When I read the Psalm 91 book by Peggy Joyce Ruth, it just brought alive how much God loves and has provided for our every need through His Word.  At the time, I was memorising and teaching Psalm 91 to my dancing girls, and we performed it in church.

 I decided to write to Peggy and ask her for an interview, and she graciously agreed.

Thank you for your time in answering a few questions and sharing your heart with us.   I love to connect with fellow authors and discover not just their journey but the message God is giving them to share with others.  One of your main messages in this hour is Psalm 91.   In your book you share how it was a question to God and a quick dream that set you on a course of really hearing what God is saying in this Psalm.  Can you give us a quick overview of that?

We had just received some bad news about a member and loved one in our church. (At that time we were members of First Baptist Church in Brownwood and this was one of our beloved deacons.) I had just asked the Lord “Is there any way to be protected from all the things we see coming on the earth?” He answered me in an unexpected way……. As I fell asleep I had a dream I asked that same question and the Lord quoted to me a verse from Psalm 91:15 — In your day of trouble call upon Me and I will answer. That chapter answered in detail all the questions I had about protection, and even questions I had not yet asked. 

I notice that God often speaks to us in quick little dreams just before we wake up, and even in afternoon naps, does God speak to you this way often and what is your advice on becoming more receptive to this and even discovering what they mean?

This has not happened to me often. And the few times it has, it has been very clear. 

As a Bible teacher what are some basic tools and steps you use, that we can copy to help us study better?

When God opened Psalm 91 to me, I knew it was a supernatural revelation. I started on a study of that Psalm that lasted almost a year. I took every word in that psalm and looked it up in every Bible dictionary, in reference books and in dictionaries, and Strong’s Concordance literally dissecting those promises in every way possible. I also looked up every other Scripture reference I could find that allotted to those promises. 

Why is Psalm 91 so important?

For example:

Once I told God I was confused over the fact that psalm had been in the Bible for centuries and it was just now being discovered by 1000’s of people where it had been virtually overlooked by most Christians until very recent years (documented during the last 100 years in increasing testimonies and mentions). God supernaturally led me to I Peter 1:3-5 NASB. In those three verses, he named three things for which we should bless God: 

1. We are to bless God because of His great mercy, He had caused us to be able to be born again 
2. We are to bless God because He had caused us to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for us, and
3. We are to bless God because He had provided a protection by the power of God by faith through a salvation (look the word salvation up in the Greek) ready to be revealed in the last days.

That answered my question of why Psalm 91 has only been openly revealed in these last days — it was His plan for this revelation to be kept basically hidden until the last days when we would so desperately need it. That is just one example of how God has revealed things to me. 

I have found that if I ask God for an answer about something in the word that I am curious about or about something I don’t understand — in time, it seems to never fail that He will supernaturally start bringing Scriptures to me through different avenues that will answer my question.  

I love it when people dissect Hebrew or Greek words to get a better understanding of a passage, is this something you do?

I constantly use my Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible to dissect words in the Bible. I used it to dissect the words in Psalm 91.  

In your book, Psalm 91, you talk about the power of speaking God’s Word out over our lives.  When did you really start to realize this in your life?

When we received Psalm 91, we really started taking advantage of praying all those fabulous promises out loud. God doesn’t tell us to ‘think’ the Word. He tells us to confess the Word. In Verse 2, it makes a strong point that we should speak our faith aloud. This was new to me but I immediately could see the difference.  

I’ve seen on your website some references to a time of mental and emotional illness you went through.  What was it specifically, how did it come about, and what got you out of that?

I was overwhelmed with fear and depression for eight years. In my testimony book I tell how I came out of it but then I started filling my life up with the word of God. The Lord showed me how to examine every fear thought and find a Scripture promise from the Word to contradict each one of those fear thoughts as they came. I would quote that promise whenever the fear thought came and continue to quote it until the fear lifted. Without knowing it, I was renewing my mind to the Word and taking every thought captive to the obedience of God’s Word like it tells us to do in II Corinthians 10:3-5. It took a while of doing this faithfully, but soon the attacks lifted and I was set free.    

