God's Protection in the Secret Place {Psalm 91 Bible Study}

God doesn’t promise us a perfect life, but He does promise to be with us through it all. The question is, will we trust Him in the face of crisis? In today’s video, we’ll look at Psalm 91 to learn how to truly experience God’s promise of divine protection, even in a dark and fallen world. Enjoy!

The uncertainty of living in a dark world can cause us to live in constant fear if that’s all we focus on, but focusing on our good God becomes increasingly more difficult when we’re constantly surrounded by reminders of the fallen world we live in. War, violence, disease, divorce, and poverty can’t be easily ignored, and even Jesus tells us in this world, we will have trouble. (John 16:33) So how are we to navigate this life without fear, anxiety, and worry as the scriptures call us to? Psalm 91 is one of the most popular scriptures in the Bible that can help us answer that question, and for good reason.

As we study Psalm 91 today, we’ll learn:

• 🛡️ How to experience God’s divine protection so we can have peace.
• 🌍 Why we can trust God more than the dangers in this world.
• 📖 The 5 promises of God we can always hold onto no matter how bad things get.

Psalm 91 reminds us that although trouble is very real, our God is greater. The passage starts with the comforting and beautifully poetic words:

How to Experience God’s Divine Protection

1. ABIDE IN GOD’S PRESENCE 

Years ago, I remember experiencing spiritual warfare during a particular season and I became frustrated with God about it. I questioned why I had to go through all of that, but the truth was I felt fearful because at that time, I wasn't as confident in the authority that I have in Christ as I am now. Very shortly after that conversation with God, I had one of the most vivid and memorable dreams in my entire life. So much so that I remember it to this day. I was in a dark place and there was this huge bird or eagle in front of me that was much larger than me. It was all white and had huge stretched-out wings so that I could see the details within its feathers. There was a  glorious bright light behind the bird that was almost blinding, but the bird was casting the Shadow on me so it didn’t bother me and I just felt so protected and at peace. When I woke up, I replayed the dream in my head, and I thought of today's scripture: Psalm 91. That dream served as a visual reminder to me of what Psalm 91:1 calls the “secret place” or what  some versions call “the shelter of the Most High” where we can rest or abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 

No matter how dark life gets, it's when we are in God's presence that we experience His protection and peace. What we have to understand about God's presence is that He is omnipresent, which means He is everywhere. There is no place where we are that He is not. However, the presence that Psalm 91 is talking about in the secret place is different from the overarching presence of God that everybody experiences. To be in God's presence in His secret place or to dwell in His shelter refers to a much more intimate close relationship with God. So close in fact that a shadow is cast upon you when you are that close because in order to be in someone’s shadow, you must be close enough to them for their shadow to cast on you. Our experiencing God’s protection is connected to our closeness to Him. Are we dwelling and abiding in His presence? Spiritual practices like studying and reading the word of God, prayer, worship, fasting and so on are not things that we check off our to-do list just to say that we're good Christians. They usher us into the divine protection in the presence of God.

When I had some severe health challenges a few years ago, my pastor, the elders of our church, and all their wives came to my house to pray over me and my family. My pastor said that he was fully confident that the Lord would bring healing to my body, but he believed that this was also a spiritual attack as well and in accordance with the scriptures, he said that the elders would need to come to pray over me and my family in accordance with James 5:14-15 that says:

So my Pastor, the elders and their wives circled around me, Donald and the kids, and prayed for us and let me tell you, after that prayer, things drastically changed in my recovery. I exponentially got better every single day so much so that my physical therapist and my doctors were surprised. That's the power of prayer. 

There have been times when I've been paralyzed with fear and anxiety and I read Psalm 91 and experienced that fear just fall off of me. That's the power of God's Word.

When we allow those spiritual practices to make us aware of God's presence, it provides a divine protection that we can't find anywhere else. Prayer for me is not an option. It's a requirement. Reading and studying God's Word isn't for show. YouTube or not, I’m going to be in the Word. God’s Word is called the sword of the spirit for a reason. It provides divine protection. Practicing the spiritual disciplines that stir up our awareness of God's presence in our lives and deepen our relationship with Him; that's what it means to abide in Him. Jesus says:

Notice Jesus says we are called to abide in His presence, and His Word should abdie in us. We must know and live the Word of God to activate it’s protective power in our lives. 

When people commit a crime in one country, they run to another country to try and escape the authorities because all authorities have a limited jurisdiction in which they can enact their power. So a criminal will run to another country so that the authority from the country in which they committed the crime will have a much harder time acting the laws that they broke. 

