The Great Reversal: God's Own Promises Text: Psalm 91:14-16
Introduction: The Voice Behind the Promises
We have been walking through this great fortress of a psalm, this ninety-first psalm, and have seen promise after promise stacked on top of one another like massive granite blocks. Protection from the fowler's snare, from the deadly pestilence, from terrors by night and arrows by day. We have been assured that though a thousand fall at our side, and ten thousand at our right hand, it will not approach us. Angels have been given charge over us. We have been promised victory over lions and serpents.
But now, in these final three verses, the voice shifts. Up to this point, it has been the psalmist, speaking by the Spirit, declaring these truths to the faithful man, to the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High. But now God Himself takes up the speech. The one who makes the promises steps out from behind the curtain to deliver the final, binding oath Himself. It is as though the ambassador has delivered the king's message, and then the king himself steps forward to look you in the eye and say, "And I myself will see to it."
This is a staggering crescendo. God is not content to have His promises reported secondhand. He delivers them personally, directly, and with His full authority. And what is the basis for this outpouring of divine favor? It is not our inherent strength, our tactical genius, or our moral resume. The conditions are stated plainly, and they are relational, not transactional. "Because he has loved Me," and "because he has known My name." Love and knowledge. Affection and identity. This is the heart of the covenant. Everything else flows from this.
In a world that is constantly trying to reduce our relationship with God to a series of checkboxes, a set of rules, or a consumer transaction, these verses call us back to the heart of the matter. God's promises are not for the clever, the strong, or the self-righteous. They are for those who love Him and know His name. This is not sentimentalism; it is the very engine of the covenant. Let us attend, therefore, to the very words of God.
The Text
"Because he has loved Me, therefore I will protect him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in his distress; I will rescue him and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him And I will show him My salvation.”
(Psalm 91:14-16 LSB)
The Foundation of Favor (v. 14)
God begins by laying out the cause, the reason for the magnificent effects that are to follow.
"Because he has loved Me, therefore I will protect him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name." (Psalm 91:14)
Notice the structure here. It is a divine "because, therefore." Our modern sensibilities, soaked as they are in therapeutic deism and a general sense of entitlement, don't like conditions. We want God's blessings to be a universal basic income, distributed to all without qualification. But God's economy does not work that way. His promises are covenantal, which means they have terms. And the terms here are not onerous burdens, but delightful realities. The first is love. "Because he has loved me." The Hebrew word here speaks of a deep affection, a clinging love. It is not a mere intellectual assent to God's existence. It is the heart's delight in Him. And we must be clear: we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). This love is not something we manufacture to earn His favor; it is the God-given response to His grace. It is the evidence of His work in us, not the cause of His work for us.
The second reason is knowledge. "Because he has known My name." In the Scriptures, to "know" someone's name is not simply to be able to pronounce it. It is to understand their character, their authority, their very being. To know God's name is to know Him as He has revealed Himself: Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6). It is to know His reputation, His works, His promises. This knowledge is not abstract; it is personal and experiential. It is the kind of knowledge a faithful wife has of her husband. And because the faithful man knows who God is, he trusts Him. He runs to that name, for "the name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10).
And what is God's response to this love and knowledge? "Therefore I will protect him; I will set him securely on high." The promise is one of deliverance and exaltation. To be set "on high" is to be placed in a position of safety, out of the reach of enemies. It is a picture of a fortress on an unassailable cliff. When you love God and know His name, you are not down in the mud with the enemy, trading blows on their terms. God lifts you up, giving you a security and a vantage point that your enemies cannot touch.
The Open Line of Communication (v. 15)
The promises continue, moving from general protection to the specifics of relationship and rescue.
"He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in his distress; I will rescue him and honor him." (Psalm 91:15 LSB)
Here we see the fruit of loving God and knowing His name. The one who knows God's character is the one who will not hesitate to call on Him. Prayer is not a desperate, last-ditch effort for the man of God; it is his native language. He calls, and God gives the astounding promise: "I will answer him." This is not a promise that we will get every trinket we ask for. It is a promise that the line is always open, and the King is always listening. The answer may be yes, no, or wait, but it will always be an answer from a loving Father who knows what is best.
