Psalm 91:2 NKJV
2
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
My Thoughts
In Psalm 91:2, David emphasizes the personal relationship we as believers need to have with God, proclaiming Him as our refuge and fortress as well as our God in whom we trust. Proverbs 3:5 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean not on our own understanding.” In this verse, we are told to trust Him, and we are able to do it from within the fortress of our God. The commentaries below highlight the importance of expressing one’s faith, encouraging believers to declare God as their personal protector. David contrasts human trust with divine trust, asserting that true security lies in reposing faith in God, knowing that He is an impregnable fortress. The commentaries also emphasize God’s attributes as the ultimate source of safety, and addressing Him as “my God” showcases a deep bond of trust and reliance. To summarize, we need to know and understand the significance of personal faith in God’s protection and steadfastness, and we do that by reading and studying the Word of God and asking the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us.
Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.” To take up a general truth and make it our own by personal faith is the highest wisdom. It is but poor comfort to say ‘the Lord is a refuge,’ but to say he is my refuge is the essence of consolation. Those who believe should also speak—”I will say,” for such bold avowals honor God and lead others to seek the same confidence. Men are apt enough to proclaim their doubts, and even to boast of them, indeed there is a party nowadays of the most audacious pretenders to culture and thought, who glory in casting suspicion upon every thing: hence it becomes the duty of all true believers to speak out and testify with calm courage to their own well grounded reliance upon their God. Let others say what they will, be it ours to say of the Lord, “he is our refuge.” But what we say we must prove by our actions, we must fly to the Lord for shelter, and not to an arm of flesh. The bird flies away to the thicket, and the fox hastens to its hole; every creature uses its refuge in the hour of danger, and even so in all peril or fear of peril let us flee unto Jehovah, the Eternal Protector of his own. Let us, when we are secure in the Lord, rejoice that our position is unassailable, for he is our fortress as well as our refuge. No moat, portcullis, drawbridge, wall, battlement, and donjon could make us so secure as we are when the attributes of the Lord of Hosts environ us around. Behold, this day the Lord is to us instead of walls and bulwarks! Our ramparts defy the leagured hosts of hell. Foes in flesh, and foes in ghostly guise are alike balked of their prey when the Lord of Hosts stands between us and their fury, and all other evil forces are turned aside. Walls cannot keep out the pestilence, but the Lord can.
As if it were not enough to call the Lord his refuge and fortress, he adds, “My God! in him will I trust.”
Now he can say no more; “my God” means all, and more than all, that heart can conceive by way of security. It was most meet that he should say “in him will I trust,” since to deny faith to such a one were wilful wickedness and wanton insult. He who dwells in an impregnable fortress, naturally trusts in it; and shall not he who dwells in God feel himself well at ease, and repose his soul in safety? O that we more fully carried out the psalmist’s resolve! We have trusted in God; let us trust him still. He has never failed us; why then should we suspect him? To trust in man is natural to fallen nature; to trust in God should be as natural to regenerated nature. Where there is every reason and warrant for faith, we ought to place our confidence without hesitancy or wavering. Dear reader, pray for grace to say, “In Him will I trust.” (Spurgeon)
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Enduring Word
He is my refuge and my fortress: The one who lives intimately with God knows the greatness of His protection. God Himself becomes like a mighty refuge and fortress for the believer. (Guzik)
i. My refuge: “Have you ever said definitely, ‘O Lord, thou art my refuge’? Fleeing from all other, have you sheltered in Him from the windy storm and tempest, from the harrow by day, and pestilence by night, from man and devil? You must avow it. Do not only think it, but say it.” (Meyer)
My God, in Him I will trust: This close relationship with God and all the benefits that come from it are for those who know Yahweh as God, and who truly trust in Him. As a believer receives His protection, comfort, and care, he trusts God all the more and increasingly knows Him as God. (Guzik)
i. Spurgeon suggested many different Biblical examples of people who had their own expression of the phrase My God.
· My God is the young convert’s confession (Ruth, as in Ruth 1:16).
· My God is the individual Christian’s belief (Thomas, as in John 20:28).
· My God is the declaration of the believer when opposed (Micaiah, as in 1 Kings 22:14).
· My God is the secret vow of the believer in consecration (Jacob, as in Genesis 32:28-30).
· My God is the deepest comfort to God’s children in great woe (Jesus, as in Matthew 27:46).
· My God is the celebration for the victorious believer (Miriam, as in Exodus 15:21).
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Albert Barnes
I will say of the Lord – I, the psalmist; I will take this to myself; I will endeavor to secure this blessedness; I will thus abide with God. In view of the blessedness of this condition, and with the hope of securing it to myself, I will adopt this resolution as the purpose of my life. It is what I need; it is what my soul desires.
My refuge and my fortress – “I will say of Jehovah, My refuge and my fortress!” I will address him as such; I will regard him as such. On the meaning of these terms, see the notes at Psalms 18:2.
My God – I will address him as my God; as the God whom alone I worship; as the only being to whom the name “God” can properly be applied; as being to me all that is implied in the word God.
