1 He that sits in the secret place of the Most High, In the shadow of the Almighty shall he lodge.
2 I will say to Jehovah, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I will trust."
3 For He, He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler From the pestilence that destroys. 4 With His pinions shall He cover thee, And under His wings shalt thou take refuge, A shield and target is His Troth. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night, Of the arrow [that] flies by day, 6 Of the pestilence [that] stalks in darkness, Of the sickness [that] devastates at noonday. 7 A thousand may fall at thy side, And a myriad at thy right hand, To thee it shall not reach. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou look on, And see the recompense of the wicked.
9_a_ "For Thou, Jehovah, art my refuge."
9_b_ The Most High thou hast made thy dwelling-place. 10 No evil shall befall thee, And no scourge shall come near thy tent. 11 For His angels will He command concerning thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12 Upon [their] hands shall they bear thee, Lest thou strike thy foot against a stone. 13 Upon lion and adder shalt thou tread, Thou shalt trample upon young lion and dragon.
14 "Because to Me he clings, therefore will I deliver him I will lift him high because he knows My name.
15 He shall call on Me, and I will answer him; With him will I, even I, be in trouble, I will rescue him and bring him to honour. 16 [With] length of days will I satisfy him, And give him to gaze on My salvation."
The solemn sadness of Psalm xc. is set in strong relief by the sunny brightness of this song of happy, perfect trust in the Divine protection. The juxtaposition is, however, probably due to the verbal coincidence of the same expression being used in both psalms in reference to God. In Psalm xc. 1, and in xci. 9, the somewhat unusual designation "dwelling-place" is applied to Him, and the thought conveyed in it runs through the whole of this psalm.
An outstanding characteristic of it is its sudden changes of persons; "He," "I," and "thou" alternate in a bewildering fashion, which has led to many attempts at explanation. One point is clear--that, in vv. 14-16, God speaks, and that He speaks of, not to, the person who loves and clings to Him. At ver. 14, then, we must suppose a change of speaker, which is unmarked by any introductory formula. Looking back over the remainder of the psalm, we find that the bulk of it is addressed directly _to_ a person who must be the same as is spoken _of_ in the Divine promises. The "him" of the latter is the "thee" of the mass of the psalm. But this mass is broken at two points by clauses alike in meaning, and containing expressions of trust (vv. 2, 9_a_). Obviously the unity of the psalm requires that the "I" of these two verses should be the "thou" of the great portion of the psalm, and the "he" of the last part. Each profession of trust will then be followed by assurances of safety thence resulting, ver. 2 having for pendant vv. 3-8, and ver. 9_a_ being followed by vv. 9_b_-13. The two utterances of personal faith are substantially identical, and the assurances which succeed them are also in effect the same. It is by some supposed that this alternation of persons is due simply to the poet expressing partly "his own feelings as from himself, and partly as if they were uttered by another" (Perowne after Ewald). But that is not an explanation of the structure; it is only a statement of the structure which requires to be explained. No doubt the poet is expressing his own feelings or convictions all through the psalm: but why does he express them in this singular fashion?