Psalm 91 makes the boldest safety promises in the Bible — no plague will come near your tent, a thousand fall at your side and you are left standing — and it makes them in three different voices it never bothers to introduce. Someone testifies in verses 1-2. Someone else spends verses 3-13 telling him what God will do. Then in verses 14-16 God speaks for himself, and the promises change shape: not "nothing will touch you" but "I will be with him in trouble." Reading this psalm well starts with noticing who is talking.
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The verbs are dwell and abide — staying, not arriving. Then the speaker turns it into a personal declaration: "I will say to the LORD, you are my refuge." Nothing has been promised yet. Someone has simply decided where he lives.
A second voice takes over and starts speaking to "you". The threats are specific — a bird-catcher's hidden trap, a deadly plague — and the shelter offered against them is startlingly small: feathers and wings. The psalm puts a mother bird and a fortified wall in the same breath.
Terror at night, an arrow in daylight, disease moving in the dark, disaster at noon. Between them they cover the whole clock, which is the point. Then comes the psalm's hardest line: a thousand fall at your side, and you are not touched. It never says why.
Verse 9 repeats verse 1 — you have made the LORD your dwelling — and the promises then climb: no evil, no plague at the tent, angels under orders, hands to catch you, a lion and a cobra under your foot. This is the high water mark of the chapter, and it is still the human voice speaking.
The pronouns switch to "I" and stay there. Six things God says he will do: deliver, protect, answer, be with him in trouble, honour him, satisfy him with long life. One of those six quietly assumes the trouble arrives.
The psalm has three speakers and labels none of them. Verses 1-2 are a testimony. Verses 3-13 are addressed to "you" — someone is doing the encouraging. Verses 14-16 are God in the first person. Notice where the biggest claims sit. "No evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent" belongs to the middle section, where one person is telling another what to expect. When God takes over, the promises get more personal and more measured: rescue, an answer, company in trouble, honour, a full life. That is not a contradiction in the psalm. It is the difference between how encouragement talks and how a promise gets worded by the one who has to keep it.
The two verbs in verse 1 are dwell and abide, and verse 9 says it again: you have made the LORD your dwelling. None of that is emergency language. A shelter you sprint to when the sirens start is not what this psalm describes — it describes an address. That shapes how the promises are meant to work, because they attach to a settled way of living with God rather than to a prayer said in a bad week. It is also the psalm's quietest demand: everything offered across the next fifteen verses is offered to someone who already lives there.
Plenty of verses get misused. This is the only passage the Bible stops to show us being misused, and by whom. When the devil quotes verses 11 and 12 to Jesus in Matthew 4, he quotes them accurately and still gets them wrong, because he drops the words that limit them and turns a promise of protection into a dare. So this psalm arrives with its own instruction manual attached, written into the New Testament: these words are true, and they are not a licence. A reader who has never been told that will reach for Psalm 91 at exactly the wrong moment.
The psalm does not deal in general unease. It lists a bird-catcher's hidden trap, a deadly plague, terror in the night, an arrow by day, disease in the dark, disaster at midday, a lion, a snake. Between them they cover most of the ways an ancient person actually died. That specificity is worth copying when you pray. This psalm is not soothing somebody who is worried about nothing; it is answering somebody who can name what frightens them, and it answers at the same level of detail.
Church language, in ordinary English. Nothing here assumes you have heard the word before.
The sentence the rest of the psalm exists to explain. Both verbs are about staying rather than arriving, and both titles are about rank rather than warmth, which sets the terms before a single promise is made.
The most quoted and most difficult line in the chapter. This is where a reader either decides the psalm is a guarantee of physical safety or starts asking what kind of promise it actually is.
The two verses the devil quotes to Jesus in Matthew 4, which is why this psalm needs reading carefully rather than eagerly. The phrase that limits them, and that he left out, is "in all your ways".
God's own words, and the quietest correction in the chapter. He does not say trouble will stay away. He says he will be inside it.
