Psalm 91 referred to by its Latin title Qui habitat (after its first line, "Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High"), is known as the Psalm of Protection. As a religious song, this Psalm is commonly invoked in times of hardship. The author of this psalm is unknown.

Judaism

• Is recited during the Pesukei Dezimra on Shabbat
  Shabbat
  Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
  
  , Yom Tov, and Hoshana Rabbah.
• Is recited following Motzei Shabbat
  Motzei Shabbat
  The term Motzei Shabbat in Judaism refers to the time in the evening immediately following Shabbat, that is Saturday night. It is a time when, following one's declaration of the intention to end Shabbat, it is permissible to resume weekday activities that are prohibited on Shabbat...
  
   Maariv
  Maariv
  Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
  
  .
• Is recited before bed.
• Is read seven times during a burial ceremony.

Western Christianity

In Western Christianity

Western Christianity

Western Christianity is a term used to include the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church and groups historically derivative thereof, including the churches of the Anglican and Protestant traditions, which share common attributes that can be traced back to their medieval heritage...

 it is often sung or recited during services of Compline

Compline

Compline is the final church service of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours. The English word Compline is derived from the Latin completorium, as Compline is the completion of the working day. The word was first used in this sense about the beginning of the 6th century by St...

.
In the Revised Common Lectionary

Revised Common Lectionary

The Revised Common Lectionary is a lectionary of readings or pericopes from the Bible for use in Christian worship, making provision for the liturgical year with its pattern of observances of festivals and seasons. Its first version was known as the Common Lectionary, assembled in 1983. It was...

 (Year C)
the psalm is appointed for the first Sunday in Lent, linking it to the Gospel of Luke

Gospel of Luke

The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...

, chapter 4, the temptation of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

 in the wilderness, where the devil quotes this psalm.

In the medieval Western Church it was included in the readings for Good Friday

Good Friday

Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...

.

Eastern Orthodoxy

In Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 it is used in the prayers of the Sixth Hour

Canonical hours

Canonical hours are divisions of time which serve as increments between the prescribed prayers of the daily round. A Book of Hours contains such a set of prayers....

.

Christ treading on the beasts

Verse 13, in the King James Version "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet" was the origin of the iconography

Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

 of Christ treading on the beasts

Christ treading on the beasts

Christ treading on the beasts is a subject found in Late Antique and Early Medieval art, though it is never common. It is a variant of the "Christ in Triumph" subject of the resurrected Christ, and shows a standing Christ with his feet on animals, often holding a cross-staff which may have a...

, seen in the Late Antique period, and revived in Carolingian

Carolingian art

Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about AD 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of...

 and Anglo-Saxon art

Anglo-Saxon art

Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of a large Anglo-Saxon nation-state whose...

.

Musical Settings

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

 composed a setting of two verses of Psalm 91 for his oratorio "Elijah

Elijah (oratorio)

Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....

".

Michael Joncas

Michael Joncas

Jan Michael Joncas is a priest, liturgical theologian, and composer of contemporary Catholic music. Joncas's most popular song is "On Eagles' Wings." He received an MA in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame in 1978 and went on to study at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. He was...

 loosely based his song On Eagles' Wings

On Eagles' Wings

On Eagles' Wings is a devotional song composed by Michael Joncas, a minister, in 1979 after Vatican Council II, when the Catholic Church began using vernacular hymns at Mass. Its words are loosely based on Psalm 91 and Isaiah 40:31. The song was then published by North American Liturgy Resources...

on Psalm 91.

Popular culture

• Sinéad O'Connor
  Sinéad O'Connor
  Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
  
  's debut album The Lion and the Cobra
  The Lion and the Cobra
  The Lion and the Cobra is the 1987 debut album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor, age 20 at the time, recorded the album while heavily pregnant with her first child....
  
  includes a recitation of verses 11 to 13 in Irish
  Irish language
  Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
  
   by singer Enya
  Enya
  Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...
  
   on the song "Never Get Old".
• Canadian metal band Cryptopsy
  Cryptopsy
  Cryptopsy is a Canadian technical death metal band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 1988. The band has sold over 300,000 records.-Necrosis :...
  
   quotes this psalm in the song "The Pestilence That Walketh in Darkness" on their 2005 album Once Was Not
  Once Was Not
  Once Was Not is the fifth album by Cryptopsy.Unlike previous albums, where Lord Worm's lyrical content consisted of gore, blasphemy, and sex, his lyrics on Once Was Not dealt with more realistic topics that affect the human race, such as war, famine, plague, and death.A video was filmed for the...
  
  .
• Tommie Harris
  Tommie Harris
  Tommie Harris, Jr. is an American football defensive tackle for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at Oklahoma.Harris has also been a member of the Indianapolis Colts...
  
   writes PSALMS 91 on his Breathe Right nose strip.
• Psalm 91 is known as the Soldier's Psalm. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines often carry a wallet-sized copy with them when deployed.

External links

• Tehillim - Psalm 91 (Judaica Press) translation with Rashi
  Rashi
  Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
  
  's commentary at Chabad.org
  Chabad.org
  Chabad.org is the flagship website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. It serves not just its own members but Jews worldwide in general. It was one of the first Jewish internet sites and the first and largest virtual congregation.-History:...
  
  
• Text of Psalm 91 according to the 1928 Psalter
• Bible.org on the religious significance of the text