Archangel Michael, Psalm 34:7 Wall Art

The guardian on the hill

The archangel is young, with short curling brown hair and great white wings open behind him. He wears a bronze breastplate over a white tunic with rose-colored straps, a slate-blue cloak, greaves and sandals. In his right hand a long sword points down to the stone at his feet; on his left arm he carries a pointed shield marked with a gold cross. His head is turned and lowered, as though he is looking over something in his keeping.

He stands on gray boulders with tufts of green, and beyond him the land falls away in soft blue hills, a few cypresses and a pale sun low on the horizon. There is no dragon under his feet. The verse is lettered in three lines above him: “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” with Psalm 34:7 below.

Is the angel of Psalm 34:7 Saint Michael?

The psalm does not name him. Its heading ties it to a low point in David's life, when he was fleeing Saul and pretended to be mad before a Philistine king (the story is in 1 Samuel 21). Out of that humiliating escape comes a psalm of thanks, and in Hebrew its lines run through the alphabet in order, one letter per verse.

“Encampeth” is a military word: the image is of a soldier pitching his tent around the people he protects, so that anything coming for them has to pass him first. The “angel of the LORD” appears many times in the Old Testament, to Hagar, to Moses at the burning bush, to Gideon.

Michael himself is named in Daniel as a great prince who stands for the people, in the letter of Jude, and in Revelation 12, where he fights the dragon. That is why Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Christians honor him as the protector of the faithful. His feast, Michaelmas, falls on September 29, and many Catholics still pray the short Prayer to Saint Michael after Mass.

For a confirmation name, a son, a protector

Michael is one of the most chosen patron saints at confirmation, especially among boys, and this print makes a natural gift for that day or for a baptism. It also speaks to men who spend their working lives guarding others, and in the United States Michael is widely regarded as a patron of police officers and soldiers.

Hang it by a front door, in a boy's room, or in a home office, anywhere the idea of quiet protection feels right.