1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
For you have been a refuge for me, A strong tower from the enemy. I will dwell in your tent forever. I will take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah.
Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.
I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, And send down his roots like Lebanon. His branches will spread, And his beauty will be like the olive tree, And his fragrance like Lebanon.
David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies who served the king by division, and the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, and the rulers over all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the officers, and the mighty men, even all the mighty men of valor, to Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up on his feet, and said, Hear me, my brothers, and my people: as for me, it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and for the footstool of our God; and I had made ready for the building. But God said to me, You shall not build a house for my name, because you are a man of war, and have shed blood. However Yahweh, the God of Israel, chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever: for he has chosen Judah to be prince; and in the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel; Of all my sons (for Yahweh has given me many sons), he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Yahweh over Israel. He said to me, Solomon your son, he shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my ordinances, as at this day. Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Yahweh, and in the audience of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of Yahweh your God; that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever. You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Take heed now; for Yahweh has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it. Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch [of the temple], and of the houses of it, and of the treasuries of it, and of the upper rooms of it, and of the inner chambers of it, and of the place of the mercy seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, for the courts of the house of Yahweh, and for all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the house of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated things; also for the divisions of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of Yahweh, and for all the vessels of service in the house of Yahweh; of gold by weight for the [vessels of] gold, for all vessels of every kind of service; [of silver] for all the vessels of silver by weight, for all vessels of every kind of service; by weight also for the lampstands of gold, and for the lamps of it, of gold, by weight for every lampstand and for the lamps of it; and for the lampstands of silver, [silver] by weight for [every] lampstand and for the lamps of it, according to the use of every lampstand; and the gold by weight for the tables of show bread, for every table; and silver for the tables of silver; and the flesh-hooks, and the basins, and the cups, of pure gold; and for the golden bowls by weight for every bowl; and for the silver bowls by weight for every bowl; and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot, [even] the cherubim, that spread out [their wings], and covered the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. All this, [said David], have I been made to understand in writing from the hand of Yahweh, even all the works of this pattern. David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: don't be afraid, nor be dismayed; for Yahweh God, even my God, is with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of Yahweh is finished. Behold, there are the divisions of the priests and the Levites, for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with you in all manner of work every willing man who has skill, for any manner of service: also the captains and all the people will be entirely at your command.
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Commentary on Psalms 91 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Talismanic Song in Time of War and Pestilence
The primeval song is followed by an anonymous song (inscribed by the lxx without any warrant τῷ Δαυίδ ), the time of whose composition cannot be determined; and it is only placed in this order because the last verse accords with the last verse but one of Ps 90. There the revelation of Jahve's work is prayed for, and here Jahve promises: I will grant him to see My salvation ; the “work of Jahve” is His realized “salvation.” The two Psalms also have other points of contact, e.g., in the מעון referred to God (vid., Symbolae , p. 60).
In this Psalm, the Invocavit Psalm of the church, which praises the protecting and rescuing grace which he who believingly takes refuge in God experiences in all times of danger and distress,
(Note: Hence in J. Shabbath 8, col. 2, and Midrash Shocher tob on Psalms 91:1 and elsewhere, it is called, together with Psalms 3:1-8, ( פגעים ) שיר פגועין , a song of occurrences, i.e., a protective (or talismanic) song in times of dangers that may befall one, just as Sebald Heyden's Psalm-song, “He who is in the protection of the Most High and resigns himself to God,” is inscribed “Preservative against the pestilence.”)
the relation of Psalms 91:2 to Psalms 91:1 meets us at the very beginning as a perplexing riddle. If we take Psalms 91:1 as a clause complete in itself, then it is tautological. If we take אמר in Psalms 91:2 as a participle (Jerome, dicens ) instead of אמר , ending with Pathach because a construct from (cf. Psalms 94:9; Psalms 136:6), then the participial subject would have a participial predicate: “He who sitteth is saying,” which is inelegant and also improbable, since אמר in other instances is always the 1st pers. fut . If we take אמר as 1st pers. fut . and Psalms 91:1 as an apposition of the subject expressed in advance: as such an one who sitteth.... I say, then we stumble against יתלונן ; this transition of the participle to the finite verb, especially without the copula ( וּבצל ), is confusing. If, however, we go on and read further into the Psalm, we find that the same difficulty as to the change of person recurs several times later on, just as in the opening. Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Hitzig get rid of this difficulty by all sorts of conjectures. But a reason for this abrupt change of the person is that dramatic arrangement recognised even in the Targum, although awkwardly indicated, which, however, as first of all clearly discerned by J. D. Michaelis and Maurer. There are, to wit, two voices that speak (as in Psalms 121:1-8), and at last the voice of Jahve comes in as a third. His closing utterance, rich in promise, forms, perhaps not unaccidentally, a seven-line strophe. Whether the Psalm came also to be executed in liturgical use thus with several voices, perhaps by three choirs, we cannot tell; but the poet certainly laid it out dramatically, as the translation represents it. In spite of the many echoes of earlier models, it is one of the freshest and most beautiful Psalms, resembling the second part of Isaiah in its light-winged, richly coloured, and transparent diction.
As the concealing One, God is called עליון , the inaccessibly high One; and as the shadowing One שׁדּי , the invincibly almighty One. Faith, however, calls Him by His covenant name ( Heilsname ) יהוה and, with the suffix of appropriation, אלהי ( my God). In connection with Psalms 91:1 we are reminded of the expressions of the Book of Job, Job 39:28, concerning the eagle's building its nest in its eyrie. According to the accentuation, Psalms 91:2 ought to be rendered with Geier, “ Dicit: in Domino meo (or Domini) latibulum , etc.” But the combination אמר לה is more natural, since the language of address follows in both halves of the verse.
