Ps. 91.14a (speaking into Yhwh)

Truly, / I will keep safe / the one devoted to me. 

This line contains several fascinating features and, as such, I want to simply focus on it even though it is only half of verse 14. The first thing to note is that Yhwh has emerged and now speaks for himself. The psalmist is no longer speaking about or to Yhwh. It is an important and profound shift in the psalm, and one we will hopefully return to. For the moment, though, I want to highlight something in particular about how Yhwh speaks. He begins with the word, “Truly…” which recalls verse 3, when the psalmist says, “Truly he will save you from the fowler’s trap.” As well as verse 9, that closes the first portion of the psalm. Further, what Yhwh affirms about himself largely mirrors the psalmist’s portrayal of him. “Truly, I will keep safe the one devoted to me…”. We need to observe the deeply significant point that Yhwh is here mimicking, or mirroring, the psalmist. He follows on the heels of the psalmist, speaking in the first person. Yhwh is, in this way, adopting the psalmist’s profession and raising it up into his own profession about himself; it is like some reverse incarnation (instead of the word coming down and being incarnated in the words of the prophet, they are rising up and being incarnated in the words of Yhwh). ‘Respectful’ does even approach what is happening here. The words ‘of earth’ are being spoken ‘in heaven’. This perhaps sheds some light on exactly what Yhwh means when he says, “Truly….”. When the psalmist says it, it operates as a type of strong emphasis. However, when Yhwh says it, it may be that he is affirming, and asserting, what the psalmist has said about him. In this way, Yhwh is not only ‘mirroring or mimicking’ but he is offering deep affirmation of the psalmist’s words of him, as if the psalmist’s words were some liturgy to Yhwh that he revels in. This casts an astonishingly powerful light—the light of Yhwh’s almost joyful acclimation—onto the psalmist’s words.

Ps. 91.10-12 (the angels of the presence)

If you make the Most High / your haven
no harm / will happen to you
no disaster / will come near your tent.
For he will / command his angels / about you
to guard you / in all your ways. 

These verses represent an important shift in perspective. They start off conditional—“If you make the Most High…”. Then, if that condition is met, God responds by “commanding his angels about you.” We have noted this before but it comes out starkly here: the protection of Yhwh is not a type of absolute condition or state. It depends upon, and is responsive to, his people “making him” their refuge. Perhaps this is enacted in a type of inconoclasm toward the other gods (i.e., not appealing to any other god for protection), and an exclusive devotion to Yhwh. There is also an interesting type of ‘call-and-response’ here. If the people make the Most High their “haven”, then he surrounds their “tent”. What we see is that, in a sense, the Most High’s protection (his response) will mirror the extent to which he is appealed to (the call). This fact finds resonance in the opening lines where “dwelling” and “abiding” in the Most High are emphasized. So, the ‘tent’ language is not accidental. It draws attention to the fact that the ‘dwelling’ of his people, is protected to the extent that they ‘dwell’ in Yhwh as a ‘haven’. Perhaps also what we find is to the extent there is a residue that is not afforded to Yhwh, that portion will not be protected.  A second thing to note is again how the image of ‘proximity’ is employed. In verse 7, as the hordes fall in death, “it will not come near you.” Here “no disaster will come hear your tent.” In verse 7, the reason why death remains at bay is not directly stated. Here, however, it is—it is because the angels are interposed between the people and the disaster. In other words, Yhwh is more present to them (through the angels) than the danger itself. This also echoes something from the first section of the psalm. In verse 4 Yhwh is described as a ‘shield’, but the image is more of an encircling shield, one that surrounds the person on all sides. Here, the angels now take on that function as the Most High commands them “all about you”. In other words, they encircle the people, as Yhwh, as shield, encircles the people. This close resemblance between the first section of the psalm and the second, between Yhwh-as-shield and angels-about-you, points to an important reality pertaining to the angels. They are not, at least here, an intermediary that distances Yhwh from his people. Rather, their presence makes Yhwh’s presence closer. They ‘stand in’ and are, in a very real sense, Yhwh himself. Of course, the psalm makes the point that they are ‘commanded’ but it simultaneously draws attention to the fact they now operate in the same manner as Yhwh, an important fact that should not be overlooked or downplayed.

