Psalms — Ultimate Mario Star

Title & Source Summary

Episode: BEMA 385: Psalm 91
Hosts: Marty Solomon and Brent Billings, with guest Reed Dent
Focus: Psalm 91, with connections to Genesis 1:2, Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 32:10–11, Ruth 2:10–13, Isaiah 32:2, Matthew 4:5–7, Matthew 23:37, and 2 Corinthians 4:10

In this episode Reed leads a close reading of Psalm 91, which he calls “the ultimate Mario star Psalm.” It belongs to the “new orientation” group of psalms, where trust in God has been strengthened by having seen God act before. The hosts start by admitting their own cynical reactions to the psalm’s absolute promises of protection. They then go through the text in sections. They look at its mixed images: the soft wings of a mother bird next to the hard shield and fortress. They look at the two different Hebrew words for “dwelling” in verses 1 and 9, and at the warning against treating the psalm like an amulet or magic words. The discussion’s main point is Satan’s misuse of Psalm 91 in Jesus’ temptation. Jesus refuses to use the psalm as leverage. That refusal shows the psalm’s protection is relational and comes through death and resurrection, not a shield against all suffering. The episode ends by asking whether people who take refuge under God’s wings become shelter for others, as Boaz and Naomi did for Ruth.

Key Takeaways

• Psalm 91 is a psalm of rhetorical, unhedged confidence. Sometimes people need this kind of language to build up their courage, much like a “pump-up song.”
• Modern, critically trained readers tend to argue with the psalm’s absolute claims (“but really?”). Part of reading it well is knowing when to stop qualifying and let it lift you up.
• The psalm mixes metaphors on purpose. Soft, intimate images (feathers, wings) sit beside hard military ones (shield, fortress, rampart). God’s protection is both tender and impossible to break through.
• The psalm covers every kind of threat: natural (sun, plague), human (arrows, war), and wild animals (lion, cobra). It also covers every hour: night, day, darkness, midday.
• The promise is not that dangers stop existing. It is that you will not fear them and they will not ultimately reach you.
• Verse 1’s “dwells” literally means “sits,” a moment of resting. Verse 9’s “dwelling” (ma’on) means a settled home, the place you keep coming back to. The same word is used for God’s dwelling in the temple and for an animal’s den.
• The psalm is not an amulet or incantation. Saying “the Lord is my refuge” is paired with making the Most High your dwelling.
• Spiritual practices such as Sabbath are the “container” or vehicle for meeting God. They are not the refuge itself. The refuge is God’s faithfulness.
• God’s promises in verses 14–16 rest on a relationship (“because he loves me”), not on a transaction.
• In Matthew 4, Satan quotes Psalm 91 but leaves out “to guard you in all your ways.” Jesus refuses to turn the psalm into leverage.
• The real “Mario star” is not invulnerability. It is resurrection life, which carries you through death rather than keeping you from it.
• People who take refuge under God’s wings are called to become wings for others, especially outsiders, as Boaz and Naomi were for Ruth.

Main Concepts & Theories

1. Psalm 91 as a “New Orientation” Psalm

In the series introduction to the Psalms, the hosts grouped psalms by type. “New orientation” psalms express trust that has been renewed and strengthened: God can do anything, God will see me through, because I have seen God do it before. Reed calls Psalm 91 the clearest example of the type, comparing it to the invincibility star in a Mario video game.

2. Honest First Reactions: The “What About” and “But Really” Camps

Reed asks how each host first hears the psalm:

• Brent is in the “what about” camp. Verse 13 talks about trampling the serpent, but Genesis 3:15 says the serpent strikes back.
• Marty calls himself the “but really” camp. He describes himself as cynical and jaded and finds himself arguing with the psalm. He also admits there are times it does fire him up.
• Reed, a “liberal arts college trained critical thinker,” wants to qualify every “surely” and every “no harm.” He also knows there are moments when he needs to stop arguing and let the psalm “become a spirit” he carries into whatever he is facing.

The point is that both responses are legitimate. Wisdom means knowing which one a given moment calls for.

3. Voices in the Psalm

Reed points out several speakers:

1. Verse 1: A narrating voice that works like a prologue (“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High…”).
2. Verse 2: A first-person “I” voice, the one who trusts (“I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge…”). Some translations change it to “he,” but the Hebrew has “I.”
3. Verses 3–13: The narrating voice speaks back to the one who trusts (“Surely he will save you…”).
4. Verses 14–16: God speaks in the first person (“Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him…”). This answers and bookends the “I” of verse 2.