 

I’ve been through a time of intense spiritual warfare which could have been labeled as depression, and reading the Bible was the last thing I wanted to do.  Can you tell us more about the battle that we need to fight?

 

I, too, didn’t want to read the Bible at first. The enemy made me think it was making it worse, but that, of course, was just the trick of the enemy. When I over-rode those fear thoughts and pushed on through to find my Scripture promises to stand on – I finally got completely delivered and set free from the torment. Get a friend or someone you trust to help you if you need it. Find a person who has fought this and won. With the Lord all things are possible. 

 

Was Psalm 91 something that you were specifically declaring over yourself and family before the dream that got you studying it?

Before the dream I had no idea that Psalm 91 even existed.  It was totally supernatural how God gave it to me. At the time I didn’t even know how many chapters were in the Book of Psalms. 

How did you get into the publishing scene?

It was a number of years before I felt I was supposed to put my book in print. After my husband became a pastor I started teaching Psalm 91 to our church. I did that for many years and right before 9/11 God started impressing me to put this teaching in print. I self-published at first and finally got it in print in 2001. 

I noticed that your book was published initially by Creation House, the same publisher who did mine, did you really need to market your book or did it just fly off the shelves due to the nature of its topic?

I self-published my first Psalm 91 book: Psalm 91, God’s Umbrella of Protection. Then later, I had another Psalm 91 book (the military version) published by Creation House. Well there were some God-incidences that caused our website to start selling our original version in all 50 states very quickly. I loved to hear the stories from people of how they came across the book. Creation House gave it to the parent company above them because it did better than expected and they have requested additional versions since then. The stories from our soldiers and their families especially touched my heart. 

Was writing something that you had always aspired to do, or did the writing of this book creep up on you?

I had never thought of writing a book — certainly didn’t consider myself capable of writing. I guess I would have to say that God just laid it on my heart because I saw the need for people to know about this wonderful protection promises. 

 

What is the writing process like for you?

I usually just sit down and begin pouring out my heart on paper. Then I come back and begin organizing it, breaking it into chapters, smoothing it out to sound better, checking to see that I didn’t use the same word too many times, checking to see that the thought I was trying to put across was making sense, etc. I have to read the manuscript out loud a number of times to see if it reads smoothly and if it is putting the point across. 

Can you remember back to the days of small children and many interruptions, how did you spend time with God back then, is it very different to now, and how did you impart to your children such a strong faith?

 

Yes, there are interruptions when you have small children, but a lot of our Bible and prayer time can be with them, teaching them by example how to make the Bible come alive. I tried to go outside every morning and have my time alone with the Lord before they got up each morning. My husband was very good at putting the Word into practice with the children.

For example: the only time I remember a tornado being sighted on the ground within sight of our house, he got the kids out of bed, had them get their Bibles and took them outside to speak Psalm 91 directly to the tornado. When he felt assurance from the Lord that the danger was over he took us back into the house just as we heard the radio announcer excitedly announce: “The tornado has just zipped back up into the clouds.”

Our daughter was a freshman in our local college and when she went to class the next day, the professor was having different students tell what they were doing while the tornado was on the ground. Some were in bathtubs, two were in a storm cellar, etc. When he got to Angie she said, “My dad had us outside with our Bibles speaking directly to the tornado in Jesus’ Name and commanding it to dissipate. The professor immediately changed the subject and said, “Get out your text book and turn to page so & so.”  

In parting, what is your favourite passage of Scripture, and how has it changed your life?

 

Of course, I would have to say that Psalm 91 is by far my favorite passage of Scripture, but I also love Those who trust in the Lord shall not be disappointed. Later, I also wrote a book on that subject. I have all the Scripture promises marked in color in my Bible and they are all so meaningful. 

Thank you for giving me this fun interview. And Blessings to you in this special ministry you are in charge of.