“No plague shall come near your dwelling.” God’s angels will “keep you in all your ways” (NKJV). Two quotes from Psalm 91 (verses 10 and 11), which seem to turn Psalm 91 into a beautiful psalm for vacationing. They express an ultimate sense of security: that your tents will not be swept away by a flood; your tent will not be flattened by a falling tree or destroyed by a lightning strike. Wherever you are driving, you will be saved from accidents. But is that realistic?

Is It Correct?⤒🔗

“A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you” (Psalm 91:7). Does this match with reality? In wars, do Christians not also become victims, just as unbelievers? In terrorist attacks, such as on September 11, 2001, both believers and unbelievers die. Children of God also die in traffic accidents or are washed away by a tsunami.

Psalm 91 uses strong words about the safety and protection that God gives, but it does not seem to match reality. You could even point to how the Lord Jesus dealt with this psalm. When the devil tried to seduce him with the temptations in the wilderness, he led Jesus to the roof of the temple in Jerusalem. He tried to persuade him to jump down, pointing Jesus to the words of Psalm 91:11-12, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone’” (Matthew 4:6). But Jesus did not fall for it. He did not use the promise of preservation that the devil held out to him from Psalm 91. He simply said, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Matthew 4:7; see Deuteronomy 6:16).

A Suspenseful Psalm←⤒🔗

Psalm 91 does not really appear to match the experience of life. The psalm seems a bit detached: too good to be true. For a few short moments you can dream away with this psalm. You can bask in an ultimate sense of security. But a while later you wake up with a start. The dream is over and reality stares you in the face, a reality in which all kinds of evil can happen to you.

Does Psalm 91 paint an idyllic scene where you can dream away for a while? It might seem that way, but appearances are deceiving, also here. Psalm 91 is actually a very suspenseful psalm. It is not a leisurely kind of song for people who want to escape from reality, but a psalm full of confrontation and struggle!

That struggle starts immediately in the first two verses. The first verse is about the shelter or hiding place that the Most High wants to be for people. It is about abiding safely under the protective shadow of the Almighty God. Verse 2 speaks of the Lord as a refuge and a fortress, a God in whom you can trust. Three times there is mention of the protection that God offers. Three different names are used for God: the Most High, the Almighty and the Lord, Yahweh. At first glance we don’t see anything special in these names. In any case, we taste very little suspense in it.

That will change if you take a look around in the professional literature about the Old Testament. Then you encounter, for instance, the German Old Testament scholar Otto Eissfeldt. He reads in verses 1 and 2 the confession of someone who originally did not believe in the Lord, the God of Israel. According to him, the person speaking in these verses was originally a follower of another god. He worshiped a deity named Elyon-Shaddai. Elyon is the Hebrew word that is translated as “the Supreme Being” or “the Most High.” Shaddai is the Hebrew word generally translated as “the Almighty.” According to Eissfeldt, the speaker in verse 1 is someone for whom these terms did not refer directly to the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel. For this person the term would have indicated another god. But now in Psalm 91 that man says, “This is going to change. From here on in, I put my trust in Yahweh. What Elyon Shaddai has always been for me, now the Lord, Yahweh, will be that. From now on I expect my protection from him.”

Eissfeldt also has an idea as to when something like that could have happened, that a worshipper of Elyon-Shaddai might have switched to serving the Lord. According to him, this fits well with the time of King David. Eissfeldt realizes that he is speculating, but he can not resist making his explanation more concrete by mentioning a few names. One of the two possibilities he mentions is Araunah, the Jebusite.

Araunah, an original inhabitant of Jebus, was not an Israelite. We know him from the history of David’s census in 2 Samuel 24. The angel of the Lord stretched out his hand from Araunah’s threshing floor to Jerusalem to strike the city with the plague. King David then bought this threshing floor in order to build there an altar for the Lord. Eissfeldt can very well imagine that in the first two verses of Psalm 91 someone like Araunah is speaking. It is Araunah who says, “Until now I worshiped Elyon-Shaddai, but from now on Yahweh is the God I trust.”

