Promises—Psalm 91:15-16

He will 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.

The Lord makes many great and precious promises to the one who loves and knows Him. In these verses, which continue the thought begun in verse 14, we find five of those promises.

The Lord first of all promises to answer the one who calls upon Him in faith. When we call someone on the phone, it is possible that they will not answer. They might be gone, or sleeping, or maybe they are just letting the answering machine get it. This will never be true of God. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He does not go on vacation. He does not let His administrative assistant or the answering machine answer the call. He will answer. Look at Jeremiah 33:3. Jesus made this same promise when He said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” See also Matthew 21:22; Luke 11:5-13; John 15:7.

Secondly, the Lord promises to be present with the one who trusts in Him. The presence of God with His people is implied throughout Psalm 91. If we are dwelling “in the shelter of the Most High” and resting “in the shadow of the Almighty,” we are clearly living in the presence of God. Because we are weak in faith, particularly when trouble comes, God states the promise clearly and repeats it often. See Joshua 1:5, 9 and Matthew 28:20. It should be noted here that children of God are not exempt from trouble. In the face of those troubles, however, we have the assurance of God’s loving and faithful presence.

A third promise the Lord makes to His children is to grant them both deliverance and honor. There is no trial or trouble that ever has or ever will come into the life of a believer that does not have a good end. See Romans 8:28 and James 1:2-4. No matter how many troubles believers encounter, the Lord delivers them from them all and turns them into blessings. He bestows honor upon His children both in this life and the life to come, though the honors of this life are nothing compared to the honors of the next. See Psalm 84:11.

In the fourth place, the Lord promises a long and satisfying life to the one who trusts in Him. Matthew Henry rightly points out that the child of God will live long enough. The believer will complete all the work that the Lord has put him in the world to do, and when the Lord has finished fitting him for heaven, that will have been a long enough life. We do well to not wish for even one extra day beyond what the Lord has ordained for us. Henry also points out that children of God will believe their life to be long enough. They have stored up their treasures in heaven and are ready to enter in. It should be noted here that the child of God will be satisfied with life. It is written that, “…godliness with contentment is great gain.” See also Psalm 81:16 and 132:15.

Finally, observe that the Lord will show His salvation to the one who trusts in Him. Here the faithful are assured that the goodness of God extends far beyond this life. We will one day see Jesus face-to-face and, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” This is what Simeon was celebrating in Luke 2:25-35. In Christ, all the promises of God are “Yes” (2 Corinthians 1:20). We who trust in Him are assured that all these promises and many more are ours and will be kept by our loving Father.