Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

91:9-13 His Angels Will Watch over You. This section continues the description of safety, adding the involvement of God's angels to watch over those who make the Most High their refuge (cf. vv. 1-2). The mention of a plague (v. 10) is reminiscent of the plagues that fell on Egypt (cf. Gen. 12:17; Ex. 11:1), again clarifying that this is describing the safety of the faithful in a time of God's judgment.
91:11-12 In Matt. 4:6 (cf. Luke 4:10-11), the devil quotes these verses in a ploy to get Jesus to seek a demonstration of the angels' care for all the Jews to see (throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the temple), which would no doubt win Jesus a great following among the people. Jesus denounces the idea as testing God; it is certainly a willful misuse of the psalm passage, which does not encourage the faithful to put themselves in unnecessary danger.
91:13 The lion and the adder are probably images for people bent on harming the faithful (cf. 58:3-6; Deut. 32:33), or perhaps the demonic agents that inspire the harm.