Psalm 91 is the most misused chapter in the Psalms, and it is misused in one particular way: verses 3-13 get lifted out and treated as a contract that a Christian will not be harmed. That reading does not survive the psalm's own ending. When God finally speaks in his own voice, what he promises is rescue, an answer, honour and a full life — and "I will be with him in trouble", which takes for granted that the trouble arrives. It does not survive the rest of the Bible either. Faithful people in Scripture are imprisoned, executed, shipwrecked and left ill, and the New Testament treats that as ordinary rather than as this psalm failing. The sharpest warning is in the psalm's own afterlife: verses 11 and 12 are the only lines in the Bible we are explicitly shown being quoted by the devil, and the person he quoted them to refused to act on them. Jesus' answer was that testing God is not the same as trusting him. If you are using this psalm to justify a risk you chose yourself, you are using it the way Matthew 4 warns against.
No, and the psalm itself is the best evidence. Its largest promises — no plague near your tent, no harm coming near you — are spoken by a voice encouraging somebody else. When God speaks in the first person at the end, he says "I will be with him in trouble", which assumes trouble comes. The psalm promises presence, rescue, and a life that is not finally destroyed. It does not promise an untouched body. Read as a health guarantee it will be falsified by an ordinary illness sooner or later, and the people who get hurt when that happens are the ones who were told otherwise.
Verse 7 pictures a battlefield or an epidemic: people dying in large numbers close enough to touch, while the person praying is left standing. It is the psalm's most extravagant line and its most uncomfortable one, because it says nothing at all about why. It is not an explanation of who dies and who does not, and the psalm never suggests the thousand deserved it. It is a statement that God's care is personal rather than statistical — that whatever is sweeping through, you are individually known. Whether that confidence has been visibly vindicated in every case is a question the psalm leaves open.
In Matthew 4:6 and Luke 4:10-11 the devil takes Jesus to the top of the temple and quotes verses 11 and 12 — the angels who will catch you so you do not strike your foot — as a reason to jump. The quotation is accurate and the use of it is not. He leaves out the phrase "in all your ways", which frames the promise as protection while you go about your life rather than insurance for a stunt you invented. Jesus answers with a line from Deuteronomy: do not put the Lord your God to the test. It is the clearest lesson in the Bible on the difference between trusting a promise and daring God to keep it.
A fowler was a bird-catcher, and his snare was a hidden trap — a net or noose the bird never saw and could not have dodged by being careful. That is the whole point of the image. Verse 3 pairs it with deadly plague, and the two share a quality: they arrive without warning, and being sensible is no defence. The psalm is not promising protection from dangers you could have avoided yourself. It is talking about the kind that were already set before you got there.
Verses 11 and 12 say God assigns angels to guard the person who shelters in him, and pictures them lifting him in their hands so he does not stub his foot on a stone. The scale is deliberately small — not rescue from catastrophe, but ordinary stumbling. The words that matter most are the limit: they guard you "in all your ways", meaning along the road you are actually walking. It is a promise of company on your way, and that clause is exactly what the devil dropped when he quoted the verse to Jesus.
Verse 13 is a picture of victory, not a claim about wildlife. Lions and snakes were the two things that killed people out in open country, and putting your foot on one is what you do after it is already beaten. The psalm has spent twelve verses on threats coming at you; this line ends with the threats underneath you. Later writers heard more in it — Paul's line about God crushing Satan under your feet in Romans 16:20 reuses the picture — but the psalm itself is making a simpler point. The things that hunt you do not get the last move.
Nobody knows. Psalm 91 has no title in the Hebrew text, which is unusual, and it means the psalm carries no author's name. Because the psalm before it is credited to Moses, some early readers assumed this one was his as well. Others have argued for David, partly because of the plague language in verse 6 and the plague during his own reign. Both are guesses. The honest answer is that it is anonymous, and nothing in how you read it depends on settling the question.
Read it twice, and the second time mark in the margin who is speaking. You will find three people: a man saying what he has decided about God, someone answering him at length about what God will do, and then God, taking over for the last three verses and speaking in the first person for the only time in the chapter.
The reason to do that is the reason most people end up disappointed by this psalm. Almost everything quoted from Psalm 91 on a poster or in a difficult week comes from the middle section — the encouragement — and the encouragement is pitched high. When God speaks for himself at the end, he sounds different. He promises to answer, to rescue, to honour, and to be with the person in trouble. That last one is smaller than “nothing will touch you” and much harder to falsify, and it is the one that has held for readers of this psalm for three thousand years.