4. Mixed Metaphors: Feathers and Fortresses

Verses 1–4 mix images that don’t obviously go together:

Image	Type of Protection	Quality
Shelter / shadow	Shade from sun and the elements	Rest, relief
Feathers / wings	A mother bird covering her young	Intimate, soft, personal
Shield	A personal piece of armor	Personal defense
Rampart / buckler / wall	A small shield, or a fortress wall	Hard, impenetrable, possibly communal
Fortress / refuge	A military stronghold	Solid as rock

Key observations:

• God as the bird. The psalm promises rescue from the “fowler’s snare,” a bird-catcher’s trap, yet God is the bird. The worshipper is like a chick sheltering under the parent’s wing.
• “Dwells” means “sits.” Marty notes that the Hebrew word in verse 1 (yashav) means “to sit.” It pictures someone sitting under a mother bird’s wing, not setting up a fortified camp. The bird’s presence is the fortress.
• Refuge defined by who gives it. Marty puts it this way: there is practical refuge (walls), and there is refuge that comes “by nature of who is doing the shielding.” Psalm 91 is mostly about the second kind.
• The “rampart” word. The Hebrew word (sochērāh) appears only here in the Bible and has a feminine form. It seems to come from a root meaning “to go around” or “travel.” Related languages suggest “wall” or “tower,” and the NET Bible has a note on this. Scholars suspect a borrowed word. Brent notes that whether it means a small shield or a wall changes the picture from personal protection to protection for a whole community.
• Both/and. Reed says the softness of feathers (we make pillows from them) and the hardness of shields together give a full picture. God’s protection is intimate and also unbreakable.

5. Winged-God Imagery Elsewhere in Scripture

The image of God as a winged protector is familiar, but it appears in only a few well-known passages:

• Genesis 1:2: The Spirit “hovering” over the waters like a bird.
• Deuteronomy 32:10–11: God finds Israel in a “barren and howling waste,” shields them, guards them “as the apple of his eye,” and is “like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young.” Shielding and wings are mixed here too.
• Ruth 2:12: Boaz blesses Ruth as one who has come to take refuge “under [God’s] wings.”
• Matthew 23:37: Jesus laments over Jerusalem: “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”

6. Total Coverage: Every Threat, Every Hour (Verses 5–13)

Verses 5–13 are where the psalm goes “full Mario star.” Threats come from every direction:

• Time: terror of night, arrow by day, pestilence in darkness, plague at midday
• Kind: human violence (arrows), disease (pestilence, plague), mass death (a thousand and ten thousand falling), wild animals (lion, cobra, serpent)

Important nuance: The dangers don’t disappear. Verse 5 says “You will not fear.” Verses 7 and 10 say the danger “will not come near you.” The promise is about freedom from fear and about the danger not ultimately reaching you. It is not a promise that danger won’t exist.

Reed resists explaining the psalm away. People rightly use rhetoric to build courage, the way a baseball player has a walk-up song.

7. Two Kinds of Dwelling: Verse 1 vs. Verse 9

Brent notices that “dwelling” in verse 9 is a different Hebrew word from verse 1:

• Verse 1, yashav (“sit”): A temporary moment of sitting under shelter.
• Verse 9, ma’on (“habitation, dwelling place”): A settled home. Marty explains that this word is used of God’s dwelling in the temple (see Psalm 26:8). It is also used of a wild animal’s den, the place it returns to sleep each night. It is not mishkan, the tabernacle word, which you might expect.

Brent’s reading is that verse 1 describes momentary protection and verse 9 something lasting: “If you want the true star power, you’ve got to live in this.” God doesn’t need a home, but chose the temple as one. In the same way, believers are invited to make God the home they keep coming back to.

8. Not an Amulet

Reed cites Robert Alter’s commentary, which notes that some have described Psalm 91 as an amulet: words recited to gain, or at least feel, God’s protection. Reed warns against reading it that way:

• If verse 9 said only “If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge’… no harm will overtake you,” it could sound like a magic formula.
• The second half, “and you make the Most High your dwelling,” makes it about a relationship and a way of life, not a recitation.
• Reed recalls strands of American Christianity that treated scripture “like a mantra” to make God do something for you. Psalm 91 doesn’t support that.

9. What Does It Mean to “Make the Most High Your Dwelling”?

Reed asks: is it a feeling, spiritual practice, church attendance, or saying the right creed?

