I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” Psalm 91:2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
You who dwell in My secret place, that is, the inaccessibly high secret place of the Most High, will abide in My shadow, the shadow of Shaddai. Psalm 91:1. But how do you get access into that inaccessibly high secret place? I give you the answer in the very next verse of Psalm 91, you say something. And this should not surprise you for I give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, but how do I give them to you? They are not a big set of metallic keys. No, they are My Words in your mouth, The keys are your voice, that is, the words of faith you say, for the gates of Heaven are voice activated.
And what is it you must say? You must call upon My Name, that is, the appropriate Name for obtaining what you need in any particular situation, for if the promise you are seeking is signed in My Name you know that what you are seeking is yours. And, if you read Psalm 91, you will find that you are seeking the place of perfect protection in a perilous world. And the key to accessing that place is to know and believe in My Name as your refuge and your fortress, for that is My signature to the promise to be that for you, so you say to Me, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” Psalm 91:2. And this is Life Lesson No. 20 in our series of instructions on knowing Me by knowing My Name: “My Refuge and My Fortress.”
This is a very good Name to know, for I help, deliver, and save those who take refuge in Me. Psalm 37:40. I redeem the souls of My servants, none of those who take refuge in Me will be condemned. Psalm 34:22. I AM your refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1. Take refuge in the shadow of My wings until destruction passes by. Psalm 57:1. You are safe in Me and the evil one cannot touch you. 1 John 5:18. I AM a refuge for you, a tower of strength against the enemy. Psalm 63:3. I cover you with My pinions, And under My wings you may seek refuge; My faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. Psalm 91:4. I AM a shield to those who take refuge in Me. Proverbs 30:5.
My Name is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe, lifted inaccessibly high. Say with joyful thanksgiving in times of trouble, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” Psalm 91:2. Why with joy? When I am your refuge and your dwelling place, no evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. Psalm 91:9-10. And that is something to rejoice about!
But once you get there, what do you do in that secret place so you abide continually in Me, the Most High, in the shadow of Shaddai? Let My servant David answer that because he did just that for thirteen years hiding in caves and seeking refuge from the attacks of Saul and the army of Israel, and I call it the key of David. David sang, “For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.” Psalm 27:5-6. You thank and praise Me for being your refuge and your fortress and surrounding you with favor as a shield, and get excited about it before you actually see it manifesting and it will be there for you. And again David explains the secret key, “For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.” Psalm 63:7. Singing for joy in the dark hour! And one more witness, for two or three witnesses establish a fact, “For my soul takes refuge in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by . . . My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.” Psalm 57:1. 7-8. Yes, it turned his dark night into the dawn of day.
You have a refuge and a fortress in Me. There is no snatching out of My hand. Say to Me, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” Psalm 91:2. In Hebrew, “my refuge” is “machsi (מַחְסִ֣י)” and “my fortress” is “mesudati (מְצוּדָתִ֑י).” The noun “refuge” in Hebrew is pronounced “machaseh” or “machseh” (מַחֲסֶה) depending on the vowels you put in, it means refuge, shelter. If you add the “i” sound on the ending it means “my refuge” and you do this with a letter yod. The noun “fortress” in Hebrew is pronounced “matsud” (מָצוּד) and it means castle, a castle type fortress, which is elaborate and rich. I call Zion, David’s city and the heavenly Zion a matsud, a fortress but a very splendid one. A kingdom fortress, which if you have read the book of Revelation has amazingly high walls and you can only enter by the gates. You cannot climb over those walls, they are impenetrable and inaccessibly high for they surround My dwelling place, the dwelling place of the Most High. And yet for you who have taken Jesus a Lord (for when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and have faith in your heart that I raised Him from the dead that is the key that opens the ancient gates wide and high. Psalm 24:7-10), the gates are always open, just call upon My Name and you will be saved.
