Psalm Category: Wisdom Psalm
Central Thought: God so loves His people that He will bring them home through all their trials to enjoy His salvation in this life, and in heaven hereafter.
Psalm 91
This psalm is really about the believer’s life story. You can liken it to a trip around a baseball diamond. You are given a life and that brings you to the plate, ready to bat. Life inevitably throws curve balls, sliders, and fast balls. It takes some hard running around the bases before making it to home plate! Many will strike out and others may be sent to the dugout, so the illustration raises questions of eternal significance. The psalmist walks us round the bases, showing us how believers are committed to, covered by, and confident in the promises of God, and that they will, by the grace of God, certainly come home safely. Although anonymous, this psalm may be from the pen of Moses. It breathes something of the stresses of Israel’s wilderness wanderings.
Committed to God’s promises (vv. 1-2). The psalmist steps up to the plate. As a child of God, he lives in “the secret place of the Most High”—he is in union and communion with the Lord by grace through faith. Therefore his goal is to walk under the shadow—better understood as the shelter—of the Almighty. This is not what he hopes to do—it is rather his present condition, privilege, experience and destiny all rolled into one! Hence his personal testimony that God is his refuge and fortress—“My God, in Him I will trust” (v. 2). The believer is at home with the Lord in his soul, wherever he is and whatever his circumstances.
Covered by God’s promises (vv. 3-13). The psalmist sets off around the bases. He details six promises from God.
Deliverance from danger (v. 3). Hidden dangers and foul afflictions, physical or spiritual, will not pluck us from God’s hand (John 10:28).
Comfort and assurance (v. 4). God is near to us, as feathers and wings (Mal. 4:2; Matt. 23:37) and shield and buckler (Gen. 15:1).
Freedom from fear (v. 5-8). Franklin Roosevelt was wrong: we have more to fear than “fear itself.” Fear is not an abstraction. It arises from real threats to our welfare. But you, saint of the Lord, are one in a thousand (v. 7)—it is the lost and unbelieving who reap the reward of wickedness (v. 8).
Certainty about good outcomes (vv. 9-10). Whatever troubles come, they will not destroy God’s people (Rom. 8:28).
Helping ministry of angels (vv. 11-12). Satan tried to tempt Jesus by twisting this text (Luke 4:10-11), because he knew Jesus would bring this promise to complete fulfillment for those He saves!
Victory over the strongest opposition (v. 13). We are not invincible, but Jesus is, and in Him “we shall be more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37)!
Confident in God’s promises (vv. 14-16). Escaping worldly problems will not mean much if we live “without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). The psalmist now records God as He speaks “words of comfort to the saints…declaring the mercy he has in store for them”(Matthew Henry).
First, we have a threefold challenge that poses the question: Are these promises for you? (vv. 14-15a). (a) Do you love the Lord? Can you say, “Because He set His love on me” and confess, “I will love You, O Lord my strength”? (Ps. 18:1). (b) Do you have a personal inward knowledge of the Lord? Can you say from your heart-experience, “Because He has known my name”? (c) Do you experience communion with God in prayer? (v. 15a).
Last, we are given no fewer than six comforts—promises of God for His saints. (a) Deliverance, both in and from troubles (vv. 14a, 15b; Ps. 107:28). (b) Honor and exaltation, both in time and eternity (vv. 14b, 15b). The saints are the apple of God’s eye, and are even to judge the world! (Zech. 2:8; 1 Cor. 6:2). (c) Answers to prayer in which we discover His grace to be sufficient (v. 15a; 2 Cor. 12:9) (d) God’s presence with His beloved people (v. 15b). Only Jesus was utterly alone—so that His own might never be alone! (e) A satisfying life (v. 16a). We need not live one day more than He gives us: “A man may die young, and yet be full of days, satur dierum—satisfied with living” (Matthew Henry). (f) A realized salvation (v. 16b). This is surely in Christ alone. “Abraham,” says Jesus, “rejoiced to see My day” (John 8:56). We see our Savior now—and later face to face (1 Cor. 13:12).
Jesus, who brought us to the plate in saving faith, and sustains us as we round the bases of the Christian life, brings us home safely, to welcome us at home plate: “Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your Lord”(Matt. 25:21).
—Gordon J. Keddie