Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say [Septuagint: He will say] to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
No other psalm offers such sweeping promises of protection to the one who trusts in YHWH. The promise in these verses is the promise of presence. A person who lives in the shelter of the Most High is hanging out in the shadow of El-Shaddai, the Almighty. The shadow is a frequent metaphor in the psalms and is usually coupled with “the shadow of his wings.” The metaphor of God as a bird protecting her young is one that anyone can grasp. Even the tiniest of birds is protective of her young, to the point of confronting predators much larger than herself. It’s not the strength of the bird as much as the tenacity exhibited in defending her young. The bird is not the strongest animal. For that we would find comparisons to lions and bulls. And yet this is the metaphor that the psalmist turns to. We are safe in the shadow of the Almighty as little birds are protected by their parents, who will resist any foe and frighten them away. All of this is true if you are living in the shelter of the Most High, if you are placing yourself in his care, trusting his ways and making Him ultimate. The psalmist declares that YHWH is “my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” A refuge is a place of rest and security. Like a fortress, in battle it is a place where the wounded can recover and from which a strong defense can be made. This was critical in ancient warfare as a strong refuge or fortress could allow you to outlast your enemy. Animals have this behavior as well, burrowing underground or in trees they can hide from predators. Such a wonderful promise is this, that we can rest and heal in God’s safe presence, knowing that the enemy is kept at a distance. The “shelter of the Most High” is also called a secret place or a hiding place, another great location in battle. For me, this secret place is the time that I spend reading the word of God and reflecting on it. It is the moment during the day in which heaven meets earth for me, and I am reminded of God’s sure promises. This truth supports me throughout the day in the various challenges that I face. The healing and rest in the secret place allows me to live with confidence and trust that God is in control and he is watching out for me as surely as a bird is protecting its young. Any predator coming after me is going to have to go through him. This is good news.
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
The psalmist continues with the God as a mothering bird metaphor stating that God will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. Birds were a common food source in the ancient world because they could be captured fairly easily with a net. Here God saves us from the net, just as he saves us from animal predators. As in verse 1, verse 4 describes God’s covering as feathers and wings, providing refuge for those who submit to his leadership. This metaphor suggests that God is both fierce and powerful as a protective parent, and we are weak and helpless like small flightless birds. God also promises to deliver us from the deadly pestilence, a word that is typically used of plagues and cattle disease. While we have a better understanding of germ theory today, it must have been horrifying to be sick in the ancient world. Diseases that are now easily treated by antibiotics now would have been left to take their course. Getting a disease was often a death sentence and we in the modern world have little appreciation for how tenuous life was for most of human history. The promise for deliverance from disease must be understood as hyperbole because faithful people then and now succumbed to death and disease. Nor does every believer find refuge from a traumatic death (the fowler’s snare). And yet I have heard testimonies of miraculous healing and escape from death, so it is not a meaningless hyperbole. There is truth here. Furthermore, God’s truth (faithfulness) is a shield and buckler. Ephesians 6 speaks of the shield of faith extinguishing the fiery arrows of the enemy. The buckler is a small shield that covers the fist, useful in close combat for quick reaction and protection. We trust in God’s faithfulness to be a source of constancy when our lives physically and spiritually are under attack. We lean on the reality that God is with us when the blows of the enemy rain upon us. He is there in the fray if we will acknowledge Him.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A person who places their trust in YHWH will not fear both visible and invisible foes. Night time can be a terrifying time, and this was perhaps even more so in the ancient world. Without modern lighting, it was pretty dark when there was a new moon. Lighting a match or turning on a flashlight wasn’t an option. So sleeping when someone wanted to kill you was not any easy task. The terror of the night is contrasted with the arrow that flies by day, suggesting the context for this psalm is the battlefield. It has been suggested that it is a prayer before battle, an attempt to fire up the troops to be brave in the face of potential death. Like the terror of night, the “pestilence that stalks in the darkness” seems to be fear of that which cannot be seen, in this case disease. It is parallel to “the destruction that wastes at noonday”, a wasting illness that comes upon you in the night and leaves you lifeless by noon. Just because we are living in the modern world does not mean that we don’t have such fears. They may not be fears of someone killing us in our sleep, but everyone has fears of some kind. Sometimes it is the terror of night, being alone and vulnerable while trying to get to sleep. Or maybe there are recurring nightmares that spring from internal anxiety. This is a great prayer before bed! The other primary fear suggested here is that of an invisible enemy, a deadly disease. This must have been particularly terrifying before the advent of modern medicine. Many today live in constant fear of contracting a disease. This fear affects their behavior and social life, pushing them to greater levels of anxiety and paranoia. It divides friends and family and makes us even more polarized as a society. The remedy is common sense safety precautions using the brain God has given us and then trusting in God, knowing that whatever happens, he is with us. The psalm seems to make it clear that we should not be living in fear as long as we are trusting in the Almighty and dwelling in Him day and night.