Watch out for one more thing. Verses 11 and 12 are the verses the devil quotes to Jesus in Matthew 4, and Jesus refuses them. That is unique in the Bible: a promise so easy to abuse that Scripture itself stages the abuse for you and shows you the right answer. Psalm 91 is for someone taking shelter, not for someone taking a chance.
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What the commentaries say about Psalm 91
Three commentaries, oldest last. Each is shown in full with its author and licence, and every scripture reference inside them links through to the verse.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalm 91
Tyndale House Publishers, released openly in 2023
Short, plain-English notes written for people reading the Bible for the first time. They explain what a word meant to its original audience, why a detail is there, and where else in Scripture the same idea shows up. If you only read one set of notes on this page, read this one.
10 notes on Psalm 91
Verse 1
Ps 91 This wisdom psalm expresses confidence in the Almighty God, who provides a shelter for those who take refuge in him. They receive redemption, life, and glory from the Lord, who loves and cares for those who seek him.
91:1-2 The Lord is an ancient shelter (see 90:1), open to those who seek refuge in him.
91:1 The Most High is an ancient title that expresses the Lord’s exalted status as the ruler and protector of the godly (see Gen 14:19).
Verse 3
91:3-4 The psalmist invites the godly to trust in the Lord and find protection in him.
91:3 God protects the godly from deadly disease and even a destructive word.
Verse 4
91:4 The armor might refer to a body shield, while protection refers to a small shield worn on the arm.
Verse 5
91:5-8 The godly should not be afraid, because the Lord watches over them. These promises do not guarantee an escape from trouble, but they create an expectation of the Lord’s goodness.
Verse 6
91:6 The reference to disease represents any kind of affliction.
Verse 9
91:9-13 The poet again invites the godly to seek refuge in the Lord and enjoy the benefits of divine protection.
Verse 11
91:11 he will order his angels: Satan cited these words when he tempted Jesus (Matt 4:6; Luke 4:10-11), but God makes this promise for those who obey him (Ps 91:14), not for those who arrogantly test him (Matt 4:4, 7).
Verse 14
91:14-16 The godly can trust the Lord’s protection and provision.
91:14 Those who love the Lord will obey him (Deut 30:20; 1 Jn 5:3) and seek his protection (Pss 91:1; 145:18).
Verse 15
91:15 The Lord promises to answer the prayers of his people. • The Psalter often speaks of people honoring the Lord (50:15); here, God promises to honor the godly who risk everything for his sake (62:7; 71:21; 84:11).
Verse 16
91:16 A long life on earth represents just a small part of the Lord’s goodness and eternal friendship (23:6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for the web by BibleHearth; wording unchanged. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Read the original
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible on Psalm 91
Matthew Henry, 1706–1714
A pastor writing for his own congregation three hundred years ago. Henry is less interested in historical background than in what a chapter asks of the person reading it, which is why he is still quoted in sermons today. He is warm, direct, and unafraid to apply a text to you.
Before you start: Written in the early 1700s. The sentences are long and some words have shifted meaning since — "conversation" means how a person lives, "want" means to lack something. Read it slowly; it rewards that.
