This has been a much beloved psalm of protection throughout thousands of generations. It’s one we pray and look to when we are afraid and when our life is in danger. And at the onset of the pandemic, this psalm was quoted a lot. Why? It says this:
“You will not fear…the pestilence that ravages at noon. Though a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, the pestilence will not reach you” (Ps 91:6-8).
“…No harm will come to you; no plague will come near your tent. For he will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways” (Ps 91:10-11).
And yet people who have loved the Lord have died from this virus. Why? If this psalm is true, why?
1) Let’s go to Jesus for a moment. When satan was tempting Jesus, the deceiver also tried to use a psalm, actually this psalm, in order to guarantee Jesus’ safety (Mt 4:5-7).
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
The devil asked Jesus to use Ps 91 in order to prove out God’s faithfulness to the Scripture. Jesus doesn’t fall for it. He says no.
In the same way some who read this psalm want Christians to prove God’s unfaithfulness as people are dying of covid. Don’t fall for it. Say no.
So what does this psalm mean? What it doesn’t mean that all people at all times who love the Lord will always be protected from everything.
2) This psalm comes in a series of psalms where Israel’s enemies are being punished for wickedness.
“You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked” (Ps 91:8).
Just like when Israel was in Egypt and for some of the plagues, God said he would bring separation, the Egyptians would suffer and the Israelites would not, this seems to be a similar scenario (Ex 8:22).
3) This is a poetic psalm of God’s protection.
Poetry was just that, poetic. Poetry is stark contrast language to emphasize the goodness and faithfulness of God in this context.
4) There was a bigger picture involved.
The ancient peoples and even Middle Easterns and Central Asians even today typically do not think individually like Westerners do. They see the group and the bigger picture in history. With this is a promise that God would deliver them corporately, not every single person individually.
We see similar lines of thought in Ex 19:4-6a:
“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
It wasn’t that God would protect and keep every individual alive and well, but that God’s purposes and plans for Israel as a nation would be protected and kept safe if they obeyed his voice and kept his covenant. Again, it’s about the group and about the big picture, not just about the individual as Westerners think.
5) In the story with Jesus, even the individual is kept safe in eternity.
For the individual, there is a safety, an eternal safety. It isn’t a safety on this earth as we clearly read about in Heb 11. It is a safe eternity secured in Him. It’s not hidden that at some point all of us will die. But in Jesus, we truly are kept safe.