In him will I trust – I will repose that confidence in him which is evinced by making my home with him, and seeking permanently to dwell with him.
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John Gill
I will say of the Lord,…. Or to the Lord: these are the words of the psalmist, expressing his faith in the Lord in the following words, taking encouragement from the safety of the godly man above described: the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, read, he shall say to the Lord; that is, the man that dwells in the secret place, and under the shadow of the Lord: the Targum is, “David said, I will say to the Lord,” as follows:
he is my refuge: a refuge in every time of trouble, outward or toward; a refuge when all others fail; and is himself a never-failing one, a strong refuge, which none can break through and into, and in which all that have fled thither and dwell are safe:
and my fortress; what fortifications, natural or artificial, are to a city and its inhabitants, that is God to his people, and much more; he is round about them, as the mountains were about Jerusalem; his salvation are walls and bulwarks to them; yea, he is a wall of fire about them, Psalm 125:2, they are kept by his power, as in a garrison, 1 Peter 1:5,
my God, in him will I trust; his covenant God, his God in Christ, and who would ever continue so; and was a proper object of his trust and confidence, both as the God of nature, and the God of grace; who is to be trusted in, both for temporal and spiritual blessings, and at all times; to which his lovingkindness, power, and faithfulness, greatly encourage and engage: the Targum is, “in his Word will I trust.”
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Matthew Henry
The psalmist’s comfortable application of this to himself (v. 2): I will say of the Lord, whatever others say of him, “He is my refuge; I choose him as such, and confide in him. Others make idols their refuge, but I will say of Jehovah, the true and living God, He is my refuge: any other is a refuge of lies. He is a refuge that will not fail me; for he is my fortress and strong-hold.” Idolaters called their idols Mahuzzim, their most strong-hold (Dan. 11:39), but therein they deceived themselves; those only secure themselves that make the Lord their God, their fortress. There being no reason to question his sufficiency, fitly does it follow, In him will I trust. If Jehovah be our God, our refuge, and our fortress, what can we desire which we may not be sure to find in him? He is neither fickle nor false, neither weak nor mortal; he is God and not man, and therefore there is no danger of being disappointed in him. We know whom we have trusted.
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Adam Clarke
I will say of the Lord — This is my experience: “He is my fortress, and in him will I continually trust.”
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The Pulpit Commentaries
I will say of the Lord. The general sentiment is followed by a personal application. “I, at any rate,” says the first speaker, “will place myself under this powerful protection.” He is my Refuge and my Fortress (comp. Psalms 18:2; Psalms 144:2). My God; in him will I trust (comp. Psalms 29:2; Psalms 31:6; Psalms 55:23; Psalms 56:3; Psalms 61:4, etc.).
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Miscellaneous Quotes
“My refuge, my fortress, my God.” “My refuge.” God is our “refuge.” He who avails himself of a refuge is one who is forced to fly. It is a quiet retreat from a pursuing enemy. And there are trials, and temptations, and enemies, from which the Christian does best to fly. He cannot resist them. They are too strong for him. His wisdom is to fly into the refuge of the secret place of his God—to rest in the shadow of the Almighty. His “strength is to sit still” there. Isa 30:7. “My fortress.” The Psalmist says, moreover, that God is his “fortress.” Here, the idea is changed—no longer a peaceful, quiet hiding place, but a tower of defense—strong, manifest, ready to meet the attacks of all enemies, ready and able to resist them all. God is a Friend who meets every want in our nature, who can supply every need. So when we are weak and fainting, and unable to meet the brunt of battle, and striving against sin and sorrow and the wrath of man, He is our safe, quiet resting place—our fortress also where no harm can reach us, no attack injure us. “My God.” Now the Psalmist, as a summing up of all his praises, says, “I will say of Him, He is… my God!” Is there anything omitted in the former part of his declaration? Everything is here—all possible ascription of honor, and glory, and power to Him “as God“—“God over all, blessed forever,” and of love, reverence, trust, obedience, and filial relation towards him on the part of the Psalmist, as MY God…when reflecting on the refuge and strength which the Lord has always been to him, and recalling his blessed experiences of sweet communion with God—words fail him. He can only say (but oh, with what expression!) MY GOD!
—Mary B. M. Duncan.
“My God.” Specially art Thou my God, first, on thy part, because of the special goodness and favour which Thou dost bestow upon me. Secondly, on my part, because of the special love and reverence with which I cling to Thee.
—J. Paulus Palanterius.
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Cross-References
Psalm 18:2 (KJV)
2 The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Psalm 91:9 (KJV)
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge,
Even the most High, thy habitation;
Psalm 144:2 (KJV)
2 My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer;
My shield, and he in whom I trust;
Who subdueth my people under me.
Psalm 17:8 (KJV)
8 Keep me as the apple of the eye,
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psalm 27:5 (KJV)
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion:
In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me;
He shall set me up upon a rock.
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Closing Thoughts
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
1
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the [a]fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7
A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9
Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
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