Our place of safety.
The construction of this psalm is peculiar (see exegetical notes). Ewald gives the best suggestion concerning its structure. Partly the poet expresses his own feelings as from himself, and partly as if they were uttered by another. He seems to listen to the thoughts of his own spirit till they become clear and distinct, like some prophetic words, or some Divine oracle speaking to him from without, and giving him thus the assurance and the consolation afresh which had already sprung up in his heart. The associations of the psalm, and the authorship, cannot with any certainty be traced, but the Jewish idea that it belongs to the age of
Moses deserves consideration. Certainly the experiences of the wilderness life give the most effective illustration of both the figures and the sentiments of the psalm. Bishop Wordsworth says confidently, "The scenery of the psalm is derived from the circumstances of the sojourn of Israel in the wilderness." Dean Plumptre says, "The psalm is an echo, verse by verse almost, of the words in which Eliphaz the Temanite describes the good man's life (Job 5:17-23)." Perhaps the two sentences of Psalms 91:1 would be better read as a repetition, according to the customary construction of Hebrew poets. "He that dwelleth … he that abideth … shall say unto the Lord." Working out the Mosaic association, show—
I. THE WILDERNESS PERILS. As Moses would be impressed by them. Limited food. Dangers of pestilence by remaining too long in a place. Active enemies. Local difficulties, as from serpents. Temper of the people. Influence of mixed multitudes. Wearying effect of constant changes, etc. We seldom fully realize the persistent and exhausting anxieties of Moses. Sometimes even his life seemed to be in danger.
II. THE WILDERNESS SAFETIES. Moses could not help contrasting the holy quiet of those forty days he had spent in the "secret place" with God, and the forty years of strain and stress he had spent with the stiff-necked and rebellious people. He must often have yearned for a renewal of those restful hours. And yet the spiritual fact and truth for him was that he did still "dwell in the secret place," he did still "abide under the shadow of the Almighty;" for this, in very truth, is a mood of soul experience, and not a mere bodily relationship. Moses with God in the mount does but illustrate Moses with God always, resting and safe in his "shadow." R.T.