Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 91:3

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence.

3. Surely he &c.] For HE &c. The pronoun is emphatic.

the snare of the fowler ] All insidious attempts against life or welfare (Psa 124:7; Psa 141:9, &c.; 2Ti 2:26).

and from the noisome pestilence ] from [omit and ] the destroying pestilence. But pestilence comes later in Psa 91:6, and the LXX, Symm., and Syr., give a better parallel to the snare of the fowler by the reading, which involves only a change of vocalisation, from the destroying word of malignant calumny and slander. Cp. the same parallel in Psa 38:12, and the numerous complaints of slander, and prayers to be delivered from it; e.g. Psa 5:9; Psa 120:2-3.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3 8. The providential care of God described in detail. The Psalmist, if the interpretation advocated above is correct, now addresses Israel; or, it may be, any godly Israelite.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler – The snare or gin set for catching birds; meaning, here, that God would save him from the purposes of wicked people; such purposes as might be compared with the devices employed to catch birds. On the meaning of the figure used here, see the notes at Psa 18:5.

And from the noisome pestilence – The fatal pestilence; the pestilence that spreads death in its march. That is, he can prevent its coming upon you; or, he can save you from its ravages, while others are dying around you. This promise is not to be understood as absolute, or as meaning that no one who fears God will ever fall by the pestilence – for good people do die at such times as well as bad people; but the idea is, that God can preserve us at such a time and that, as a great law, he will be thus the protector of those who trust him. It is to be remembered that in times of pestilence (as was the case during the prevalence of the Asiatic cholera in 1832 and 1848), very many of the victims are the intemperate, the sensual, the debased, and that a life of this kind is a predisposing cause of death in such visitations of judgment. A large part of those who die are of that number. From the danger arising from this cause, of course the virtuous, the temperate, the pious are exempt; and this is one of the methods by which God saves those who trust in him from the noisome pestilence. Religion, therefore, to a considerable extent, constitutes a ground of security at such times; nor is there any reason to doubt that, in many cases also, there may be a special interposition protecting the friends of God from danger, and sparing them for future usefulness. The promise here is substantially that general promise which we have in the Scriptures everywhere, that God is the Protector of his people, and that they may put their trust in him.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 3. Surely he shall deliver thee] If thou wilt act thus, then the God in whom thou trustest will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, from all the devices of Satan, and from all dangerous maladies. As the original word, dabar, signifies a word spoken, and deber, the same letters, signifies pestilence; so some translate one way, and some another: he shall deliver thee from the evil and slanderous word; he shall deliver thee from the noisome pestilence – all blasting and injurious winds, effluvia, &c.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

O thou believing, pious soul, who after my example shalt make God thy refuge, thou shalt partake of the same privilege which I enjoy.

He shall deliver thee from the pestilence, which like a fowlers snare taketh men suddenly and unexpectedly, and holdeth them fast, and commonly delivers them up to death.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

3. snares . . . [and] . . .noisome pestilenceliterally, “plagues of mischiefs”(Psa 5:9; Psa 52:7),are expressive figures for various evils.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,…. These are the words of the psalmist, either speaking to himself, for the encouragement of his own faith and trust in the Lord; or to the man that dwells in the secret place, and under the shadow of the most High; which latter seems most agreeable; though Cocceius thinks they are the words of God in one of his Persons, speaking of another divine Person that should deliver such that trust in him: the Targum makes them to be the words of David to Solomon his son. By the “fowler” and his “snare” may be meant either Saul, who laid wait for David, spread snares for him, and hunted him as a partridge on the mountains, from whom he was delivered; or rather any tyrannical enemy and persecutor of the saints, who lay snares for them; and these are broken by the Lord, and so they escape, as a bird out of the hands of the fowler, Ps 124:6 or it may, best of all, be understood of Satan and his temptations, which are as snares that he lays to catch the people of God in, and from which they are delivered by the power and grace of God; see 1Ti 3:7

and from the noisome pestilence; the most pernicious and destructive one; which may be literally understood of any pestilential distemper; from which the Lord, by his powerful providence, sometimes protects his people, when in danger of it: or, spiritually, of the pestilential disease of sin, that noisome and deadly one, the plague of the heart, which is the worst of all plagues; and from the ruinous and destructive effects and consequences of which the Lord saves his saints.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

