Under His Wings

Scripture: Psalm 91, Luke 4: 1-13

Sermon: Under His Wings

Topics: providence, prayer, safety, temptation, trust

Preached: August 27, 2018

Rev. Mike Abma

¹ You who live in the shelter of the Most High,

   who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, 

² will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress;

   my God, in whom I trust.’ 

³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler

   and from the deadly pestilence; 

⁴ he will cover you with his pinions,

   and under his wings you will find refuge;

   his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. 

⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,

   or the arrow that flies by day, 

⁶ or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

   or the destruction that wastes at noonday. 

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 look with your eyes

   and see the punishment of the wicked. 

⁹ Because you have made the Lord your refuge,

   the Most High your dwelling-place, 

¹⁰ no evil shall befall you,

   no scourge come near your tent. 

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you

   to guard you in all your ways. 

¹² On their hands they will bear you up,

   so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. 

¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder,

   the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. 

¹⁴ Those who love me, I will deliver;

   I will protect those who know my name. 

¹⁵ When they call to me, I will answer them;

   I will be with them in trouble,

   I will rescue them and honour them. 

¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy them,

   and show them my salvation.

Luke 4: 1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. ³The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ ⁴Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’

5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. ⁷If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’⁸Jesus answered him, ‘It is written,

“Worship the Lord your God,

   and serve only him.” ’

9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, ¹⁰for it is written,

“He will command his angels concerning you,

   to protect you”, 

¹¹and

“On their hands they will bear you up,

   so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ 

¹²Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ ¹³When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. 

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION – Isabel Godin

Robert Whitaker’s book, The Mapmaker’s Wife, tells the story of Jean and Isabel Godin, a couple in 18^th century South America.

It tells the story of how they met,

how they married,

and how they lived.

But the most dramatic part of their story occurs in the year 1769,

when Jean and Isabel found themselves on opposites sides of

the South American continent.

Jean was stuck on the east coast in Brazil

and Isabel was on the west coast in modern-day Ecuador.

It was decided that Isabel would take a company of 9 family members and 31 servants to make the long and difficult journey

over the mountains,

then down into the heart of the Amazon jungle

traveling from west to east to reunite with Jean.

It was an incredibly difficult journey in which things went from bad to worse. Over the months of travel, a number of the servants abandoned them. Others died. Three months into the journey, the company of 40 people was reduced to only 4: Isabel, her two brothers, and her nephew.

The 4 of them were lost in one of the most inhospitable parts of the Amazon jungle.

They stumbled about, desperately foraging for food and clean water all the while getting weaker and weaker. In time the nephew, then both the brothers, all succumbed to disease aggravated by starvation.

That left only one person alive – Isabel, a 40 year old woman alone in the middle of this vast jungle.

I do not know about you, but when I dream of traveling, I do not dream of going to the Amazon jungle. The thought of being lost and alone in the wilds of the Amazon sounds more like a nightmare than a dream.

The Amazon jungle is filled with a lot of creepy creatures – not just the big ones, like jaguars, and giant anaconda snakes, and poisonous pit vipers, but also the little ones – the swarming mosquitoes, the hosts of spiders (including tarantulas), and perhaps worst of all, stinging and biting ants.

The days were incredibly difficult for Isabel to endure.

But the nights were even worse.

It would become pitch black and the jungle became filled with the

sounds of creatures both great and small.

How did Isabel survive those nights?

Isabel would find a large tree with flared and buttressed roots.

She would sit on the roots and lean against the tree.

She would cover her head with a shawl,

giving her some protection against the swarming insects.

Then she would pray.

She prayed for rest.

She prayed for calm.

She remembered the psalms she learned as a girl,

psalms like Psalm 91

You who live in the shelter of the Most High

Who abide in the shadow of the Almighty

Will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,

My God in whom I trust.

As she cowered under her shawl, she remembered some of its other reassuring words:

He will cover you with his pinions

And under his wings you will find refuge…

You will not fear the terror of the night

Nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness.

The words of the psalm helped take her mind off her fears.

They gave her the peace she needed to fall asleep –

Whether she lived or whether she died,

She knew she belonged to the Lord.

And then, in the morning, when she woke up, she would whisper,

“Thank you, Lord. You have preserved me for another day.”^[1]

PSALM 91

Is it any wonder that Isabel Godin

turned to the words of Psalm 91 for comfort?

The Old Testament scholar, Walter Bruggemann,

describes Psalm 91 as one of the most reassuring

of all the psalms in the psalter.

In its words we find not only

a safe place in the Lord as our refuge and shelter;

in this psalm we also find

safety under the protecting wings of the Lord

in the journey of our life.

It is easy to see why this psalm has been a favorite for those facing danger:

whether it was medieval knights before entering battle,

or allied soldiers before landing on the Normandy beaches on D-Day,

or doctors waging war against epidemics.

