A biography of Psalm 91

In generous and flowing prose, Philip Jenkins of Baylor University offers an inviting, nontechnical reading of Psalm 91 that is best described as a biography of the psalm. Focused on its reception over the centuries, through translation, interpretation, liturgy, and more, Jenkins’s study is refreshingly readable and engaging. One might think that a whole volume devoted to a single psalm would wear thin, but the opposite is true. The deeper the author takes us, the more layered and fascinating the journey becomes. Arguing that the psalm found its origins in the midst of an epidemic in Israel’s ancient past whets the appetite for application to the present day of global pandemic. While Jenkins touches on this, however, he doesn’t let it control the narrative he wants to present.

The book launches directly into “one of the most commonly cited writings from the Hebrew Bible.” Over the ages, Psalm 91 has proven to be impressively malleable, serving more Jewish and Christian communities than one can count (see “The travels of Psalm 91,” Jan. 17, 2018). In each, it has addressed people’s longing for hope within troubled times. For those varied circumstances, “the psalm is lavish in offering images of protection.” Demons, plagues, violence, and spiritual distress have all found remedies in Psalm 91. It has provided reassurance at deathbeds and shaped christological understandings. The motif provided by the psalm of trampling over enemies “has been extremely common in Christian art through the centuries” and was a fixture for hundreds of years in monastic compline services.

Dating Psalm 91 to the fourth century BCE, Jenkins suggests that it might have been freestanding at one point rather than located within a broader collection of psalms. He reasserts the significance of plague as the occasion for the psalm: “It reads like a liturgy inspired by a severe biological onslaught.” Yet over the centuries its use turned toward prayer against evil spirits. The Qumran community, for example, ca. 60 CE, reinforced the use of the psalm as a weapon against demonic powers. This persisted through the Middle Ages.