Psalm 91: A Truth Satan Fears
Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the 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 I will trust. Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler — that means the secret traps that you don't see coming your way — and from the perilous pestilence.
In the original translation, the way that reads is: from the perversion that comes into a society when the restraining hand of God is lifted off of it. He will deliver you from secret traps and from the perversions that are going to be prevalent in this and other societies in the last days.
He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge. His truth will be your shield and your buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.
Whether there are acts of terrorism in various countries throughout the world, or threats even of nuclear war, the Bible says you will not be afraid. There will be a confidence that God puts in your heart that is born of the Spirit of God. It is born of a trust in the keeping power of God. No matter what happens, no matter what difficulty comes our way, you will not be afraid.
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Because He has set His love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has 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.
This psalm — Psalm 91 — contains a truth about God that Satan himself fears. He fears that if it's believed, it would instill a barrier of promise in the hearts of those who believe in it that no power of hell can get through and breach. That's why he is afraid of Psalm 91.
How Satan Used Psalm 91 to Tempt Jesus
It was this psalm that Satan quoted when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4. Actually, in the temptation of Christ — after he was baptized in the Jordan and went into the wilderness, led of the Spirit to be tempted by Satan — this was the only scripture that Satan did not fully quote. He quoted a part of it, but not the whole scripture.
He came to the Son of God. Now, he knew who he was fighting with. He was contesting with the Son of God. I don't know how he knew it, but Satan knew who Jesus Christ was, and he had a sense of what his mission was on the earth.
The first temptation he brought to him was essentially this: If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. In other words, if you are the Son of God, why are you not being fed? Why are you hungry? If you are the Son of God, there must be a resident power within you — use it for yourself, use it for your own benefit. Turn these stones to bread.
Of course, that's what the devil did — that's why he fell from heaven. He was not content with the ways, the will, and the word of God. He wanted something higher than he was assigned by God. He was tempting Christ to change his situation by his own power and his own influence.
Then he took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said again: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For
