Psalm 91:10 promises blanket protection.
Psalm 91:9–10 (ESV)
“Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.”
The psalmist now circles back to repeat several of the first ideas in the psalm, showing again that verses 1–2 are foundational to every promise given. He repeats the covenant name LORD (in Hebrew, Yahweh). He repeats the idea of dwelling in him as a person dwells in a home. He repeats the idea that God is Most High and that he is a refuge.
He repeats these ideas and not the others from verses 1–2 as a shorthand reminder that we should draw all the ideas in these two verses back to mind.
He says, “Because you have made,” indicating that Yahweh becomes our dwelling place and refuge when we make him so. Dwelling in the LORD day by day, moment by moment, is a choice. It is a choice to trust him and believe he is the Most High, the Almighty. We choose to believe his Word and live accordingly. We choose to regard his Word as reality, though spiritual realities are invisible.
So the all-encompassing, blanket promise that the psalmist is about to pronounce is based on that life-changing choice.
He speaks of “The Most High, who is my refuge.” For the second time in the psalm, the psalmist brings himself into the picture (see verse 2). By this he indicates he is speaking from experience. The Lord has proven himself to the psalmist for a long time. These principles are tried and true.
Psalm 91:10, No evil befall you
Verse 10 promises, “No evil shall be allowed to befall you.”
The word “evil” covers every bad thing mentioned or unmentioned in the psalm. After having noted several specific examples of evils from which God protects a person—fowlers and their snares, pestilence, arrows, night terrors, destruction—the psalmist now covers all bases. Any evil you can imagine or encounter. As Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
And then the psalmist uses a word pregnant with theological implications: “allowed.” No evil can strike a person unless it is “allowed.” Who must allow it? The Most High, the Almighty refuge and fortress, the God in whom we can trust (see vv. 1–2). That is what it means to be the Most High, Almighty God. Absolutely nothing can happen unless he allows or does it (Mat. 10:29).
When Scripture refers to God as the Most High and Almighty one, it does not mean approximately so, or “Very High most of the time,” or “in the top ten of mighty ones.” No. Scripture speaks in absolute terms. God is the only Most High, all the time. Absolutely everything that happens in the universe, galactically large or atomically small, he must allow or do.
If you believe that, you will not fear. If you do not believe it, fear will be your regular companion, perhaps even your tormenting lord.
Psalm 91:10, No plagues of judgment
Verse 10 continues, “no plague come near your tent.” This is the first time the psalm uses the word “plague.”
When we hear the biblical word plague, what comes to mind are the ten plagues God sent on Egypt and its idols to judge them and compel them to release Israel from slavery (Exodus 11:1; 12:13).
Moreover, Scripture uses the word plague to describe God’s judgments on Israel itself when they later rebelled against him in the desert (Exodus 32:35), as well as later times in the history of the nation (Exo. 30:12; Num. 11:33; 16:47; 25:8; 31:16; 2 Sam. 24:21).
Plague described punishments Israel would incur if they transgressed the rules of the tabernacle of God in their midst (Numbers 8:19).
So plague is a word tightly connected to divine punishment for sin.
What Psalm 91:10 promises, therefore, is forgiveness and escape from punishment. Like all the other promises of the psalm, it can be claimed by those who make the true, Most High LORD, who has revealed himself in the Bible, their dwelling place, the God in whom they trust (vv. 1–2).
New Covenant Developments
Several hundred years after Psalm 91:10 was written, God gave further revelation to Israel of what that trust entailed. He sent his Son Jesus to earth, who lived a perfect life, went willingly to the cross to die for the sins of mankind, rose again from the dead to overcome death on our behalf, and ascended to the right hand of God as Savior and Lord of the Universe. And he gave this promise:
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:16–18)
The protection of Psalm 91 comes to those who draw near and stay near to God through faith in Jesus Christ. It comes to those who confess their sins (1 John 1:5–10) and repent of evil (Acts 2:38), in obedience to Jesus Christ. In this way, they receive forgiveness and escape the plagues—the judgments of God—on evildoers.
Your protection is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you trust him?
And if he wills it, will you suffer for him? That is another development in the New Covenant. While Psalm 91 promises blanket protection, the New Testament qualifies that somewhat, saying, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12) and “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Nevertheless, when we are persecuted, the Lord assures us he will protect us from ultimate evil: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)