Tuesday, October 13, 2026
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Historical Context
Psalm 91 carries no heading naming who wrote it or when. The one just before it, Psalm 90, has a heading crediting it to Moses. Psalm 91 has no heading of any kind, and nothing in its own wording says who spoke it or on what day.
What the psalm does make plain is the danger it answers. From verse three on, it names a hunter’s hidden trap and a plague that moves in the dark. It also names terror by night, attack by day, and ruin at the height of noon. Together these read like danger from both war and disease, trouble that can reach a person at any hour, seen or unseen. That is the setting these opening lines speak into: a place where danger did not wait for a warning.
Before naming a single one of those dangers, the psalm settles two things first. It says where a certain person lives: in the shelter of the Most High. Then that person names the God he has chosen to trust.
Reflection
Whoever lives close to God is sheltered by him. The speaker says the same thing for himself: the LORD is his refuge and his fortress, the God he trusts. These two verses name him four ways: Most High, Almighty, the LORD, my God.
You do not have to wait for trouble before you make that same call. The psalm settles the shelter and the trust first, before it ever names a threat. Whatever today holds, you can say the same thing about God before you know what you will need him for.