Psalm 91

The snare of the fowler was everyday equipment. A bird catcher propped a net over baited ground with a stick and pulled a cord from a hiding place; the bird never saw the trap until it closed. It is the psalm's first picture because it is the one everyone had watched work.

The four dangers named are arranged around the clock: terror by night, the arrow that flies by day, the pestilence that walks in darkness, and the destruction that lays waste at noon. Epidemic disease was the great killer of ancient towns, and across the region people blamed night powers and midday spirits for it — the surviving incantation texts and protective amulets from Israel's neighbours name such beings and prescribe charms against them.

This psalm answers that whole world of fear without giving anyone a formula. There is no charm here, no words to wear or bury under a threshold. The refuge is a person you dwell with. Later Jewish practice did treat the psalm itself as a protection song, which shows how squarely it hit the fear it was answering.

He shall give his angels charge over thee describes an escort. A great man travelling sent servants ahead and alongside to keep him from stumbling on a bad road; the psalm says the escort is heavenly. It is the line the devil quoted on the temple wall during the wilderness temptation — and quoted with the part about keeping to your ways left out.