Surely *he* shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the destructive pestilence.
In verse 2 someone calls the Lord his refuge. Verse 3 is the reply: a promise of rescue from a hidden trap and a deadly disease. Two questions follow — who speaks the promise, and who receives it.
Older translations open verse 3 with "Surely." Writers read the verse as another speaker's reply to that trust. One writer maps the psalm as a conversation between the Messiah, the Spirit, the faithful few of Israel, and the Lord:
Verse 1: Whoever takes the secret place gets the might of the Almighty. Verse 2: Messiah says, I will take Jehovah as my refuge, etc. Verse 3: The Spirit declares the consequences of this. In verse 9 the remnant address Messiah. In verse 14 Jehovah comes in, and sets His seal on the whole.
Commentators differ over who speaks. William Kelly reads verses 3 to 13 as the words of the faithful few of Israel, not of the Spirit. They answer Christ's trust in the Lord by declaring that He is safe from all evil.
A fowler is a bird-catcher. His trap catches because the bird never sees it.
That is what makes a snare dangerous: it does not look like one. A pestilence is dangerous in another way — it spreads, and among believers what spreads is false teaching:
Does not a snare represent evil hidden under a fair exterior? The apostle Paul warns us against being taken in by "enticing words" (Col. 2:4), and says that some in the professing Christian circle will be caught "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26). The apostle Peter warns that among the saints some will "secretly bring in destructive heresies" (2 Peter 2:1). Was it not a "snare" the Lord had to meet when wicked men tried "to catch Him in His words"? They came to Him with flattery: "Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion… but truly teach the way of God." Was it not a "destructive pestilence" He had to meet when the Sadducees argued there is "no resurrection"?… Whatever our knowledge and gifts, unless we are in secret communion — abiding in Christ — there is no snare we cannot fall into.
The devil quoted this very psalm to Jesus in the wilderness, which is why writers see the fowler at work there in the plainest way:
Satan is very wise. He is very crafty. If you foil the enemy once by dependence upon God he will still come back to you. If he does not get in at the front door, he will come again and try to enter by the back door. And what will he come with next time? Very likely a text, since he finds that you believe in Scripture… If I might so say, here, in this wilderness episode, is the fowler seen spreading a snare.
The same writer calls the devil's use of verses 11 and 12 a "mangled quotation." The devil left out the words "in all your ways," so the promise covers the path of obedience, not a leap taken in self-will.
The pestilence stands for what would stain a man. One writer shows how the Lord passed through it untouched:
Think of that sinless perfect Man, with corruption and evil around Him on every hand. How glad we are to know that He left this world as sinless and as perfect as when He entered it. Nothing of the world's corruption or sin could leave a mark on this blessed Man. His every confidence was in God… At His birth He came in without defect, and in His pathway He passed through without a stain.
The promise reaches ordinary believers too. One writer looks at a weak believer who got free, and finds two things in his ways:
Let me just notice how this poor weak one of God broke the snare of the fowler. We see two things in his ways. First, he followed the light honestly and faithfully, as it was given to him and as it shone in him more and more clearly. Second, he simply pleaded the works and ways of Jesus, his Deliverer and Friend, against all the suggestions of the enemy. This was his security, and it is ours too, whether Satan presses us or entangles us.
The verse is not a guarantee that a Christian will be spared every hardship:
God as a Father watches over us, but that does not mean we shall always escape suffering. We have something better than a promise of that kind. We may indeed pass through the fire, but not a hair of our head shall perish. In this psalm the promise is personal deliverance, and if we look for that we shall make terrible mistakes.
- Trust answered. Verse 2 speaks trust; verse 3 answers with a promise. Commentators differ only over who replies — the Spirit or the faithful few of Israel.
- Trap named. The fowler stands for Satan. A snare is evil hidden under a fair exterior: flattering words, a half-quoted text, teaching that spreads like disease.
- Trap sprung. In the wilderness the devil quoted this psalm itself, but left out "in all your ways." The promise covers obedience, not self-will.
- Trap broken. Knowledge and gifts keep no one. Deliverance comes by abiding in Christ, following the light honestly, and pleading the works and ways of Jesus against the enemy.
- Trap survived. Christ passed through a corrupt world without a stain. For us the promise is keeping through the fire, not escape from it.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou find refuge his truth is a shield and buckler.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, for the arrow that flieth by day,
Psalm 91 promises safety to anyone who makes God his refuge, and verse 5 names two of the dangers he will still meet. The promise is not that the arrows stop flying, but that he will not be afraid.
One writer works out who is speaking here, and how far the promises reach.