Chapter overview and 2 notes on Psalm 91
What this chapter is doing
Some of the ancients were of opinion that Moses was the penman, not only of the foregoing psalm, which is expressly said to be his, but also of the eight that next follow it; but that cannot be, for Psa 95:1-11 is expressly said to be penned by David, and long after Moses, Heb 4:7. It is probable that this psalm also was penned by David; it is a writ of protection for all true believers, not in the name of king David, or under his broad seal; he needed it himself, especially if the psalm was penned, as some conjecture it was, at the time of the pestilence which was sent for his numbering the people; but in the name of the King of kings, and under the broad seal of Heaven. Observe, I. The psalmist's own resolution to take God for his keeper (Psa 91:2), from which he gives both direction and encouragement to others (Psa 91:9). II. The promises which are here made, in God's name, to all those that do so in sincerity. 1. They shall be taken under the peculiar care of Heaven (Psa 91:1, Psa 91:4). 2. They shall be delivered from the malice of the powers of darkness (Psa 91:3, Psa 91:5, Psa 91:6), and that by a distinguishing preservation (Psa 91:7, Psa 91:8). 3. They shall be the charge of the holy angels (Psa 91:10-12). 4. They shall triumph over their enemies (Psa 91:13). 5. They shall be the special favourites of God himself (Psa 91:14-16). In singing this we must shelter ourselves under, and then solace ourselves in, the divine protection. Many think that to Christ, as Mediator, these promises do primarily belong (Isa 49:2), not because to him the devil applied one of these promises (Mat 4:6), but because to him they are very applicable, and, coming through him, they are more sweet and sure to all believers.
Verse 1
In these verses we have,
I. A great truth laid down in general, That all those who live a life of communion with God are constantly safe under his protection, and may therefore preserve a holy serenity and security of mind at all times (Psa 91:1): He that dwells, that sits down, in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty; he that by faith chooses God for his guardian shall find all that in him which he needs or can desire. Note, 1. It is the character of a true believer that he dwells in the secret place of the Most High; he is at home in God, returns to God, and reposes in him as his rest; he acquaints himself with inward religion, and makes heart-work of the service of God, worships within the veil, and loves to be alone with God, to converse with him in solitude. 2. It is the privilege and comfort of those that do so that they abide under the shadow of the Almighty; he shelters them, and comes between them and every thing that would annoy them, whether storm or sunshine. They shall not only have an admittance, but a residence, under God's protection; he will be their rest and refuge for ever.
II. The psalmist's comfortable application of this to himself (Psa 91:2): I will say of the Lord, whatever others say of him, "He is my refuge; I choose him as such, and confide in him. Others make idols their refuge, but I will say of Jehovah, the true and living God, He is my refuge: any other is a refuge of lies. He is a refuge that will not fail me; for he is my fortress and strong-hold." Idolaters called their idols Mahuzzim, their most strong-hold (Dan 11:39), but therein they deceived themselves; those only secure themselves that make the Lord their God, their fortress. There being no reason to question his sufficiency, fitly does it follow, In him will I trust. If Jehovah be our God, our refuge, and our fortress, what can we desire which we may not be sure to find in him? He is neither fickle nor false, neither weak nor mortal; he is God and not man, and therefore there is no danger of being disappointed in him. We know whom we have trusted.
III. The great encouragement he gives to others to do likewise, not only from his own experience of the comfort of it (for in that there might possibly be a fallacy), but from the truth of God's promise, in which there neither is nor can be any deceit (Psa 91:3, Psa 91:4, etc.): Surely he shall deliver thee. Those who have themselves found the comfort of making God their refuge cannot but desire that others may do so. Now here it is promised,
1. That believers shall be kept from those mischiefs which they are in imminent danger of, and which would be fatal to them (Psa 91:3), from the snare of the fowler, which is laid unseen and catches the unwary prey on a sudden, and from the noisome pestilence, which seizes men unawares and against which there is no guard. This promise protects, (1.) The natural life, and is often fulfilled in our preservation from those dangers which are very threatening and very near, while yet we ourselves are not apprehensive of them, any more than the bird is of the snare of the fowler. We owe it, more than we are sensible, to the care of the divine Providence that we have been kept from infectious diseases and out of the hands of the wicked and unreasonable. (2.) The spiritual life, which is protected by divine grace from the temptations of Satan, which are as the snares of the fowler, and from the contagion of sin, which is the noisome pestilence. He that has given grace to be the glory of the soul will create a defence upon all that glory.
