Psalm 91/ Revelation 15:6
Dwell In The Lord And Rest, No Enemy Can Harm Us For God Will Fight For Us
Psalm 91/ Revelation 15:6
Psalm 91 and Rev. 15: 6 teaches us to dwell in the Lord and rest in Him. To dwell in God is to love your God and Keep His commands. Then the enemies can never harm you. You will be satisfied with the rich and lasting honor from the Lord.
In Rev. 15: 6 we see there are seven angels with the seven plagues. This tells us that all the evildoers will soon be punished by God. We notice that the seven angels were dressed in clean shining linen and wore gloden sashes [long piece of cloth as a belt] around their chests. How glory they were dressed by God when they carried out God’s will. The Bible said, “Are not angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inheirt salvation?” (Hebrew 1: 14) Angels are messengers from God to work for people’s salvation. We God’s children are also messengers from Jesus Christ for gospel preaching. We are ambassdors of Gospel. Therefore, what the angles wore has meaningful application to us in the spirit. Dress represents our behaviors, which shows our spiritual conditions inside. We, children of God, must live according to God’s commands and do only God’s will. Be sure to keep our dress, the robe of righteousness, clean and holy as the angels when we serve the Almighty God and wait for His coming back. Then we will not only bring many people to believe in Jesus and we will also be protected from any disasters on earth. The end is coming soon. Guard our hearts to love God wholeheartedly, be self-controlled; set our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed.
V. 1-4 Those who dwell in the Lord will not be harmed by any disasters or temptations.
John 14: 21 taught us, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” Jesus also said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (V. 23) Therefore, when we love Jesus and keep His words, we dwell in Jesus Christ. Though there are many sayings in the Bible, Jesus taught us all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. That is to love God with all of our hearts and might; and the second is to love your nighbours as yourself. Therefore, we understand that HOLINESS and LOVE are the most important goals that we want to have by dwelling in Jesus. God will be with us when we walk in truth and love. (2 John V. 3) Therefore, we must seek to walk in Truth and Love.
Holiness in Jesus is different from morality of men. Neither can anyone think he is holy in Jesus by his own view. Be holy means that we walk in line with God’s words in every aspects of our lives and ministries. We must sanctify ourselves by the Truth. If we love the Lord, we will read His Word every day. The more we read His Word, the more we want to live according to the Holy Spirit. We cleanse our sins by the precious blood of Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit we remove every wrong doings and every evil thought in our hearts according to the Holy Bible. We are renewed in our behaviors and minds day by day. We will be transformed into holiness by the Truth in this manner.
Then we can live out godly love to love others as ourselves. Paul taught us that godly love comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. God wants us to live out His unfailing love and give timely help to the needy. And what is more important than that is we must lead people to believe in Jesus and keep His commands, so that they will not perish but have eternal life.
When we dwell in the Lord, we rest in Him and He will save us from the fowler’s snare. (V.2) Devil always uses all kinds of snares to trap people. It uses the prostitute to trap the simple young man. If you get close to her, she will take hold of you. Sometimes we fall into the snare of eating and drinking. Sometimes we fall into the snare of worriness of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and desires for other things. If we fall into her snares we can hardly come out of the pit of sins. There are times that the devil tricks us to associate with the Gentile and worship their gods, like what happened in the book of Numbers chapter 25. Then the Israelites provoked God’s anger, so that a plague came to them. Twenty four thousands people died of it on one day.
Therefore, we can only take refuge in the Lord’s shadow, He will cover us and fight against the arrows shot by our enemies. Our Jesus loved God wholeheartedly and kept God’s Word in his heart and guarded it well. Therefore, when all of a sudden the devil appeared to tempt him in the desert, Jesus resisted all of them by God’s words. Satan could not overcome Jesus because he dwelled in the shelter of Father. The enemy could only withdrew defeatdely.
V. 5-8 God fights against all kinds of evil plans by our enemies.
V. 5 The terror of night. It is just like Pharaoh ordered to kill every boy was born by the Israelites in Exodus chapter 1. A sudden terror of darkness came to the Israelites. But the family of Moses feared God, they hid him in a papyrus basket when Moses was three months old. His mother put the basket among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. In face, they left this baby boy in the hand of Almighty God. God made the daughter of Pharaoh to save Moses and raised him up in Egyptian palace.
The arrow flies by day in verse 5. King Saul did not hide God’s words in his heart and he was shot by enemy’s arrow of jealousy by day. When he was returning home victoriously after David had killed the Philistine, he heard that the women was singing “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” From that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David until Saul died. Saul was hurt in good times of his life because he did not dwell in the Lord. John the Baptist was not jealous of Jesus at all when he heard that many people went to Jesus to be baptised. He was full of joy and content. He said that Jesus must become greater; he himself must become less. John the Baptist loved the Lord, the arrow of the devil could not hurt him.