Who is this supreme God over all the earth? Who will find His secret place to live in? Almighty power will completely protect the one who has found it. Messiah (Jesus) says, I will take the God of Israel as that place, Jehovah. In verses 3–8 we have the answer. No doubt this is true of every godly Israelite, and they are in view. But they are led by the Spirit of Jesus, the one perfect faithful One who truly took this place.
So the words fit Christ first, and then everyone who trusts as He trusted.
Night and day are paired on purpose. One writer reads them as the two ways the enemy came at Christ.
The "terror of the night" works by hidden hints. "The arrow that flies by day" is the deliberate, vicious attack out in the open. Neither had any effect on the calm courage of faith that always marked this blessed Son of Man (v. 5). In both cases, whether the attack was underhand, or whether it was bold and open, they never took the Lord Jesus off guard.
Another writer links this fearlessness to a life of secret communion with God.
Of the one living this life of secret communion, we can say, "You will not fear." We live in a world of terrors by night, and dangers by day. A world in which there is lurking evil and wasting destruction. We may have to face these things on every side — as the word says, "at your side," and "at your right hand." Yet if we walk in secret communion, we shall "not fear." God will keep us through the trial. In due course we shall see His judgment come on the wicked.
Notice the phrase "preserved in the trial" — not lifted out of it.
This is where the verse is most often misread.
The believer who looks to the LORD for help can be sure the LORD will keep him at all times. In a world of warring nations we face dangers all the time, both "by day" and "by night." The LORD does not say to the believer, "You will not have to face these terrors as others do." He says, "If you make Me your 'refuge', and put your 'trust' in Me, you 'will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday'" (Psalm 91:2, 5, 6).
Some treat this psalm as a guarantee that nothing bad will touch them. One writer answers that, and shows where the believer's real advantage lies.
God can deliver His people who trust Him out of trouble. He can cover them in the day of battle, and keep them from the terror of the night. He will do these things for them when it is for their greatest good... Yet the Christian should not expect to escape the sorrow and suffering that others are going through... Then what advantage has the Christian over the one who does not know God? His advantage is that he knows God — God behind the sorrow, God over it, God in it, and God still there in all His infinite wisdom and love when the sorrow is past and gone.
Another writer tells what happened to a man who read the psalm as a promise of immunity.
A dear saint of God I knew, now at rest with Him, took up the promises of God's protecting care in Psalm 91. When the plague was raging around him, he felt sure it would not come near his house. The plague seemed to leave for a time without touching him. But it soon came back and took his wife. What desolation of heart followed! ... It is not deliverance out of the troubling circumstances that we must look for, but to learn our God as the God of resurrection in the middle of death.
- Refuge first. Verse 5's fearlessness belongs to the one who has already called the Lord "my refuge." Take the shelter, then read the promise.
- Two arrows, one shelter. Night stands for the hidden attack, day for the open one. The same shelter covers both.
- One Man perfectly. Christ met every hidden and open attack without once being caught off guard. The psalm speaks of Him first.
- Kept in, not kept out. God does not promise His people a world without terrors; He promises they will not be afraid in it.
- The real advantage. Not immunity from sorrow, but knowing God behind it, over it, in it, and still there when it is past.
For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Verse 6 closes a list of four dangers, set two by two: some strike in the dark, some in broad daylight. Two questions follow. What are these dangers? And who is the person promised freedom from fear of them?
The verse names danger by its timing. One writer looks past the illness itself to what stands behind it.
"Nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness" (v. 6). This is a threatening disease. It stands for the spiritual powers of darkness that attack when we are unaware. "Nor the destruction that wastes at noonday." Again, this refers to bold, open attacks. Here the enemy thinks his power can overcome. But none of these things made any difference to the Lord Jesus. His defence was always from God; and in the measure that believers are dependent on the living God, they too need have no fear.
The promise is about fear, not about escape. One writer puts the difference bluntly.
The LORD does not say to the believer, "You shall not have to face these terrors even as others." He says, "If you make Me your 'refuge', and put your 'trust' in Me, 'You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday'" (Psalm 91:2, 5, 6).
The same writer ties the freedom from fear to a hidden life with God, and adds what comes after the trial.
We can say of the one living this life of secret communion, "You shall not be afraid." We live in a world of terrors by night, and dangers by day. A world of lurking evil and wasting destruction. We may have to face these things on every side… Yet if we walk in secret communion we shall "not be afraid." God will keep us through the trial, and in due course we shall see His governmental judgment on the wicked.
One writer points to a small grammatical detail that changes how the whole psalm reads.
In Psalm 90 "man" is generic. The whole race of Adam, the first man, is in view, and so all through the pronouns are in the plural. It is we, us, our, they, them. In Psalm 91 the word man does not occur, though clearly enough a Man is in view. The personal pronoun runs all through, and it is always singular… He is not the first man, Adam, nor anyone of his race. He is the Second Man, the Lord from heaven.
