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.