Naked Bible Podcast Episode 324: Psalm 91 and Demons
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Naked Bible Podcast Transcript
Episode 324
Psalm 91 and Demons
May 16, 2020
Teacher: Dr. Michael S. Heiser (MH)
Host: Trey Stricklin (TS)
Episode Summary
With the advent of the coronavirus threat and subsequent quarantine measures,
many people are referencing Psalm 91 as though it were intended to provide
immunity from the virus. This is an abuse of this psalm. In this episode of the
podcast, we talk about the meaning of Psalm 91 – specifically, its
characterization as an exorcistic psalm in the days of Jesus. That context has
ramifications for its use by Satan to tempt Jesus into acting outside of God’s plan
for salvation and Jesus’s rebuttal.
Transcript
TS: Welcome to the Naked Bible Podcast, Episode 324: Psalm 91 and Demons.
I’m the layman, Trey Stricklin, and he’s the scholar, Dr. Michael Heiser. Hey,
Mike! How are you doing?
MH: Pretty good. Ready to get some topical stuff done now.
TS: Yeah! We’ve had a lot of interviews and now single topics. So I’m excited.
This first one seems pretty interesting.
MH: Well, the short version here is that I’ve heard enough about Psalm 91 to just
have it make me a little ill [laughs] when it comes to the whole Coronavirus thing.
So I thought, “Ah, that’s a good place to start. We’ll jump into that.” Because
there’s just stuff lurking under the surface that includes demons. And it’s always
great to talk about demons, isn’t it? So I thought that would be a good place to
start.
TS: You have a book out, so it kind of makes sense. How’s that going? Any
updates on that? The book’s going well?
MH: Yeah. Well Amazon said they were out of stock in, like, 10 hours. [laughs]
On the first day. I heard and then I went up and looked and saw that it was sold
out. So I don't know if that was good news or bad news, because there’s really
no way to tell. Does that mean that Lexham printed 10,000 of these and they’re
just gone in a flash? Or did they only print 1,000? Who knows? So I actually
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looked today and it said, “You can order the book,” (which is nice of Amazon to
tell people), “and then your book will get here sometime next week.” So they
either have more or they know they’re getting more. So who knows the mysteries
of Amazon? They’re sort of incalculable. So I don't worry about them too much
anymore.
TS: Yeah, there have been lots of good, funny memes and funny things going on
about your book. For instance, you got a box full of Demons. You’ve got…
Demons is on the way. There are all kinds of funny things that people are saying
and stuff. So that’s good.
MH: Demons are good news. Yeah.
TS: Yeah. And your trailers that you shot with Lexham, those are nice.
MH: Those were so long ago I don't even remember them. I should go and watch
one. [laughs]
TS: Yeah, they’re good.
MH: I know, though, that they used… I don't know if it was… Because when we
did the Demons stuff, all I remember is that the room was dark. Because they
wanted it dark because it’s demons, you know? And I don't know if they took a
picture then or if it was an older picture, but I’m actually going to be on the…
Maybe the issue is already out, I don't even know. But I’m on the cover of Bible
Study Magazine with one of these pictures that really makes me look kind of
sinister. [laughs] So it’s like, “Thanks a lot, people.”
TS: Yeah, I think I saw it. Yeah.
MH: “Could I have done anything to look a little more sinister for you?” Oh, well.
TS: It’s good. I have my copy, Mike. I haven’t read it yet. I did see…
MH: Oh, you got one?
TS: Yeah, I got one. I pre-ordered it a long time ago. I see you have Michael
Brown in there. You have Tim Mackie saying a few words.
MH: Frank Turek, yep. Yeah, it has good recommenders. I was real happy that
the recommenders liked the book. I was a little disappointed because I had given
Tim Mackie (of the Bible Project) a pdf in advance to help him prep for those
videos that the Bible Project did, before it went out. And what I wanted Lexham to
use for his recommendation was his email reply to me after he’d read the draft.
[laughs] He said, “Dude. This is so helpful.” [laughs]
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TS: [laughs] Yeah.
MH: You know? That’s exactly what Tim would say. But he wrote a blurb that
sounds a little more academic and a little less “Tim.” But it’s still Tim, so we’re
happy with it.
TS: When you do the Supernatural version of Angels and Demons, you can just
have it where he just says, “Dude.” [MH laughs] That would actually be a pretty
powerful endorsement if Tim Mackie just said, “Dude.” That’s all you’ve got to
say.
MH: And I actually sent his email reply to Lexham and asked them to use it.
[laughter] But they probably thought it was a joke. Because it was just funny. But,
you know, sometimes you don’t get your way.
TS: I hear you. Well, Psalm 91, Mike… I’m excited about this episode. Can you
give us a little hint at some of the other topics that are coming our way?
MH: Oh, well, I could, but I really don’t want to. Because if I… I’m actually trying
to avoid new Exodus stuff. [laughs] Because we just left Exodus. [laughs] So I’m
actually picking my way around that. But that might factor in there. But all I’ll say
is Old Testament and New Testament relationship. So I don't want to commit to
anything specific. Because something else in the list might strike me during the
week and I’ll want to do that instead. So I’m going to be a little careful.
TS: Well don’t be shy about the Exodus stuff! We’ve got a good foundation of it
now.
MH: [laughs] Yeah, I know.
TS: If you want to build upon that, that’s alright with us.
MH: I’m just thinking that it’s like wearing out your welcome. Just trying to stay a
little away from that, at least for a little bit of time. But we’ll find our way back to
that at some point I’m sure.
TS: Alright. I hear you.
MH: Well, Psalm 91… I’m going to read through the psalm (it’s not that long) to
start here. And I’ll telegraph the places that we’re going to spend some time
camping on. So what I want to do is go through the psalm and make some
comments as to the Hebrew Bible context of the psalm. And then we’re going to
drift into, “How was this psalm understood or thought about in Jesus’ day (the
Second Temple period)?” and, of course, on into the first century A.D., which is
part of the Second Temple period. And that’s how we’ll go. So we’re going to
cover both Old and New Testament here. Because the Old Testament stuff is
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going to create a framework for what’s going on in the New Testament. And it’s
actually going to matter, because… Here’s a little heads-up. Psalm 91 is actually
one of the places in the Old Testament that Satan quotes in his confrontation
with Jesus. And he wasn’t really talking about the Coronavirus. [laughs] So… But
the fact that Psalm 91 is one of those places is actually interesting. And it’s
interesting for a number of specific reasons that I don't think will occur to the
normal Bible reader or Bible student. So let’s just read Psalm 91. I’m reading
from ESV:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High…
Now let me just stop there. Isn’t it interesting? “Most High.” Most High, Elyon…
Where have we heard Most High before? Oh, that would be Deuteronomy 32.
Deuteronomy 32 worldview… Yahweh dispenses the nations—allots the
nations—to the lesser sons of God, who become hostile supernatural forces in
the course of the Old Testament. So we’ll stow that away.
