9 Days of Psalm 91 | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

if you have your bibles and would stand with me tonight in honor of the reading of the book of all books a book that there has never been nor will there ever be any book like it the infallible word of almighty god the book of psalms this evening chapter 91 and verse 1 psalms 91 and verse 1. i'll read verse 1 we'll pray and you'll be seated psalms 91 and verse number 1. he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty precious god tonight your word is our lamp your word is our light your word is our compass your word is our sword your word is our bread your word tonight is what guides us and protects us and leads us lord tonight as i minister the word use me god speak through me tonight lord let our hearts be hungry let our hearts be open god and let our spirits be fed tonight in jesus mighty name we pray amen and amen you may be seated tonight for a title this evening i want to minister on nine days of psalms 91 9 9 days of psalms 91 i believe that any pastor worth his salt attempts in times of trouble and uncertainty to go to the word of god and to seek the word of god and how the word of god addresses the current situations that we may be faced it was last night at sevierville sister stumbo stood to testify to greet us and she began to talk about psalms chapter 91 and she told a story in history many many years ago there was a pandemic there was a pandemic that was going throughout europe and thousands were dying there was no cure there was no medicines thousands thousands were dying and a physician who was very well known at that time prescribed that the only way that they would get through that epidemic that pandemic was to read daily psalms 91 and all 16 verses of psalms 91. sister stumbo spoke and said that since march since march and all of the trouble and turmoil that is in their country dealing with this that since march that every morning the first thing that she does is to get up and read psalms 91 verse 1 through 16. when she said that last night it was if as if god put a big load of groceries in my lab it was as if he put a he put a a a grass bags of groceries in my lap and it was as if god was telling me now i want you to feed the people i want you to take this to the people and i want you to feed the people with this psalms chapter 91 verses 1 through 16 and sister stumble i joined you this morning the first thing i did when i got out of bed this morning was i got my bible and i read psalms 91 verses 1 through 16. and i'm going to do the same right now he that dwelleth in a secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty i will say of the lord he is my refuge and my fortress my god in him will i trust surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler thou shalt not be afraid for the terror that by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon today a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked because thou hast made the lord which is my refuge even the most high thy habitation there shall no evil befall thee neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways they shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder the young lion and dragon shalt thou trample under feet because he has set his love upon me therefore will i deliver him i will set him on high because he hath known my name he shall call upon me and i will answer him i will be with him in trouble i will deliver him and honor him with long life will i satisfy him and show him my salvation nine days of psalms 91. now what i want to challenge you tonight to do is for the next nine days beginning in the morning i want to challenge you to get up and read psalms 91 1-16 and i want that to set the flavor for your day i want that to be the i want that to be the seasoning that goes upon your 24 hours i believe god will give us peace i believe god will give us comfort well going back to verse number one going back to verse number one as you study psalms 91 and verse 1 or the entire chapter you soon find out that this song called a psalm this song was written in a time of trouble this psalm was not written on a cloudless day this psalm was not written when the barns were full this psalm was not written when life was filled with joy and contentment this song was written in a time of great trouble as a matter of fact as a matter of fact sermons and songs can have one thing in common give me a man that preaches a sermon from the depths of hurt and he's been delivered i'll show you a sermon that'll move you but show me a man that's never been through anything that tries to tell you how to get through something and i'll show you a boring 45 minutes songs are written songs are written from times of darkness am i right sister erickson am i right brother eriksen songs are written people get inspired to write songs not on cloudless days they get inspired to write songs in the darkest deepest pits of despair why even i'll tell you an analogy you could use even our national anthem that people hear before their ballgames while holding a bag of popcorn and a soft drink at a time of relaxation and entertainment as we have the national anthem saying don't you know that francis scott key the writer of that song was on a ship out in the harbor a prisoner as he was witnessing boston the fort washington dc had already been burnt the capital had been burnt in the 1800s by the british the british had already burnt the capital our capital had already been burnt the home where the president lived in had already been burned the treasury building had already been burned and now they turned the british turned their attention toward that fort and throughout the night francis scott key prisoner and american on that ship watched