The Power of Worship: Psalm 91

He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Worship is an integral part of our walk with God. In fact it has been stated that man was created, chiefly to worship God. It is evident from scripture that God cannot worship Himself, He on various occasions boasts about His power but never do we see Him worship Himself. Worship is the reason for our being.


Now Psalm 91:1 introduces two names of God which are basically some of His attributes;

1. The Most High

2. The Almighty

1. The Most High

Most High is the English rendition of the Hebrew word “El-Elyon“. It’s a title meaning, Lofty, Supreme, Highest, Upper or Uppermost. It is very interesting to note that nowhere in the Bible does God refer to Himself directly as The Most High! When the name appears it’s always someone else referring to God by the name. This is because this name is a worship name on its own, mentioning it is an act of worship.

Man is a worshipping being created with an inner longing and desire to worship. We all worship something or someone in this life. Ecclesiastes 3:11b states that God has placed eternity everyone’s heart. It was St. Augustine of Hippo who wrote “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you”

What is Worship?

William Temple, archbishop of Canterbury (1942-44) who stated it wisely sums up what worship is in an amazing way;

"Both for perplexity and for dulled conscience the remedy is the same, sincere and spiritual worship. For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, the nourishment of mind with His truth, the purifying of imagination by His beauty, the opening of the heart to His love, the surrender of will to His purpose-and all these gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and source of all actual sin. Yes- worship in spirit and truth is the way to the solution of perplexity and to the liberation from sin."

2. The Almighty

This is the English version of the Hebrew word “El-Shadday” which means destroyer, powerful, this name shows the power of God over his enemies. It is amazing that God uses this name to refer to Himself directly in most cases in the Bible. The name first appears in Genesis chapter 17 when God appears to Abraham who had by now had given up hope of having a child with Sarai because of the delay and her old age. Ishmael might have been his only consolation. God appeared to him and after introducing Himself as El-Shadday, He goes ahead and renews the promises He had made to Abraham who laughs off the idea of Sarai having a child at her old age, but in the Genesis 18, God confirms the promise and it becomes a reality.

In Psalm 91 God has a lot of promises to those who worship Him and have set their eyes on Him. These are some of the promises:

1. Verse 3: Deliverance from danger

2. Verse 4: Protection against any harm

3. Verse 5: Courage is promised

4. Verse 7: Immunity- You enjoy peace in turmoil

5. Verse 13: Spiritual victory and dominion

6. Verse 15: Answers to prayers guaranteed

7. Verse 16: Longevity of life promised

May God renew your heart so that you may worship Him in spirit and in truth, Amen.