2. That God himself will be their protector; those must needs be safe who have him for their keeper, and successful for whom he undertakes (Psa 91:4): He shall cover thee, shall keep thee secret (Psa 31:20), and so keep thee safe, Psa 27:5. God protects believers, (1.) With the greatest tenderness and affection, which is intimated in that, He shall cover thee with his feathers, under his wings, which alludes to the hen gathering her chickens under wings, Mat 23:37. By natural instinct she not only protects them, but calls them under that protection when she sees them in danger, not only keeps them safe, but cherishes them and keeps them warm. To this the great God is pleased to compare his care of his people, who are helpless as the chickens, and easily made a prey of, but are invited to trust under the shadow of the wings of the divine promise and providence, which is the periphrasis of a proselyte to the true religion, that he has come to trust under the wings of the God of Israel, Rut 2:12. (2.) With the greatest power and efficacy. Wings and feathers, though spread with the greatest tenderness, are yet weak, and easily broken through, and therefore it is added, His truth shall be thy shield and buckler, a strong defence. God is willing to guard his people as the hen is to guard the chickens, and as able as a man of war in armour.
3. That he will not only keep them from evil, but from the fear of evil, Psa 91:5, Psa 91:6. Here is, (1.) Great danger supposed; the mention of it is enough to frighten us; night and day we lie exposed, and those that are apt to be timorous will in neither period think themselves safe. When we are retired into our chambers, our beds, and have made all as safe as we can about us, yet there is terror by night, from thieves and robbers, winds and storms, besides those things that are the creatures of fancy and imagination, which are often most frightful of all. We read of fear in the night, Sol 3:8. There is also a pestilence that walketh in darkness, as that was which slew the first-born of the Egyptians, and the army of the Assyrians. No locks nor bars can shut out diseases, while we carry about with us in our bodies the seeds of them. But surely in the day-time, when we can look about us, we are not so much in danger; yes, there is an arrow that flieth by day too, and yet flies unseen; there is a destruction that wasteth at high-noon, when we are awake and have all our friends about us; even then we cannot secure ourselves, nor can they secure us. It was in the day-time that that pestilence wasted which was sent to chastise David for numbering the people, on occasion of which some think this psalm was penned. But, (2.) Here is great security promised to believers in the midst of this danger: "Thou shalt not be afraid. God by his grace will keep thee from disquieting distrustful fear (that fear which hath torment) in the midst of the greatest dangers. Wisdom shall keep thee from being causelessly afraid, and faith shall keep thee from being inordinately afraid. Thou shalt not be afraid of the arrow, as knowing that though it may hit thee it cannot hurt thee; if it take away the natural life, yet it shall be so far from doing any prejudice to the spiritual life that it shall be its perfection." A believer needs not fear, and therefore should not fear, any arrow, because the point is off, the poison is out. O death! where is thy sting? It is also under divine direction, and will hit where God appoints and not otherwise. Every bullet has its commission. Whatever is done our heavenly Father's will is done; and we have no reason to be afraid of that.
4. That they shall be preserved in common calamities, in a distinguishing way (Psa 91:7): "When death rides in triumph, and diseases rage, so that thousands and ten thousands fall, fall by sickness, or fall by the sword in battle, fall at thy side, at thy right hand, and the sight of their fall is enough to frighten thee, and if they fall by the pestilence their falling so near thee may be likely to infect thee, yet it shall not come nigh thee, the death shall not, the fear of death shall not." Those that preserve their purity in times of general corruption may trust God with their safety in times of general desolation. When multitudes die round about us, though thereby we must be awakened to prepare for our own death, yet we must not be afraid with any amazement, nor make ourselves subject to bondage, as many do all their life-time, through fear of death, Heb 2:15. The sprinkling of blood secured the first-born of Israel when thousands fell. Nay, it is promised to God's people that they shall have the satisfaction of seeing, not only God's promises fulfilled to them, but his threatenings fulfilled upon those that hate them (Psa 91:8): Only with thy eyes shalt thou behold and see the just reward of the wicked, which perhaps refers to the destruction of the first-born of Egypt by the pestilence, which was both the punishment of the oppressors and the enlargement of the oppressed; this Israel saw when they saw themselves unhurt, untouched. As it will aggravate the damnation of sinners that with their eyes they shall behold and see the reward of the righteous (Luk 13:28), so it will magnify the salvation of the saints that with their eyes they shall behold and see the destruction of the wicked, Isa 66:24; Psa 58:10.
Verse 9
Here are more promises to the same purport with those in the foregoing verses, and they are exceedingly great and precious, and sure to all the seed.