• Marty: Sabbath. Sabbath keeps rooting him in the truth that God’s grace, mercy, protection, and goodness are his home. The whole psalm is “screaming about rest”: setting down fears and anxieties because this is where you belong.
• Reed: following Jesus. Following Jesus as teacher, wherever he leads, is how we let ourselves be gathered under his wings. Matthew 23:37 shows that a person can refuse.
• Marty’s key qualification: “The practice is not the refuge.” Practices are containers or vehicles that put us in contact with God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness is the actual refuge and shield.
• Reed’s parallel: Getting the right interpretation of a text isn’t the goal either. Interpretation serves life with God. Sometimes you have to “just keep showing up” so that moments of deep closeness can happen.

10. “Because He Loves Me”: Relationship, Not Transaction (Verses 14–16)

God’s closing promises are rescue, protection, answering, presence in trouble, deliverance, honor, long life, satisfaction, and salvation. They are grounded in “because he loves me” and “he acknowledges my name.”

• A dangerous misreading: If I do favors for God (right creed, right church, right Friday-night activity), God will do favors for me.
• A better reading: obedience grows into affection. As Jesus commands his followers to love as he loved, practice that starts as “you’ve just got to do it” becomes real love over time.
• The promises don’t mean nothing bad will ever happen. In suffering there is a peace and closeness that cannot be shaken or touched, “even when the ten thousand are falling.”

11. The Temptation of Jesus: Psalm 91 Twisted and Rightly Understood

In Matthew 4:5–7, Satan takes Jesus to the top of the temple and quotes Psalm 91:11–12: “Throw yourself down… he will command his angels concerning you.”

• The omission (Brent): Satan quotes “he will command his angels concerning you” and “they will lift you up in their hands,” but leaves out “to guard you in all your ways.” Brent hears it as: we’re not going to think about your ways, because I’ve got a different way.
• Context ignored: The promise depends on loving God, acknowledging God’s name, and calling on God (verses 14–15). Satan cuts all of that relationship out.
• Temple connection (Marty): The scene ties together dwelling, temple, and protection. “It’s all there,” and Jesus “doesn’t get it twisted.”
• The real question (Reed): The temptation is about how the kingdom will come. Satan offers a Mario-star shortcut: no suffering, misunderstanding, persecution, or crucifixion, just be king now. Jesus refuses because “the way in which the kingdom comes and the essence of the kingdom are one and the same thing.” A kingdom built on self-giving love for friend and enemy cannot arrive by a route where nothing bad ever happens.
• Reading lens: Christians must always read Psalm 91 knowing that Jesus was crucified.

12. The True Mario Star: Resurrection

• Marty: The psalm isn’t a Mario star you pick up and use. It is “the game board on which it’s being played.” When there are no Mario stars, you trust that God’s goodness is underneath you. The pump-up quality matters most when you are walking the hard road of the kingdom. It is courage for walking God’s way, not leverage for doing things your own way.
• Reed: The Mario-star life isn’t Herod’s life of power. It is resurrected Jesus’ life. Paul speaks of carrying “the death of Jesus” in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:10). Because we have already given ourselves up, whatever touches us can’t reach the core, since we live with resurrection possibilities.
• Marty’s summary: “This isn’t the Mario star that keeps you from death. This is the Mario star… that carries you through it.”

13. From Refuge to Responsibility: Ruth and Boaz

In Ruth 2:10–13, Boaz blesses Ruth the Moabite, a foreigner, for coming to take refuge “under [God’s] wings.” In the story, though, the refuge comes through people: Boaz and Naomi.

Reed’s closing challenge: as we keep returning to dwell under God’s wings, do we grow wings of our own? When outsiders see us, do they see shade from the heat, protection from the plague, and shelter from enemies? Or do they see one more enemy?

• Privilege and responsibility: the comfort of protection comes with the call to be that protection for others.
• Marty: experience and response. Truth we receive changes us, and then we embody it.
• Isaiah 32:2: “Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.”

14. Closing Reflection: Did Jesus “Dwell” Before Answering?

Brent wonders whether Jesus answered Satan instantly, as Matthew 4 is usually read, or paused to “go sit in that shade” and dwell on Psalm 91 first. Reed and Brent conclude that he didn’t need to wait, because the psalm’s real meaning was already his way. Reed adds that the rhetoric of “God’s got us, who can be against us?” matters a great deal. Still, any promise that nothing bad can happen must be heard with caution by followers of a crucified Lord. Love for others “is going to cost you something.”

