Ps 91:11-12: “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in [their] hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Matthew 4:6: “And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
I am going to ask you a question I bet no one has ever asked you before. When Jesus and the enemy engaged in this dialogue in Matthew there was no one else around. So there was no need to speak in Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin or English. What language did they speak? I know what you’re thinking: “This Bentorah fellow has really gone and snapped his cap.” Hey, I think it is important because I believe the enemy has robbed us of a very precious promise from Psalms 91.
When we read Psalms 91:11-12 in our Twenty first Century, Western, technological, mathematical mindset we automatically think: “This refers to Jesus; it’s Messianic and has no real meaning for us.” Indeed, I have dashed my foot against a stone many a time and there was never an angel around to prevent it. I have read numerous stories of people falling out of windows, skydiving and their parachute not opening, falling off a cliff and even falling off a roof. In all these cases I have never heard of any being rescued by an angel. Now I did drive a guy in my disability bus last week who told how in his younger days he was rock climbing. He just about made it to the top when a rock broke loose and he suddenly realized he was going to fall backwards down from whence he came. He cried out: “God help me!” Instantly a man standing on top of the rock reached down and grabbed him. Maybe that is close to Psalms 91:12 but the language the rescuer used to scold the young man for not being more careful does not sound like the words an angel would use.
Yet, the enemy used this verse literally. If we are to take it literally I might just take up skydiving. I mean I am promised that angels are in the ready if my chute does not open. Somehow I don’t think this passage was meant to be taken literally. I also do not believe it is meant to be just Messianic. The problem with our Western thought is that if this is Messianic, then that is that, let’s move on it has no other meaning or application. I believe God is much bigger than that and in a Semitic mindset there could be numerous meanings and applications. I think the enemy quoted this Scripture for more reasons that just trying to tempt Jesus, he knew there was a powerful passage in this passage and by taking it out of context to tempt Jesus he knew that 2,100 years later some Chaim Bentorah fellow would miss a real blessing because he just passed this off as Messianic and did not search for a personal application.
One clue is that the enemy did not only leave out the words to keep thee in all thy ways, but he also misquoted a couple important words. Regardless of the language he and Jesus spoke, Matthew is the one recording this and Matthew was from Galilee and spoke an Old Galilean form of Aramaic. When Jesus told him this story or he received it by some other divine inspiration he had to have heard it in the old Galilean Aramaic. The words: they will bear thee up in their hands, was misquoted by the old goat. The word hand in Aramaic that is used in Matthew is ayda which is equivalent to the Hebrew word yad which means hand, power and strength. Did Jesus really need any power or strength from the angels? I mean he is returning to earth in the clouds, He has conquered gravity He did not need any angels to protect Him. The enemy not only took this passage out of context to steer us away from a deeper message, but he misquoted the passage because the passage in Psalms 91:12 does not use the word yad for hand but the word kapayim from the root word kap where we get the letter Kap. This word does not mean hand but the palm of the hand. There is a big difference because it also means to humble oneself, to bow down to.
The word for angel is male’akayn which comes from the root word malek. Malek means a king, a ruler, a messenger or an angel. We only know which English word to apply by the context. Here the context seems to call for an angel so that is what we traditionally put in this passage, simply because the enemy quoted it that way. But say, why not use the word king, ruler, messenger or even a boss? It would fit the context very well. Could we not say that “He will give his kings and rulers order to guard your way.” Indeed that is exactly what happened with Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and many others in the Bible. God took godless kings and gave them charge or orders over his people to bear them up with their palms. The word palms differs from the hand as the hand is a symbol of strength where the palm is a symbol of humility and protection. The enemy did not use the word palm with Jesus, although it would fit, but the enemy is all about the yad, the hand, power and strength, he is not into the idea of humility and protection. He does not have the gentleness to cradle us in his palm as Jesus does.
Lest we dash our foot against a stone. The word stone that is used in the Aramaic is capha which means a rock and really nothing else. Once again the enemy misquoted the passage because the word used in the Hebrew in the Psalms is eban. The Aramaic equivalent is abna not capha. Thus we will not dash our foot against an eban not a capha like the enemy said. Capha is a rock but eban is a little stone, a pebble, one that can be throw. Why did the Psalmist use the word eban a pebble rather than tsur which is a rock like capha? The word rendered as dash is negaph which means to stumble. When walking you avoid the rocks, but if you stumble it is the little rocks, the pebbles that cause you to slip and slid causing you to lose your balance. Hence we could render this is as “God will humble the kings and rulers and order them to guard our ways and they will hold us up (steady us) so we do not stumble on little pebbles.”
If we can accept that fact that this is not only a Messianic passage but it also has a message for us, then just imagine what this means to us, God will order the kings. Melek means any authority even our boss or supervisor and if we find our shelter in the shadow of His wings God will order our bosses or supervisors to keep us steady in our ways and they will protect us from stumbling over the little details that can trip us up.
In other words we need not even fear in our jobs or our nation because God will order our leaders to protect us in the palm of their hands so long as we seek our shelter in the Shadow of His wings.
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