Another writer points to Satan's own use of the psalm, then to why disaster cannot touch this Man.
Satan surely knew that this psalm was written about the Messiah, for he quoted verses 11 and 12 to Him with the comment, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down."… Nature is at peace with the Man whom its God is with. Neither pestilence nor destruction touches Him. The thousands falling around Him only show more fully how complete a protection God's government throws around the Man whose only reliance is on God.
The psalm runs as a conversation. Verse 6 falls in the part where the Spirit spells out what follows from Messiah's trust.
Verse 1: Whoever takes the secret place gets the power of the Almighty. Verse 2: Messiah says, I will take Jehovah as my refuge… Verse 3: The Spirit declares the consequences of this. In verse 9 the remnant address Messiah. In verse 14 Jehovah comes in, and sets His seal on the whole.
These writers deal with real plague and real germs, and they differ over how far the verse promises bodily safety. One warns against treating it as a charm, and tells a true story.
A dear saint of God I knew, now at rest with Him, did this. He took up the providential blessings of Psalm 91, and when the plague was raging around him in the East, he felt sure it would not come near his house. The pestilence seemed to leave for a time without touching him. But it soon returned and took his wife… We must not look for rescue out of hard circumstances. We must look to know our God as the God of resurrection in the middle of death.
Another writer answers a question about infection, and warns of the opposite danger.
One may easily become morbid about contagion and germs. Take a few simple, ordinary precautions. Beyond that, we must be content to trust our gracious Father's care and protection… May He keep us trusting and simple.
- Two clocks. Danger comes hidden at midnight and open at midday. The verse names both, and God's care covers both.
- Secret place. Freedom from fear belongs to the one who lives in unbroken communion with God, not to the one who only quotes the words.
- One Man. The singular pronouns point to one Person: the Second Man, whose reliance on God was total. In Him the psalm is perfectly true.
- Kept through, not kept out. God does not promise you will never face the terror. He promises you will not fear it, and that He will keep you through it.
- Trust, not talisman. Writers differ in emphasis. One warns against claiming immunity. Another warns against morbid fear. Both land on simple trust in the Father's care.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; [but] it shall not come nigh thee.
A second voice answers the man who has just called God his refuge. It pictures him left standing while destruction sweeps the ground on both sides. Two hard questions follow: who is this promise for, and does it mean a believer never dies?
These words are not the worshipper boasting about himself. They answer his confession of trust, and the falling thousands prove his safety.
Another voice now answers, with the assurance of how completely this faith is justified and made good. His inner experience answers to this perfect care. Nothing alarms Him — no terror of the night, no arrow flying openly by day. Nature is at peace with the Man its own God is with. Neither pestilence nor destruction touches Him. The fall of thousands around Him only shows more fully the complete protection which God's government throws around the Man whose sole reliance is on God.
Commentators read this psalm as pointing first to Christ, whose dependence on God never wavered.
The arrows may fly thick and fast, and a thousand may fall at His side and ten thousand at His right hand, but not one arrow can come near Him. He cannot be touched by any hostile force.
The verse names two positions: "at your side" and "at your right hand." Together they cover every direction trouble can come from.
Of the one living this life of secret communion it can be said, "You shall not be afraid." We live in a world of terrors by night and dangers by day. It is a world of hidden evil and destruction that lays waste. We may have to face these things on every side — the psalm says "at your side" and "at your right hand." Yet if we are walking in secret communion we shall "not be afraid." God will keep us through the trial, and in due course we shall see His judgment come on the wicked in this world.
How much of this promise belongs to anyone else? One writer gives the measure.
In the measure that believers are dependent on the living God, they too need have no fear. Great numbers may fall on one side, and greater numbers still on the other. It would seem inevitable that the believer will suffer the same fate too. Yet God's protecting hand will keep safely those who depend on Him. Above all this is true of the Lord Jesus (v. 7), since His dependence on God never changed.
The psalm before this one, the prayer of Moses, ends in the shadow of death. One writer reads Psalm 91 as God's answer to that fear.
This Psalm shows us something of the trials and feelings of the godly in Israel in that day, before deliverance dawns on them. In Psalm 89:47-48 the believer reminds God how short human life is — and, as he fears, how certain his death is. In this prayer of Moses that feeling and fear grow stronger. Will it really happen? Will death overtake them? An answer comes in Psalm 91. God's earthly saints shall not be left in doubt about that.
Commentators differ here. One takes the psalm as directly for the believer today.
The more obvious and important bearing of this precious Psalm, however, is on the Christian now, as a companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. The principle illustrated is very simple. God, being loved and trusted, acts on behalf of His own (Rom. 8:28).