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
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I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
Now “pestilence”… We’re going to camp on that word in a bit. It’s the word deber
(רבד). Interestingly enough… This is the only time I’m going to mention this
because I don't want to rabbit-trail into how the Septuagint translator misread a
word. But here’s a good example where they do. Deber (רבד) is also not just the
word for “plague” (Hebrew has homographs—otherwise known as homonyms),
but it’s also the word for word. The Septuagint has “he will rescue from the trap of
hunters and from a terrifying word,” which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But
anyway, deber is not the Hebrew word for word here; it’s something else, and
we’ll get to that. So verse 4:
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He will cover you with his pinions…
If you’re like me, you wonder what a pinion is. The NCV (New Century Version)
has “feathers,” so it’s probably part of the wing or something like that, or maybe
just the feathers. I don’t know. I’m not an authority on the word “pinion” in
English.
…and under his wings you will find refuge;
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So pinions and wings must have some relationship there.
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
Stow that away: shield and buckler. Because the next verse gets us into more of
these terrors and threats. And I’ll give you a little heads-up. These terrors and
threats along with deber (pestilence) in the preceding verse (verse 3) are going
to be references to names of Canaanite deities, which of course to the Second
Temple Jewish mind is going to be a demon. And isn’t it interesting how, if the
passage is really talking about demons, that we get references to the Lord
sheltering us with a shield and buckler. Sounds suspiciously like Ephesians 6:11-
16. But just hold onto that.
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You will not fear the terror of the night, [MH: pahad]
nor the arrow that flies by day, [MH: we’ll come back to “arrow”]
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nor the pestilence [deber] that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction [qeteb] that wastes at noonday. [MH: we’re going to
spend time on all these words]
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A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
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You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.
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Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—
the Most High [MH: there it is again], who is my refuge—
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no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague [MH: this term is generic—nega—so it’s not one of these deity
names] will come near your tent.
What comes next is the part that Satan quotes.
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For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
Satan skips the next verse. [laughs]
13
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
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I guess Satan forgot that part.
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“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
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When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
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With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
So that’s Psalm 91. And there’s some interesting stuff in there. I’m going to focus
on verses 5 and 6 and verses 11-13 for specific backdrop—really specific
contextualizing the psalm, both in terms of an Israelite reader and then a later
Second Temple Jewish/first century A.D reader (New Testament era). So I’ll just
read verses 5 and 6 again:
5
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
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nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
So without getting into too much detail (because that would be quite possible and
I do want to get into Second Temple stuff—Dead Sea Scroll material is going to
matter here and then into the New Testament), we have this reference to deber.
For those who are listening, just think of d-e-b-e-r. It’s a v sound after a vowel in
Hebrew. So we have a reference to that in verse 3 and we also get one later in
verse 6. I’m going to quote from DDD now (Dictionary of Deities and Demons in
the Bible).
Deber is one of the three proverbial causes of death on a wide scale. It is attested
some 50 times in the Bible along with war [MH: including the words sword and
blood] and famine (mainly in Jeremiah and Ezekiel). Besides this empirical
meaning, it seems to be used a number of times in a personified sense as a
demon or evil deity.
Now we’re going to get in a few moments to Habakkuk 3:5, where this is a little
bit clearer. And Habakkuk 3:5 will not only mention deber, it will also mention a
deity known as resheph. Hosea 13:14 has similar language. And we’ll get to
those in a moment. But just to prep you with this… Deber, to quote DDD once
more, “seems to be used a number of times in a personified sense as a demon
or evil deity.” So just store that away.
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If we continue on, we hit verse 6. We have q-e-t- (and it’s the emphatic t in
Hebrew, t with a dot underneath)… Q-e-t-e-b. I’m going to read from DDD again.
The term Qeteb appears four times in the OT. Its basic significance is
‘destruction’, (perhaps etymologically ‘that which is cut off’) though the contexts
suggest that other nuances are present. Various scholars have translated it as
‘plague’ or ‘pestilence’ in the context of its parallel use with rešep, deber. The
term has overtones of a divine name… qz.b [pronounced ke zev’] occurs once in
[an] Ugaritic [text] (KTU 1.5 ii:24) and may be a kinsman [MH: or who appears to
be a relative] of Mot.
Mot is a very famous Ugaritic Canaanite deity—the god of death. So those two
are mentioned in tandem. That’s part of the argument that qeteb is probably
another Canaanite deity. When we get to Hosea 13:14 again… I might as well
just read that, because it’s probably going to help here. So let me just go to
Hosea quickly. It might factor in here. This is going to sound really familiar from
the New Testament, but it’s actually a citation from Hosea.
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I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol [MH: the underworld];
I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
This is God speaking about the iniquity of Ephraim back in verse 12. I’m going to
read verse 14 again, where the Lord is speaking.
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I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death.
“Death” there is Mot in Canaanite and Mavet in Hebrew.
O Death, where are your plagues?
Guess what that word is. Deber. “O Death, where is deber?”
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Guess what that word is. Qeteb. “O Sheol, where is qeteb?”
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So you could read Hosea 13 very easily because Mot is quite a well-known
Canaanite deity—personified death. And this also happens in the Hebrew Bible.
Sheol is personified in a couple of passages and so is death, including this one,
because Death is addressed. “O Death.” “O Mot, where are your plagues?”
“Where is deber and qeteb? Hey, Mot! Where’s deber and qeteb?” And if God is
saying, “I’m going to ransom these people from the power of Sheol,” this is a
taunt. This is the God of Israel saying to Mot (to Death, the god of the
Canaanites), “Hey, dude. Where are your buddies?” [laughs] “They just weren’t
too effective here, because I’m ransoming these people from Death. I’m taking
them out of your hands.” So you have a flavor here of a pretty strong theological
polemic that really involves or revolves around taking these terms as deity
figures, which in Canaanite texts, they were. There’s a good indication they were.
So it helps frame this discussion a little bit. Let me go back to DDD and its
discussion of qeteb. And of course, Paul picks up on this language in 1
Corinthians. But we’re not going to rabbit-trail there today. Back to qeteb, DDD
says:
The most useful information [MH: about qeteb] comes from Deut 32:24, where
the following tricolon [MH: three stanzas] occurs in Yahweh’s curse of apostate
Jacob…
His people have apostatized. In Deuteronomy 32:17, of course, which we
reference all the time on the podcast here, about Israel going after other gods
(the shedim)—these territorial entities referencing the Deuteronomy 32
worldview—Israel runs into apostasy. They go into apostasy. And so if you look
at Deuteronomy 32:24… Let me just read it to you in the ESV. Because DDD is
going to take it apart a little bit in terms of the Hebrew wording here. But let’s just
get the flavor. God is judging his people for their apostasy. I’ll start in verse 23:
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“‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
I will spend my arrows on them;
“Disasters” is ra-ah. “Arrows” is just the familiar word for arrow but it’s going to
become important here in a moment.