And looking separately at the letters of machseh, the first letter is mem (מ), the pictograph of which is living water, representing My Spirit, and whose numeric value is forty. The next letter is het (ח), the pictograph is a fence or enclosure and it has the numeric value of eight. Since het is the first letter of the word in Hebrew for “life,” hai (חי), it is a symbol that means “life.” The form of the het also looks like a marriage canopy. The word huppah, חופה, which means the marriage (wedding) canopy, begins with a het. The next letter is a samech (ס) which equals the number sixty in Hebrew numerology. Its circular form is symbolic of the endless cycle of life. The letter samech is a symbol of support and protection. This is inferred by its all-encompassing shape and asserted by its meaning: support. The letter samech is one of the only two fully closed letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the other being the letter mem in final form. Samech stands for soolam, meaning ‘ladder.’ Its pictograph is a basket. The last letter of the word machseh is hei (ה), of which there are two in My Name, יהוה. Hei is the fifth letter and is also number 5. Its original pictograph was a Man with arms raised—revelation from Heaven he beholds and it is grace upon grace pouring down. So what does all this mean? Mem: My Holy Spirit leads you as a child of Mine to Het: the enclosure of the secret place, And from abiding in there to the Samech: a basket filled with life and godliness and every good thing remaining. And from the basket overflowing with good to the letter Hei, pouring grace into your life and surrounding you with favor as a shield. And adding up the numbers of the letters and reducing it down we get: 40 + 8 +60 + 5 = 113, and reducing further, you get 1 + 1 + 3 = 5. The number of grace. There’s a place called grace, that you access by faith, and it is your refuge.
I AM your refuge, I AM your fortress. A refuge is a place of safety, a place of forgiveness where your sins and failings are not held against you, a place of protection, and a place of unconditional love, where you are received and held away from harm and loss just because you came with a heart turned to Me. No one who comes to My Son will ever be rejected. He is your city of refuge who saves you from the avenger of blood, by His blood shed for you, which calls out for mercy and not vengeance as the blood of Abel did. He saves you from the wrath to come.
In the cities of refuge that I instructed Moses and Joshua to establish in Israel, the one who took asylum there had to leave when the High Priest who had allowed him entrance to that glorious city died. But Jesus, your great High Priest, will never die, He died once for all and now lives forever to make intercession for you and save you to the uttermost. You never have to leave My city of refuge if you choose to stay. Abide in Me and let My Words abide in you, attach to the vine of Jesus and you will remain and bear much fruit that remains. And I will lift you high, in fact, I have already seated you with Christ in the heavenlies.
When you believe in the good news of your salvation and take Jesus as your Lord, I seal you IN CHRIST by the Holy Spirit as a pledge of your eternal life and glorification. And when you are IN CHRIST you are in My refuge, for He shields YOU from the wrath to come. You have passed from death to life. He did not come to judge you but to save you, to give His life for you so you could live forever holy and blameless without reproach before Me. “Father, forgive them they know not what they do,” qualifying you for the sin offering and for dwelling in the city of refuge, for those who find asylum there had to have murdered unintentionally.
Jesus is your great High Priest and your great good Shepherd. As your good Shepherd, He promises you that “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30. No one can snatch you away from My hand. I shelter you in the rock of Christ and cover you with My hand. Exodus 33:22. I lift you up. I send from on high, I pull you out of the pit, out of the flood, I draw you out of many waters. Psalm 18:16. And I bring you forth into a broad place; I rescue you because I delight in you. Psalm 18:19. I bear you up on eagles’ wings, and bring you to Myself as My own special treasure for My Son has made you unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:4-6; Revelation 1:5-6.
I will protect you, lift you securely on High, because you know My Name. Psalm 91:14. The night when He was betrayed, Jesus prayed for you to Me and He let you hear what He prayed. And He prayed for you that are in the world, that I would keep you in My Name, the name which I gave Him, that you may be one even as I am with Him. He did not ask Me to take you out of the world, but to keep you from the evil one, to sanctify you in the truth; My Word is truth. John 17:11-17. To be your refuge and your fortress, your God in whom you trust. You are in the world, but not of the world, when you are abiding in My secret place. Remember when the people of Nazareth wanted to throw Jesus from the brow of the hill? They led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way. Luke 4:29-30. He was well hidden in My secret place. And so are you in Him. You are My sanctuary and a temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16.
And I give you My armor so that you are encased in the protection of the Word. My armor is a refuge—the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. My faithfulness is a shield and a bulwark. From everlasting to everlasting I have been, am, and will be your refuge and your fortress.
I love you. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give constant thanks, and that will keep you securely on High.