Examples & Applications

• The Mario star: A video-game power-up that makes the player briefly invincible. The hosts use it first to describe the psalm’s tone and then to reframe it: the real power-up is resurrection life, not avoiding harm.
• Walk-up songs in baseball: Players choose a song as they come to bat to build confidence. Psalm 91 can work this way when we need courage for a hard task.
• A child resting on a parent’s chest: Reed remembers resting his head on his mother’s shoulder and feeling comforted by the vibration of her voice, regardless of the words. It illustrates the closeness of being sheltered under wings.
• A hen and her chicks: Many chicks gathered under one wing show that God’s shelter is both personal and shared.
• An animal returning to its den: The meaning of ma’on suggests a rhythm of returning. Spiritual life means coming back to God as home each day, not visiting now and then.
• Sabbath as homecoming: Marty’s weekly Sabbath is a practical way of “making the Most High your dwelling,” a regular reminder that God’s goodness is home.
• Amulet faith in practice: Treating a verse as a charm, such as reciting Psalm 91 before travel to guarantee safety, is the misuse the hosts warn about. A healthier use is praying it as an expression of trust while accepting that hardship may still come.
• Being “wings” in a community: Welcoming refugees, immigrants, newcomers, or people pushed to the margins, as Boaz welcomed Ruth, puts the psalm’s refuge into a form others can experience.
• Reading scripture against a twisted use: Watch for selective quoting, like Satan dropping “to guard you in all your ways.” Always read a verse in its full context.

Potential Areas for Further Exploration

1. The psalm types: Revisit the orientation, disorientation, and new orientation framework (associated with Walter Brueggemann) and compare Psalm 91 with other new-orientation psalms.
2. Hebrew words for dwelling: Study yashav (sit), shakan / mishkan (dwell, tabernacle), and ma’on (habitation) across the Hebrew Bible, especially Psalm 26:8, Psalm 90:1, and Deuteronomy 26:15.
3. The word sochērāh: Look into this word that appears only in Psalm 91:4, its feminine form, its possible origin in other languages, and how translations differ (rampart, buckler, wall).
4. Winged-God imagery: Trace Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11, Ruth 2:12, Psalms 17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 61:4, and 63:7, Malachi 4:2, and Matthew 23:37.
5. The temptation narratives: Compare Matthew 4:1–11 and Luke 4:1–13. Look at the order of temptations and how each one asks how the kingdom will come.
6. Robert Alter’s commentary on Psalms: Read Alter’s notes on Psalm 91, including its reading as an amulet, and the history of the psalm being used for protection in Jewish and Christian practice.
7. Ruth and covenant kindness: Explore how Ruth shows hesed (covenant loyalty and kindness) and how “under his wings” in 2:12 comes back in 3:9, where Ruth asks Boaz to spread his “wing” (the corner of his garment) over her.
8. Isaiah 32 and righteous leaders as shelter: Study the passage Marty has taught before and how it pictures people as shelter for one another.
9. Paul’s theology of suffering: Read 2 Corinthians 4:7–18 alongside Psalm 91 to see how invincibility language becomes resurrection hope.
10. Sabbath as spiritual formation: Explore the theology and practice of Sabbath as the home that roots a person’s identity in God.

Comprehension Questions

1. How do the soft images in Psalm 91:1–4 (feathers, wings, shadow) differ from the hard images (shield, fortress, rampart)? What does the combination suggest about how God protects?
2. Explain the difference between the Hebrew words for “dwell” in verse 1 (yashav) and “dwelling” in verse 9 (ma’on). How does that difference shape what it means to make the Most High your refuge?
3. Why do the hosts reject reading Psalm 91 as an amulet or incantation? What part of verse 9 guards against that reading?
4. What phrase does Satan leave out when he quotes Psalm 91 in Matthew 4? Why does it matter for understanding both the psalm and Jesus’ refusal?
5. How does the story of Ruth and Boaz change the idea of “taking refuge under God’s wings” from something we receive into a responsibility toward others?

Personalized Summary

This episode treats Psalm 91 as worth both trusting and questioning. The hosts admit their cynicism about its absolute promises, then show how a careful reading changes the picture. The psalm doesn’t promise that danger will disappear. It promises that fear loses its hold and that danger cannot ultimately reach the person who has made God their home. “Sitting” under God’s wing grows into “dwelling” there, coming back again and again the way an animal returns to its den or God chose the temple. Practices like Sabbath help, but they are only the container. The refuge is God’s faithfulness, given “because he loves me.” Jesus’ temptation is the key to reading the psalm. Satan offered the psalm as an invincibility shortcut that skipped the cross, and Jesus refused, because the kingdom comes only through self-giving love. The real Mario star, then, is resurrection: it carries you through death rather than sparing you from it. Finally, people who have found shelter under God’s wings are invited to offer that shelter to others, as Boaz and Naomi did for Ruth, so that outsiders find shade, rest, and refuge in them.