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they shall be wasted with hunger [ra-ab],
and devoured by plague [resheph]
and poisonous pestilence [qeteb];
So basically, God is going to send these disasters on his people. But the
terminology in the wider Canaanite world was these hostile supernatural forces.
So back to DDD. It says:
The useful information Deuteronomy 32:24… Here’s what we read when Yahweh
curses apostate Jacob. [It says, in Hebrew:]… mĕzê rāʿāb ‘sucked dry by Hunger
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[MH: that’s one description] (ra’ab)’, ûlĕḥumê rešep ‘and devoured by Pestilence
(resheph)’ [MH: devoured by resheph]… Thus ‘Hunger’ is probably an epithet of
Mot [MH: because death had been mentioned earlier] (Heb Māwet), god of
death; lĕḥumê, ‘devoured’, can also be construed as ‘fought against’, cf. the arrow
metaphor of v 23 [MH: that we read, in reference to the arrows]; ‘Pestilence’ is
personified as Resheph, the plague-god [MH: and here’s the important line], who
in Ugaritic is represented as an archer (KTU 1.82:3). [MH: Resheph in Ugaritic is
represented visually as an archer. He shoots arrows.]
So you have Resheph (this Canaanite deity/demon figure in Second Temple
parlance) who is an archer. So that’s going to become important when we see
references to arrows along with qeteb and deber and Mot in other passages.
Let’s go, in fact, to Habakkuk 3:5. This is a good time to reference that. I
mentioned it earlier, but… Habakkuk 3:5 is kind of important for this. This is one
of these passages where Yahweh marches from the South. We spent a lot of
time talking about these in the Exodus series. In verse 5, in the midst of Yahweh
coming from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran and so on and so forth
(that’s verse 3)… When you hit verse 5, it says:
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Before him went pestilence [MH: marching ahead of him: deber],
and plague followed at his heels [MH: coming up from behind: resheph].
So “Before Yahweh went Deber, and Resheph followed at his heels.” That’s kind
of an interesting verse. We’re going to talk a little bit about why. As you’re
thinking about that, let me go back to the Hosea reference here and just read that
again. So in Habakkuk 3:5, we’ve got two of these figures in tow, marching under
Yahweh’s command, as it were—under his authority. In other words, they’re not
independent deities. They are lesser and subservient. And you go to Hosea 13:
I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol. I shall redeem them from death
[Mot]. O Death [O Mot], where are your plagues? [Where is deber?] O Sheol,
where is [qeteb]?
So you have these passages like this that personify these things. And scholars
who muck around in these texts have noticed that, “Hey, these same terms are
actually some of the gods of these surrounding nations.” And naturally, they’re
rivals to the status of Yahweh of Israel. And a couple of them get referenced in
Psalm 91. That’s the point. A couple of them get referenced very directly. We had
Deber there. Let’s go back to the psalm, just to pick up here again. In verses 5
and 6, we have for sure Deber and Qeteb. But then we have a reference to the
arrow that flies by day. Is that Resheph? It might be, because Resheph is an
archer. Might be an oblique reference to him. So there’s some kind of strange
stuff going on in Psalm 91. If we loop in Habakkuk 3:5 and if we loop in Hosea
13:14, we’ve got a number of these terms. And they’re personified even in the
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Hebrew Bible. But they’re all under Yahweh’s authority. He is clearly the superior
in the picture. So I’m going to go to DDD again and read you a little bit about
Resheph. DDD says this:
The tradition of Resheph as a god of pestilence is attested in Deut 32:24 and Ps
78:48. The first text, a passage of the Song of Moses, deals with those who
provoked God to anger and were unfaithful [MH: they were apostate]: they are
punished with hunger and destroyed by Resheph and →Qeteb (“I will heap (?)
evils upon them, my arrows I will spend on them; wasted with hunger, devoured
by Resheph and Qeteb the poisonous one”, Deut 32:23–24a).
That’s how DDD renders Deuteronomy 32:23-24. Continuing, it says:
In the OT Bārād [MH: that’s another term we haven’t encountered yet] occurs in
Ps 78:48, in a passage which concerns the seventh plague of Egypt, where Barad
occurs in parallel with ‘the Reshephs’ [MH: barad is lightning… and then it quotes
the Hebrew text.] (pl.): wayyasgēr labbārād bĕʿîrām ûmiqnêhem lārĕšāpîm, “He
(that is, Yahweh) gave up their cattle to Barad…
It’s lightning or hail or both. Traditionally, we look at that as a fire. If you
remember back to the plague episodes, these fiery hailstones—the fiery part—
could be a way of describing lightning. A lightning storm that yields hail, in other
words. So,
He (Yahweh) gave up their cattle to Barad and their herds to the Reshefs.
Lightning bolts as arrows. Think of arrows. We’re using the language of visual
encounter—visual appearance—and then in the ancient Near Eastern world, this
is going to get theologized. Because they don’t know meteorology. They don’t
know modern science or anything like this. So you see a lightning bolt, this is
from the gods. And it’s a bad thing. What the Bible is going to correct… It’s
actually going to push back on this in a couple of regards. We’ll get to that in a
moment. But the notion that… If you were (not just an Israelite, but really
anybody)… That this is random and haphazard and the gods are fighting against
you and against themselves and this competing interest… Think of the Greek
gods and whatnot—Zeus with the thunderbolts and all that, a similar idea.
There’s a certain randomness to it and capriciousness to it. That’s one point that
the Bible is going to push back on. But it’s also going to essentially
demythologize the weather stuff. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
But here back… The description is… Because it’s written in the language of an
observer. So the observer is going to interpret what’s happening here as the
wrath of God. And that’s true. God can step in and manipulate the weather and
control it and use it as a judgment. That’s just a given in biblical theology. But if
it’s God doing this, then it’s not independent deities. That’s the demythologizing
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part. So these things are in God’s hand. He doesn’t need to go ask [laughs],
“Hey. Can you come in to work early today? I’ve got a plague. Can you show up
and…” No. It’s not like that. It’s not that kind of thinking, where God has to send
an evil spirit so that lightning works. We know that isn't the case. And the Bible
pushes back on that idea a little bit. But this is a very common concept in the
ancient world. So back to DDD. In Psalm 78, Yahweh gives up the Egyptians’
cattle to Barad (lightning or hail or both) “and their herds to the Reshefs.”
In Isa 28:2 Bārād is paralleled with a demon in the service of Yahweh, →Qeṭeb
(‘Destruction’).
Qeteb is under Yahweh’s authority. The biblical writers are using this notion…
Think of it this way: they’re using this notion that is widely held that these forces
are supernatural entities. But the theological point the biblical writers are trying to
make is that, “No, God just does this. He can do this in judgment. Or he can
withhold it in mercy. This isn’t like a superhero pantheon of different forces, like
Storm, like the X-Men, or something like that. So the Bible actually pushes back
on a little bit of this. But it uses the same language because that’s what connects
with the audience. This is going to be very familiar. So DDD says:
In Hab 3:5 we have the description of a theophany and the attendant natural
phenomena. God is described as a divine warrior, Lord of light; before Him goes
→Deber (master of epidemics, cf. Exod 9:3 and Jer 21:6), while Resheph
(Pestilence) follows on God’s heels.
