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.