יקושׁ , as in Proverbs 6:5; Jeremiah 5:26, is the dullest toned from for יקושׁ or יוקשׁ , Psalms 124:7. What is meant is death, or “he who has the power of death,” Hebrews 2:14, cf. 2 Timothy 2:26. “The snare of the fowler” is a figure for the peril of one's life, Ecclesiastes 9:12. In connection with Psalms 91:4 we have to call to mind Deuteronomy 32:11 : God protects His own as an eagle with its large strong wing. אברה is nom. unitatis , a pinion, to אבר , Isaiah 40:31; and the Hiph . הסך , from סכך , with the dative of the object, like the Kal in Psalms 140:8, signifies to afford covering, protection. The ἅπαξ λεγ . סחרה , according to its stem-word, is that which encompasses anything round about, and here beside צנּה , a weapon of defence surrounding the body on all sides; therefore not corresponding to the Syriac sḥārtā' , a stronghold ( סהר , מסגּרת ), but to Syriac sabrā' , a shield. The Targum translates צנּה with תּריסא , θυρεός , and סחרה with עגילא , which points to the round parma . אמתּו is the truth of the divine promises. This is an impregnable defence ( a ) in war-times, Psalms 91:5, against nightly surprises, and in the battle by day; ( b ) in times of pestilence, Psalms 91:6, when the destroying angel, who passes through and destroys the people (Exodus 11:4), can do no harm to him who has taken refuge in God, either in the midnight or the noontide hours. The future יהלך is a more rhythmical and, in the signification to rage (as of disease) and to vanish away, a more usual form instead of ילך . The lxx, Aquila, and Symmachus erroneously associate the demon name שׁד with ישׁוּד . It is a metaplastic (as if formed from שׁוּד morf de ) future for ישׁד , cf. Proverbs 29:6, ירוּן , and Isaiah 42:4, ירוּץ , frangetur . Psalms 91:7 a hypothetical protasis: si cadant ; the preterite would signify cediderint , Ew. §357, b . With רק that which will solely and exclusively take place is introduced. Burk correctly renders: nullam cum peste rem habebis, nisi ut videas . Only a spectator shalt thou be, and that with thine own eyes, being they self inaccessible and left to survive, conscious that thou thyself art a living one in contrast with those who are dying. And thou shalt behold, like Israel on the night of the Passover, the just retribution to which the evil-doers fall a prey. שׁלּמה , recompense, retribution, is a hapaxlegomenon, cf. שׁלּמים , Isaiah 34:8. Ascribing the glory to God, the second voice confirms or ratifies these promises.
The first voice continues this ratification, and goes on weaving these promises still further: thou hast made the Most High thy dwelling-place ( מעון ); there shall not touch thee.... The promises rise ever higher and higher and sound more glorious. The Pual אנּה , prop. to be turned towards, is equivalent to “to befall one,” as in Proverbs 12:21; Aquila well renders: ου ̓ μεταχθήσεται πρὸς σὲ κακία . לא־יקרב reminds one of Isaiah 54:14, where אל follows; here it is בּ , as in Judges 19:13. The angel guardianship which is apportioned to him who trusts in God appears in Psalms 91:11, Psalms 91:12 as a universal fact, not as a solitary fact and occurring only in extraordinary instances. Haec est vera miraculorum ratio , observes Brentius on this passage, quod semel aut iterum manifeste revelent ea quae Deus semper abscondite operatur . In ישּׂאוּנך the suffix has been combined with the full form of the future. The lxx correctly renders Psalms 91:12 : μήποτε προσκόψῃς πρὸς λίθον τὸν πόδα σου , for נגף everywhere else, and therefore surely here too and in Proverbs 3:23, has a transitive signification, not an intransitive (Aquila, Jerome, Symmachus), cf. Jeremiah 13:16. Psalms 91:13 tells what he who trusts in God has power to do by virtue of this divine succour through the medium of angels. The promise calls to mind Mark 16:18, ὄφεις ἀροῦσι , they shall take up serpents, but still more Luke 10:19 : Behold, I give you power to tread ἐπάνω ὄφεων καὶ σκορπίων καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἐχθροῦ . They are all kinds of destructive powers belonging to nature, and particularly to the spirit-world, that are meant. They are called lions and fierce lions from the side of their open power, which threatens destruction, and adders and dragons from the side of their venomous secret malice. In Psalms 91:13 it is promised that the man who trusts in God shall walk on over these monsters, these malignant foes, proud in God and unharmed; in Psalms 91:13 , that he shall tread them to the ground (cf. Romans 16:20). That which the divine voice of promise now says at the close of the Psalm is, so far as the form is concerned, an echo taken from Ps 50. Psalms 50:15, Psalms 50:23 of that Psalm sound almost word for word the same. Genesis 46:4, and more especially Isaiah 63:9, are to be compared on Psalms 50:15 . In B. Taanith 16 a it is inferred from this passage that God compassionates the suffering ones whom He is compelled by reason of His holiness to chasten and prove. The “salvation of Jahve,” as in Psalms 50:23, is the full reality of the divine purpose (or counsel) of mercy. To live to see the final glory was the rapturous thought of the Old Testament hope, and in the apostolic age, of the New Testament hope also.