and listened as one bomb after the other was being unleashed if that fort had fallen america would be no more but that's where we get the song oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we held at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight over the ram parts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red flare bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave we sing that song today at our ball games we sing that song it's called our national anthem but do you know that was birthed out of a night of uncertainty it was birthed watching does that flag still fly if there would be a song that would be the national anthem of christianity if we could pick one song to be the national anthem of christianity it would be the song amazing grace how sweet the sound that would save a wretch like me i once was lost but now i'm found was blind but now i see oh can i tell you about that song that song was inspired by a sinner a man filled with liquor a man that was brought up by christian parents but went astray and finds himself on a ship in the midst of a storm and no doubt that ship was going to be broken up and his life was going to be lost but laying there on that ship being tossed about he turned his eyes toward god and began to cry out to god for god to save him and he witnesses he witnesses that a great hole was in the side of the ship if the ship would tilt to one side surely the sea would come into the hole and the ship would be sunk but he watched miraculously as cargo shifted from one side of that ship and filled the hole up on the other side and the daylight would come and he would be saved he gave his heart to god and later would write the song amazing grace how sweet the sound that would save a wretch like me or what about the song that we stand and sing it is well it is well with my soul it is well it is well it is well with my soul you don't know the inspiration of that song when the titanic was sunk a man had sent his wife and his children on and he stayed back he was going to join them some time later but the wire came through that the ship had been sank and his wife and his daughters were no doubt drowned some time later they went out on a memorial villa a voyage and they came to the spot and they told him this is probably the spot where the ship broke and it was there knowing that somewhere under the depths was his wife and his children he found his faith in god and he began to write the song it is well it is well it is well with my soul can i tell you today that we are writing songs in this season i wonder what our songs will sound like i'm believing god excuse me sister erickson but i refer to you tonight but i'm believing god that somewhere in this church and somewhere in our fellowship somebody's going to pin the words to a song that's going to describe exactly how we felt at the moment whether it was amazing grace how sweet the sound or it is well it is well with my soul somebody's going to have a song somebody's going gonna write a song well if i was writing my song if i was writing my song and telling you i feel during this time the first word that would come to my mind would be alone but not alone isn't that a hard way to describe it alone but not alone another word that would come to my mind if i was trying to pin a song misunderstood but somehow approved of words come to my mind of the song because the songs are nothing more than how you feel put into words and put on paper that we can later look back on we really don't know who wrote psalms 91 but i'm telling you whoever wrote psalms 91 wrote it in a dark day he wrote it in a time of uncertainty but i'm so glad that he wrote the song because this psalm has proved to be a treasure to us he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty he that dwelleth in the secret place see god understands something where our strength lies tonight you got to understand where our strength lies tonight our strength is in a secret place don't you ever expect the world to know where your strength lies they didn't know where samson's strength lied until he told it you see tonight our strength comes from our secret place presence of god our hearts that nobody but ourselves and our god knows what's what's in our heart our secret place he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty you see tonight you need to have that secret place god needs to be your strength you can't see you can't touch him but you need to know that you have an anchor you have an anchor that is steadfast and sure a name that is above every name a word that cannot fail it is the word of our god it is an anchor that we can hold on to don't expect the world to understand that tonight they'll laugh at you they'll market you they'll call you all kinds of names they'll they'll they'll they'll make they'll they'll say things about that that that that you don't know what you're doing you're a you're an imbecile you're a baboon to believe this but let them say what they may say because every man is on his own in this storm but i'm glad tonight that i've got a secret place i'm glad i've got a secret place that i can run to and not only do i have a secret place not only do i have a secret because i have a secret place i now dwell under the shadow of the almighty now it's hard for us to comprehend the value of a shadow it's hard for us to comprehend because we have lived in modern day fans or air conditioning but there was a day when shade trees were most coveted there was a day when if real estate was going to have a high value find me a piece of ground that's got a lot of shade trees because it was in that time without the air conditioning and without the fans and all of that if you were going to get any relief from the blistering sun you