Jesu Juva
Ps. 91:1-13
March 10, 2025
CUW Chapel
Dear Concordians in Christ~
Few sections of Scripture offer up more genuine comfort than Psalm 91. Consider just these verses: [The Lord] will command His angels concerning you—to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. This passage conjures up images of angels—angels like those depicted in this chapel—angels guarding you in all your ways—angels bearing you up beyond the reach of evil and terror, plague and pestilence.
As comforting as that sounds—are we correct to draw those conclusions? Are we interpreting this Psalm correctly? Or are we just hearing what we want to hear—drawing conclusions that simply suit our purposes? What does Psalm 91 say; and to whom—and of whom—is it speaking? We need to know.
I’m reminded of an old adage concerning Holy Scripture: Every text without a context is just a pretext for a proof text. I love that kind of wordplay: Every text without a context is just a pretext for a proof text. Anybody can just pull a few lines from Scripture, divorced from context, and proceed to misuse or mangle those lines to suit some pre-selected purpose.
Can we get some context here—in Psalm 91? Context can be hard to come by in the book of Psalms. The exact origins of the Psalms are largely unknown. The Psalms are essentially poetry. And, with all due respect to the English Department, poetry is open to a variety of interpretations.
Perhaps the best we can do is ask about the “you,” y-o-u. He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Who is the “you?” Is the “you” you? Or me? Or somebody else? Would it help you to know that nearly all of the “yous” in this Psalm are singular? It’s not: He will command His angels concerning YOU ALL, but, He will do this concerning YOU. Who is the “you?”
What we need is context. But the only context we can scrounge up comes from an unlikely source—the devil. Is it possible we could be enlightened by the Prince of Darkness? You might be surprised to learn that the devil is a great student of Bible. He knows the contents well—much better than you or me.
In this first week of Lent we hear about how the devil tempted our Lord in the wilderness. And in this temptation is the one place where Satan serves up some Scripture. And the Scripture He serves up just happens to be today’s text from Psalm 91. After tempting Jesus to take a flying leap from the top of the temple, Satan speaks the Word of God to the Son of God: It is written: He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you . . . . On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
Satan takes those comforting words and twists them to tempt our Lord—to derail His path to Calvary’s cross. Satan uses God’s holy word for his decidedly unholy purposes—to tempt Jesus to test His Father’s power and promises. Satan boldly brandishes the sword of the Spirit for decidedly demonic purposes.
We do that too. We use Scripture to serve our purposes. And by “we,” I mean we pastors, we church workers, we scholars and students of the Scriptures. It’s so easy and tempting to misuse the Word of God—to use it like the devil did—to use it as a tool in our hands—to achieve what we want—to manipulate and mobilize the masses. Want to start a program? We have a Bible verse for that. Want to raise money? There’s a Bible verse for that too. Wanna stick it to your ecclesiastical competition? Have I got a Bible verse for you! Want to trumpet a righteous cause? Just take some text without a context, then twist, manipulate and distort it and—viola! We always want the Word to achieve the results we desire.
That narcissism runs death deep in us. We always want to place ourselves at the center of the story—make it all about us. As Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter said of her famous father: He had to be the corpse at every funeral and the bride at every wedding.
But at the center of God’s Word stands Jesus. The Word remains the Word of the Lord. And when the Lord’s Word goes forth from mouth to ears, and into hearts and minds, it accomplishes things. It kills and makes alive. It drowns the Old Adam and absolves the New Man in Christ. It knocks us off our self-made thrones and raises us up from our knees. And that Word—with Christ Himself in the center—that Word comforts us and consoles us with tenderness and compassion.
He will command His angels concerning you . . . Back to our context question: Who is the “you” of Psalm 91? It is, first and foremost, Jesus. Jesus is the center of the Scriptures. Jesus is the center of the Psalms.
Even the devil knew that the “you” was Jesus! And that’s probably why the devil didn’t keep going to quote the very next verse which says: You [Jesus] will tread on the lion and the cobra . . . the serpent you will trample under foot. Jesus. Jesus is our serpent-stomping Savior. Atop Calvary’s mournful mountain Jesus crushed the serpent’s head. Jesus reversed the curse. Jesus forgives sin by becoming sin. Jesus destroyed death by dying. The author of Hebrews adds context and clarity: Jesus shares in our flesh and blood, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Death and the devil have been destroyed by Jesus, who brings life and immortality to light through the gospel.
This is comforting. This is the comfort that rings out from Psalm 91: He will command His angels concerning you. . . . on their hands they will bear you up. Who is the “you?” The “you” is Christ; and it is you who are “in Christ.” It is you—baptized into Christ. It is you—redeemed by Christ the crucified. In Christ you are sheltered and protected and precious. Angels attend you in Christ. No evil, no plague, no pestilence—neither death nor life. . . . nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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