Bible verse wall art
Psalm 91: he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
Soldiers have carried it into battle and parents have prayed it over cribs. Psalm 91 is the Bible's great psalm of protection, and we have painted three of its lines.
Psalm 91 prints
- My Refuge and My FortressPsalm 91:2from $29
- He That Dwelleth in the Secret PlacePsalm 91:1from $29
- Guardian AngelPsalm 91:11from $29
- Pink Guardian AngelPsalm 91:11from $29
- Blue Guardian AngelPsalm 91:11from $29
- Mother Bird and NestPsalm 91:4from $29
- Cottage in the RainPsalm 91:2from $29
- Olive Wreath and NestPsalm 91:4from $29
- Sheltering WingsPsalm 91:2from $29
Psalm 91 · King James Version
1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High
2 He is my refuge and my fortress.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee
A psalm without a name
Psalm 91 carries no heading in the Hebrew text, and its author is unknown. It is built as a conversation. One voice speaks of trust, another voice promises protection, and at the end God himself speaks: “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him” (91:14).
In the Latin church it is sung at Compline, the last prayer of the day, and Michael Joncas's hymn “On Eagle's Wings”, often sung at funerals, is a free setting of it.
The secret place and the fortress
Verse 1 reads in full: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The secret place is a hidden, sheltered spot, the kind of cover a traveler seeks in the heat of the day. To dwell there is not to visit now and then but to live there.
Verse 2 answers in the first person: “I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.” A refuge is where you run; a fortress is where you hold out. The images that follow are just as physical: God covering his own with his feathers like a bird over its young (91:4), and no fear of “the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day” (91:5).
What does Psalm 91:11 mean?
“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” To give charge is to give an order: angels are assigned to the person who trusts God. Verse 12 adds that they will bear him up in their hands.
These are the verses the devil quoted to Jesus in the wilderness, urging him to throw himself from the Temple (Matthew 4:6). Jesus answered that God is not to be put to the test. The promise is protection on the road of obedience, not a license for recklessness. Jesus also spoke of children whose angels always behold the face of the Father (Matthew 18:10), a saying behind the Christian belief in guardian angels.
Where Psalm 91 is prayed
Military families often call it the soldier's psalm, and many service members carry a copy. Parents pray it over a sleeping child; travelers read it before a journey; hospital chaplains read it at the bedside. The three prints can stand alone or hang together as a set.