had to find you a shade tree but oh under that shade tree you could find rest well we've long since we've long since needed a shade of a shape of a tree but in god i still need his shadow i still need the shade of the almighty because we are living in a blistering world around us but thank god if we have god as our secret strength if we have god as our secret resource if we're willing to trust god's word believe god's word read god's word oh when sister stumbo was reading tonight about going through the fire and going through the flood and i i have called you by my name that became real to me that became personal to me why because of our faith in god's word our faith in god's word that you can build your life on oh i'm thankful tonight for the shade of the almighty then verse number two i will say of the lord do you know it's very important that we have something to say about our secret strength and we have something to say about our shade i will say of the lord he is my refuge and my fortress my god in him will i trust i'll tell you i'm going to personalize this tonight i'm going to read it again kenny will say of the lord he is kenny's refuge and kenny's fortress kenny's god in him will kenny trust you say oh that's you know you ought to put your name to it because it's the truth it would be as if you opened up your bible and i said to you i said to you brother zachary look what i found right here look what i found look look what i found in psalms 91 and 2 i will say of the lord he is zachary's refuge he is zachary's fortress he is zachary's god in him will zachary trust and he's look at that say man that's my name church that's our name right there that's as real as it being our name verse 3. surely i wish somebody say that first word say it again surely surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler what's a snare something you don't know that's there a snare is all it's a trap remember that message it's a trap he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence now that word noisem there actually has to do with aroma of the stench of a battlefield the aroma of the stench of rottening flesh on the battlefield and he says he shall deliver me not only from the snare of what i can't see but he'll deliver me from what i can see he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield that word shield is protector protector and buckler can i ask you something tonight if you don't believe you're under god's word and god's covering then just who's covering are you under just who's covering are you under because you either got to believe what i'm saying tonight if you are a christian if you are a christian then you have to take good cheer you have to take a lot of confidence tonight you have to to you have to to understand what's going on out there you're under the shadow of the almighty you're dwelling in the secret place you have to understand i'm under a different covering oh thank god i'm under a different covering sister steph there's been millions of women that's got the diagnosis that you had put upon you and they just accepted we're not anti-doctor we're not anti-medicine we're not anti-any of that we thank god for all of the medical technology and all the ways that they have of treating us now but when they gave you your diagnosis many people accepted what they said and accepted that death was ever close to them but because you are a woman of faith you understand that i am not under this covering i thank god thank you doctor thank you nurses thank you all for giving me the information thank you so much but when i walk away i thank them for what they know but i know that my coverage does not lie with them that i have a god that i have a secret place i worship him as a matter of fact you really need to worship him in the daytime because if you can't worship him in the daytime it's very doubtful you'll worship him in the night season don't wait till it's night to find out if you trust him trust him in the good times trust him in the trust him in the good times of your life so when the dark times come and listen dark times have come dark times has come and dark times will continue to come but praise be to god i'm covered by a different covering because you're either covered by man only or you're covered by the hand of almighty god he shall cover thee verse four let me go back to verse four he shall cover thee with his feathers now you know what the analogy is there don't you he shall cover thee with his feathers jesus made reference to this at the rejection of his own people jesus jesus looked ahead he was living at that time somewhere between 30 a.d and 33 a.d and because he's god sister cano because he's god robed in flesh jesus christ saw the future he saw 40 years later he saw the roman army the roman government he saw the city of jerusalem surrounded by the roman government the roman armies he saw women literally being slashed with the swords he saw little ones he saw roman soldiers taking little children and dashing them to death against the stones he saw the beautiful temple he saw him taking ropes and pulling down the rocks he saw jerusalem totally destroyed and he cried out and he said if only you knew the time of your visitation if only you knew who i am that's really what he was saying if only you knew me how much more would i have gathered you under my wings as a mother hen doth her chicks a mother hen by nature when those little babies are hatched under her that mother hen by nature and i've even seen this in a a a a a a video i even seen a storm that had come through and a mother hen had so protected her little chicks by by taking her wings and and and placing them over those mother chicks that the wind had actually killed the mother hen but the chicks the little little