David then responds to this in verses 3 to 13, “That God frees you from the net of the fowler, the bird catcher. When the Lord is your refuge, no calamity will come upon you, no plague will come near your tent” (see verses 3 and 9-10).

Other Gods and Demons←⤒🔗

It is not my intention to discuss or to refute Eissfeldt’s ideas extensively. Psalm 91:9 declares plainly that there is only one who rightfully carries the name of Elyon, “the Most High”; and that is the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. But Eissfeldt can indeed remind us that in the time when Psalm 91 was written, not everyone felt that way. Every day the Israelites came in contact with people who used similar terms such as Elyon and Shaddai for their own pagan gods, whether these were called El, Baal or something else. Probably there were also many Israelites who participated in serving and trusting such other gods!

Something similar applies to the image used in Psalm 91:4. It says that the Lord will cover you with his pinions and that he grants refuge under his wings. Gentiles ascribed the same to their gods! Images have been preserved from ancient Egypt of gods who protect the Pharaoh with their wings. That such ideas were also known in Israel is evident from an ivory object found in Samaria. This art object dates from the eighth century BC, and therefore from the time of the last kings of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, and of the prophets Amos and Hosea. It shows the Egyptian goddesses Isis and Nephtys, who protect the dead god Osiris with their wings. If you know about this and you realize it, the image in verse 4 becomes much more expressive. Not Isis, Nephtys or any other idol will protect you with his or her wings. Only Yahweh does that for you and nobody else!

Verses 5 and 6 speak about various dangers that threaten you during the day or at night: the terror of the night, a flying arrow aimed at you, the pestilence, or another kind of destruction. Nothing is said here about God sending these threats to people, or about people shooting arrows. The threats are presented as persons or powers that operate independently. Several interpreters have taken note of this. For that reason, among other things, they draw the conclusion that in verses 5 and 6 reference is made to demons.

Did the poet of Psalm 91 himself also think of this? We do not need to comment on this here. It is sufficient to know that there were certainly people around him for whom terrors, flying arrows and the pestilence represented the same dark forces. In any case, later Jews did think of demonic powers with respect to Psalm 91. This becomes evident from old translations, such as the Septuagint and the Targum, and from a manuscript with texts taken from the Psalms that was found at Qumran near the Dead Sea. It is also evident from the use of Psalm 91 on amulets and other objects with which evil powers were to be exorcised.

A Polemical Psalm←⤒🔗

Psalm 91 does not portray an idyllic world where the children of God can simply dream away, without any fears. It is a psalm that stands in the middle of life. It is a psalm that does not shy away from confrontation.

Psalm 91 originates from a time when many people worshiped not the Lord, but the Canaanite supreme god El as the highest godhead. Or they served Baal as the god who really controlled things. Psalm 91 hails from a society in which many nations, including Israel, were hiding under the wings of an Egyptian idol, or some other idol. Psalm 91 speaks in a society where people tremble with fear of demons and other life-threatening powers.

However, the man (or woman) who is speaking in Psalm 91 confesses, “The Lord—he is to me what you are looking for in your idols. He is my refuge and he protects me. I know him and trust in him. That is why I don’t need to be afraid” (see verses 1-2). He (or she) is then encouraged with the message that he does not have to fear those dark forces that make others tremble and that no person can control. Instead, he is indeed entirely safe with the Lord, the God of Israel (see verses 3-13).

Seen in this perspective, Psalm 91 is therefore a very suspenseful psalm, a psalm filled with polemics. Psalm 91 does not present you with an idyllic world, but instead it positions you in the middle of a battle. The psalm challenges you: “Do you dare to do this? In contrast to so many other people, do you dare to trust in the Lord alone? Do you dare to expect your safety and protection from him and not to seek it anywhere else?”

Don’t Put God to the Test←⤒🔗

But then the question remains: Is this psalm accurate? Is it really true that the disasters that happen to tens of thousands will not affect you? Will you never be in trouble? Will your tent never be blown away?

