Psalm 91 - Can We Find that Secret Place of The Most High?

As I was reading and researching Psalm 91 for today’s sermon I began to find a story about the 91st psalm repeated over and over on numerous websites, in the exact same words (or only slightly varied) each time.

A story from World War I tells about the 91st Infantry Brigade of the U.S. Expeditionary Army. When it was preparing to enter combat in Europe, most of the men were "green soldiers" who had never seen combat. Its commander, a devout Christian, called an assembly of his men where he gave each a little card on which was printed the 91st Psalm. They agreed to recite the Soldiers' Psalm daily.

The 91st Brigade was engaged in three of the bloodiest battles of WW I: Chateau Thierry, Belle Wood, and the Argonne. While other American units similarly engaged had up to 90% casualties, the 91st Brigade did not suffer a single combat related casualty!

Because of this story Psalm 91 is frequently described as the “soldier’s psalm” and as the “Ultimate Shield,” and you can find Psalm 91 devotional booklets to be distributed to soldiers to keep them safe.

Isn’t that story amazing? Isn’t it just unbelievable?

Exactly. It is unbelievable, because there was no 91st Brigade in the U.S. Expeditionary Army. Its commander wasn’t a devout Christian. They didn’t recite the 91st Psalm every morning. They didn’t fight in three of the bloodiest battles of World War One, and they didn’t avoid the massive casualties that every unit on all sides of that horrible war suffered. The story is not true.

But stories have a way of comforting people. We tell stories and we want to believe them. We’d like to believe that there is some kind of miraculous power in the words of scripture that can preserve us from death and calamity. So these kinds of stories circulate. The story is passed on from person to person, are forwarded in emails to all the names in our address books. The story gets copied into books of sermon illustrations for preachers and is shared in Sunday morning sermons, and the story continues to circulate.

It seems that this is the kind of preaching, the kind of story that people want to hear. People want a faith that produces demonstrable results. We want a faith that will keep us safe. We want our faith to keep our children safe. We want our faith to protect the men and women serving in the military. And most of all, people want a faith that is simple. Simple. Simple. Simple.

We want it to be as simple as a daily recitation of this psalm, of these few verses. And this isn’t faith. This is magic. What we want is magic. We want a charm that will put a protective hedge of God’s power around us so that we won’t have to endure suffering or illness or disease. In reality, we don’t want faith. We want magic.

We want no complexity or ambiguity in our faith. We want yes and no, black and white, this or that without reservation.

And Psalm 91 certainly seems to offer that. On the surface, by itself Psalm 91 could be read as an unconditional and unreserved promise in the Bible that God will protect the faithful from every kind of terror and trouble. This and many other parts of the bible reflect that attitude – that the good receive goodness and blessing while the wicked receive only toil and curses. Call it karma, call it fate, call it providence, this idea permeated the ancient world, and still does even today. We find this attitude in Job’s so-called friends and their no-so-comforting words.

Job had been a good man, a righteous man, yet because of a cosmic wager he lost all that he had – he lost his fields and flocks, his houses and his children. His goodness and his faith were no shield against disaster. When his so-called friends came to comfort him in his grief they exhorted him to repent of whatever sin had caused these calamities in his life. They reasoned, like so many do, that if Job were a good and honest man he would receive blessing and protection. That he lost everything was evidence of his depravity. Because if Job were good then:

He [God] will deliver you from six calamities;
yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
In time of famine he will redeem you from death,
and in time of war from the power of the sword.
You will be protected from malicious gossip,
and will not be afraid of the destruction when it comes.
You will laugh at destruction and famine
and need not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For you will have a pact with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
And you will know that your home will be secure,
and when you inspect your domains, you will not be missing anything.
You will also know that your children will be numerous,
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
You will come to your grave in a full age,
As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.

And they were quite confident of this; there could be no other explanation.

Look, we have investigated this, so it is true.
Hear it, and apply it for your own good.
(Job 5: 19 – 27)

And many preachers and religious leaders –either unscrupulous or unqualified – have preached Psalm 91 in exactly this way – as a universal promise of divine deliverance from every terrifying situation. These ministers, either in ignorance or in malice preach that God’s faithful have a special immunity to evil.

I say they do this either in ignorance - because they haven’t taken the time to diligently study this text and to compare it with the rest of the bible – or in malice – because they are attempting to manipulate and deceive the people of God for their own gain. They are like the false prophets of the Old Testament who told the kings exactly what they wanted to hear, rather than a true word from the Lord, prophesying “peace and safety,” when danger and destruction were just over the horizon. (Jeremiah 14:13 – 15)

Psalm 91 was probably written as a Royal psalm – a psalm for the king of Israel. The psalmist describes his situation as being enthroned in the shelter of Elyon – The Most High. The king is protected by God. The king is defended by God. No arrows will pierce him. No demons will harm him. No disease will afflict him. The king is defended by God because the King takes shelter, takes refuge in Yahweh. And what is more, the king will see his enemies fall to the side, and will see them punished.

This is, by itself, the simple faith we want. The good are protected, the wicked punished. The good live long and healthy lives, gain wealth and die happy. The wicked get their just deserts, reaping the mischief that they themselves have sown.

But we must resist this simplistic kind of interpretation. We need to examine this psalm in a fuller context. It helps us that Psalm 91 enters directly into the story of Jesus

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he was lead into the wilderness, into the lonely desert where he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil came and tempted him to use his divine power to turn some stones laying nearby into loafs of bread, but Jesus refused. The devil then led Jesus up to a very high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and promised to give all authority to him if he would but worship the devil. But, again, Jesus refused. Then the devil led Jesus to the city of Jerusalem and to the top of the temple and encouraged him to throw himself down because it was written in scripture that

He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands
so that you will not strike you foot against a stone. (Luke 4: 1 – 13)

But, once again, Jesus refused. Jesus refused that kind of simplistic interpretation of Psalm 91 that says that God will, without qualification, protect us from any danger. The Devil quoted the sacred scripture of Psalm 91 to Jesus, encouraging him to take advantage of God’s unconditional, unqualified promise of protection. But Jesus refused that kind of interpretation – both here in this specific episode and in his life as a whole.

Jesus’ life – or his death rather – certainly wouldn’t seem to indicate an unqualified unconditional divine protection of God’s faithful. Jesus suffered the pain and the humiliation of the most excruciating of deaths. Shouldn’t he, if anyone, have had God’s divine protection? But perhaps Jesus’ life and mission aren’t the best place to look for help in understanding this passage.

What if we look at the lives of Jesus’ followers, his disciples? Again, if we look at the lives of the apostles – those men who were faithful to the message of God’s salvation, were devoted followers, were upright righteous – yet they all, excepting John, endured much suffering before dying a martyr’s death. And John, while he escaped the martyr’s end, he too endured a long imprisonment and torture. These faithful did not seem to have an unqualified, unconditional promise of divine protection.

So… what does this mean for us? What can Psalm 91 mean for us today? Can we find that secret place of The Most High?

Jesus told his followers that in this world they would have trouble. (John 16:33) Trouble, disaster, pain, suffering, sickness, abuse, scorn and humiliation, all this would be theirs. They would not have a divinely granted immunity to these things. They would have to face them, endure them, but not alone. Jesus told his followers that they would, indeed, face trouble and suffering, but they were to take courage because Jesus had overcome the world.

We are to have courage and faith – not easy magic.