeat the same meaning for emphasis ‘Shelter.’ ‘Shadow.’ ‘Most High.’ ‘Almighty.’”

“Verse 1 tells us that there is a place that we can dwell, we can abide, we can live securely against anything that comes our way. That place is in the shelter of the Most High. This “shelter” is a secret and secure place as God hides safely in Himself! Nothing and no one can get to us! That place is in the shadow of the Almighty. This “shadow” is the active abiding presence of our all-powerful God. There is none like him in power!”

“God the Most High! God the Almighty, Himself is present! Try to imagine any fortress that even comes close to the security and protection of our God. Believing what Vs 1 declares, we join the chorus with the psalmist in Vs 2.”

“It’s personal! The Most High, the Almighty, is MY refuge, MY fortress, MY GOD! He is your God! YOUR security is in the shelter of YOUR Most High! YOUR safety is in the shadow of YOUR ALMIGHTY GOD!”

“Understanding that the LORD is our refuge and our fortress, the implications for us are staggering! Our response is “My God, in whom I trust.”

“TRUST ME! The Lord has in a sense, has taken our heads in His hands and has said, trust ME! I am your refuge! I am your Almighty fortress! He then illustrates His power, His care, and His faithfulness. He promises His protection and assures of victory. No matter what trouble lies ahead, trust Him! In the darkest of times, trust Him! Really LORD? In the darkest of times? YES, In the darkest of times. The psalmist samples the peril, threat, treachery, evil and danger in verses 3.”

“Consider the treachery of this world in verses 3-6. Some of these are real and some as metaphors the sense is that they serve as illustrations of impossible situations:

(vs 3) The snares and pestilence (we trapped in trouble and cannot free ourselves, disease and sickness allround, pandemic like)
(vs 5) The terrors of night, the arrow that flies by day (Sleepless nights of worry or sudden trials that hit while we are asleep. While all seems well today, we are struck down)
(vs 6) The pestilence that stalks in darkness, and destruction that wastes at noonday. (driving home the same sudden unexpected trouble)
(vs 10) evils and plagues
(vs 12) stumbling
(vs 13) lions and snakes (evil enemies including the demonic)

The threat is real! The dangers are verified! Both physical and spiritual treachery abounds! Both the weak and strong are vulnerable to these!”

“Here is the reality. When we consider the true dangers of this world, all our fixes and places we think are secure are temporary. Their walls of protection are thin. And they are powerless against these perils. They cannot shield us from these dangers. Rather than a true fortress, it's a cardboard fort. BUT Psalm 91 bursts forth in your soul, and we find that ONLY GOD CAN BE OUR TRUE SHELTER IN ALL OF THIS! We must trust Him in the darkest of times! God is your shelter against all of this, in all of this, from all of this! We see this in a beautiful illustration in verse 4”

“This verse illustrates the shadow of the Almighty. Wings of pinions (feathers) and shields of metal are metaphors describing God covering us with his wings and protecting us with his shield. The description of God’s wings is a tender covering of us with the reassuring warmth of safety and comfort “under his wings.”

ILLUSTRATION: Vulnerable baby quail

“We find that we are in the shadow of the wings of the Almighty! And from our perspective, THERE IS NO BETTER PLACE. … and the illustration gets even better! He covers us with the comfort of His pinions. His faithfulness is now a massive shield around us. And He wields a second shield (buckler) as we face the enemy! This is God’s double-shielding of us! The interior is the warmth and comfort of His covering. The exterior a double layer of protection. What I can imagine with the two combined is a fortress of wings of iron-clad feathers forming an impenetrable fortress against all enemies. His faithfulness is impenetrable! He will remain faithful to you in the trial.”

“Because God is our faithful fortress, we trust him! Dwelling in God is trusting Him. Abiding in God is trusting Him. The sense is that we continue our trust in Him. We place our confidence in Him alone. It is not a divided confidence.”

“We now arrive at a very sobering portion of this Psalm. Vs 7 and 8 sober us. If we are not IN God our Fortress, IT IS TERRIBLE! Outside of God’s safety and comfort, IT IS NOT SAFE! IT IS HORRIFYING. The wicked will receive God’s recompense! They will pay dearly for wickedness! They will receive God’s unshielded wrath. The imagery here is you and me on the battlefield. Thousands upon thousands are falling all around us. Arrows that fly by day and destruction laying waste to everyone! Everyone but us! The words “but it will not come near you” are all of MERCY! We have been shielded from the dangers and terrors of this world! Most importantly, we have been shielded from the terror of God’s destruction and righteous wrath.”