It is good to look again at the Lord Jesus and how he used this psalm. He did not say to the devil, “What is stated in Psalm 91 is not true.” He placed something else next to it. He said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” You may not employ those powerful words of Psalm 91 as a means to test God, or to challenge him: “Go ahead—show me if you really meet my expectations or desires.”

The question of whether things really work as they are described in Psalm 95, is real. It is legitimate for that question to be asked. It does not have to be pushed aside. But when you ask that question, then think also of Jesus’ reply to the devil, and ask yourself honestly, “Am I not secretly trying to test God? Am I actually trying him out? Am I challenging him to show me that he really protects me always? And only then will I grant him my trust?”

The Image Used by Jesus←⤒🔗

The Lord Jesus teaches you to look in a different direction. He has a different position, a position that you also see in the last three verses of Psalm 91.

In those last three verses (14-16) God himself is speaking in a very direct manner. He talks about a “he” and a “him”, who are not further specified. You can relate this use of “he” or “him” to the person who says, in verse 2, that the Lord is his refuge. Very likely it is the same person as the man who is addressed with “you” in verses 3 through 13.

Whatever the case may be, the last word that God himself says about this man in Psalm 91 is “my salvation” (or “my saving power”); at least this is reflected in the word order of the Hebrew root text. The final word is “salvation.” As a New Testament believer, you cannot hear this word without thinking of Jesus Christ. The name “Jesus,” the Hebrew “Joshua,” contains the same consonants as the Hebrew word for “salvation” or “saving.” It would apply fully to Jesus, for he would be the salvation of his people. He would live up to this name (see Matthew 5:21).

Psalm 91:15 did not apply to Jesus when he was hanging on the cross: “When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.” Jesus called on his God, “My God, my God,” but God did not answer him. For three hours God was not with his Son in his distress. He had left him. But Jesus himself continued to fully respond to the image that the Lord draws in Psalm 91:14 of his faithful follower. Jesus Christ did not stop showing that he knew God’s name. Right through this period of God-forsakenness he remained someone who held fast to God in sincere love.

You see the same word being used in Deuteronomy 7:7, where Moses uses it to describe God’s feelings for Israel. He loved this people. It is as if the Lord experienced what might happen to an Israelite soldier if he saw a beautiful woman among a group of prisoners of war (see Deut. 21:11 where again the same word is used): he fell in love with that small nation of Israel!

Time and again that love of the Lord was not reciprocated by Israel. Instead of loving him, they fell in love with Baal and other idols. But what Israel failed to do, Jesus Christ did: he loved his God and Father perfectly, and he continued to do so, throughout everything that happened to him. He was true to what Psalm 91:14 says. He was someone of whom God could rightly say, “Because he holds fast to me in love.” In Psalm 91:14, you discover his image.

And because Jesus persisted in that love, he was eventually delivered and saved. When Jesus’ suffering was complete, God answered him. He delivered him from death. He showered him with glory and gave him an abundance of days (Psalm 91:15-16), an endless life.

When you read Psalm 91 as a New Testament believer, you need to also think of Jesus Christ in verses 14-16. He loved God very deeply. He has always remained faithful to God’s name. He is now showered with glory. He enjoys an abundance of days. He is safe forever. He sees God’s salvation with his own eyes.

When you are connected to Jesus Christ, then what he has already obtained is your guarantee, even though the reality of your life may deviate from what Psalm 91 literally says, even if your tent might perhaps be shaking, or if today’s pestilence, that is, cancer, affects not only thousands of people, but you as well. Then the same applies to you what God himself says very directly in verses 14 to 16: “You will be delivered and saved; you will experience life to the fullest.” Your salvation is anchored in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, do not constantly ask yourself whether Psalm 91 is in line with reality. Instead, allow yourself to be steered in a different direction. Confess with Psalm 91, “Lord, Father of Jesus Christ, you truly are my refuge and my fortress; with you I am safe, right through all dangers.” Continue to confess this over against all modern-day pagans with all their idols and demons.