St. Athanasius the Great
as He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways
As He will give His angels charge over you. This He also said in the thirty-third Psalm: The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and He will deliver them (Psalm 33:8). But let us listen to what the patriarch Jacob also says: The angel who delivers me from all evils (Gen. 48:16). And the great Abraham, in encouragement to his servant, says: God will send His angel before you, and you will find a wife for my son Isaac from there (Gen. 24:7). Therefore, we know from everywhere that the God of all through the angels protects those who have placed their hope in Him.
Keep you in all your ways. He who stumbles in nothing is guarded in all his ways. (Interpretation of the Psalms)
St. John Chrysostom
Verses 11-12, for He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone
Thus, he who runs to God becomes a son of God; such is the meaning of these words. The devil applied this expression to Christ when, tempting Him, he suggested that He throw Himself down from above. Note how the devil also says that God commands not one angel, but many to guard all the ways of him who runs to Him, to take him up in their arms, i.e. to carry him. Thus, angels not only protect, but also guide believers, so that they do not stumble. Thus God commanded that the higher powers should serve the abiding below because of the dignity of the image with which the latter is clothed. Understand also by angels God-bearing men who have a vision of God, guard and guide us in all our ways, i.e. in life, so that we do not stumble over a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. And that God has appointed for us as angels those who have come to know Him and proclaim Him, listen to what Malachi says: “The lips of the priest must keep knowledge, and men must seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 2:7). (Homily on Psalm 90)
St. Luke of Crimea
Verses 11-13 For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the asp and the basilisk, and trample the lion and the serpent
A guardian angel will always be before you, and not just him – a whole host of angels will receive an order from God to protect you in all your ways. They will take you by the hands, will lead you along the right path, will take care that your foot does not stumble even on a stone. (About the 90th Psalm)
St. Isidore of Pelusium
Verses 11-12 as He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you ever dash your foot against a stone
On the words: He will give His angels charge over you
These words: He will give His angels charge over you; they will bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone (vv. 11, 12) – these were said about a righteous man and were misunderstood by the devil. He either, having understood them, wanted to draw a bad conclusion, or he understood them badly. Christ made this very clear and brief when He said: It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God (Matt. 4:7). For God promised help to him who is in danger, and not to him who tempts; to him who is in need, and not to him who does everything for show and catches empty glory. I do not say that this was said by the Hymnographer not about me (the Angels also have need of me), but about a righteous man. (Letters. Book III)
Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus
as He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways
He also said this in the thirty-third psalm: “The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and He will deliver them” (Ps. 33:8). We have heard that the patriarch Jacob says: “The angel who delivers me from all evils” (Gen. 48:16). And the great Abraham, in encouragement to the servant, said: God “will send His angel before You, and You will take a wife for my son Isaac from there” (Gen. 24:7). Therefore, from all this we learn that the God of all through the angels protects those who trust in Him. Euthymius Zigaben
as He will give His Angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways
These words are similar to those spoken by the same David in the 33rd Psalm: The Angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and He will deliver them. And Abraham, encouraging the servant of his house when he sent him to Mesopotamia, said: The Lord God will send His Angel before you (Gen. 24:7); Jacob also says: The Angel who delivers me from all evils (Gen. 48:16). From this we conclude that God through Angels protects those who trust in Him. Further, he calls the actions of man ways. Note that, according to St. Cyril, the Arians, hearing that the devil spoke these verses to Christ when he tempted Him on the mountain, apply to Christ also the above-mentioned, that is, these words: You have made the Most High your refuge. But they apply them badly, following in this the father of lies, Satan, thinking to prove that the Son is not equal to the Father in everything. For if in their opinion this is so, and we have made Christ our hope, who has the Father as his refuge; then we have fled to him who himself receives help, and call him Savior who himself receives salvation from another. But this is not at all true. For the Most High is both Son and Father, and He is his refuge, the hope of all. Satan spoke these verses to our universal Savior Christ, as to an ordinary man: being darkness, he did not understand the power of these words, that in this psalm these words are spoken on behalf of every righteous person who receives help from the Most High God and that it is necessary to understand that this is said by the Spirit to every righteous person, that you have made the Most High your refuge; evil will not come to you and so on.
Archbishop Irenaeus (Klementyevsky)
as if he had given his angels a charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways:
The Prophet added these words with the intention of helping our weakness. From where we see how mercifully God condescends to us, when He not only forgives our weak faith, but also grants assistance. If His majesty frightens us, He likens Himself to a kokoshi; if the power of the enemies makes us tremble, He opposes them with His invincible power and overthrows all opposing forces; if a multitude of misfortunes surround us, He comes with His help, with His consolation. And when, even after using so many means, He does not draw us to Himself, but sees us still sluggish and not hastening to Him quickly, as if we were not satisfied with Him, He adds the Guardian Angels of life and commands them to care not only for all of us in general, but especially for each one, as in Psalm 33, in verse 8 it is said: The Angel of the Lord will encamp around them that fear Him (Ps. 33:8). But how the Angels act in preserving our life, we should not worry about that and curiously inquire; let us be satisfied only with the teaching of Paul, who says: Are not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that shall inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14)?
