John Calvin Commentary Psalms 91:11

"For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways." — Psalms 91:11 (ASV)

For he has given his angels charge concerning thee. This is added by the Psalmist expressly to counteract any fears that might arise from our weakness, so that we cannot fail to be struck by the gracious condescension of God in thus not only forgiving our lack of confidence but also proposing the means by which it may best be removed.

Does He present Himself to us as a fortress and shield, offer the shadow of His protection, make Himself known to us as a dwelling where we may remain, and stretch out His wings for our defense—surely we are guilty of the worst ingratitude if we are not satisfied with promises so abundantly full and satisfying?

If we tremble to think of His majesty, He presents Himself to us under the lowly figure of the hen; if we are terrified at the power of our enemies and the multitude of dangers that surround us, He reminds us of His own invincible power, which extinguishes every opposing force.

When even all these attempts to encourage us have been tried, and He finds that we still linger and hesitate to approach Him or to cast ourselves upon His sole and exclusive protection, He next mentions the angels and offers them as guardians of our safety. As an additional illustration of His indulgent mercy and compassion for our weakness, He represents those whom He has ready for our defense as a numerous host; He does not assign one solitary angel to each saint but commissions the whole armies of heaven to keep watch over every individual believer.

It is the individual believer whom the Psalmist addresses, as we also read in Psalm 34:7—that angels encamp round about them that fear him. We may learn from this that there is no truth in the idea that each saint has his own particular guardian angel; and it is important to consider that as our enemies are numerous, so also are the friends to whom our defense is entrusted.

It would be something, no doubt, to know that even one angel was set over us with this commission, but it adds weight to the promise when we are informed that the charge of our safety is committed to a numerous host, as Elisha was enabled, by a similar consideration, to despise the great army of adversaries arrayed against him (2 Kings 6:16).

Nor is this inconsistent with passages of Scripture, which seem to speak as if a distinct angel were assigned to each individual. It is evident that God employs His angels in different ways, setting one angel over several whole nations, and again several angels over one man.

There is no necessity that we should be meticulous and scrupulous in inquiring into the exact manner in which they minister together for our safety; it is enough that, knowing from the authority of an apostle the fact of their being appointed ministers to us, we should be satisfied that they are always intent upon their commission. We read elsewhere of their readiness to obey and execute the commands of God, and this must strengthen our faith, since God uses their exertions for our defense.

The Psalmist, in the passage now before us, speaks of members of the Church generally; and yet the devil did not wrest the words when, in his temptation in the wilderness, he applied them particularly to Christ. It is true that he is constantly seeking to pervert and corrupt the truth of God; but, so far as general principles are concerned, he can put a specious gloss upon things and is a sufficiently acute theologian.

It should be considered that when our whole human family was banished from the Divine favor, we ceased to have anything in common with the angels, and they ceased to have any communication with us. It was Christ, and He only, who, by removing the ground of separation, reconciled the angels to us; this being His proper office, as the apostle observes (Ephesians 1:10), to gather together in one what had been dispersed both in heaven and on earth.

This was represented to the holy patriarch Jacob under the figure of a ladder (Genesis 28:12); and, in allusion to our being united into one collective body with the angels, Christ said,

Afterwards ye shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending, (John 1:51).

The Psalmist adds, all your ways in the plural, to convey to us more clearly that wherever we go we may expect that the angels will always extend their guardianship to us. The course of our life is subject to many twists and turns, and who can tell all the storms by which we are liable to be tossed?

It was necessary, therefore, to know that the angels preside over all our particular actions and purposes, and thus to be assured of their protection wherever we might be called to go. This expression, however, your ways, was, in all likelihood, intended to urge upon us due consideration and modesty, to warn us against tempting God by any rash step, and to admonish us to keep within the bounds of our proper calling.

For if we commit ourselves recklessly and attempt things that the promise of God does not warrant us to undertake, aspiring to what is presumptuous and opposed to the Divine will, we are not to expect that the angels will become ministers and helpers in our recklessness. Satan appears to have craftily omitted this clause when he tempted Christ rashly to throw himself down from the temple.