little chicks survived through the night because the mother hen protected him and jesus was trying to say how many times would i have gathered you under my wings how many times the storm is coming the romans are coming they're coming in 70 a.d they're coming how many times would i have stretched my wings out and i would have covered it but here's the sad thing but he ends by saying but thou wouldest not you would not allow me to be your covering you would not allow me to stretch out over you oh i want him to know tonight on this wednesday evening lord cover me lord cover me o god lord cover me god lord i can't keep myself god i want you to cover me my hope and my trust almighty god is in you would you give him some praise right now he shall cover thee with his feathers under his wings shalt thou trust under his wings shalt thou trust under his covering shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield you want to be protected have a truth shield you want to be protected have a truth shield his truth is thy shield protection and buckler that buckler is the part that gives you the advancement is that is thy shield in thy buckler thou shalt not be afraid for the terror that by night thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night he says don't be afraid of what you can't see thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day he's saying don't get out from under the covering because you can't see something or you do see something a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come naive now i want to stop here and i'm giving you the nine days of psalms 91 challenge i hope you take that i hope you take that you know there's a lot of challenges you go on social media a few years ago there was a lot of challenges that went out people did all kind of challenges for some worthy goods and some things were worthy to do it for and others were not but i hope you take my nine my nine-day psalms 91 challenge and i hope somewhere in this church mr erickson and i keep coming back to you i hope some member of this church maybe the most unlikely member comes to you with a piece of paper in the months ahead i hope some member in this church comes with a piece of paper and says sister erickson these are some words that came to me during the dark days that we were going through these are some words that came to me see what you can do and it just may be that on a sunday night somebody's going to get up here and grab a microphone and sing a song that'll raise the hair on the back of your neck and cause tears to stream down your face because you remember by the words of that song that god has been and god always will be a faithful god he always has been and he always will be a faithful god i want to go to isaiah 38 for a few moments tonight isaiah chapter 38 verse number one just follow with me as we read isaiah 38 and 1 in those days was hezekiah sick unto death sounds bleak isaiah the prophet the son of amos came unto him and said unto him thus saith the lord set thine house in order thou shalt die and not live now you talk about being bleak not only is the man sick but he gives he gets a call from his pastor his pastor comes in the room and the pastor isaiah walks over and says hezekiah do you have your will made out do you have your will is everything set in order yes you're going to die and not live it's going to happen isaiah turns around then hezekiah verse 2. then hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto the lord now look at that if he turned his face toward the wall then what had to be there before he turned his face toward the wall his back had to be toward the wall does that sound familiar amen i got my back against the wall that's right but why don't we try putting our face toward the wall so he put his face toward the wall verse three this is why let me tell you something this is why you live for god in good days this is why this is one of the reasons you live for god when the sun is shining you thank god for the sunshine you thank god for his blessings you thank god for every good thing you just thank god you praise god you work for god you live for god because when these days come listen to hezekiah verse 3 and said remember now oh lord i beseech thee how i have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and hezekiah wept sword now listen listen to me now too many people get in this dilemma and have to pray like this god if you'll heal me i'll serve you god if you'll heal me i'll go do this and i'll go do that what they're really saying is god give me mercy i don't deserve anything god give me mercy but i don't know about you but i don't want to fall in that dilemma i don't want to wait till tragedy has struck and rung my doorbell for me to start saying god if you if you'll heal sister carpenter god i'll serve you all the days of my life i don't want to do that i want to do like hezekiah and say god remember me now i have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight listen to me tonight when you're under the covering of the lord and you're serving the lord when tragedy comes you have the confidence to go to god and say god you know i've been serving you god you know i've been living for you god you know i've been praising your name god you know god that i've been obeying all that i can do he says god and then he just cried he just got to crying verse 4 then came the word of the lord to isaiah saying he stopped the pastor go and say to hezekiah thus saith the lord the god of david thy father i have heard thy prayer i have seen thy tears behold i will add unto thy days 15 years listen to this listen this it does pay to serve god you hear me tonight it pays to serve god don't you allow the adversary to discourage you it pays it gives you rich