Another warns that the names for God in this psalm tie it to earthly promises.
It takes Jehovah, as such, as God. So the one who owns that name comes under the care of El-Shaddai, for a specific carrying out of earthly promises in the ways of God. This is not our place: anyone who acted on it would deceive himself. Yet a general faith, and trust of heart founded on it, would surely be blessed.
One writer tells what happened to a man who treated this promise as a guarantee.
He took up the providential blessings of Psalm 91, and when the plague was raging around him in the East he felt sure it would not come near his house. The pestilence seemed to leave for a time without touching him. It quickly returned, however, and took his wife... We must not look for deliverance out of the troubling circumstances. We must learn our God as the God of resurrection in the middle of death.
- Dependence. The promise answers a confession of trust. God's protection rests on reliance on Him, not on our own strength.
- Christ. The One whose dependence never broke is the Man the verse fits perfectly — the arrows fly, and not one reaches Him.
- Company. Others come under the same shelter in the measure they share that dependence. Falling thousands prove nothing about the one left standing.
- Direction. "At your side" and "at your right hand" mean danger from every direction. The answer is not escape but freedom from fear.
- Caution. Commentators differ on how far a Christian may claim this promise. Treating it as a guarantee against death has ended in bitter loss. The deeper hope is to know God as the God of resurrection.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the reward of the wicked.
Psalm 91:8 follows the picture of thousands falling on every side. It draws the line between the one sheltered in God and everyone else. He is in the scene, but not in the disaster. The word that carries the whole verse is "only" — his entire share in what happens to the wicked is to watch it. Where the ESV has "the recompense of the wicked," older translations read "the reward of the wicked."
The verse limits more than it promises. All the sheltered man gets from the disaster around him is a view of it.
In these verses the Spirit of God speaks to Christ. He unfolds the blessings that flow to the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High... So the one who dwells in the secret place will not be afraid of secret attack — "the terror by night." Nor will he fear direct, open opposition — the "arrow by day." A thousand will fall at his side, but destruction will not come near the one who trusts in Jehovah. He shall have no part in the judgment of the wicked except to behold it with his eyes.
The bodies on both sides do not weaken the promise. They measure it.
Nature is at peace with the One who has its God with Him. Neither pestilence nor destruction touches Him. The fall of thousands around Him only shows more fully how complete the protection is that God's government throws around the Man whose sole reliance is in God. Only shall He see with His own eyes the end of the wicked.
The One sheltered here is the Lord Jesus. Believers who depend on God stand on the same ground — and watching is not His final role.
Nothing of this made any difference to the Lord Jesus. His defense was always from God; and in the measure that believers depend on the living God, they too need have no fear. Then, whether on the right hand or on the left, He would see the reward of the wicked (v. 8). Indeed, in the long run, He will Himself sentence the wicked to the judgment of eternal fire!
The promise is not that the terrors stay at a distance. They come right up to a person's side and right hand.
Of the one living this life of secret communion we can say, "You shall not be afraid." We live in a world of terrors by night, and dangers by day. A world in which there is lurking evil and wasting destruction. We may have to face these things on every side — as the word says, "at your side," and "at your right hand." Yet if we walk in secret communion we shall "not be afraid." God will preserve us in the trial, and in due course we shall see His governmental judgment upon the wicked.
There is a difference between waiting for judgment to arrive and watching it from above. Abraham stood on the mountain while the cities burned below.
When Abraham was on the mountain, God came and told him what was going to happen on the plain. These were things that did not involve him at all. This thought is of great importance. If we think we are to be in the judgments, no wonder we should be like the men spoken of in Luke 21, whose hearts fail for fear as they look at the things coming on the earth. "Only with your eyes shall you behold and see the reward of the wicked," Psalm 91... Our place is not like Noah, floating on the waters while the judgments are abroad.
Faith does not wait for the fulfilment before it sings. Stuart also marks a limit on the hope this verse gives.
The godly one treats the promise of 91:8 — "Only with your eyes shall you behold, and see the reward of the wicked" — as certain of fulfilment (92:7)... He has never vacated His throne, whatever the apostates might think. The righteous, therefore, will He bless, for He is upright, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Faith is at work. The end is sure. The godly man will be preserved, and will see his desire on his enemies. That is a righteous thought for earthly saints, but not language that should mark a Christian.
- Only. The word restricts the sheltered man's share in the catastrophe to one thing — his eyesight. He has no part in the judgment of the wicked except to behold it.
- Shelter. That safety is not luck or distance. It belongs to the Man whose sole reliance is in God. The thousands falling around Him only prove how complete the protection is.
- Through. The danger is not kept away — it stands at your side and your right hand. God preserves you in the trial, and then you see the outcome.