7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
What the psalmist describes here sounds like immunity from death. Although people will die all around you -- a thousand on one side, ten thousand on another -- you will be invincible. This is why this psalm is thought to be a prayer before battle, motivating the soldier to run into the fray with confidence. Rather than seeing yourself fall like the others, you will see the reward of the wicked. In other words, you will see justice done to your foes. They will get what is coming to them, and hard. What do we do with hyperbole like this today? If this were a video game it would be that moment where you have invincibility and you can do whatever you want without fear. While common sense must be considered, this text should encourage us to move forward with confidence in our kingdom work. Jesus redefines the battle, the battlefield, the enemy, and the warrior and if we understand these verses in that context, it is a reminder of the ultimate victory that has already been accomplished through the resurrection of Jesus. We use the phrase, “unexpected death” to describe someone who dies suddenly and surprisingly, but the reality is of course that death is always expected, without exception. So this promise is situational, not ultimate. If this is the prayer of a soldier it is meant to instill confidence to run into battle confident that God is on your side, your cause is just, you will prevail. As soldiers in the kingdom of God advancing the gospel, engaged in the battle for the hearts of men, God is on our side, out cause is just, and we will prevail. Be encouraged and do not retreat.
9 Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge [Or For you, O LORD, are my refuge! You have made the Most High your dwelling place] —
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
The promise is stated in absolute terms: no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague shall come near your dwelling. It reads as a guarantee of invincibility granted to those who make YHWH their dwelling, the Most High their refuge. As such, we must understand this in an ultimate sense. The fact is that everyone will die of something. It may not be a plague or an evil thing, but death will come and pay a visit to your home. That is a guarantee. However, there is an ultimate promise here: dwelling with God is an ultimate good that surpasses everything bad that could possibly happen to you. He is with you even in the darkest times (Psalm 23:4 - in the valley of shadow of death, the darkest valley). His presence is a light that does not go out when all other lights fail. We see this in godly people who have lost everything in this world but still cling to faith, they still say, “Yet, I will praise him.” We grieve, but we do not grieve as those without hope. Because of the resurrection of Jesus we can face evil and plague with hope because we are not alone. There is a shepherd who walks through it with us, sometimes carrying us over his shoulder. Verse 9 is an echo of verse 1, imploring us to live in God. Making him your home, your refuge. The New Testament will echo this idea with the phrase, “in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3-14 is a litany of the blessings that we experience now and forever when we are dwelling in Christ. There is in fact a type of “invincibility” for those who have overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. The martyrs of the church have understood this even as evil consumed their bodies in the flames and lions devoured their flesh in the arena. “Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body and after that do nothing more. No, I tell you whom you should fear. Fear him who has the power to cast both body and soul into hell.” Polycarp provides a good example of this. “I have wild animals here,” the Proconsul said. “I will throw you to them if you do not repent.” “Call them,” Polycarp replied. “It is unthinkable for me to repent from what is good to turn to what is evil. I will be glad though to be changed from evil to righteousness.” “If you despise the animals, I will have you burned.” “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and is then extinguished, but you know nothing of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. Why are you waiting? Bring on whatever you want.” (from The Martyrdom of Polycarp). Eyewitnesses said that the flames did not touch him so they wound up stabbing him with a dagger.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
The reason that no harm will ever come to you is that God will command his angels to guard you in all your ways, and they will lift you up the moment that you begin to fall so that you don’t even stub your toe. Again, this sounds like an absolute promise of physical safety, but this cannot be what it means because harm still comes to every human being regardless of their residence status when it comes to God. Dwelling with the Almighty cannot mean that no harm will ever come to you. Consider the apostles in the Book of Acts, sometimes they were saved in a shipwreck and protected from poisonous snakes, but other times they were beaten, stoned, whipped, and imprisoned. Paul had his “thorn in the flesh”, a messenger (angel) from Satan. Paul left Trophimus sick in Miletus and Timothy had stomach trouble. Epaphroditus got sick and nearly died. We can pray for God’s protective angels, but ultimately God’s will is what prevails and sometimes in his wisdom he allows harm to come to us. “Who has known the mind of the Lord or been his counselor?” This verse has the distinction of being