spiritual dividends he said god god didn't come back and say hezekiah you rotten low down scoundrel you've not walked with me you you you've not served me you've not done no when hezekiah began to talk about it god be he god began to say yes that's right he has walked with me and then god told hezekiah isaiah said i changed my mind he said go back up in that room and tell him i'm going to give him 15 more years go back up in that room and tell him i've given him 15 more years i have heard his prayer i have heard his cry isaiah said isaiah 38 6 isaiah said to him and i will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of assyria and i will defend this city i don't have time to read it all uh he got a pretty noticeable sign that god would heal him and that was it was about the close of the day when hezekiah and isaiah had this conversation and god gave him a sign that he healed him and that was he rolled the clock back 10 hours he rode the clock he rolled the clock back ten hours it was his choice he could have it either way he could either speed the clock up ten hours or or or put the clock back ten hours and he chose and i hope you get this he chose to start the day over instead of a good ending he chose to have a good beginning he said roll the sundial back 10 degrees roll it back it goes on it goes on and then verse nine hezekiah writes about because remember what i said songs are written not on cloudless days he writes the writing of hezekiah verse 9 the writing of hezekiah king of judah when he had when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness i said in the cutting off of my days i shall go to the gates of the grave i am deprived of the residue of my years i said i shall not see the lord even the lord in the land of the living i shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent i have cut off like a weaver weaver my life he will cut me off with the pining sickness from day even tonight wilt thou make an end of me i reckon until morning that as that as a lion so will he break all my bones from day even to night will thou make an end of me like a crane or a swallow so did i chatter i did mourn as a dove mine eyes fell with looking upward o lord i am oppressed undertake from me what shall i say he hath both spoken unto me and himself have done it i shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul oh lord by these things men men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit so will thou recover me and make me to live look at this song look at this do you see the transition he's talking about a man laying dying i'm mourning i'm chattering i'm moaning like a swallow i'm i'm shattering i'm in bitterness i'm talking about i want to live but i'm dying i'm not going to get to see this is going to be my last holiday this but then he turns the corner and he says oh lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit so will thou recover me and make me to live behold for peace i had great bitterness but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou has cast all my sins behind thy back for the grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down in the pit cannot hope for thy truth the living the living he shall praise thee as i do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth the lord was ready to save me therefore will we sing wait wait a minute i thought you were just talking no i was telling you how i was feeling i was telling you when i was laying on my bed sick i was saying this is the last christmas then i'm not going to see my children grow up this is it for me i'm going to die but god had another plan i was under another covering i walked with a god that i could not only have my back against the wall if you want to do things yourself have your back against the wall but when you're covering is your god you can turn your face to the wall and then he begins to say but god gave me life god gave me peace god gave me these things and i close with this the lord was ready to save me therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of god who would have ever thought sister steph that that i that that hezekiah rolled up in that bed about to die would have ever had a turnaround in his life to where one day he would stand in the temple and somebody would say in your songbook turn to the page of hezekiah and they would begin to sing a song about a man that was dying but because he had faith in an almighty god and he walked with god he could turn not his back to the wall he could turn his face to the wall and god would turn it all around because listen to me tonight god is god and god is a faithful god and god will always keep his word you can put your trust in him you can build your life on him you can praise his now why don't we stand and do that you can praise his name you can worship his name you can ask him for protection you can ask him for deliverance you can ask him to heal your loved ones you can ask him to make a way where there seems to be no way oh god give us peace lord oh god give us peace tonight lord give us peace tonight lord in the name of jesus god this storm is raging god would give us peace in the midst of the storm come walking on our water glory come walking on our storm o god for you are great and you are greatly to be praised thank you lord thank you lord sister stumbo thank you for your inspiration tonight thank you church family once again once again i hope all of you will take the nine days of psalms 91 read it the first thing you get up in the morning read it read that and every day as you read it you'll receive new strength from the hand of the lord because he is our strength tonight one more time before we go home let's just lift our hands and thank god tonight thank you lord you are our strength god