, as in Pro 6:5; Jer 5:26, is the dullest toned from for or , Psa 124:7. What is meant is death, or “he who has the power of death,” Heb 2:14, cf. 2Ti 2:26. “The snare of the fowler” is a figure for the peril of one’s life, Ecc 9:12. In connection with Psa 91:4 we have to call to mind Deu 32:11: God protects His own as an eagle with its large strong wing. is nom. unitatis , a pinion, to , Isa 40:31; and the Hiph. , from , with the dative of the object, like the Kal in Psa 140:8, signifies to afford covering, protection. The . , according to its stem-word, is that which encompasses anything round about, and here beside , a weapon of defence surrounding the body on all sides; therefore not corresponding to the Syriac sharta’ , a stronghold ( , ), but to Syriac sabra’ , a shield. The Targum translates with , , and with , which points to the round parma . is the truth of the divine promises. This is an impregnable defence ( a) in war-times, Psa 91:5, against nightly surprises, and in the battle by day; ( b) in times of pestilence, Psa 91:6, when the destroying angel, who passes through and destroys the people (Exo 11:4), can do no harm to him who has taken refuge in God, either in the midnight or the noontide hours. The future is a more rhythmical and, in the signification to rage (as of disease) and to vanish away, a more usual form instead of . The lxx, Aquila, and Symmachus erroneously associate the demon name with . It is a metaplastic (as if formed from morf de ) future for , cf. Pro 29:6, , and Isa 42:4, , frangetur . Psa 91:7 a hypothetical protasis: si cadant ; the preterite would signify cediderint , Ew. 357, b. With that which will solely and exclusively take place is introduced. Burk correctly renders: nullam cum peste rem habebis, nisi ut videas . Only a spectator shalt thou be, and that with thine own eyes, being they self inaccessible and left to survive, conscious that thou thyself art a living one in contrast with those who are dying. And thou shalt behold, like Israel on the night of the Passover, the just retribution to which the evil-doers fall a prey. , recompense, retribution, is a hapaxlegomenon, cf. , Isa 34:8. Ascribing the glory to God, the second voice confirms or ratifies these promises.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

In verse third the Psalmist expresses his assurance that the trust of which he had spoken would not be vain and delusory, but that God would prove at all times the deliverer of his people. He is evidently to be considered as addressing himself, and in this way encouraging his own heart to hope in the Lord. Some think that by the snare of the fowler, spoken of here in connection with the pestilence, is to be understood hidden mischief as distinguished from open aggression, and that the Psalmist declares the Divine protection to be sufficient for him, whether Satan should attack him openly and violently or by more secret and subtle methods. I would not reject this interpretation; for though some may think that the words should be taken in their simpler acceptation, the Psalmist most probably intended under these terms to denote all different kinds of evil, and to teach us that God was willing and able to deliver us from any of them.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(3) Snare of the fowler.The image of the net has occurred frequently before. (See Psa. 10:15, &c) Here, as in Ecc. 9:12, it is used generally of any unexpected peril to life.

Noisome pestilence.Literally, pestilence of calamities, i.e., fatal. (See Psa. 57:1, where the same word calamities occurs.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

3. Surely he shall deliver thee The change from the first person in Psa 91:2, to the second in Psa 91:3, is abrupt and perplexing. We must either adopt the dramatic theory respecting the structure of this psalm, (see the introduction,) making three speakers, and assigning Psa 91:3 and part of Psa 91:9 to the second, Psa 91:14-16 to the third, (namely, to Jehovah,) and the rest to the first; or, we must suppose in Psa 91:3; Psa 91:9 the same speaker adopts the I instead of thou, for the purpose of speaking from his own heart, and for greater pathos.

Snare of the fowler In the enumeration of evils from which the righteous shall be delivered by his single trust in God, he properly begins with the “trap of the fowler” the dangers arising from the secret wickedness of men.

Noisome pestilence Fatal pestilence, or pestilence of wickedness. The words are not specific of any bodily disease, or class of destructive diseases, but apply to any causes by which men are swept away suddenly often those which come from the crafty wickedness of men, and is parallel to “snare of the fowler” in the previous member. It is one of the four great judgments of God, enumerated Eze 14:21; Rev 6:8. The word “noisome” means calamitous, ruinous, as Psa 57:1, where Psa 91:4-6 show it was brought only against wicked men. So Psa 94:20, where it is rendered iniquity, and Proverbs 19:30, rendered calamity. But see on Psa 91:6

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Here come in the promise and the answer to the cry of Jesus. God the Father had engaged to carry his Anointed safely through all difficulties and discouragements; and here are particularized source of the eminent instances of divine truth and faithfulness.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 91:3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence.

Ver. 3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler ] i.e. Of the devil and his emissaries, 2Ti 2:26 , who, by force and fraud, seek to ensnare the saints. Gratiae privativae multo plures sunt quam positivae, saith Gerson. God daily delivereth his from innumerable deaths and dangers. By fowler here some understand the punishing angel, 2Sa 24:15-17 , and conceive that this psalm was penned upon occasion of that great plague that followed upon David’s numbering the people; for then, if ever, both prince and people stood in need of special comfort, and here they have it. Divine consolations are therefore sweet, because seasonable and suitable.

And from the noisome pestilence ] That uncomfortable and contagious disease. The Vulgate rendereth it, and from rough words. In Hebrew Dabhar signifieth a word, Debher, a pest; an evil tongue hath the pestilence in it, Ab excidio exitiorum.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)