If a person doesn't abide in the secret place with Him, he isn't going to be heard frequently declaring, "The Lord is my refuge, in Him will I trust!"
The Hebrew word translated refuge here is defined simply as "a place of refuge, shelter, trust." If you want to know where you are in the Lord, you can find out by getting honest with yourself and identifying your normal place of refuge. When things get tough in your life, when the pressure is great, where do you hide?
A lot of people use liquor as their hiding place. Alcohol is their refuge when their world gets rough. Others may turn on the television and vegetate for three or four hours. That becomes their escape from the difficulties of life. Others instantly run to friends or family.
Do You Run To God, Or Away From Him?
What is your refuge? If you are in close fellowship with the Lord, you will say, "He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust!"
But He won't only be your refuge; He will be your fortress too. When placed together in a pair, these two words essentially represent God's answer to both the small and large challenges in your life.
A refuge is a secure place, a little hiding place. A fortress, on the other hand, is a large place like a castle or a stronghold. By using these two terms, the psalmist is telling you that whether you need just a little or a lot of help, God is there for you.
And when God is your fortress, Psalm 91:3 becomes true for you: "Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence." Deliverance will be a fact in your life. He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the noisome pestilence.
The fowler in Old Testament times was "one who took birds by means of nets, snares, decoys, etc." Amateur fowlers would pursue their game in the thickets and fell them with a throw-stick made of heavy wood. Often they would also take with them a decoy bird. In order to keep the decoy near its post, they usually chose a female bird and kept her nest with its eggs in the boat.
This is analogous to Satan. He is the spiritual fowler who uses any means he can to trip you up in your walk with God. He may even try to tether you to him by stealing your young.
The noisome pestilence is an odd-sounding phrase that means a "rushing, calamitous plague." What does the pairing of these two terms, fowler and noisome pestilence, tell us? That whether it is a subtle trap set to snare you unaware or the enemy coming in like a flood, you can depend on God to deliver you!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers