Psalm 91:11
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
For He shall give His angels charge over you: This describes another way God may send His protection and care unto His people – through His angels, commanding them to keep and bear…up His people. (Guzik)
i. “The angels of God shall have an especial charge to accompany, defend, and preserve thee; and against their power, the influence of evil spirits cannot prevail. These will, when necessary, turn thy steps out of the way of danger; ward it off when it comes in thy ordinary path.” (Clarke)
ii. “Charge; charge is a strict command, more than a bare command; as when you would have a servant do a business certainly and fully, you lay a charge upon him, I charge you that you do not neglect that business; you do not barely tell what he should do, prescribe him his work, but you charge him to do it. So says the Lord unto the angels.” (Bridge, cited in Spurgeon)
iii. “Let us remember that it is GOD, whose these angels are; HE gives them charge – from HIM they receive their commission – to HIM they are responsible for their charge. From God thou art to expect them; and for their help he alone is to receive the praise. It is expressly said, He shall give his angels charge; to show that they are not to be prayed to nor praised; but GOD alone, whose servants they are.” (Clarke)
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“For he shall give his angels charge over thee.” Not one guardian angel, as some fondly dream, but all the angels are here alluded to. They are the bodyguard of the princes of the blood imperial of heaven, and they have received a commission from their Lord and ours to watch carefully over all the interests of the faithful. When men have a charge they become doubly careful, and therefore the angels are represented as bidden by God himself to see to it that the elect are secured. It is down in the marching orders of the hosts of heaven that they take special note of the people who dwell in God. It is not to be wondered at that the servants are bidden to be careful of the comfort of their Master’s guests, and we may be quite sure that when they are specially charged by the Lord himself they will carefully discharge the duty imposed upon them.
“To keep thee in all thy ways.” To be a bodyguard, a garrison to the body, soul, and spirit of the saint. The limit of this protection “in all thy ways” is yet no limit to the heart which is right with God. It is not the way of the believer to go out of his way. He keeps in the way, and then the angels keep him. The protection here promised is exceeding broad as to place, for it refers to all our ways, and what do we wish for more? How angels thus keep us we cannot tell. Whether they repel demons, counteract spiritual plots, or even ward off the more subtle physical forces of disease, we do not know. Perhaps we shall one day stand amazed at the multiplied services which the unseen bands have rendered to us. (Spurgeon)
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“He shall give his angels charge,” etc. Charge; charge is a strict command, more than a bare command; as when you would have a servant do a business certainly and fully, you lay a charge upon him, I charge you that you do not neglect that business; you do not barely tell what he should do, prescribe him his work, but you charge him to do it. So says the Lord unto the angels: My servants or children, now they are in the plague and pestilence, O my angels, I change you stir not from their houses, I charge you, stir not from such a one’s bed-side; it is a charge, “He shall give his angels charge.”
Further, he doth not only, and will not only charge his angel, but his angels; not one angel charged with the safety of his people, but many angels; for their better guard and security, “He shall give his angels charge.” And again, “He will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee;” to keep thee; charge over thee and to keep thee; not only over the whole church of God, but over every particular member of the church of God; “He will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee;” this is his marvelous care. Well, but besides this, “He will give his angels charge to keep thee in all thy ways,” not in some of thy ways, but in all thy ways. As God’s providence is particular in regard of our persons, so it is universal in regard of our ways. “He will give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee,” not in some but “in all thy ways.”
But is this all? No: “They shall bear thee up in their hands,” as every servant desires and loves to take up the young heir, or the young master into his arms, so the angels. It is a great matter that the Lord promises to pitch his tents. “And the angels of the Lord shall pitch their tents round about them that fear him;” but here is more; the angels shall not only pitch their tents, be their guard, but their nurses, to bear them up in their hands; but why? “That thou dash not thy foot against a stone.” When children begin to go, they are very apt to fall and get many a knock; to stumble at every little stone. Now there are many stones of stumbling that are in our way, and we are very apt to fall and miscarry; but such is the goodness of God, the providence of God, the goodness of his providence, that as he hath provided his angels to be our guard, in opposition to all our foreign enemies, so he hath provided his angels to be our nurses, in opposition to all our weaknesses and infirmities, that we get no hurt, that we miscarry not in the least.
But what need God make use of angels to protect his people, he is able to do it alone; and is it not for God’s dishonor to make use of them for the protection of his people? No, it is for the honor of God, for the more honorable the servants are, the instruments are, that a king or prince doth use for the protecting of his people, the more honorable is that king or prince. Now, the angels, are honorable creatures; frequently they are called gods; “Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.”… They are the fittest people in the world for this employment, fittest in regard of themselves, fittest in regard of the saints. As they are an exceeding faithful people, so they are a people that are very loving to the saints and children of God, very loving; otherwise, they were not fit to be their nurses: what is a nurse without love? They are loving to the saints. “Do it not,” (said the angel unto John), “I am thy fellow servant;” do not give divine worship to me, I am thy fellow servant; fellow servants are loving to one another; they are fellow servants with the saints…
It is recorded of Alexander that being in great danger and to fight next day with his enemies, he slept very soundly the night before; and he being asked the reason thereof, said, Parmenio wakes; meaning a great and faithful captain of his; Parmenio wakes, says he. The angels are called watchmen, they watch and are faithful, therefore you may be secure, quiet, and at rest: trust in the Lord for ever, upon this account, in this day trust in the Lord.
If these things be so, then, friends, why should we not stoop to any work commanded, though it lie much beneath us? Do not you think that the attending upon a sick man, a man that hath a plague sore running upon him, is a work that lies much beneath angels? yet the angels do it because it is commanded, though much beneath them yet they stoop to it because it is commanded; and what though a work lie much beneath you, yet if it be commanded, why should you not stoop to it? You will say, Such a one is much beneath me, I will not lay my hand under his shoes, he is much beneath me; ah, but the angels lay their hands under your shoes, and the work they do for you is much beneath them: why should we not be like our attendants? This is angelical obedience; the angels do you many a kindness, and never look for thanks from you, they do many a kindness that you are not aware of: why are you delivered sometimes you know not how? here is a hand under a wing, the ministration of angels is the cause of it. But I say the work they stoop to for you is much beneath them, and therefore why should we not stoop to any work commanded, though it lies much beneath us?
—William Bridge.
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