Psalm 91 Meaning: The Psalm of Protection

The Psalm 91 meaning is that the person who makes God their home is held in his care, even in danger. It is a psalm of trust, and it never says that trouble will stay away. Its 16 verses move from a confession, “He is my refuge and my fortress,” to God’s own promise near the end: “I will be with him in trouble.” That is why so many Christians pray it in waiting rooms, before a long drive or a deployment, and on nights when sleep won’t come.

Teacher Marilyn Hickey walks through the psalm with her daughter Sarah in “Psalm 91, Part 1,” from the Spiritual Growth series on Pray.com, which you can hear above. Scripture below is from the World English Bible (WEB), and you can read all of Psalm 91 before you start.

What Psalm 91 says

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’”Psalm 91:1-2, WEB

The psalm opens with two names for God, Most High and Almighty, and two pictures of safety, a secret place and a shadow. In the desert a shadow meant relief from heat that could kill you, and you only had it if you stayed close to whatever cast it. Marilyn Hickey puts the question to her listeners this way: “Whose shadow do you wanna be under? I wanna be under the shadow of the almighty and I know you do too.”

Psalm 91 verse by verse

Verses 1-2: dwelling and trusting

To “dwell” means to live in a place for good. The picture is of someone who has moved in with God and stayed, which is why the trust this psalm describes is something you come back to every day, in ordinary weeks as well as frightening ones.

Verse 2 also changes voice. The writer stops describing and starts speaking: “I will say of the LORD.” Hickey points out why that matters: “Now it says, I will say, because we always want somebody else to say it.” The psalm asks each reader to say the words for themselves, out loud if possible.

Verses 3-8: deliverance from danger

“For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.”Psalm 91:3-4, WEB

A fowler was a bird catcher, and his snare was a hidden trap. The psalm then moves from a trap to a mother bird spreading her wings over her young, one of the tenderest pictures of God in the Old Testament. Verses 5 and 6 cover every hour of the day: terror by night, the arrow by day, sickness in the dark and destruction at noon. The psalm never names a specific enemy, so people facing very different dangers, from illness to combat, have prayed these same lines as their own.

Verses 9-13: angels and the lion

“For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.”Psalm 91:11-12, WEB

These verses picture God’s care reaching even the small stumbles of daily life. Verse 13 adds the lion and the cobra, the two most feared animals of the region, and promises that those who trust God will tread on them.

Verses 14-16: God speaks

“Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him. I will satisfy him with long life, and show him my salvation.”Psalm 91:14-16, WEB

In the last three verses the speaker changes again, and God answers in the first person. He makes one promise after another, eight in all. The one most people remember is “I will be with him in trouble,” and the last is salvation itself.

Who wrote Psalm 91?

The Hebrew text does not name an author. The Greek Septuagint attributes it to David. Jewish tradition links it to Moses because it follows Psalm 90, which is titled “A Prayer by Moses” and opens, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations” (Psalm 90:1). Marilyn Hickey follows that tradition in the episode and reads Psalm 91 as a psalm written in the wilderness. The two psalms share the picture of God as a dwelling place, whoever held the pen.

Does Psalm 91 promise that nothing bad will happen?

Verse 10 can sound that way: “no evil shall happen to you.” The best guide to reading it is how Jesus handled the psalm. When the devil quoted verses 11 and 12 to Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple and dared him to jump, Jesus refused to test God with them:

Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’” (Matthew 4:7, WEB)

So Psalm 91 is a promise to trust, and it was never meant as a dare. Faithful people in Scripture still suffered, got sick and died, and the psalm itself expects trouble, since God promises to be with his people in it. What the psalm guarantees is that no harm can reach a person who belongs to God without God being there too, and that the last word is his salvation.

How to pray Psalm 91

Read it aloud slowly, once a day for a week. Then try praying verse 2 as your own words in the morning, the way Marilyn Hickey describes doing: “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” Many people also pray the psalm over someone they love by putting that person’s name in place of “he” and “you.”

You can end with a short prayer like this one:

Lord, you are my refuge and my fortress. I trust you with this day and with the people I love. Cover us with your wings, and be with us in whatever trouble comes. Amen.

For more depth, read Matthew Henry’s commentary on Psalm 91, or pray along with the evening prayer on Psalm 91:1.

Keep reading and listening

• More from the Spiritual Growth series
• 6 Bible Verses on Protection That Will Make You Feel Safe
• 7 Most Powerful Prayers for Protection for Every Situation

AI-assisted from Pray.com episode transcripts, then reviewed and approved by Matt Potter.