the only verse of the Bible quoted by Satan. In his temptation of Jesus he told him to jump off the highest point of the temple because God would send his angels to bear him up. In other words, “put God to the test, and see if his promise is true.” Jesus is having none of it and tells him, it is written, “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test.” It would seem then that if we choose to take this verse literally it is not an act of faith, but an act of disobedience. The lesson then is to avoid being reckless. Use the brain that God gave you and do risk some assessment. If an action is likely to cause you harm, don’t do it. However, for another angle, consider that this psalm was a favorite of Jim Eliot, missionary to the Auca indians of South America. He believed the promises of this psalm and took the gospel to the men who ambushed him and four others along the river where their plane had landed. It would seem that God’s angels failed that day. And yet, his loss of life inspired countless others to attempt the same kind of thing. Lord, I’m happy if you want to keep me from stubbing my toe anywhere, but I’d be even happier to attempt great things for you even at the cost of my life.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
Having referenced the fact that you will not even stub your toe, the psalmist continues the focus on feet with the promise that “you will stomp on snakes and lions.” Stated in a chiasm and in perfect parallelism, the psalmist draws a line under the fact that those who dwell with God are winners. The lion and the serpent are metaphors for human enemies in the psalms, but they are also symbols of the ultimate enemy, Satan, throughout scripture. From the earliest chapters to the end, the devil is portrayed as both the sneaky, deceitful snake, and the powerful, roaring lion who tears humans apart. Again, this promise is categorical like the others as it seems to be without exception. This verse, Paul’s experience with a snake in Acts, and the promise in Mark 16 has led some believers to handle snakes as an act of worship. (Notably, they don’t do the same thing with lions). The psalmist isn’t inviting us to stomp on snakes and lions, just as he is not inviting us to throw ourselves off buildings so God’s angels can catch us. The principle underlying the entire psalm is that if you live with God, you will win. Jesus himself alluded to this verse in the gospels when he said to you his disciples that he “saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. No harm will come to you” (Luke 10:18,19). Jesus is helping us interpret this psalm by giving us the ultimate context. The disciples certainly had their victories over the enemy, but they were also all martyred. What they gained was ultimate victory, life eternal. We can claim these promises as we advance the gospel in dangerous territory. I think of missionaries who are on the frontlines in places where their lives are threatened, of believers in those lands who meet in secret and suffer loss for their faith. They are both trampling Satan and being harmed. So God’s promise is about ultimate safety, the security that is found by being in the center of his will. The lions certainly devoured Christians in the arena even as they prayed prayers like this. The security that God speaks of here is not temporary, not for the relative few days that we spend on this earth. It is an eternal security where we ultimately triumph over death, disease, and the devil.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
In verse 14, the voice of the psalm changes from that of the psalmist to the voice of God himself. “Because he holds fast to me (in love) and knows my name, I will deliver him and protect him.” These are the first two of eight promises that include, “I will answer him when he calls, I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him. I will honor him. I will satisfy him with long life. I will show him my salvation.” These are reiterating the more specific and metaphorical promises made through the psalm, and many of them overlap in meaning. The central thrust if you are dwelling with God, he will be with you and protect you. You are not alone and you can expect to live a long life. We all know people who lived with God and honored him and yet were struck down early in life. I can see their faces in my mind even now. Perhaps it is my age and the amount of suffering that I have seen, but I can’t help but go there and ask why. Did God’s promises fail? It would seem so, but then again, that is only my limited perspective speaking. No one knows the mind of God, and this is where we must simply trust that God is keeping his promises, even though we cannot see how. Apart from those questions, these closing verses are meant to help us move through life in confidence and not fear. Yes, bad things can happen to us, but the hope of eternal life gives us power to face them and move forward despite the risks. Saints through the ages have trusted these promises and advanced the kingdom while holding tightly to them. They are not a guarantee of an easy life. In fact, one of the promises is that he will be with us in trouble, implying that we will endure difficulties and the promise is not necessarily protection, but provision and presence. The final promise is that we would see his salvation, another subtle pointer to Jesus. The way that God saved was through suffering, not avoiding it. It was his abandonment of his own son that granted us salvation. Jesus is God’s salvation for us, the guarantee of our victory over death, sin, and the snakey, liony enemy.