Psalm 91 has no title in the Hebrew, and nobody knows who wrote it or when. It follows Psalm 90 for a reason. Psalm 90 says that we are like grass that flourishes in the morning and fades by evening. Psalm 91 answers that frailty with a place to live. 1"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty."
The psalm has three voices. In verses 1 and 2 a person testifies, 2"My refuge and my fortress." In verses 3 to 13 a second voice says what God will do. In verses 14 to 16 God himself speaks, so the truth is stated, unpacked, and sealed by the LORD's own mouth.
The psalm keeps returning to three words for safety. Shelter is literally a hiding place, and the word belongs to the vocabulary of the sanctuary. Shadow is the cover you find when the sun is on you. Then come wings, under which you will find refuge. The first verb in the psalm is "dwells," and verse 9 repeats it. 9"Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place." Safety here is an address, a place you live.
The dangers come in pairs. 3"the snare of the fowler," hidden and sudden. 5"the terror of the night" and "the arrow that flies by day," then pestilence in darkness and destruction at noonday. The psalm lists the fears people had and says none of them has the last word. 7"A thousand may fall at your side." The psalm is speaking about who has the last word over a believer's life, and believers who die are not a refutation of it.
Satan quoted it. On the pinnacle of the temple he cited verses 11 and 12 to Jesus, that God's angels would bear him up (Matthew 4:6), and he stopped there. The next verse, which he left out, promises that you will tread on the lion and the adder. Jesus answered with Deuteronomy, that you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. The promise of angels belongs to the person who has made the LORD a dwelling place, and the tempter tried to turn it into a dare.
At the end God speaks, and the verb in his first sentence is a telling one. 14"Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name." The promises that follow are not all about avoiding trouble. 15"I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him." It says with him in trouble.
Jesus refused the misuse, and he went the road on which that promise meant God's presence in trouble. In Gethsemane an angel came to strengthen him (Luke 22:43). At his arrest he said he could appeal to his Father and be sent more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53). He did not call them. He went to the cross trusting the God who says, "I will be with him in trouble," and the psalm's last words, 16"show him my salvation," find their fullest answer in the resurrection.
People reach for this psalm in danger, and that is right, but it was written for a way of living before the danger. Is your shelter a place you run to on the worst nights, or a place you live in?
Prayer
Father, we run to you on the worst nights and forget you on the ordinary ones. Make us people who dwell in the shelter of the Most High. Thank you for wings we did not build. Keep us from using your promises as dares. Be with us in trouble, and when our days are done, show us your salvation. In Jesus' name, amen.