Ps 76:4 mentions the ršpy qšt [MH: the plural of resheph and then qeshet], an
expression which could be interpreted as “the Reshephs of the bow” [MH: like a
bow and arrow] and be related to the imagery of the god armed with bow and
arrows [MH: and then it quotes the psalm] (“[In Zion, God] shattered the ršpy qšt,
the shield, the sword, the weapons of war”).
Job 5:7 is a very difficult text, inserted in a passage dealing with the need for man
of absolute trust in God. Here ‘the sons of Resheph’ (bĕnê rešep) are mentioned
(“and the sons of Resheph fly high”); they seem to be winged demons, particularly
if we think of Ps 91:5, where the expression ḥēṣ yāʿûp “the arrow that flies” could
be an allusion to Resheph.
That’s just a smattering of material from DDD about Resheph. So what we’ve got
going on here is the Bible is dipping into and using a matrix of ideas about
natural forces and natural disasters and weather and so on and so forth. And
instead of affirming that, “Yeah, there are specific dudes in the spiritual world that
are in charge of that,” basically it says, “No, all of these forces in nature are at the
command of the God of Israel.” It uses military language. It uses the visualization
of a retinue and all these things. The biblical writers do these things. But their
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point is that the way that the Canaanites think about this is not the case, because
the Canaanite deities that you think are in charge of this really aren’t. [laughs]
They really aren’t in charge of anything like this. God doesn’t have to fight them
to get them to not do these things or to do these things. They don’t actually have
any control over this. That’s the theological point that the biblical writers in these
smattering of verses are trying to make. Verses 11-13 (of Psalm 91)… I’ll read
this again:
11
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
That should be very familiar from the temptation of Jesus by Satan. Now here’s
the part that isn’t quoted by Satan:
13
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
There’s a number of kinds of interesting things going on here. Obviously, the
serpent imagery is what grabs you right away. We have these same terms (these
serpentine terms) mentioned in Deuteronomy 32 about the enemies of Israel,
both in terms of human enemies and supernatural enemies. “Their wine is the
poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.” So there’s a generic reference in
Deuteronomy 32. The more interesting one to me is Psalm 58. And I’ll tell you
why it’s interesting. Psalm 58 is considered by many scholars… We actually
ought to do an episode on Psalm 58 and Psalm 82. Because Psalm 58 is viewed
as a psalm that picks up themes from Psalm 82. And I’ll just read you the first
verse. This is ESV:
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
The Hebrew is ‘elem. And basically (I don't want to say “every” because there’s
always an exception)… pretty much every Hebrew scholar—Old Testament
scholar—believes that ‘elem here is actually an old form of the plural of el. In
other words, gods (like ‘elim, even though it’s not spelled that way). Because we
have in Psalm 89 the bene ‘elem or the bene ‘elim (it just depends on the
manuscript tradition and so on and so forth). And I tend to agree with that
because… Just listen to parts of the psalm:
1
Do you indeed decree what is right, O you gods?
Do you judge the children of men uprightly?
2
No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
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your hands deal out violence on the earth.
Does this sound like Psalm 82:2-5? Yeah, it does. Because this is what they get
accused of. And then it goes on and it says in verse 4:
3
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4
They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5
so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.
6
O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!
You can see the serpent and the lion imagery here that is operative in Psalm 91,
but you can also, if you’re thinking Psalm 82… Scripture has this notion that
extends from Deuteronomy 32 and Daniel 10 that the things that go on with
wicked people (wicked rulers)… behind that is actually wicked supernatural
beings that influence that chaos that happens on earth. They don’t do anything
about it to correct it. They either permissively let it go, or if we take the wording of
this psalm, it seems a little more intentional. “No, in your hearts you devise
wrongs. Your hands deal out violence on the earth.” If you go to the end of the
psalm… This is another reason why people look at this as kind of a dim mirror of
Psalm 82, the way it ends.
11
Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
And if you actually look in the Hebrew text, we have “surely there is elohim who
judges on the earth.” And interestingly enough, the verbal there… It’s not actually
a finite verb. I’m sorry for the grammar lapse here. But I just have to get into this.
Because somebody is going to look at this and say, “You know, Mike, it should
be gods in verse 11. ‘Surely there are gods who judge on earth.’” Well, that’s
what he’s saying isn’t happening in verse 1. So there’s a problem right there.
“Well, it has to be plural, because the verbal here is the plural participle, softim.”
Well, that’s true. It’s not a finite verb, for one thing, and therefore a participle,
which is classified as a verbal adjective, which can be used substantively (in
other words, functioning as a noun) and can be used as a plural of majesty. And
that’s what you have here. There are a few of these in the Hebrew Bible, where a
participle functions as a plural of majesty, precisely because it’s doing service as
a noun in what would be called a verbless clause. So just to lapse into that a little
bit just so that the listeners out there know that yes, we can cover these bases.
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What you have here is a very similar call to the way Psalm 82 ends: “Arise, O
God, and judge the earth. Take the nations…” That kind of wording, however you
want to translate that. So there’s a similarity there. And my point is that here
you’ve got a psalm that has stuff in it that sounds like Psalm 82 and yet also has
this serpent language (this adder language) and this lion language that we also
encounter in Psalm 91 and elsewhere. The chaos enemies of earth are cast this
way as tannim (sea monsters or serpents). You’ve got Pharaoh in Exodus 29 and
Exodus 32. You’ve got the whole incident with Moses and Aaron in front of
Pharaoh with the serpents. The staff becomes a serpent and devours the other
two—you’ve got some of these words in there. You’ve got Psalm 74 that uses the
language of the sea monsters. God slays the sea beasts. And Isaiah 51:9 is
another one of them. Isaiah 27:1 is probably the most famous eschatological
one. I’ll just read it to give you a flavor for the kind of language that’s here:
In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish
Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent…
There you get the serpent language. You’ve got nachash there a couple of times.
“He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” That’s tannim and that’s the word that
occurs in Psalm 91. So this terminology is used for chaos agents—either
supernatural, emblematic, or human. It’s a matrix of ideas, as I often say.
So what you have in Psalm 91, focusing on verses 5-6 and 11-13, is a lot of
“powers of darkness” language. You’ve got a lot of supernatural chaos language.
You’ve got connections to Deuteronomy 32. You’ve got a peripheral connection
to Psalm 82 going on here. Basically, supernatural bad guys are littered in
among the verbiage of Psalm 91. And that’s going to matter when we get to the
Second Temple period, and that’s where we’re going right now.