- Above. Abraham watched the plain from the mountain, not from an ark on the waters. Looking down on judgment is a different thing from dreading its approach.
- Certain. Faith treats the sight as already sure, because God has never vacated His throne. And the One who watched will Himself pass the sentence.
Because *thou* hast made Jehovah, my refuge, the Most High, thy dwelling-place,
Verse 9 marks a turn in the psalm. The voice changes. Someone now speaks to another, pointing to the Most High as that person's dwelling. Who is speaking? Who is he speaking to? And what does it mean to make God a home, not just a refuge? Commentators work through all three questions.
The psalm reads like a conversation. After the opening statement and Messiah's own answer, a fresh speaker joins at verse 9 and addresses Him.
In verse 9 I understand Israel speaks. That is, the Spirit personifies Israel addressing Messiah: "Because you have taken Jehovah, who is my refuge, … as your habitation," almighty power shall guard you. This continues to verse 13. In verse 14 Jehovah Himself speaks of Him as the One who has set His love on Him.
Commentators differ on who speaks. Another writer points to a different translation of the first clause. On that reading, the speaker of verse 2 returns here:
The psalm brings in two speakers. One speaks in verse 2. He speaks again in the first clause of verse 9, translated by the Revised Version, "For You, Jehovah, are my refuge." All the rest, up to and including verse 13, is spoken by the other.
The psalm gathers several names of God. One writer reads its opening lines as a riddle with an answer. Where the ESV says "the LORD," the older translation quoted here says "Jehovah."
In Psalm 91 we get all these names of God (except Father, a name God had not yet revealed) grouped together in their proper connection. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God [Elohim]; in Him will I trust." That is, whoever has the secret of who the Most High is will have the blessings of Abraham's God. Jehovah is the God of the Jews. So Messiah, in the second verse, answers, as it were, the riddle set in the first… In verses 3-8 the Spirit declares what follows from this (verse 9 is the Jewish people speaking). Jehovah puts His seal on it in verses 14-16.
The older wording, "habitation," means the place where a person lives, not a shelter used in a crisis. The promise attached to it even speaks of a tent.
He has made Jehovah — the refuge of His saints, the Most High — His habitation. Heaven opens toward Him as a result. Notice the words here for the first time, "my refuge." … And He has made Him His habitation. He did not claim to do it, nor work at it, but did it — He lived in God as a new and perfect Man… Notice the word "tent." With all the perfection of Manhood that is His, He is still a stranger and pilgrim on the earth.
Satan used the next two verses of this psalm against Christ Himself.
And now notice those words: "For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone" (Ps. 91:11-12). Satan did not quote the whole of the verse. He left out those four words "in all your ways." How crafty the enemy is.
Darby points to what Christ chose instead of the promised rescue.
For the present, Christ gave up the claim to deliverance that flows from this promise, choosing perfect obedience and trusting His Father completely. Satan would have used it to take Him out of the path of obedience, into distrust and His own will — in vain, as we know. Yet He who walked that path of submission still made good all the fruit of this promise for those who follow Him in the same trust in Jehovah on earth.
So how does a person live in that dwelling?
What then should we understand by "dwelling in the secret place"? Every voice in the Psalm attaches such blessing to it. To use New Testament language, does it not speak of the inner life of secret communion with Divine Persons? … To have part with Christ, and abide in Him, is to live in communion with Him where He is. To live such a life is to dwell "in the secret place."
Even what comes against a believer serves God's will.
God, being loved and trusted, appears on behalf of His own (Rom. 8:28). The creature, which lines up against the sufferer, obeys the will of the Almighty Lover of his soul. All this turns to confidence and security. The soul that dwells in His secret is safe. No plague can reach that dwelling.
- Riddle — The psalm sets a puzzle. Whoever knows the secret of who the Most High is receives all the blessings of Abraham's God.
- Answer — Messiah solves it in verse 2 by taking Jehovah, the God of Israel, as His refuge.
- Echo — Verse 9 answers back and speaks to Him. Because you made the Most High your home, almighty power guards you.
- Habitation — Not shelter claimed in a crisis, but a home lived in. And lived in as a pilgrim, since the promise speaks of a tent.
- Warning — Satan quoted the next verses to Christ but dropped "in all your ways." Christ chose obedience over self-chosen rescue.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent.
Psalm 91:10 is the second half of a sentence: verse 9 sets the condition, and this verse states what follows from it. Satan quoted this passage to Christ, and godly people have died of plague while trusting it — so who may claim the promise, and how?
The safety here is not a charm against trouble. It follows from the line before, where a man makes the Most High his home. One writer traces the logic:
The Lord Jesus lived in a hostile world, yet He made God His refuge — in fact His permanent dwelling place (v. 9). So no evil could fall on Him, and no plague could even come near. To come near Him, it would first have to come near God, His dwelling place (v. 10).