I. The psalmist assures believers of divine protection, from his own experience; and that which he says is the word of God, and what we may rely upon. Observe, 1. The character of those who shall have the benefit and comfort of these promises; it is much the same with that, Psa 91:1. They are such as make the Most High their habitation (Psa 91:9), as are continually with God and rest in him, as make his name both their temple and their strong tower, as dwell in love and so dwell in God. It is our duty to be at home in God, to make our choice of him, and then to live our life in him as our habitation, to converse with him, and delight in him, and depend upon him; and then it shall be our privilege to be at home in God; we shall be welcome to him as a man to his own habitation, without any let, hindrance, or molestation, from the arrests of the law or the clamours of conscience; then too we shall be safe in him, shall be kept in perfect peace, Isa 26:3. To encourage us to make the Lord our habitation, and to hope for safety and satisfaction in him, the psalmist intimates the comfort he had had in doing so: "He whom thou makest thy habitation is my refuge; and I have found him firm and faithful, and in him there is room enough, and shelter enough, both for thee and me." In my father's house there are many mansions, one needs not crowd another, much less crowd out another. 2. The promises that are sure to all those who have thus made the Most High their habitation. (1.) That, whatever happens to them, nothing shall hurt them (Psa 91:10): "There shall no evil befal thee; though trouble or affliction befal thee, yet there shall be no real evil in it, for it shall come from the love of God and shall be sanctified; it shall come, not for thy hurt, but for thy good; and though, for the present, it be not joyous but grievous, yet, in the end, it shall yield so well that thou thyself shalt own no evil befel thee. It is not an evil, an only evil, but there is a mixture of good in it and a product of good by it. Nay, not thy person only, but thy dwelling, shall be taken under the divine protection: There shall no plague come nigh that, nothing to do thee or thine any damage." Nihil accidere bono viro mali potest - No evil can befal a good man. Seneca De Providentia. (2.) That the angels of light shall be serviceable to them, Psa 91:11, Psa 91:12. This is a precious promise, and speaks a great deal both of honour and comfort to the saints, nor is it ever the worse for being quoted and abused by the devil in tempting Christ, Mat 4:6. Observe, [1.] The charge given to the angels concerning the saints. He who is the Lord of the angels, who gave them their being and gives laws to them, whose they are and whom they were made to serve, he shall give his angels a charge over thee, not only over the church in general, but over every particular believer. The angels keep the charge of the Lord their God; and this is the charge they receive from him. It denotes the great care God takes of the saints, in that the angels themselves shall be charged with them, and employed for them. The charge is to keep thee in all thy ways; here is a limitation of the promise: They shall keep thee in thy ways, that is, "as long as thou keepest in the way of thy duty;" those that go out of that way put themselves out of God's protection. This word the devil left out when he quoted the promise to enforce a temptation, knowing how much it made against him. But observe the extent of the promise; it is to keep thee in all thy ways: even where there is no apparent danger yet we need it, and where there is the most imminent danger we shall have it. Wherever the saints go the angels are charged with them, as the servants are with the children. [2.] The care which the angels take of the saints, pursuant to this charge: They shall bear thee up in their hands, which denotes both their great ability and their great affection. They are able to bear up the saints out of the reach of danger, and they do it with all the tenderness and affection wherewith the nurse carries the little child about in her arms; it speaks us helpless and them helpful. They are condescending in their ministrations; they keep the feet of the saints, lest they dash them against a stone, lest they stumble and fall into sin and into trouble. [3.] That the powers of darkness shall be triumphed over by them (Psa 91:13): Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder. The devil is called a roaring lion, the old serpent, the red dragon; so that to this promise the apostle seems to refer in that (Rom 16:20), The God of peace shall tread Satan under your feet. Christ has broken the serpent's head, spoiled our spiritual enemies (Col 2:15), and through him we are more than conquerors; for Christ calls us, as Joshua called the captains of Israel, to come and set our feet on the necks of vanquished enemies. Some think that this promise had its full accomplishment in Christ, and the miraculous power which he had over the whole creation, healing the sick, casting out devils, and particularly putting it into his disciples' commission that they should take up serpents, Mar 16:18. It may be applied to that care of the divine Providence by which we are preserved from ravenous noxious creatures (the wild beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee, Job 5:23); nay, and have ways and means of taming them, Jam 3:7.