Now I came across a couple of articles here and the links to these articles are
going to be on the episode webpage. You probably already know that if you use
the website to get your podcasts. But if you don’t, go up to the episode webpage
and get links to these articles. These are available online so I’m giving you the
links. One of them is by Craig Evans. Evans is a very well-known New Testament
scholar. He had an article back in 2009 on Psalm 91, and it’s called “Jesus and
Evil Spirits in the Light of Psalm 91.” The initial source for that was Baptistic
Theologies 1 (2009): pages 43-58. It’s also published in a book called
Celebrating the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Canadian Contribution. It’s edited by the late
Peter Flint and a few other people. You could get that book in book form and
you’d have the chapter. But anyway, you can get the essay on a link on the
episode webpage. Craig Evans himself was nice enough to post this. I don't
know when he did it, but he did it, so it’s up there. Now in this article, Evans
starts on very early with this comment. He says:
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Commentators have long suspected that this psalm was understood as offering
assurance against demonic affliction.
Now chances are very high that when you read Psalm 91, just in your Bible
reading at some point in life, like me… I wasn’t thinking about demonic affliction
at all. After listening to the first half of this podcast, you could see why they would
think that way. Because it is. [laughs] Okay? This is the worldview! So Evans
says:
Commentators have long suspected that this psalm was understood as offering
assurance against demonic affliction.
However, the discovery at Qumran [MH: where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found]
of Psalm 91 [MH: here’s the key] in combination with exorcism psalms has pretty
well settled the matter once and for all: Psalm 91 apparently was understood in
the time of Jesus as offering divine assurances of protection against demonic
powers.
So the point even then really wasn’t specifically some of the natural things that
we would associate. There were people who read them quite transparently as
attacks from demons. So this psalm at Qumran was actually grouped in among
other exorcistic psalms that are not in the Hebrew Bible, but they’re nevertheless
part of this group. So that’s interesting, especially because Satan is going to try
to use this. But I should also add that it was also understood as a psalm of David.
Now if you go in your English Bible to Psalm 91, this one doesn’t have a
superscription. It doesn’t say “Psalm of David,” “Psalm of Asaph,” or anybody
else. Well, at Qumran, the Dead Sea Scroll version of the psalm… And it’s the
psalm. It just… It has a superscription. And it’s a psalm of David. Which gives it
the messianic flavor, does it not? So it’s another little thing right under the
surface that’s kind of interesting. Now we could… I’m going to link out. In fact, I’m
going to open up in my software here and go to the Dead Sea Scrolls Study
Edition. And Evans is going to reference 11Q5 first. And then he’s going to go
into 11Q11, which is this collection of exorcistic psalms. I’ll read here 11Q5.
When I say the word blank, it just means that there’s a gap in the text. So…
2 Blank (Compositions of David) [MH: The editor presumes that there’s some note
about “these are the compositions of David,” because the first line that actually
shows up is:] And David, son of Jesse, was wise, and a light like the light of the
sun, /and/ learned,
3 Blank and discerning, and perfect in all his paths before God and men. And
4 Blank YHWH gave him a discerning and enlightened spirit. And he wrote psalms:
5 three thousand six hundred [MH: That’s a lot more than we get in the book of
Psalms, by the way.]; and songs to be sung before the altar over the perpetual
Naked Bible Podcast Episode 324: Psalm 91 and Demons
16
6 offering of every day, for all the days of the year: three hundred
7 and sixty-four; and for the sabbath offerings: fifty-two songs; and for the
offerings of the first days of
8 the months, and for all the days of the festivals, and for the «Day» of
Atonement: thirty songs.
9 And all the songs which he spoke were four hundred and forty-six. [MH: So we
got 3600 of them and we’ve got 446.] And songs
10 to perform over the possessed: four. The total was four thousand and fifty.
[MH: All of that stuff together is 4,050 items that David wrote.]
11 All these he spoke through (the spirit of) prophecy which had been given to
him from before the Most High. Blank
That’s 11Q5. So we learned David was quite prolific. [laughs] And among the
stuff that he produced were four songs to perform over the possessed. It seems
these four psalms were discovered (providentially, coincidentally, however you
want to look at that) in the same cave. They were labeled 11Q11. There were
three new psalms in this group and Psalm 91. Now the ones that are not in the
Hebrew Bible are very clearly exorcistic psalms. They’re all fragmentary. But all
of them mention demons with confrontational language. And then you get Psalm
91 in among them. I’m going to read you (a lot of this is fragmentary) 11Q11, the
first column.
We get a reference in line 40: Yahweh.
Line 5 contains the word dragon. Then you have the earth.
We get the word” exorcising” (as in exorcising demons) in line 7.
Line 10 has the word “demon.” (Just a few words.)
Column 2 has a little bit more and, interestingly enough, it mentions Solomon.
Line 2 says, “Blank Solomon. He will invoke blank.” And the next line is “the
spirits and the demons.” Blank on either side.
So get this. We’ve got Solomon looped in here. Well, it’s a psalm of David and
it’s Davidic and the line of kingship, and demons. So you get a little feel for that.
Column 3 is more of the same thing.
I want to get to the fifth column here. Column 5 has a good amount preserved,
but it’s really interesting. Line 3 says: “The volunteers of blank” and then it
actually names Raphael, the archangel. “Raphael has healed them.”
Line 4: “of David against” and then a long blank. And it ends with “Yahweh.”
Line 5: “The heavens, when he comes upon you in the night, you shall say to
him, ‘Who are you?’”
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And you’re going to love this. Line 6: “’Who are you, O offspring of man and the
seed of the holy ones?’”
Does that sound familiar? Can you say it with me (if there are children in the
room, you probably won’t want to say this): “bastard spirits.” Demons. This is the
Genesis 6 language connection.
“’Who are you, O offspring of man of the seed of the holy ones? Your face is a
face of delusion and your horns [MH: ooh!] are horns of illusion. You are
darkness and not light.’”
Line 8: “Injustice and not justice. The chief of the army, Yahweh, will bring you
down.”
Line 9: “to the deepest Sheol. He will shut the bronze gates.”
Does this sound familiar? [laughs] This is part of this material in 11Q11 in which,
right after this, in the next column, we get Psalm 91 in its entirety. It’s not
completely identical. Because Solomon… Well that’s a Targum. I don't want to
say that. But there are Aramaic translators that read into a little part of this. But
it’s very, very, very close to the Psalm 91 that we have. It’s basically identical.
But not completely. But it begins this way: “Of David.” [laughs] Okay? And we get
this: “Of David.” They have it… It is bracketed here, but the Septuagint of this
psalm has the superscription. So… And the Septuagint is going to align well with
this. So they’re figuring this is the Hebrew original here. “In the shelter of the
Most High… Shadow of the Almighty…” So on and so forth. So you get Psalm 91
there. And it goes down through parts of verse 14. So Psalm 91, this is why
scholars look at this and they go, “Hmm, sure looks like,” in the words of Evans:
The appearance of Psalm 91 in 11Q11 strongly suggests that this psalm was
understood not only at Qumran as an exorcism psalm but was understood this
way among many Jews in the time of Jesus.