Another writer explains what that dwelling means:
In our New Testament language, does it not speak of the inner life of secret communion lived with the Divine Persons? Is this not the life the Lord points to when He says, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me," and again, "Abide in Me"? … To have part with Christ, and abide in Him, is to live in communion with Him where He is. To live such a life is to dwell "in the secret place."
The verse says "tent," not house. That one word changes the picture of the protected man:
So evil has no hold on Him, and no opening against Him: "no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent." Notice the word "tent": for all the perfection of Manhood that is His, He is still a stranger and pilgrim on the earth… His home is in God, yet He is in a world that is not His own.
Verses 9 to 13 read as the witness of a faithful few who had proved God for themselves:
As we understand it, this is the voice of the godly remnant, borne out in their testimony and their experience with God… It is the voice of those who have known this trust in God for themselves, and who can now bear witness about the Son of God. At the start of Luke, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary, Simeon and Anna each bear witness to the greatness and the majesty of the LORD.
The devil quoted the next two verses to Jesus in the wilderness — but not all of them:
Satan did not quote the whole of the verse. He left out those four words "in all your ways." Ah, how crafty is the enemy. To the blessed Lord he as it were suggests: "The scripture is plain that that promise applies to You. Now is Your opportunity to show that it does apply to You."
Christ had every right to the promise, yet He gave it up:
For the present, Christ gave up the claim to deliverance that flows from this, and chose perfect obedience instead, trusting His Father without reserve. How He did so belongs to deeper views of the purposes of God and of the paths of the blessed One Himself. Satan would have used this promise to take Him out of the path of obedience, and into distrust and His own will… Yet He who walked that perfect path of submission has still made good all the fruit of everything here, for those who walk after Him in this same trust in the LORD on earth.
after_note: DISCUSS
Commentators differ here. One applies the verse to the Christian now:
The clearer and more important bearing of this precious Psalm, though, is on the Christian now… Loved and trusted, God acts for His own (Rom. 8:28)… So the soul that dwells in His secret place is safe. No plague can reach that dwelling.
Others warn against treating the psalm as a promise of safety here and now. One backs the warning with a story:
A dear saint of God I knew, now at rest with Him, took up the providential blessings of Psalm 91. When the plague was raging around him in the East, he felt sure it would not come near his house. The plague seemed to leave for a time without touching him. But it soon came back and took his wife… We are not to look for rescue out of troubled circumstances. We are to learn our God as the God of resurrection in the middle of death.
- Dwell — the promise belongs to the one who has made God his home. Nothing can reach him without first reaching God.
- Secret — that home is the inner life of communion with Christ, His own "Abide in Me" — not a formula to recite in danger.
- Tent — the protected man lives in a tent. He is a pilgrim, at home in God while the world around him is not his own.
- Ways — Satan cut "in all your ways" out of his quotation. The promise guards the obedient path, and Christ gave up deliverance rather than step off it.
- Difference — commentators differ about claiming it today. One says the soul that dwells in God is safe now. Another warns that expecting escape misleads, and points to knowing God as the God of resurrection in the middle of death.
For he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways
Psalm 91 promises an unseen escort to anyone who shelters with the Most High. The devil later quoted this verse to Jesus and cut it short, which raises the two questions below: whose protection is this, and on what terms does it hold?
Commentators read the surrounding verses as spoken to Christ in His life on earth, with heaven's resources placed at His disposal for the journey.
Moreover, the resources of heaven are available for Him throughout His earthly pathway. The angels are charged to keep Him in all His ways.
The reason for the guard is the state of the world He walked through.
So even here heaven opens to Him. He is in a hostile world, and must have an escort; and angels are charged concerning Him, to keep Him in all His ways. The world He walked through was in disorder, and its events might look random. Those blessed feet had to be kept from harm.
One writer follows the promise through the Gospel accounts. Enemies tried to kill Jesus again and again, and failed — until the cross.
He had walked a rough road. But in all His ways God had given His angels charge over Him. They had carried Him in their hands, so that He would never strike His foot against a stone. So although His enemies hated Him bitterly, they could not hurt Him. Once they led Him to the edge of the cliff their town stood on. They meant to throw Him down into the depths below. But He walked straight through the middle of them and went on His way unharmed... No hatred, from men or from demons, had been able to break through the unseen ring of angels. But for this terrible hour God withdrew that protection.
The devil urged Jesus to throw Himself down from the top of the temple. He quoted this verse aloud, but left off its last words. One writer shows what that cut did.
The tempter's aim here was to separate two things God always puts together: the end, and the way to reach it... Satan separates them here. He separates the end from the way by leaving out of the psalm he quotes the very words that make up the way to the end. What were those words? "To guard you in all your ways."