“We did not get what we deserved! THIS IS ALL OF MERCY. We did nothing! We observed all that God did around us. These verses must drive us toward humble worship. In God, and in His mercy, we are in the safest refuge. We are in the safest refuge from His wrath! In our sin, we should have fallen with the wicked! ‘...but it will not come near you…’ These words must drive us toward unspeakable relief and joy!”

“Christian, you have Gospel REFUGE in the shadow of the Cross of Jesus Christ! God is your mighty fortress. But you had nothing to do with it. The story on the battlefield that day should have ended with our corpses littered among the thousands! But that is not our story. My story is this: ‘It did not come near me!’ Your story is: ‘It did not come near you!’ How? Why? It did not come near us because we were in the shadow of the cross of Jesus! There, My God, My Savior took my place! And it did not come near to us because there, IT CAME TO HIM. He fell in my place! Jesus received the terror and fury of Father’s wrath for you! I should have received the due recompense for my sin. But My Savior, Jesus, did! Jesus is our Mighty Fortress, trust Him!”

RUNNING APPLICATION: We decidedly make God our dwelling place, who is already our refuge!
That which is already true, I will make mine. My shelter is Christ, and that is entirely His doing. Yet, I will make him my shelter - my confession and my life.
Q. Where do you go when trouble strikes? Q. Where do you go when you sense evil coming near? Q. Where do you go when fear and panic flood in? Q. What refuge do you seek?

A drink?
A drug?
You run.
You move.
You shrink back from relationships… shrink back into yourself? Isn’t this our go-to refuge: ourselves! In the end, we think WE are the safest fortress. Clouded by the severity of the trial and the sinfulness of our heart, we run into ourselves seeking rest and security.

“I COMMEND VERSES 11-12 to your further study and delight - But what we find in these verses is that God will hold you up by sending His heavenly angels to guard you. He is all in to secure you and your victory!”

“Where does all this lead us? What can we do with this? We can hear the MOST CHEERFUL VOICE STANDING BEFORE THIS CHOIR! In verses 14-16, we hear the voice of our Mighty Fortress Himself. Our God sings joy, hope, and cheer back to us! What God sings are the most CHEERFUL truths for our ears:

I will deliver him
I will protect him
I will answer him
I will be with him in trouble
I will rescue him
I will honor him
I will satisfy him with long life
I will show him my salvation

8 times - ‘I will’. What a manifold unfolding of what God will do for those who dwell in Him. - Promise upon promise upon promise! ‘I will’”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 18:2–3

QUOTES:
Unknown - “If you are safe with the all-powerful God, you are safe with the all-powerful God!”

C.H. Spurgeon - “No shelter can be imagined at all comparable to the protection of Jehovah's own shadow. The Almighty himself is where his shadow is, and hence those who dwell in his secret place are shielded by himself.”

APPLICATION:
Because God is our mighty fortress, trust him.

His promises are sure!

The beauty of this Psalm is that it gives us handles to hold onto these promises. These help us dwell in His shelter. These help us abide in His shadow. They help us trust in Him. Let’s look at these last 3 handles together:

Hold fast to Him in love - In love, we hold Him fast, only because He, in infinite love, has held us fast. In Vs. 14, our Almighty loves it when we hold fast to Him alone in steadfast love! “Hold fast to me, remembering that I hold you fast” You hold fast to me - don’t let go, because I hold fast to you and will not let you go! Now that is gospel hope! Let’s sing it back to Him!
Know His name - God came to reveal Himself to us. Jesus came to make the Father known. The Holy Spirit is making Jesus known to us. We know His name because He made it known to us!
Call to Him - Are you in trouble? Do you need His help? Are you alone? Are you ensnared? Are you trapped? Do you see no way out? CALL TO HIM, and he will answer! Are you afraid for your life? Are you afraid for your soul? CALL TO HIM, and He will give you eternal life and salvation!

GET TO CHRIST! GET IN HIM!