Bible Study - Psalm 91

Psalm 91 is a psalm of great confidence and hope for those who “dwell in the shelter of the Lord.” Some have understood it to be a promise to believers that once they are in the faith, everything will go just right for them, as they would wish. Instead, this psalm says that the Lord and His angels will be with them and us and help us through the many challenges and temptations we face in a very troubled, sin-sick world. The author is not identified in the original Hebrew text, though some think (and the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, says) that David is the writer.

Verses 1 and 9 indicate that this psalm is about those whose “dwelling place” is the Lord and who “abide” in Him. These are people, as verse 2 indicates, who say that they “trust” in the Lord God. Four different names are given for God in these verses. He is “the Most High,” above all things and the Creator of heaven and earth. (See Genesis 14:19, for example.) He is also “the Almighty,” the all-powerful, who is stronger than the greatest mountain. (See Genesis 17:1, “El Shaddai.”) He is also called “God” and “the LORD, “ the special name for the God of Israel in the Old Testament, “I Am Who I Am" (Exodus 3:13-15, 6:6-7).

Four descriptive words for the Lord are also used. He is “the shelter, the shadow, the refuge, and the fortress” for His people. We can probably understand all these, except for “the shadow.” In a very hot climate, the Lord provides shade, protection from the hot, blinding sun. (See the phrase “a shade from the heat” in Isaiah 4:6 and 25:4. Sunstroke was a real danger to many.)

All these names and descriptions for the Lord are to indicate that He is great and powerful enough to provide all the protection that His people need, and we need that protection, as the verses that follow indicate. There is “the snare of the fowler,” one who sets traps to catch birds (Psalm 91:3). This picture image really means “one who has the power of capture and death” over others. (See Ecclesiastes 9:12: “ Man does not know his time… Like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared in an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.”)

The New Testament uses the same sort of image for the dangers of Satan. See 2 Timothy 2:25 and the warning about “escaping from the snares of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” See also Hebrews 2:14-15 and Christ’s battle and death “to destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,” who wants to enslave people. Psalm 91:3 and 5 also uses the term “deadly pestilence,” and verse 10, “plague,” referring to illness and deadly diseases. We certainly know of these dangers, too, in our own day, dangers like Covid that come so unexpectedly, “that stalk in the darkness and waste at noonday.”

We are grateful for doctors and nurses and medications today that help us, but we also lean upon our Lord and His help and healing power, especially when there seem to be no human help and answers. Remember what was said of Jesus, God’s Son, in his earthly ministry in Israel. We read in Matthew 9:35 that Jesus was preaching the Gospel, but also “healing every disease and every affliction.”  He could do that for people.

Psalm 91:4 uses the image of the Lord as an eagle, with large, strong wings, to protect His people. (See similar images in Deuteronomy 32:9-12, where the Lord is “like an eagle… bearing His people on His pinions,” His wings, and bringing them to safety.) He told them at Mt. Sinai, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself” (Exodus 19:4). The Lord can provide “cover” and “refuge” and “shield and buckler” (a small shield) in His “faithfulness” to them. He can act like a protecting eagle or like a faithful warrior in battle, for them (Psalm 91:5-8). Eventually, “recompense” (just judgment and punishment) will come for the wicked” (Psalm 91:8).

Again, Jesus used some of the same images in His ministry, in reaching out to His fellow Jews. (See Luke 13:34-35. Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”) This is one of the reasons that some people do not get to enjoy the blessings of God’s promises in Psalm 91. They simply resist and reject the Lord and His will for them, including His plan for salvation through Jesus. They never come to faith in Christ or fall away from that faith and no longer dwell in the shelter of the Most High, rejecting God’s grace and blessing, earned by Christ and still available to them.