Another writer notes that Satan also skipped the next verse, for a different reason.
When Satan tempted the Lord, he said nothing about the next verse: "You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot" (v. 13). Satan knew that the lion, the cobra, the young lion and the serpent all stood for himself. No wonder he ignored such a verse!
Jesus answered with a different line of Scripture. His answer shows what it means to put God to the test.
Satan tampered with the plain written word, in its letter and in its spirit. After "to guard you" he left out "in all your ways."... And what was the Lord's answer? "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." The true Israelite does not need to put God to the test. If you suspect a thief is working for you, you may mark a coin to see whether he steals it. Am I going to set a test like that for God, to see whether He will keep His word?
The verse is not only about Christ. Writers link it to the hidden service angels keep giving to believers.
This shows the ministry of angels. They do not serve us in spiritual things, for the Spirit of God does that. They care for the daily needs of believers (Heb. 1:14), and here for the needs of the Lord Jesus Himself.
God does not tell us how that service works.
We are not told how, except that they protect us through God's ordering of everyday events. Details would open the door to the imagination of unbalanced minds. Instead we are left with this great comfort. Angels serve us, unseen and unnoticed, in the way we need, and God directs them in His love and wisdom.
The missing words carry the practical point. God promises protection along His road, not along ours.
We can always count on God's protecting hand when we are walking in the path of duty. But we may be walking a path of our own choosing. We may be seeking our own pleasure, our own interest, our own ends. Then to talk of counting on God would be wicked presumption.
- Ways — the promise carries a road with it. Angels guard you "in all your ways," and the ways in view are God's, not self-chosen ones.
- Escort — Christ walked a hostile world with a heavenly guard. Enemies could not touch Him until the appointed hour.
- Omission — Satan quoted the verse but cut the words about ways. That splits the promised end from the path to it.
- Test — Jesus refused to stage a rescue to prove God's word. Faith trusts God instead of setting traps for Him.
- Comfort — angels still serve believers in daily matters, unseen and unexplained. That comforts the obedient, and gives no cover for presumption.
They shall bear thee up in [their] hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
This verse sits inside a promise of protection so complete that it rules out even a stumble — and the devil quoted it to Jesus at the top of the temple. Whom does it address, and why did the Lord Jesus refuse to act on a promise that was truly His own?
Commentators read the words about angels as God's promise to the Messiah. It covers the smallest accident as well as the greatest danger.
In Psalm 91 a divine message addresses Messiah. It tells Him that because of His perfection in faith, His moral glories, God would be His security against all frailty, accident, hesitation, danger, or damage of every kind. Then God Himself speaks, affirming this and recognising Messiah's perfection in affection, just as the message had recognised His perfection in faith and morals.
The promise was not poetry. It held every day of Christ's life on earth — until one terrible hour.
He had walked a rough road. But in all His ways God had given His angels charge over Him. They had borne Him up in their hands, so that at no time would He dash His foot against a stone. So, though His enemies hated Him with a fierce hatred, they could not hurt Him. They led Him to the edge of the cliff their city stood on, meaning to hurl Him into the depths below. But He walked through the middle of them and went His way unharmed. The very stones they picked up to throw at Him stuck to their murderous hands while He "passed by." No malice, from men or devils, had been able to break through the unseen angelic guard. But for this terrible hour that protection was taken away. An angel brought Him help from heaven in the garden and then withdrew, and He turned to His foes and said, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:43-53).
The devil quoted this promise to Jesus, but he cut it short. The missing words change everything.
Now notice those words: "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." Satan did not quote the whole of the verse. He left out those four words "in all your ways." How crafty the enemy is. To the blessed Lord he suggests, as it were: "The Scripture is plain that this promise applies to You. Now is Your opportunity to show that it does apply to You." He suggests that He should fling Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and so prove that the Scripture applied to Him, and so make Himself an object of great interest to men.
A jump from the temple was a way of the devil's choosing, not one of God's ways.
The Lord's answer draws the line between resting on a promise and demanding proof of it.
The Lord replies with the words of Scripture: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Trusting Him and counting on His gracious ways is not testing Him. The Israelites tested the LORD by questioning whether He was among them. They should have counted on His presence, His help, and His care. Jesus did not need to prove the faithfulness of God to His own word; He was sure of it and counted on it. He knew that the LORD would give His angels charge over Him, and this not outside, but to keep Him in all His ways.
The same service continues, and it is care of a particular kind.
This shows the ministry of angels. They do not serve us spiritually — the Spirit of God does that — but they care for the everyday needs of believers (Heb. 1:14), and in this case, of the Lord Jesus Himself.
Scripture says little about the method, and one writer sees a mercy in that silence.