Ps. 91.13 (from attacked to attacker)

You will tread / on the lion / and the cobra
and trample / the young lion / and the serpent.  

 These lines are very interesting lines in the context of the psalm as they represent the only time that the psalmist is not only defensively protected but actively empowered. It is a thread we have been following throughout—unlike in laments or petitions, this psalm does not, for the most part, seek an active engagement with and destruction of the wicked, but only a defensive protection and shielding. Here, though, that thread is momentarily interrupted. The immediately preceding verse focused on the angelic help as one walked “along the way”. The angel’s protection was particularly in regard to walking and the feet. Interestingly, their ‘hands’ protected the people’s feet “they hold you up in their hands, lest you stub your foot on a stone.”  It was characteristically defensive. Here, though, the foot image is maintained, but the posture changes—now, the people’s feet are empowered to trample not only on snakes but on lions. The people have become magnified to a position of utter dominance over the animals. Now, rather than being ‘sheltered beneath’ Yhwh’s wings, they stand over and above the enemies they originally were fleeing from. 

There is a second dynamic at work here that changes from what was previously experienced. We saw in verses 7-9 that the people were moved from a position of engagement with the horde of death to a position of pure observation. Here, that dynamic is reversed—the move from a position of detachment/observation to one of conquering engagement and power. 

And a third dynamic: in verses 5-6 the danger is clearly portrayed as one that emerges from hiding and ‘unawares’. Here, the serpent and the lion are the two most stealthy and dangerous animals. They always attack from hiding and are difficult to detect prior to the fatal blow. This verses contrast is striking. The people are now not only empowered to be actively against them and to be over them in dominance, but they also actively find them. No longer can they hide and attack from darkness. Rather, the people have moved into a light that enables them to not only foresee the attack but to actually become the attackers.  This verse offers us an important, but small, glimpse into the working of the psalm as a whole—that the defensive power of Yhwh is, simultaneously, an empowering. This vision is clearly muted in the psalm, and I think there are reasons for that. But, nevertheless, it is present.

Ps. 91.7-9 (Pt. 2; movement to seeing)

I want to pause over something mentioned in the previous reflection, and that is how being ‘in Yhwh’ turns one from being a participant into an observer. We noted how, in verses 7-9, the ‘drama’ moves the listener from being ‘close’ to the ‘fall of the horde of the wicked’ to being ‘not close’ to it. In so doing, it also moves from a type of visceral-physical closeness to one of distance-in-watching. The psalmist emphasizes this point in three, very closely aligned ways: “you will only look at it, with your eyes, and watch the punishment of the wicked.” The psalmist wants to draw a very close attention to the fact that the listeners, in so far as they stand in Yhwh, become observers only to the wicked. They are ‘shielded by Yhwh’ (vs. 4), from the wicked and, as such, can safely watch it pass by. Now, this ‘watching’ moves the listeners into a stance of passivity and observation. They are not, in other words, actively engaged in the angst that surrounds them. Here is where I want to make the additional observation—this detached stance of the observer is very close to what we noticed before in how the psalm is delivered as a type of wisdom psalm. What we have noticed is that while the psalm does focus on evil, it is unlike many other laments in that it does not petition Yhwh for its removal. Yhwh is portrayed almost entirely and exclusively as a protector, a defender, and not as a judge or a king who actively re-orients evil in judgment. This purely defensive posture of Yhwh is enacted for the people in their “not fearing” what is occurring around them. They do not become active lament-petitioners, but, in so far as they are in Yhwh, the move into this removed, detached, position of an observer. Under the shade of Yhwh, and beneath his wings, they gaze out into the world and watch the evil. The reason I bring this up is that the psalmist’s emphasis on seeing and observing the evil that occurs, and his emphasis on ‘not fearing’, is a type of enactment of Yhwh-as-protector. 'Not fearing' is an enactment of Yhwh's 'shielding'. Likewise, 'looking on' is the embodied, literal stance, of one who is 'shielded' from what is happening around (or, in front) of them. And this provides us an insight into a particular stance toward evil that, to me, has been understated in the psalms to this point. There is a sense of ‘detachment’ from the fear and evil that swirls around the psalmist and his people.