V. 6 The pestilence in the darkness. When Lot and his two daughters were rescued from the destruction of Sodom by the angels, their environment was a darkness. But Lot did not confess his sins or earnestly gave thanks to God’s mercy. Neither did he ask God to help him to repay God’s mercy and grace because he had wasted so much time in chasing after vanity of the world. He was not watchful either. He settled in a cave and got drunk. He had two sons with his own daughters. He produced fruit of sins in God’s grace. He was hurt by the pestilence in the darkness.
The plague at midday in v. 6. Midday is the time that sun shines the most of a day. It represents the best time of one’s life. King Solomon was destroyed by this kind of plague in the most glorious time of his ruling. After he achieved to the top of the world in every aspect of his ruling in Israel, he started to collect lots of gold, marry many wives and store up many chariots and horses for himself. Though King Solomon was strong in military, rich in wealth and wise in the spirit, he was hurt by the enemy. It was because he disobeyed God’s commands, his heart was led astray when he stopped loving God. He did not shelter in God, he was hurt by this plague when he was most honored by God. He provoked God to anger at the end.
V. 7 Though a thousand or ten thousand may fall at your side, the disaster will not come near those who love God and keep His commands. Once there was a serious earthquake happened in Tang Mountain, China. A sister who loved the Lord was just transferred by her boss to work there before the earthquake. She lived in a dormitory and was arranged to sleep on a bed near the wall. Her roomate, a nurse, was very bossy. One day when this sister was not in the room, this nurse moved herself to this sister’s bed near the wall without her consent. This nurse also moved all the belongings of this sister to the bed previously slept by herself. When this sister returned to the dormitory, she was very anger about it. But she remembered God’s teachings, she endured this mistreatment silently. Then, the earthquake happened. The wall fell on the bed taken by the nurse, so that this nurse was almost shocked to death and she lost most of her belongings. But this sister who loved the Lord was safe and peace, and lost nothing in this earthquake. God blessed her peace in disaster.
V. 8 Those who love God will see with their eyes the punishment of the wicked. I know a missionary, sister Wong, in China. When she was put to jail for the name of Jesus Christ, she still insisted to say grace before every meal. Therefore, she was beaten, bullied and teased by other prisoners. Among those who persecuted her most was the leader of her cell, this leader always took away her bowl of meal when she said grace to God and would not let her eat. Then the leader would put it under the bed until the meal got worms, then she would give it to sister Wong to eat. This leader always cursed her and scolded her, “Why don’t you jump into the river and kill yourself?” Sister Wong endured it all. The reason this leader persecuted sister Wong was because this leader wanted to please the government so that she could be released from jail as soon as possible. However, one day someone found this leader’s body in the river. She fell into the river by accident. Sister Wong saw by her own eyes how the wicked was punished by God.
V. 9-13 Tell others to dwell in the Lord
V. 9 Once we experience the blessings of dwelling in the Lord, we would like to share with others so that they can experience this grace.
V. 10-12 Those who have kept God’s words and been dwelling in the Lord will be saved from all kinds of disasters. God will also send them out to do His will. “He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. The angels will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” What a promise that God gives to His Gospel ambassdors. But be careful that Satan had used this verse to test Jesus to jump from the highest point of the Temple. Therefore, be careful not to misuse His words for our sinful desires. We must not put our God to the test.
V. 13 God promises to give those who love Him the divine power. They will tread upon the lion and the poisonous snake. For example, David could rescue the lamb from the mouth of the lion. Joseph feared God and kept himself far from wickedness, so that he did not sin with his master’s wife. This wife of his master was used by Satan to harm Joseph as a disguised lion and a poisionous sanke. Samson did not dwell in the Lord and was hurt by Delilah, a big posionous sanke.
Paul kept God’s word in fear and trembling. At the same time, he marched forward bravely for the gospel. He was faithful to preach the gospel to the Gentil even at the risk of his life. He treaded the lion by trusting in God. Satan used the wicked to accuse him as a criminal and put him jail. The wicked then wanted to murder Paul on the way for trial (trial in a court). He went through storms on the sea. After he arrived on the shore, a poisonous sanke hanged from his hand and tried to bite him. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm. God gave him power to tread on the lion and the poisonous snake.
V. 14-16 God promises full salvation and honor to those who dwell in Him.
God said, “Because he loves me, I will rescue him”. God will protect those who keep God’s words wholeheartedly, because they acknowledge His name. His name is the Word of God. (Rev. 19: 13) Those who understand God’s Word and acknowledge the full power of His name, will be protected on the heights. For example, Mordecai was promoted to a high position when he hold on to the truth till the end. Daniel was standing on the heights without shaking because he sacrificed himself and humbly obeyed God’s words. When Daniel called on God, God answered him. Therefore, God shut the mouth of the lion when Daniel was in trouble.
God said that for those who love Him, He will deliver them and honor them. God will bless them long life (especially in the spirit) and show them His complete salvation—new birth, sanctification and victory in Jesus Christ. Amen!