And I agree. I think Evans is tracking well on that. So a couple of specific items. I
looped in the Septuagint. So the Septuagint attributes the psalm to David.
Through the fancy and wonderful world of textual criticism, the material at
Qumran here in Psalm 91 aligns very closely with little idiosyncrasies we’d get in
the Septuagint, as opposed to the MT. And so odds are very high—very high—
that this would’ve been the Hebrew underlying Septuagint and so scholars feel
quite confident in saying, “This one had a superscription as well. Because the
Septuagint one surely does.” And maybe it didn’t, but it’s a good argument. It’s
sound in its reasoning.
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Another thought is that one of these exorcistic psalms (I didn’t read all of them—
the whole lot of them) mentions Resheph by name. And we have the reference in
Psalm 91 to the arrows, which we talked about earlier. So what I’m trying to do
here is trying to create a picture—a context, a framework—for how people in the
first century… If you were doing the sword drill: “Psalm 91. What’s that about?”
Chances are there’s going to somebody in the crowd (probably more than one)
that would say, “Demons! Exorcism!” Because this content is in there. It wouldn’t
have been a foreign thought to somebody in Jesus’ day. But to us, we’re reading
this filtered through an English translation so it’s really hard to pick this up. Plus,
we wouldn’t have the context of Qumran and all this other stuff. And the
Septuagint. We need to give the Septuagint some due here. Evans also writes:
The content of Psalm 91 readily lends itself to an exorcistic function. Verse 3
promises deliverance from the 'deadly pestilence*, while v. 5 promises the
faithful person that he will 'not be afraid of the terror of the night' or the 'plague
that rages at noon'.
By the way, that is not the way that plagues actually work (natural forces). They
don’t time themselves.
The creatures mentioned in v. 13 ('serpent', 'sea monster', and the like) were
sometimes understood as demonic beings. As already mentioned, the 'sea
monster' (tannim) here in v. 13 also appears in line 5 of the first exorcism psalm.
So these exorcistic psalms have the same vocabulary as Psalm 91 and Psalm 91
is lumped in there among them. Evans also throws in a note here that I think is
worth mentioning, that it’s very clear that the Aramaic translator (the Targum
translator) of verses 5-10 took it as an exorcistic psalm. And he loops Solomon
into this. I’m going to read you the Targum translation that Evans has referenced
in his article:
5. 'You will not be afraid of the terror of the demons [MH: It actually puts the
word in there.] that go about in the night, nor of the arrow of the angel of death
that he shoots in the daytime, [MH: you can see how the Targum is expansive
here]
6. nor of the death that goes about in the darkness, nor of the company demons
that destroy at noon.
7. You will call to remembrance the Holy Name, and a thousand will fall at your
left side, and ten thousand at your right hand; (but) they will not come near you
to do harm.
8. You will only look with your eyes, and you will see how the wicked are being
destroyed.'
9. Solomon answered, and this is what he said: 'Because you, O Lord, are my
refuge, in the most high dwelling place you have set the house of your Shekinah.'
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10. The Lord of the World responded, and this is what he said: 'No evil shall befall
you, and no plague or demons shall come near your tent.
If you compare what’s going on in the Hebrew and the Aramaic, its first couple of
verses already set the stage for this Solomonic language. Here are verses 2 and
3. The Hebrew has:
(He) will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.’
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly
pestilence.
The Targum says:
David said: ‘I will say to the Lord’…
And then there’s a gap, an ellipsis. Verse 3:
For he will deliver you, Solomon, my son [MH: puts Solomon right in there], from
the snare and the obstacle, from death and confusion.
So it takes the line from verse 3, “for he will deliver you,” (this generic you) and
the Targum translator interpreted that as David speaking to Solomon his son.
That’s how Solomon gets looped in there and he gets looped back later as we
read.
Now, let’s pool all this data and think about Psalm 91 and how to read it. And
then we’ll get into what happens with Jesus real briefly. To me, it is important that
we have a tradition that there’s a superscription here in the Septuagint. And very,
very likely at Qumran for this being a psalm of David, which certainly gives it a
messianic feel. It’s also really important that Psalm 91 is lumped in with exorcistic
psalms at Qumran. And those other exorcistic psalms in which it is bundled have
very clear demonic, sinister, powers of darkness language in them, some of
which is also in Psalm 91. I think that’s important. The inclusion of Resheph and
that other stuff I think is important. Just the ancient Near Eastern/Canaanite
backdrop that we talked about earlier is important. To me, these things need to
inform how we read Psalm 91 and then how we understand its use and Jesus’
rebuttal in Matthew 4 and accounts of the temptation there. So in biblical days
and the wider ancient Near East, I think we could say this: natural disasters and
disease were linked to demons because they were a threat to human life. They
are chaos forces that just happened to people. And that’s going to get linked to
the notion of supernatural chaos forces.
There is an Old Testament scholar from the Netherlands, Dr. Gerrit Vreugdenhil.
But you can also find a short paper that he wrote online. We’ll have this link on
our website as well: “Demonic Doom: Psalm 91 and the Threat of Evil Spirits and
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Demons.” It’s also very good and very interesting. His short article actually
sketches out his own research. He has a book coming out on Psalm 91. It’s not
shipping yet. I actually looked it up, because we have corresponded briefly. It’s
published by Brill, so it’s really expensive. But hopefully it’ll come back in
paperback. Or if you’re at SBL this year, you can get it as a discount. But it’s a
book specifically on Psalm 91 and this demonic orientation of the psalm. In his
short paper, when he’s talking about his research, he describes some of the
things that he investigated. And he writes this:
In chapter 3 we [MH: he’s using the editorial we] asked: Which place do demons
have in the world view of (the ancient) Israel? What did the Israelite men and
women think of demons? Did they play a part in everyday life? On which fields of
life did they experience the activities of demons?
So he’s asking these worldview questions. Then he goes through at one point in
the article (and of course the book) through Jewish incantation texts or Jewish
magical texts, as scholars like to refer to them. They would write these in bowls
and cups. We have pieces of pottery or sometimes the whole thing. Or pieces of
jewelry, things that you would wear on your person (on your body). I hate to use
the word “spell,” but I guess that’s fair. “Incantation” sounds a little more neutral.
But they’re short, written prayers. And I guess you could call some of them spells
(that’s probably fair) to ward of demons. And he actually gives an example of one
(this is Jewish material) that comes from Geniza at Cairo in this short article. He
writes this:
The amulet mentions the name of the woman [MH: who was wearing this thing]:
Ḥabibah bint Zurah. It is possible that amulet was worn as a kind of necklace or
that the amulet was located near the place where she would give birth to her
child.8 On the first column the purpose of the amulet is stated, namely: 'to drive
away all kinds of demons and demonesses, lilis and liliths, evil diseases, harmful
male spirits and harmful female spirits, and evil spirits, male and female [MH:
She’s just running the gamut here]… so that she [MH: the baby or the mother…
we’d have to read the full book to determine how that determination is made] be
healthy and protected from any harm for all time'. Between the lines of the
incantation, we find on the first column a reference to Psalm 91. The psalm is
cited according the principles of notarikon.
