PSALM 91
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on 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.”
Jesus is led out by the Spirit into the wilderness. He is tempted by the devil. He fasts for forty days and forty nights. And then the onslaught starts. Jesus is hungry. The devil tempts him with bread. The devil hurls temptation after temptation at him. In one temptation within the encounter, the devil quotes our Psalm: in Matthew 4:6, he quotes verses 11 and 12. Standing at the highest point of the temple, he tempts Jesus to throw himself down – the angels will catch him after all. Jesus replies quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:7).
What is fascinating is how Jesus fights temptation. The first thing we notice is that he does it with Scripture – he knows the Scriptures, he’s internalised the Scriptures, he lives the Scriptures. The next thing we notice is which Scriptures he quotes. Deuteronomy. Three times he’s tempted, three time he fires back with the Book of Deuteronomy. When the devil hurls a Psalm at him, he hurls Deuteronomy back. We might have hoped he’d hurl a Psalm back. In a way he does.
Think back to Psalm 1 and the “blessed one” of that Psalm. The blessed one mediates on the law, day and night. The blessed one is the perfect king who obeys the command of Deuteronomy 17:18-19: “when he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.”
Jesus is the blessed one of Psalm 1. Jesus is the true king of Deuteronomy 17. Jesus came to demolish the kingdom of Satan and to establish God’s kingdom forever. Even as the greatest temptations were hurled at him upon the cross, Jesus stayed obedient as God’s true Son, God’s true King.
Head: What have you learnt about Jesus from Psalm 91? What have you learnt about yourself?
Heart: How does it make you feel that Jesus withstood the fiercest temptations of the devil for you?
Hands: Jesus withstood temptation by knowing and living the Scriptures. When you are tempted to be disobedient to God today, how might it help to look to both Jesus’ example and Jesus’ ultimate victory over the devil?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus came to tear down the devil’s work. Thank you for his example in turning to the Scriptures. Thank you that he has already won the victory over the devil in his death on the cross. Please help me to remember these things when I face temptation today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