II. He brings in God himself speaking words of comfort to the saints, and declaring the mercy he had in store for them, Psa 91:14-16. Some make this to be spoken to the angels as the reason of the charge given them concerning the saints, as if he had said, "Take care of them, for they are dear to me, and I have a tender concern for them." And now, as before, we must observe,
1. To whom these promises do belong; they are described by three characters: - (1.) They are such as know God's name. His nature we cannot fully know; but by his name he has made himself known, and with that we must acquaint ourselves. (2.) They are such as have set their love upon him; and those who rightly know him will love him, will place their love upon him as the only adequate object of it, will let out their love towards him with pleasure and enlargement, and will fix their love upon him with a resolution never to remove it to any rival. (3.) They are such as call upon him, as by prayer keep up a constant correspondence with him, and in every difficult case refer themselves to him.
2. What the promises are which God makes to the saints. (1.) That he will, in due time, deliver them out of trouble: I will deliver him (Psa 91:14 and again Psa 91:15), denoting a double deliverance, living and dying, a deliverance in trouble and a deliverance out of trouble. If God proportions the degree and continuance of our troubles to our strength, if he keeps us from offending him in our troubles, and makes our death our discharge, at length, from all our troubles, then this promise is fulfilled. See Psa 34:19; Ti2 3:11; Ti2 4:18. (2.) That he will, in the mean time, be with them in trouble, Psa 91:15. If he does not immediately put a period to their afflictions, yet they shall have his gracious presence with them in their troubles; he will take notice of their sorrows, and know their souls in adversity, will visit them graciously by his word and Spirit, and converse with them, will take their part, will support and comfort them, and sanctify their afflictions to them, which will be the surest token of his presence with them in their troubles. (3.) That herein he will answer their prayers: He shall call upon me; I will pour upon him the spirit of prayer, and then I will answer, answer by promises (Psa 85:8), answer by providences, bringing in seasonable relief, and answer by graces, strengthening them with strength in their souls (Psa 138:3); thus he answered Paul with grace sufficient, Co2 12:9. (4.) That he will exalt and dignify them: I will set him on high, out of the reach of trouble, above the stormy region, on a rock above the waves, Isa 33:16. They shall be enabled, by the grace of God, to look down upon the things of this world with a holy contempt and indifference, to look up to the things of the other world with a holy ambition and concern; and then they are set on high. I will honour him; those are truly honourable whom God puts honour upon by taking them into covenant and communion with himself and designing them for his kingdom and glory, Joh 12:26. (5.) That they shall have a sufficiency of life in this world (Psa 91:16): With length of days will I satisfy him; that is, [1.] They shall live long enough: they shall be continued in this world till they have done the work they were sent into this world for and are ready for heaven, and that is long enough. Who would wish to live a day longer than God has some work to do, either by him or upon him? [2.] They shall think it long enough; for God by his grace shall wean them from the world and make them willing to leave it. A man may die young, and yet die full of days, satur dierum - satisfied with living. A wicked worldly man is not satisfied, no, not with long life; he still cries, Give, give. But he that has his treasure and heart in another world has soon enough of this; he would not live always. (6.) That they shall have an eternal life in the other world. This crowns the blessedness: I will show him my salvation, show him the Messiah (so some); good old Simeon was then satisfied with long life when he could say, My eyes have seen thy salvation, nor was there any greater joy to the Old Testament saints than to see Christ's day, though at a distance. It is more probably that the word refers to the better country, that is, the heavenly, which the patriarchs desired and sought: he will show him that, bring him to that blessed state, the felicity of which consists so much in seeing that face to face which we here see through a glass darkly; and, in the mean time, he will give him a prospect of it. All these promises, some think, point primarily at Christ, and had their accomplishment in his resurrection and exaltation.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (Matthew Henry, 1706–1714). Public domain. Reformatted for the web by BibleHearth; wording unchanged. Public domain · Read the original