And Dr. Vreugdenhil defines that for us in a footnote. I’ll read the footnote.
Vreugdenhil writes:
The word 'notarikon' is borrowed from the Greek language (νοταρικόν), and was
derived from the Latin word 'notarius', which means 'shorthand writer'. It is a
method of deriving a word, by using each of its initial (or final) letters to stand for
another, to form a sentence or idea out of the words.
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So this was sort of a… I don't know… It’s probably not a memory technique.
Maybe it would become that if you made one of these and then you prayed
through the psalm or you recited part of the psalm and this would help you to do
that. Or it could be supplemental. You could be orienting a prayer around (in this
case Psalm 91) and adding these other details, based on… Your memory cue
would be the first or last letter of a line or a word in the psalm.
So these are the kind of texts that he deals with in this book. But what it shows is
that there were people who quite obviously considered Psalm 91 to have
something to do with protection from demons (as opposed to protection from a
cold or something like that). It was more supernatural to them. For my own take,
as with other matters of biology and understanding of nature and whatnot, it’s
easy for us to look and say, “Well, they didn’t have tools of science. We know
how weather works. We know how disease works. We know how contagions
work.” And we do. So I think it’s obvious that science has informed us how
diseases and weather works. I talk about this kind of thing on my FAQ. When we
get comments like this from people living in the second or first millennium B.C. or
the first century… And we do have tools of science that we can evaluate what
they’re saying about the natural world (that’s the key thought). We can evaluate
what they’re saying about the natural world, but that doesn’t give us permission
to evaluate what they say about the supernatural world, which doesn’t conform to
the tools and methods of scientific inquiry. Those are two different things. Even
though the ancient person married the two, those are two different things.
So we could say, “Well, hey, we know how the weather works and it’s not
empowered by a demon.” We get that. But that doesn’t mean that the demons or
the gods or these supernatural entities don’t exist. It just means that certain
people misappropriated an ability to them. That’s what it means. So a lot of
people want to throw out the baby with the bath water. You know me and this
podcast—we don’t do that here. We try to be fair with the worldview and with the
data. And in this case, these passages weren’t designed to tell us how the
natural world works. They just weren’t. God chose writers who didn’t know these
things. And he knew that. So they’re not doing science; they’re doing theology.
So we don’t have the authority to use science (a thing they’re not writing about)
to dismiss a thing that they are writing about and that Scripture affirms (a
supernaturalistic worldview).
I think Habakkuk 3:5 actually helps here. It doesn’t sever a link between what’s
going in the spiritual world and human world. It doesn’t do that. God can do
something to influence the weather as a judgment or as a blessing. God can do
these things. They’re not out of the purview of divine activity. But the point is that
it’s God. It’s not lesser inferior beings who are doing this. And I think Habakkuk
3:5 helps there. Such things, Scripture affirms, operate under the sovereignty of
God. To get that message across, Habakkuk 3:5 has the Canaanite deities (or
the demons in Second Temple thinking)… Recall that daimonion was a generic
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term for a lot of these entities. It has the Canaanite deities that were thought
responsible for such things held in check by Yahweh or, in some sense,
displaced by Yahweh as to their presumed abilities. I’m going to read a little
paragraph here from my Demons book. I write:
In addition to symbols representing the encompassing reach of chaos, biblical
writers used the names of deities from Canaanite religion attached to specific
natural phenomena and illnesses. Unlike their polytheistic counterparts, they did
not have distinct deities acting independently of the true God in charge of those
forces. Just as death (mōt) itself was under the authority of Yahweh, so were
disease and natural disaster. Yahweh was the lone sovereign. For example, when
Egypt was punished with plagues, it wasn’t because Yahweh had to request the
services of a deity or demon. The Most High either acts unilaterally or dispatches
a supernatural underling to dispense judgment through such disasters (Ps 78:49–
50).
In other words, he’s the one in charge. So that’s from the new Demons book. The
end result is that it shouldn’t surprise us that ancient people presumed the gods
or demons were behind natural forces. That shouldn’t surprise us. As Christians
we can affirm the general idea that God is in control, but deny that demonic
entities are the ones pulling the levers here. Biblical theology has God in control
of such things, but as Jesus himself points out in Luke 13… And we need to loop
Luke 13 in. This is not the temptation. This is something I blogged about on my
website. As Jesus points out in Luke 13, it’s not like we should think God is
pushing buttons on every event in the natural world or aiming at wicked people
when things happen. Some things just happen. That is the way the world works.
Imperfection is part of the created world at the beginning, and its imperfection is
made worse by the fall and its curses. The fall didn’t result in demons being
assigned to diseases and disasters, nor is there any biblical indication the world
was created that way. Habakkuk 3:5 is an example where the biblical writers try
to push back on the common thinking and, I think, correctly frame these things. I
will link to my thing on Luke 13 as well that I wrote recently on the episode
webpage.
So let’s get to Jesus and ask ourselves the obvious question. We’ll go to
Matthew 4 here, just so that we get the flavor. But this is a really common
passage. I think all of you are going to be familiar with it. Let’s just read this.
Matthew 4:1:
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness…
Other Gospels say he was compelled by the Spirit to go out into the wilderness.
Of course, that’s where you would find the devil (the domain of death and
chaos— that which is anti-Eden). He goes out there and he fasts 40 days and 40
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nights. And he’s hungry. And the tempter shows up. Satan shows up and starts
talking to him. You get this conversation. And in verse 3:
3
And the tempter [Satan] came and said to him [Jesus], “If you are the Son of
God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
4
But he answered, “It
is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the
temple
6
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it
is written,
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
And
“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
So that’s where he quotes Psalm 91. Now the obvious question is, “Why did he
pick that psalm? Why would he do this?” My take is that Satan knows the content
of the psalm. He knows how people think about the psalm. People think about
Psalm 91 as an exorcistic document that Yahweh and David and the son of
David (the messiah) has command over demons. “And surely, surely, if this is the
case, I could ask you to throw yourself off the pinnacle of the Temple and his
angels will keep you from harm. So let’s see! Let’s see. If you’re really the
messiah, you should be able to jump right off here and get rescued by angels.
And then we’ll know that you in fact are superior to demons (to the guys who
work for me) and even me, myself. So let’s see that.”
Now there are a couple ways you could look at this. One is he’s using the psalm
to have Jesus prove the point and “win the confrontation.” “Show your mastery
over the powers of darkness. Show your status as the Son of God. Show your
status as being equal to Yahweh.” When we get right down to the rest of the Old
Testament theology about the son of David, the messiah is God. “Let’s see that.