Scripture clearly shows that angels are active on behalf of the "heirs of salvation." We are not told in what way, except that they protect us through God's providence. Giving details would only open the door to the imagination of unbalanced minds. Instead we have this great comfort. Angels serve us, unseen and unnoticed, in a way that meets our needs, and God directs them in His love and wisdom.
- Addressed — The promise speaks to the Messiah, and guarantees Him security against accident and danger of every kind.
- Proved — It held all through His life. A cliff edge, stones in angry hands: nothing could touch Him until the hour of darkness, when that protection ended.
- Twisted — Satan quoted the words but stopped short, dropping "in all your ways" and turning a promise of protection into a dare.
- Conditioned — The promise covers God's ways, not ours. Counting on His care is trust; demanding a display of it is putting Him to the test.
- Shared — The same angels now serve the heirs of salvation, unseen, in ways God has not spelled out and we need not guess.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot.
This verse makes a startling promise to anyone who shelters in God: the deadliest creatures alive become something to walk on. Commentators read the "you" here as the Messiah first of all — so when did He tread these beasts down, and can His people stand there too?
The psalm reads like a conversation. One voice makes a claim, another answers, and the promise of verse 13 belongs to the reply.
Psalm 91 gives us an even greater variety of such dialogue between Jehovah and the godly Jewish remnant about the Messiah. In answer to Christ's reliance on Jehovah in verse 2, the godly remnant express their conviction of His security from all evil, and of the judgment of His wicked foes in verses 3-13. And Jehovah responds to His love with the assurance of love and deliverance and exaltation.
The animals are not separate dangers but one enemy in different disguises. Each disguise matches a way he works. Older translations call the last creature a "dragon", where the ESV has "serpent".
He will triumph over all the power of the devil, whether coming against Him as the lion, the adder, or the dragon. As the lion, the devil wields a destructive power over man; as the adder, he beguiles men (2 Cor. 11:3); as the dragon he persecutes (Rev. 12).
The pair covers two kinds of attack: the open charge and the hidden strike. Neither one slows His step.
But there is the power of the enemy also, "the lion and the adder" — force and craft. Both must give way to Him. He does not turn aside; He tramples them under His feet. Good is destined to win. It must be so, or God would not be the One who rules… We do not see things work out this simply, and there is plenty of room left for testing and for faith. But the rule itself is absolute, and must be.
The devil used this psalm against Jesus in the wilderness. He stopped one verse short.
Satan did not mention the next verse in his temptation of the Lord (v. 13). Of course Satan knew that the lion, the adder, the young lion and the serpent were all pictures of Satan himself, so he would rather ignore such a verse! It is a striking fact: he knows from Scripture that his end is destruction, yet he keeps on in his evil course in bold and hostile defiance of God Himself.
The picture suggests crushing strength. The way He won looks like the opposite.
In this psalm the Lord Jesus is seen simply as the One who depends on God for His protection. He never takes the offensive against the enemy, unless verse 13 is an exception. Yet even here, in treading on the young lion and the serpent, He made no display of amazing power. He defeated Satan by pointing to the Word of God (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). Later, at the cross, "He trod all His foes beneath His feet by being trodden down."
Verse 13 is not a new idea. It answers a sentence spoken in Eden — and the closing verses of the psalm quietly supply the other half of that sentence.
Of old it had been predicted that the Seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head. In verse 13 we accordingly read of Him treading on the adder and trampling under His feet the dragon. But the prediction also stated that in doing this His own heel should be bruised. In verses 14 to 16 we can see something of what this means… He would be set on high: so He must first have been brought low. He is to know what trouble is… He is to be satisfied with long life: that implies He must come face to face with death.
The promise reaches past Christ to those who walk as He walked. The link is close communion with Him.
May we not say this? It is the one who follows the Lord's example, and walks in secret communion with Christ, who will be conscious of divine protection and will overcome the power of the devil. It makes no difference whether the devil comes in his might as a roaring "lion" seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:9), or in subtle craft as the serpent (2 Corinthians 11:3), or as the persecuting dragon (Revelation 12:3).
- Dependence — The trampling in verse 13 belongs to the One who leaned wholly on God for protection. The victory grows out of that shelter.
- Disguises — Lion, adder and dragon are one enemy in different costumes: destroying, beguiling, persecuting. Force and craft alike must give way.
- Deception — Satan quoted this psalm to Jesus but skipped verse 13. He knows his own end from Scripture, so he hides the verse that names it.
- Defeat — Christ conquered by pointing to Scripture in the wilderness and by being trodden down at the cross. He crushed the serpent's head, and His own heel was bruised.
- Descent to us — Those who walk in the same dependence, in secret communion with Christ, overcome the same enemy.