Ps. 91.7-9 (from participant to audience)

A thousand may fall / beside you
ten thousand / on your right
but it / will not come near you. 
You will only look at it / with your eyes
and watch / the punishment of the wicked
Truly you / O Yhwh / are my refuge. 

One thing I failed to note in the previous reflection is that the psalmist is not denying the reality of the ‘troubles’ that attack at night and during the day (the “terror”, the “arrow”, the “plague” and the “scourge”). Rather, as we did point out, he is attempting to convince his hearers of the protective presence of Yhwh in the face of these dangers. Just as in verse 4, Yhwh will cover them against these forces; it is not that they do not exist or are not real. They simply shouldn’t be feared. Here, the importance of that observation is more apparent. The imagery used is ingenious. The psalmist conjures up a vast multitude of people ‘falling’ next to the psalmist. From a ‘thousand’ he then moves to ‘ten thousand’. The scope is, quite literally, terrifying. It is a tidal wave of death descending upon them. It is as if a nation’s entire army was immediately and absolutely devastated, from an unknown source. 

At this point we need to catch the resonance with the preceding verses. There, the attack came ‘unawares, quickly, violently and with devastating effect’. It came ‘from hiding’. Here, that same attack is now deployed against this multitude. Now, they are the ones who suffer from this undescribed and seemingly hidden attack. However, this attack ‘reaches the mark’. Unlike the psalmist who ‘has no reason to fear’, they ‘fall’. We have seen this dynamic many times before: the weapons employed by the enemies of Yhwh’s people are turned upon them in a devastating boomerang effect (the ‘pit they dig, they fall into’; their hidden attack now descends upon them from hiding; the attempt to slander someone in secret, only falls upon them, in shame, publicly; etc…). There is an almost scientific precision to judgment as it crafts itself out of the wickedness and is then flung back on the wickeds’ heads. There is another important allusion to the previous verses. We noted in the previous reflections how ‘proximity’ has been a key image of the psalmist. Yhwh is a ‘refuge’ and a ‘fortress’; we ‘abide in the shade of Yhwh’; with his ‘feathers he covers you, and under his wings you will take refuge’; he is your ‘shield’ round-about. This ‘proximity of Yhwh’ is why there is no need to fear the dangers of verses 5-6. These dangers, and the fear they inspire, attempt to interpose themselves between Yhwh’s people and his ‘proximity’. They attempt to drive a wedge between them and Yhwh such that Yhwh’s ‘refuge’ is called in question or at least the extent of it. Here, that sense of ‘proximity’ is pushed to its limit. This horde of people—this ‘tidal wave of death’—that is ‘falling’ is doing so ‘beside you’ and ‘on your right’. In other words, it is nearly touching ‘you’. The ‘space’ (the ‘proximity’) between ‘you and this death’ has almost vanished. It is, quite literally, ‘in your face’. The psalmist is careful to point this out and he is doing so for a reason—he is placing us directly in the path of the most terrible of forces, just before the point of its devastating and fatal contact…and telling us “it will not come near you.” 

It is precisely at this point that the psalmist completely shifts his perspective. The danger is now not near. And then he reverts to images not of proximity but of vision—you will only look at it with your eyes and watch. It is a key shift. From the visceral sense of impending doom we now occupy the stance of an observer. Someone who stands apart from the danger as a passive ‘audience to the horror’. We have moved from being a participant in the play to being a member of the audience. The ‘wedge’ has been cast down, but now it is not the ‘wedge of fear’ but Yhwh himself. Through him, one moves from the play to the audience. In him, is protected against the ‘tidal wave of death’ and simply watches it wash ashore. 

This image does call to my mind a specific story in the Exodus. When the plagues were falling all over Egypt, the Israelites occupied a type of ‘safety zone’. None of the plagues inhabited that sphere of safety. Everyone was falling around them; indeed, the entire nation (the ‘ten thousand’) was suffering the onslaught. Yet, they lived in peace and security. They lived, in the words of this psalm, ‘in the refuge of the Name’.