Show us that you’re superior to Deber and Qeteb and Resheph. We want to see
that. Prove it.” Now what does Satan have to gain? I look at this and think it’s a
fishing expedition. Let’s say that Jesus says, “Okay. Here we go. Geronimo!” And
he takes off over the pinnacle of the Temple. Now think about it. You’ve got two
outcomes. One is that angels show up, catch him, and “Okay, point proven.” Like
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Naked Bible Podcast Episode 324: Psalm 91 and Demons
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what does that do? The other one is, Jesus hits the bottom and dies. [laughs]
Okay? And God has to raise him up to make the plan work. Oh, and wouldn’t that
be interesting? Because if that happened, Satan would know that if this guy dies,
God’s going to bring him back to life. And I would assert that God and Jesus
don’t want Satan to know that. And the first option (Jesus jumps and is caught by
angels) isn’t the plan. And not only isn't that the plan, but Jesus is not the
monkey to Satan’s organ grinder. He is not here to perform for Satan or anyone
else. He’s on a mission; he knows what the mission is. “Frankly, your request
(your challenge), Satan, can be safely ignored. It can be safely ignored. It serves
us (me and my Father) no purpose to entertain you or inform you in any way.”
So what does Jesus do? He responds with Scripture and says, “Again, it is
written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,’” which to me, I read that
as a double entendre. He’s saying, “Look, I’m not going to put God to the test.”
And it can also be read like, “You shouldn’t put God to the test. And you’re
putting me to the test. Do the math, dude. Do the math.” But he’s not going to
perform. He’s not a performer. He owes him no information and no
entertainment.
And I think for our application here… Why even mention this? In our day and
age (we’re going to end with this), the point is not just arcane knowledge about
Psalm 91. I wanted to do all that to make the point that, yeah, Jesus is… In
theory, Jesus could have jumped off, been rescued, and “Yeah, I proved the
point. I am superior to all these things. I’m superior to every supernatural
knucklehead named in Psalm 91. There you go.” But Jesus doesn’t do that. He
does not presume to act in a way that is contrary to what God wants him to do
and that, ultimately, is contrary to the point of the psalm. And I would just suggest
to us that it might be a good idea to think of Psalm 91 the way it’s supposed to be
thought of. This is a protection from supernatural darkness.
So what we’ve said today about Psalm 91 and what is in Psalm 91 itself… The
general teaching point here is not that this material is supposed to give us a
video game or a professional wrestling analogy for the pecking order of the
supernatural world. That’s just not what it’s supposed to be and it’s not what
we’re trying to do here. We shouldn’t over-literalize the material for the purpose
of analyzing “Which disaster did I hear about on TV… was it demon-caused or
not? Is the virus the work of Satan or demons or…?” If you’re using Psalm 91 to
do that, that is as much a misuse of the psalm as a misuse of any other passage.
It’s just not what it’s there for. Rather, the psalm is a messianic psalm about
David’s agent—his ultimate son. The Davidic messiah has power over forces of
darkness. That is what the psalm is about.
It’s also not a psalm that teaches us we won’t get sick. The psalm is about victory
over supernatural darkness. God is in control of the forces of nature. He is not
powerless to protect us as though he isn’t in control of nature. But Psalm 91 is
ultimately not about specific calamities and forces of nature. It doesn’t guarantee
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Naked Bible Podcast Episode 324: Psalm 91 and Demons
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you won’t get sick or won’t get hit by a hurricane or will never live in a place that
gets an earthquake. Or fill in the blank. It doesn’t guarantee those things.
Ultimately, it’s about the messiah’s victory over the powers of darkness. And all
who are in the shelter of the Most High (all who are in Christ in New Testament
parlance) will overcome the evil one and the evil ones through Christ. It’s his
faithfulness at the temptation in this regard that’s crucial. It’s crucial to what later
happens. Had he tipped off… Had he tipped the hand in the temptation account
here, and had Satan learned that, “Oh, if you kill him, God’s just going to bring
him back from the dead,” or, “God won’t let him be killed…” That changes
tactically what the powers of darkness will do about the messiah. What God
needs to happen—what the end game is—is that Jesus does die. So we’re not
putting that card on the table for Satan to learn anything.
So ultimately, Jesus’ faithfulness here in Matthew 4, which involves this
challenge drawn from Psalm 91, is crucial to Jesus’ later faithfulness in going to
the cross, where he does get raised from the dead and ascends to the seat of
power once more, so that we reap those benefits and so that we are in the
shelter of the Most High. We are in Christ. And we have victory over all of these
evil ones. It’s a coherent, sensible portrayal, not only in terms of the Old
Testament, but also just what the terms become in Matthew 4, in the temptation
scene. “God either won’t let him die, or if he does, he’ll raise him from the dead. If
I’m the cosmic genius of the supernatural evil world, therefore killing the guy isn’t
the solution.” But that’s exactly what needs to happen. So Jesus is not putting the
card on the table. So it’s actually really interesting. Satan kind of knows where to
hit him. But at the end of the day, Jesus says, “We don’t owe you anything. We’re
not going to presume. ‘You should not put the Lord your God to the test.’ We owe
you nothing. No entertainment. No information.” So it’s really a good chess
match, when you really think about it. And the context of Psalm 91, I think, colors
it in the right way.
TS: Mike, can you speak about Solomon? In the Second Temple period (their
literature), the Second Temple Jews didn’t freak out when they saw Jesus
casting out the demons because they’d been reading about Solomon as an
exorcist. Is that right?
MH: Yeah. If you recall, we did an old episode on this. It’s number 87. Man, that
seems like a looong time ago. [laughs] Google episode 87: Exorcism of Demons
as Part of the Messianic Profile. Because in that episode, if you recall, we asked
the question just exactly like you put it. Why, when Jesus runs around casting out
demons and that gets used to reinforce the idea of his identity as the messiah…
Like, “This has to be the messiah. Look at that.” Since (to our reading) there’s no
really clear element like that in the Old Testament. You never read about…
There’s no episode in the Old Testament where a demon gets cast out of
anybody. Nobody. Much less David or the son of David. So it creates this
disconnect, like, “That detail doesn’t make any sense. It must be something new
that the New Testament writers made up.” But it’s not. Just like you said, they’re
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26
talking this way about Solomon. They have this tradition about David. And so
when Jesus starts doing this, it’s like, “Okay.” [laughs] You know? He has just
become part of the discussion about who… “Is he the messiah?” Because it’s
actually a big deal.
TS: Alright, Mike. Well, that was a good one. It’s basically probably a chapter out
of your Demons book, I would imagine.
MH: It actually isn’t. [laughs] I do demons stuff and the natural world a little bit.
But I don't have a chapter on Psalm 91. I reference it, but this is new content. So
now I’ve spilled Unseen Realm 2 content here on the podcast. But it’s alright.
TS: I’ll tell you. Love it. Any time we can get that to happen, I’ll take it.
MH: Squeeze that out of me, right? [laughs]
TS: Absolutely. Alright, Mike. Well, that was good. We appreciate it. Alright, guys,
with that, I want to thank everybody for listening to the Naked Bible Podcast! God
Bless.
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