As Christians, we want to stay within the jurisdiction of God by following His Word and will do it so that we can maintain the protection that He provides for us. Now you might be wondering, doesn’t God have authority over everything? Isn’t He all-powerful overall? Yes, He is. That is true; however, He is not going to break the very law that He put in place himself. So if we want to be covered from the consequences of our own actions and choices, we need to make sure that they are in alignment with the will of God.

A lot of people mistake the grace of God and think oh well, God is loving and gracious, I can just do whatever I want to, and He’ll just forgive me. The truth is God forgives the repentant person, the one who has the heart to turn from their sin, but even still, when you decide to operate outside of God’s will, you open yourself up to the consequences of that, even if you are forgiven. Galatians 6:7-8 puts it this way:

The protection that we read about in Psalm 91 is divine protection for those who are walking in God's will. So, in addition to being in close proximity to God in His presence, we also need to be walking with God, meaning, following His will. It’s then that we experience the promises of God’s protection that we read about in Psalm 91.

2. MAKE GOD YOUR REFUGE

The other day, there was a tornado watch in our area, and we were instructed to get to the bottom level of our house and find safety, preferably in the middle of the house, furthest away from any windows. We quickly gathered ourselves in our mudroom to wait for the tornado out. As the winds and rain whipped against the house, my youngest child’s eyes were big and watchful, as he never experienced anything like this yet. My husband and I assured him we would be ok and were simply taking the necessary precautions to ensure we stayed safe.

When you are in danger, you run to safety. In the same way, God has given us a warning of the dangers of this fallen world and tells us to take cover and find safety. Where? In Him. In the secret place. Psalm 91:2 says:

The Psalmist had divine protection because not only was he in a close relationship with God by abiding in God and His Word, but he also made God his refuge. When trouble came, God was a stronghold that he ran to. Throughout the Psalm, we read God being referred to as a stronghold. A stronghold is a location in battle that you can run to and hide to protect yourself from the dangers of war. It’s a safe place in an environment of danger. Spiritually speaking, King David referred to God as his stronghold meaning when danger came, He ran to God. 

How do you know if God is your refuge? Ask yourself, what do you run to when you are in trouble? What do you run to when you’re anxious? What do you run to when you are fearful? Are you running to God or are you running to scroll on your phone? Are you running to call that person over? Are you running to pornography? Are you running to distraction? Are you running to sex? Are you running to overworking, overeating, or overspending? Because those are strongholds too, not very good ones, but strongholds nonetheless.

Do you know why God wants us to tear down the idols in our lives? It's not because He wants us to have boring, unexciting lives. It's because He wants to protect us. It’s because He knows that those things cannot provide the divine protection that He can, yet we still run to them when we're in trouble. We must call the Lord our refuge, our hiding place, our secret place, our stronghold because if we don't, we open ourselves up for attack and we remain in danger.

3. REMEMBER GOD’S PROMISES FOR PROTECTION

It's then that we forfeit the promises of God's protection found in Psalm 91. The strongholds of this world will cause us to forget the promises of God. That's why we keep running back to them. It's because we have forgotten. So I love that today's verse reminds us of the promises of God for divine protection to those who love Him, to those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High. So if you find yourself off track today and you need a reminder for those promises to hold onto, Palm 91 verses 14-16 outline those promises for us to encourage you to make God our dwelling place. It reads:

Here are 5 promises of God to hold on to when you dwell in the shelter of the Most High:

1. God promises to rescue you. If you’re already in danger, He will snatch you out of it. He will either provide a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13) or pull you out of the pit altogether (Psalm 103:4).
2. God promises to protect you. The Psalmist referrs to God as a fortress. He will guard you on all sides. 
3. God promises to answer when you call. So make sure you are praying and calling out to Him. Don’t get so distanced with worry that you forget to pray.
4. God promises to satisfy your soul. You don’t have to run to the empty things of this world or make them your refuge. God can and will give you what’s good for you.
5. God promises to give you salvation. He has done that through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ and that promise can never be taken away. Learn more about how to access this promise by clicking the invitation link in the description of this video.

So unlock God’s divine protection today by abiding in Him, making Him your refuge and stronghold, and holdng onto His promises because in this world, we will have trouble and face storms of all kinds, so I encourage you to check out this video where I share the 6 types of storms you will face in life and how to overcome each one.

For more encouragement, download my free Bible Study called “Worry-Free” to learn the 3 lies feeding your worry and the truth to set you free at belovedwomen.org. Thanks for watching and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and beloved.