But the promise is even more intimate than that. "I will be with him in his distress." God does not promise a life free from trouble. He does not promise that the faithful will never walk through the valley of the shadow of death. What He does promise is His presence in the midst of it. This is the great comfort of the Christian faith. Our God is not a distant deity who winds up the clock and lets it run. He is Immanuel, God with us. He gets down in the foxhole with us. He is not just the God of the mountaintops, but the God of the valleys, the God of the furnace, the God of the lion's den.
And from that place of presence, He acts. "I will rescue him and honor him." The rescue is deliverance from the trouble. But God doesn't just pull us out of the mud and leave us standing there, embarrassed and dripping. He honors us. This is the great reversal. The world seeks to shame the righteous. The enemy seeks to disgrace them. But God takes the very situation intended for their humiliation and turns it into a platform for their honor. Think of Joseph, sold into slavery and thrown in prison, only to be exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh. Think of Daniel, thrown to the lions, only to be honored by the king. And supremely, think of Christ, crucified in shame, raised in power, and seated in ultimate honor at the right hand of the Majesty on High. God does not just save; He vindicates.
The Ultimate Satisfaction (v. 16)
The psalm concludes with a final, sweeping promise that encompasses both this life and the next.
"With a long life I will satisfy him And I will show him My salvation.” (Psalm 91:16 LSB)
"With a long life I will satisfy him." In the Old Covenant, long life was a tangible sign of God's blessing and favor. It was a fulfillment of the fifth commandment, to honor one's parents "that your days may be long in the land." This is a general principle, not an ironclad guarantee that every godly person will live to be a hundred. We know that godly men and women sometimes die young. But the principle holds: the path of righteousness is the path of life, and the path of wickedness is the path of destruction and premature death. The fear of the Lord adds length to life (Proverbs 10:27).
But the word "satisfy" is key. God does not promise a long life that is miserable and empty. He promises a life that is full, meaningful, and satisfying. It is a life that, when it comes to its end, can be looked back upon with gratitude, as a full meal that has been enjoyed. This is a qualitative promise as much as a quantitative one.
And then comes the ultimate promise, the capstone of it all: "And I will show him My salvation." The Hebrew word for salvation is Yeshua. God promises to show the faithful man His Yeshua, His Jesus. While the Old Testament saint looked forward to this salvation, we who live on this side of the cross look back to it and forward to its final consummation. This is the ultimate deliverance, the ultimate rescue, the ultimate honor. It is salvation from sin, from death, and from the wrath of God. It is to see, fully and finally, the deliverance that God has accomplished for His people.
This is more than just being rescued from temporal troubles. This is eternal life. This is seeing God face to face. This is the final answer to the deepest longing of the human heart. All the previous promises, protection, exaltation, rescue, honor, long life, are but foretastes of this final, glorious reality. God will not just give us salvation; He will show it to us. We will see it in all its glory, and its name is Jesus.
Conclusion: The Promises are Yes in Christ
As we read these astounding promises, spoken from the mouth of God Himself, we must ask how they can be true for us, who are sinners. How can we, whose love is so often fickle, and whose knowledge is so often flawed, lay claim to such treasures? The answer is that we do not lay claim to them in our own name, but in the name of another.
There is one Man who loved the Lord His God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, perfectly and without fail. There is one Man who knew the Father's name and made it known. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate "he" of this psalm. He called upon the Father, and was answered with resurrection. He was with God in His distress on the cross. He was rescued from the grave and honored with the name that is above every name. He was satisfied with the life He lived, and He is the very salvation of God shown to us.
And the good news of the gospel is this: "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Corinthians 1:20). When we are united to Christ by faith, all that is true of Him becomes true of us. His perfect love for the Father is credited to our account. His perfect knowledge of the Father's name is imputed to us. We are placed "in Him," and therefore, these promises are for us.
So when you are in distress, call upon Him. When you are surrounded by enemies, trust in His protection. When you are brought low, anticipate His honor. He will be with you in the trouble, He will rescue you, and He will show you His salvation, His Yeshua. Because you are in the Beloved, you are beloved. Because you are in the one who knows the Name, you are known by name.