Here is a psalm that brings the promises of the Most High, the Almighty,

right down to where they were needed;

right down into the dangers we are facing.

JESUS’ TEMPTATIONS

Given how reassuring Psalm 91 is,

there is something truly sinister about the way the Devil,

out of all Scripture, decided to use this passage to tempt Jesus.

Although hungry, Jesus had already resisted the Devil’s temptation

to make bread;

Although weak, Jesus had already resisted the Devil’s temptation

to be given strength and authority.

Now the Devil is poking at any doubts that Jesus might have –

any doubts that his heavenly Father

was truly present, and truly loved him.

So the Devil decided to do some Bible quoting himself.

He takes Jesus up to the top of the Temple in Jerusalem.

He says to him,

“if you are the Son of God,

then throw yourself down from here,

For it is written,

He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,

and on their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

It is such a pious sounding temptation.

It was the Devil daring Jesus

not only to believe in the love and protection of His Heavenly Father,

but to test it.

OUR TEMPTATION

We know this temptation.

And we are most tempted by it

when we are a little desperate ourselves.

We are most tempted when

we begin to doubt God’s presence,

when we begin to question his love,

when we begin to want more ….

more from God than we are getting.

A year ago,

when my brother was dying of cancer,

I was in that kind of desperate wilderness.

The temptation was to make deals with God.

The temptation was to pray a certain way to God.

The temptation was to say things like:

If you really are God,

then you will cure this;

If you really are loving,

then you will not let him die;

If you heal him,

then I will know…..

I will know you truly are a loving God.

Thoughts like this,

sound scarily similar to what

the Devil was saying to Jesus:

“If you are really….

then you will do this.

If God really loves you,

then let him prove it with that.”

JESUS’ RESPONSE — Faith and Love

Jesus’s final response to these temptations

are these words:

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

These are words from Deuteronomy.

These are words

spoken to Israel in the wilderness.

These are words

that tell us to have faith, not to live just by sight;

to believe, and not demand proof for our beliefs.

Some have called this type of believing a blind leap of faith.

A blind leap of faith – a phrase often attributed to the Danish philosopher,

Soren Kierkegaard.

Kierkegaard never actually used that phrase.

In fact for him,

faith is not a blind leap.

Kierkegaard made the astute observation

that faith is more about making the risk to love

and that to risk love is to presuppose love.

In other words,

to truly love another

is to trust that

love is also in the heart of the other.

And so,

to truly love God

is to trust that

love is in God’s heart for us.^[2]

So why does Jesus refuse the Devil’s temptation?

Because Jesus presupposes love –

he is so sure of his Father’s love,

that he does not need to test it,

or prove it.

It is in that assurance

that Jesus walks out of the wilderness

into the mission he was sent to accomplish.

DRIFTLESS

I started with a story from the steamy hot Amazon jungle.

I end with a story from a frigid winter in Wisconsin.

The following story is in David Rhodes’ novel Driftless.

It is the story of Graham and Cora

who are parents of two young girls.

They live on a 246 acre dairy farm in Wisconsin.

It is a stormy winter’s day.

Graham has spent the day in the barn.

Cora has just come back from work in town.

The storm has turned into a blinding blizzard.

When Graham and Cora meet in the house,

they suddenly realize

the girls are not there.

Graham assumed the girls were in the house.

Cora assumed the girls were in the barn.

In a panic, they realized their girls

were stranded somewhere

in that blinding blizzard.

The blizzard was so bad

that you could hardly see a foot in front of your face.

So Graham and Cora tie a rope to the barn

and venture out from the barn into the blizzard

holding on to the safety of that rope.

Search as they might,

they could not find the girls.

Graham is faced with a dilemma:

Does he let go of the rope

and venture into the storm?

Does he let go of the one thing

that is connecting him to security, to safety?

Does he let go

and venture

into the howling, merciless wind?

Graham,

out of love,

desperate love,

let’s go, and ventures forth.^[3]

CONCLUSION

You may think that this is a good illustration

of our leap of faith.

But no…..not really.

I told you that story

because it is a much better description

of Jesus’ desperate love for us —

a love so deep

that he was willing to let go

of all the safety, all the security

he ever knew

to venture into the storm

to save us,

his lost children.

Amen

PRAYER

O Lord, whatever darkness we are lost within,

Whatever danger swirl around us,

Help us know that when we shelter beneath your wings,

When we know your presence surrounds us

We have nothing to fear.

In Christ’s name we pray. Amen

1. Robert Whitaker, The Mapmaker’s Wife pp. 269-273. Isabel Godin is not alone in her experience. Many people facing extreme danger testify to the presence of God in their darkest nights. For examples see Wilfrid Noyce, They Survived: A Study of the Will to Live. ↑

2. See Soren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love ↑

3. In David Rhodes, “Desperation Chapter” in Driftless, Milkweed, 2008. ↑