Psalm 91 does not answer the question, though, about those who are or seem to be in the faith and yet still suffer great troubles in this life. In contrast with Psalm 91:10, what about Christians who have evil befall them and those who suffer and even die from a plague like Covid or cancer or some other ill that came near to them? We do not understand many things and we struggle when these things happen. As believers, though, we still seek to trust in God, as Psalm 91:2 says. We believe that God is working for good, though we cannot see it, in what he allows, and He can turn things for some good purpose, in His wisdom, in things that happen to us and others. Certainly, even in the life and death of loved ones in the faith, God is showing His salvation and bringing them out of the troubles of this life and into eternal life and joy. God promises, through the Psalmist, to each believer, “Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name.” The ultimate deliverance is to eternal life in heaven.

God also talks about the protection He and His angels give in this life, in Psalm 91:11-13. Who knows how many times we have been spared from trouble when we did not even realize it? David writes, in Psalm 34:6-7, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles, The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers him.” Psalm 91:13 even says, “You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.” See what David told Saul, when he was willing to confront the giant, Goliath, in 1 Samuel 17:34-37. He had been able to battle lions and bears already and been victorious.

There are other such examples: Daniel in the lion’s den in Daniel 6:19-23, and Paul bitten by a deadly viper in Acts 28:3-8 and “suffering no harm.” See also promises such as Mark 16:18 and Jesus’ own words to his disciples in Luke 10:19-20. Note in this last passage that examples of  protection from literal “serpents and scorpions” are rare in the Scriptures, though God can do what He chooses. More important, Jesus says, is “authority… over all the power of the enemy” (referring to Satan) and “having your names written in heaven.” That saving work could only be done by Jesus.

That is why we must end this look at Psalm 91 by seeing how it is used by Satan and explained by Jesus, when He was being tempted by Satan, the devil, in the wilderness and when He was defeating all his temptations. You can read this story in both Matthew 4:1-11 and in Luke 4:1-13. I will focus on the account in Luke. While we pray “Lead us not into temptation,” the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, yet to do everything in the right way, where we so often fail. Though weakened by 40 days of fasting, Jesus was able to resist temptations about food and about authority and glory and false worship. These were all the sort of temptations the devil had used against the children of Israel in the wilderness in the Old Testament and was very successful in getting them to sin. Jesus defeated Satan each time in Luke 4 by just quoting Scripture from Moses and the wilderness days and what was truly God’s will.

Finally, Satan decided to quote Scripture himself, but in a distorted way, as he had done with Eve in the Garden of Eden. His temptation to Jesus went something like this: "If you really are the Son of God, as you claim to be, then surely God cares for you. He has promised, in Psalm 91, to guard and protect you and even send angels to help you, if needed. Here are the Scriptures you need, as proof texts, Psalm 91:11-12. Why don’t you jump off the highest point of the temple? The angels will surely catch you. Think how impressive a miracle this would be." (Of course, Satan left out the parts about trusting God in all one does and holding fast to Him and knowing His name and doing His will.) Jesus knew better. He simply quoted again Scripture from Moses and the wilderness days, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” by doing something risky and dangerous, especially at the suggestion of Satan.

Jesus knew something else, much more important, too. His plan and the Father’s plan was not for Him to live a safe and secure life here on earth, but to suffer and die in our place, a death and hell that we deserve for our sins. We have those amazing Scriptures that say, “For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin… and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” of the cross, to pay for and forgive all our sins and count us righteous and acceptable to God, with the gift of salvation and eternal life earned for us by Him (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 2:24).

Through all this and His mighty resurrection, Jesus also broke the power of Satan for us. We cannot see it completely yet, but when Christ returns, what Paul wrote will finally and fully happen: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). That will be the ultimate “trampling of the serpent, Satan, under our feet,” through Christ the King (Psalm 91:13).

It is in relationship with Christ that we now read Psalm 91 and all the Scriptures. As Paul said, in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” We will have what we really need, for this life and for eternity, in God’s great love for each of us in Christ, whether we can always see it or not. Paul put it so well in Romans 11:33-36: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable (impossible to understand and interpret) His ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?' For from him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." (Paul’s quotation is based on words from Isaiah 40:12-14 and Job 41:11.)