A personal understanding of Psalms 91:1-4

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.”

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler

And from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers,

And under His wings you shall take refuge;

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.”

Ps 91:1-4

While meditating on Psalms 91:1-4 as part of the homework which PK gave us at last weekend’s service, I began to ask questions to try to understand the verses. I believe that before memorizing the verses, we need to understand what they mean, so that once we have a personal revelation and understanding on the verses and how they can be applied, it would be much easier to memorise them. Of course, there are tons of articles which have been written about Ps 91 already, and to be honest I have not spent time studying them (I hope to some day), but I would like to recollect my thoughts to test if they are sound.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty

Verse 1 – It is interesting that the choice of words are “dwell” and “abide”, which seems to indicate that a significant amount of time ought to be spent in a certain area. To dwell is basically to stay, a dwelling place is a place where a person stays. So the first key to proper application of Ps 91, is to spend significant time in the “secret place” of God, and to me, this speaks of having a healthy quiet time or prayer time with the Lord.

We don’t just say grace and expect that short prayer to unlock the power of Ps 91. We need to spend time in His presence, in a secret place which is away from others. It could be the time when we first wake up, before we go to work. Or it could be time dedicated to pray before we go to bed. Or time when we are walking or travelling from our house to our office.

And the word “shadow”, it means that you do not confront the issue first, but you remain in His shadow. To me, it signifies that the Lord goes before you to fight His battles, you are not empowered to fight without Him, you only stay in His shadow. Alternatively, it can mean that all glory goes to the Lord, you receive none of the glory, because it is enough to dwell in the secret place, under His shadow.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust.”

Verse 2- This is a declaration that I am able to take refuge in the Lord, and that He is an impenetrable fortress, that when I am under attack, I can take shelter in the fortress of the Lord. Again, the purpose of a fortress is to protect the persons who are behind the high walls, but that doesn’t mean that a person should take refuge indefinitely, but only when he needs to, he is able to rest in the Lord.

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler

And from the perilous pestilence

Verse 3 – The “snare of the fowler” is an interesting phrase, I didn’t know what it meant so I went to google about it. The first thing that captured my attention was that this phrase formed the title of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. (1)

Why this seemed like such a shock to me, was that a few weeks ago, I was awoken from my sleep by the Holy Spirit, and led to listen to online sermons by Charles Spurgeon. At 3 am on 8 February 2020, I woke up to pray for Singapore, and I later wrote it all down in my blog! I don’t even remember this, but my main verse for my prayer for Singapore was Psalm 91!(2)

But anyway back to the “snare of the fowl”, it is really a powerful sermon from Charles Spurgeon, but two points which jumped out at me are

1) "The prince of the power of this world, the spirit which still worketh in the children of disobedience," is like a fowler, always attempting to destroy us... The devil of five hundred years ago was a black and grimy thing well portrayed in our old pictures of that evil spirit. He was a persecutor, who cast men into the furnace, and put them to death for serving Christ. The devil of this day is a well-spoken gentleman: he does not persecute-he rather attempts to persuade and to beguile… Satan is always a fowler. Whatever his tactics may be, his object is still the same-to catch men in his net. Satan is the fowler; he has been so and is so still; and if he does not now attack us as the roaring lion, roaring against us in persecution, he attacks us as the adder (snake), creeping silently along the path, endeavoring to bite our heel with his poisoned fangs, and weaken the power of grace and ruin the life of godliness within us. Our text is a very comforting one to all believers, when they are beset by temptation. "Surely he shall deliver them from the snare of the fowler."

2) God delivers his people from the snare of the fowler. Two thoughts here: from-out of. First, he delivers them from the snare-does not let them get in it; secondly, when they do get in it, he delivers them out of it. The first promise is the most precious to some of us; the second is the best to others.

The next point regarding the “perilous pestilence”, for now, it can only mean one thing – the Covid-19 virus. I can think of no other pestilence which we are experiencing at this moment. He will deliver us, not just Singapore, but all of the world, from this pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers,

And under His wings you shall take refuge;

His truth shall be your shield and buckler

Verse 4 – When the verse refers to “feathers” and “wings”, immediately we have a picture of a bird, and who else would be described as a bird in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit?

So it follows that when we dwell in the secret place of God and spend time with Him, the Holy Spirit will manifest Himself by covering you with His feathers, and you will be hidden under His wings – It speaks of experiencing the peace of God even in times of crisis, as the dove is often depicted with an olive branch in its mouth, as a symbol of peace.

But most interesting of all, is the phrase that “His truth shall be your shield and buckler”. Initially I had assumed that a buckler was another word for belt, since we all know about the “belt of truth” being a part of the full armour of God. But upon some research, I realised that a buckler is another type of small shield, and also that it can be used for offence as well as defence!(3)

“The buckler is a small shield, used mainly to deflect, trap and strike.  While it is useful for duels and small fights, it is not good for large-scale battle.  Bucklers are not good for handling arrows or other large projectiles.  These little shields were mostly carried by individuals who might have to defend themselves in day to day situations. ”

Basically, a shield is used primarily for defence, as we know that the shield of faith can protect us against the flaming arrows of the enemy. But a buckler is a smaller shield which is not very good for defence, but may also be used as an offensive weapon, being easier to wield and position.

I wondered, isn’t there a contradiction when in Ephesians 6, we are clearly taught to put on the “belt of truth”? Why is it in Psalms 91, God’s truth is depicted as a shield and a buckler? To be honest I do not know, but upon some research, I chanced upon this description of a belt as worn by a Roman soldier, and suddenly I realised that I have been picturing a wrong image of what the armour of God looked like.

Perhaps like me, you have always pictured the armour of God to be like a fully armoured knight, whereby even his arms and calves are covered in heavy armour. But actually, those types of medieval armour only came into existence in the 5^th century from England, after the fall of the Roman empire.

So what the armour of God was referring to in Ephesians was more like the armour worn by a Roman soldier, as the Roman empire’s power was at its peak during the time of Jesus.  

And get this – the belt worn by a Roman soldier was either over his waist or over his shoulder, and was used to hold the scabbard of his sword or other items like a shield, bugle or drum. So really, it all comes together, and there isn’t a contradiction!(4)

So back to the verse, His truth shall be your shield and buckler, to me it means that God’s Word can be used to protect or defend yourself from any circumstances, but also to be used to trap or immobilise the enemy and strike at the situation! Wow! That is the power of the God’s truth! His truth endures forever and is above every circumstances, His truth is even higher than facts, because facts may change according to the situation, but His truth never wavers and builds the foundation for our faith.

References:
(1) https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0124.cfm
(2) https://mdfgrifter.blogspot.com/2020/02/prayer-for-singapore.html
(3) http://www.thortrains.com/getright/drillbuckler.htm
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_military_clothing