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Experiencing the Psalms 6 – 30/08/26 (Psalms 61, 91, and 121)
When trouble hits, we can either panic, like Corporal Jones, or we can find strength in our faith. In our three psalms today the writers all choose to do the latter.
Our first psalm, n° 61, is a bit weird in the sense that it’s headed up "For the director of music. With stringed instruments. Of David." However, while David clearly wrote the first four verses, the other four speak of the king in the third person, so may well have been added subsequently by someone else.
Leaving that aside, though, it’s one that we can easily identify with.
Hear my cry, O God; it says, listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint. The KJV says "as my heart is overwhelmed".
David was obviously feeling very distant from God that day, for some reason. I can relate to that, and so can you, I’m sure. David was perhaps on the verge of giving up, but even so, he called out to God.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, he pleaded.
High rocks are safe places. Places where you can see you enemies long before they get to you. You can assess their strengths and weaknesses. You can defend yourself. The higher the rock, the better.
And so David refers to it as a strong tower. Like the tower on the corner of a fortified castle, that fulfils all the same purposes. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe, he says.
This image of God as a place of refuge isn’t uncommon, especially in the Psalms. He is a safe place to which one can retreat when all hell is breaking loose, when everything’s going wrong, when the pain is just too much. He is a sure defence against any foe. God is, quite simply, our source of protection.
"I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings" David says.
Jesus also used this image of a mother bird sheltering and protecting her young, when he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37)
Does God have literal wings? Of course not. God the Father is a spirit without a physical body (John 4:24). But the imagery of his wings helps us to understand the intimacy of his protection.
Our second Psalm today, n° 91, has the distinction of having been misquoted by Satan to tempt Jesus in the Wilderness when he said “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10-11). But conversely, it also has the distinction of being used by Jesus to encourage his disciples in spiritual warfare, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you (Luke 10:19).
As we just heard Janet read, the author, whoever he was, is in a totally different mood to that of David in Psalm 61. Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.
Even in those first two verses we see four of the names of God that we mentioned last week:-
- the Most High, (that was the name by which he was known by Abraham and the patriarchs).
- the Exalted God, the God higher than every false god, the Almighty and ruler of all,
- the LORD written in small caps to mean Yahweh, the great I Am,
- and importantly for us today, My God, Elōhīm, the Strong One.
We must never forget WHO is the God that is with us!
But who was the author, then? Well, we don’t know, but as we know Moses wrote Psalm 90, there’s a school of thought that says he may have written 91 as well. But it could have been David, although it doesn’t say so, or maybe it was someone else altogether.
Either way, whoever it is, he’s confident enough to proclaim God as a safe shelter.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.'
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
If you make the Most High your dwelling --
even the LORD, who is my refuge....
All this, he says, will keep us safe from dangers such as the fowler's snare, the arrow that flies by day, the plague that destroys at midday, the deadly pestilence that stalks in the darkness, and from the other ‘terrors of the night’.
None of that will come near you, he promises, no harm will befall you, that is (and note the condition) if you make the Most High your dwelling.
Because he loves me,' says the LORD, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.
There’s lots more that can be said - angels protecting us from lions and cobras - power over evil forces like dragons and sea monsters, for example, but if I don’t move on, we’re not going to have time for Psalm 121.
It’s another brief one, and it starts with these wonderful words.
I lift up my eyes to the hills -- where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."
My father was very good at finding four-leaf clovers, and it was because he walked around his farm looking down at the ground. Not all of us, but many of us do that too, psychologically if not physically. We live in our circumstances, we even live under our circumstances.
Whether or not the author of this psalm was the same, we don’t know, but on the day that he penned this beautiful and precious song of faith, he looked up - to the hills. But why?
Was it because hills were fraught with danger from bandits such as those who attacked the man in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan?
Or was it because they were a place to take refuge, like David did from Saul at one point?
Or was it because they could have been places where false gods were worshipped?
Or was he talking about Jerusalem, which sits in an elevated position 2,460 feet above sea level, the place where Yahweh, their mighty Rock, was thought to live.
All of those are perfectly possible, but whatever the meaning, the psalmist very clearly sees there the source of his help: "My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."
And then, as he begins to expand on the ways the Lord protects his people, notice how often he uses the word "watch". Let me first explain that the basic root means "to exercise great care over, with faithfulness and diligence”. It’s a bit like a watchful mother always keeping tabs on her toddler to keep him or her from any kind of danger.
He will not let your foot slip -- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you -- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm -- he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Do you believe that the Lord does that for you, today, in this baking hot summer of 2026?
Will God really protect us as our world tries to destroy itself?
Yes. The bible is emphatic.
Our psalmist didn’t have his eyes on the circumstances, but on the hills. The prophet Isaiah tells us that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
And Paul, in Romans 8, one of my favourite chapters in the whole Bible, assures us that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?"
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer. Father, thank you for the knowledge of your intimate, constant, watching care. Strengthen our faith, we pray. When we are afraid, help us to trust in you. Protect us from our human enemies as well as from the enemy of our souls. And bring us intact, we pray, into your eternal Kingdom. In Jesus' mighty name, we ask. Amen
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