Following this, it follows: to keep you in all your ways. He puts the paths in the plural with the intention of more clearly depicting that wherever we go, Angels will precede us everywhere. And as the paths of this present life are many-sided, for they are divided sometimes into parts of age, sometimes into parts of years and different states: for this reason, he clearly mentions the guardianship of Angels, so that we know that in all these paths they precede us, when need requires us to go either to the right or to the left. (Interpretation of the Psalter, according to the Hebrew and Greek text)
Lopukhin A.P.
Verses 11-16, for He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone: you will tread on the asp and basilisk, and trample on the lion and the serpent. For he has trusted in Me, and I will deliver him, and I will cover him, because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him: I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and I will glorify him: with long life will I satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation
The Lord will protect His righteous man with miraculous power. He will send him a guardian angel, who will carry him through dangers as if in his arms. The asp and the basilisk (types of poisonous snakes, the basilisk is a spectacled snake) will not harm him; neither the lion nor the dragon (probably a boa constrictor or a boa) will harm him, since because the righteous man loves Me, the Lord will always hear him. The Lord will satisfy him with long life – not only will He not take his life prematurely, but will prolong it miraculously beyond its natural duration, which is what happened with Hezekiah. Since it was previously said about the miraculous protection of the righteous man by God, then by the length of days we can understand not the natural, ordinary duration of human life, but its miraculous extension.
In this psalm, the writer’s speech often changes: sometimes he speaks in general about the righteous man, sometimes he addresses him personally (verses 3-8), sometimes he unites with him in prayer before God.
This psalm is the final psalm of the 6th hour. Having instructed each believer in due presence at the liturgy with the previous two psalms of this hour, here the Church, with the words of this song, promises them for this the same reward from God that Hezekiah received for his faith in Him. He is also promised “the gift of salvation” (verse 16), received through the worthy acceptance of Christ in the Eucharist.
Archpriest Gregory Razumovsky
as He will give His angels commandment concerning you, to keep you in all your ways (See Interpretation of Psalm 90:10)
Archpriest Gregory Razumovsky
Verse 10-13 No evil shall come upon you, nor shall any wound come near your body: for He has given His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone: you will tread on the asp and the basilisk, and trample the lion and the serpent
Here in verse 10, instead of the words: your body, – it is necessary to read: your dwelling, as this place is corrected in the footnote in the new (since 1890) editions of the Bible and Psalter, in accordance with the translation from Hebrew, as well as Greek and the Vulgate (“dwelling, dwelling”, Greek, Latin tabernaculum), And again the prophet continues the speech about the Providence of God, patronizing a person who is completely devoted to Him, saying this: after you have chosen God as your refuge, no evil will come to you anymore, and no blow will reach your dwelling (dwelling) (and no wound will come near your body). And then he points out the direct, immediate reason for such salvation from disaster or threatening evil: God, in Whom you have placed all your hope, will send His angels and command them (His angels to command you) to guard you in all your deeds (to keep you in all your ways). They, these angels, by the command of God will take you, so to speak, into their arms and will support you, so that you do not stumble with your foot on a stone (lest you ever stumble your foot on a stone), i.e. so that you do not fall into temptation when some temptation is encountered on the path of moral life. In the word foot, says St. Athanasius of Alexandria, means “soul”, and in the word stone – “sin” [3, p. 304]. Verse 13, translated from Hebrew, reads: “You will tread on the lion and the asp, you will trample the young lion and the dragon.” The asp, the basilisk and the dragon, although unknown to us, are the most terrible snakes. Here is how they are described in the famous “Interpretation of the Psalms of Palladius, Bishop of Sarapul.” “The writer of chronicles calls the poison of the asp “incurable” (Deut. 32:33); in its ferocity it resists all “spells” (Ps. 57:5-6); no less terrible is the basilisk (spectacled snake): its fiery eyes have a dangerous effect on animals; its poison is deadly, and an animal bitten by it soon dies; in ancient times, the basilisk was a symbol of terrible, royal power due to its invincible power and, as it were, the power of life and death over other animals. The dragon (the boa constrictor, or the boa) is the largest of all serpents, up to 30 or 40 feet long (about 12 m. – Ed.), swallows people, bulls and oxen; by its terrible strength it represents the “devil” (Rev. 12:3-4). The strength of the lion is known.” The sayings of this verse, as well as the previous ones, express the idea that, being guarded by angels, you will repel the attacks of the most terrible enemies: you will safely and harmlessly tread on the asp and the basilisk, you will trample (overcome) the lion and the dragon. These animals, as the most terrible, serve as an image of inevitable danger or the worst enemies. Here the idea is figuratively expressed that for a person guarded by angels, nothing at all, even the most terrible, can be dangerous. (Explanation of the sacred book of psalms)
