Psalm 90 v 10 - Under God's protection

Simon Marmion (Flemish, active 1450 - 1489) - The Beast Acheron
Ms 30, Getty Museum

Non accédet ad te malum: et flagéllum non appropinquábit tabernáculo tuo.

There shall no evil come to you: nor shall the scourge come near your dwelling.

Looking at the Latin

The key vocabulary is:

accedo, cessi, cessum, ere 3 to come to, approach, draw nigh

malus, a, um, adj., bad, evil, wicked; grievous, sore, severe; subst., malum, i, n., evil, sin; woe, harm, misfortune. 

flagellum, i, n. scourge, whip; a plague, affliction.

appropinquo, avi, atum, are , to draw near, approach

tabernaculum, i, n. a tent, pavilion, tabernacle

A word by word translation therefore runs:

Non (not) accédet (he will approach) ad (to) te (you) malum (substantive: evil/harm): et (and) flagéllum (scourge/plague) non (not) appropinquábit (it will approach) tabernáculo (to the tent) tuo (your).

The Douay-Rheims translates the verse as: ‘There shall no evil come to you: nor shall the scourge come near your dwelling’.  

The verse can be seen as a continuation of the response of the second choir started in the second half of the previous verse, viz ‘You have made the most High your refuge’ so that, ‘No evil shall befall thee: nor any plague come near thy dwelling'.

Tabernaculum

The substitution of 'dwelling' for 'tent', though common to pretty much all of the English translations, loses I think, some important nuances.  

First, as Dom Britt pointed out in his commentary on the psalm, it is a possible allusion to the protection the Israelites enjoyed from the plagues inflicted on Egypt at the time of the Exodus.  The Hebrew Masoretic Text is certainly more explicit than the Septuagint-Vulgate text tradition in suggesting that the evil being protected from is a plague, and St Jerome’s version from the Hebrew made this more explicit by using the word ‘lepra’ instead of flagellum in the second phrase, while the Pian translation used ‘plaga’.

The tabernacle of God

The verse can also be seen, though, as an allusion to the tabernacle of the Lord, that travelled with the Israelites, and signifying the presence of heaven on earth.

St Augustine took up this idea, seeing it as an allusion to the Church as the city of God, to which we are guided both by the Gospels and the example of Christ: 

The Holy City is not the Church of this country only, but of the whole world as well: not that of this age only, but from Abel himself down to those who shall to the end be born and believe in Christ, the whole assembly of the Saints, belonging to one city; which city is Christ's body, of which Christ is the Head. There, too, dwell the Angels, who are our fellow citizens: we toil, because we are as yet pilgrims: while they within that city are awaiting our arrival. 

Letters have reached us too from that city, apart from which we are wandering: those letters are the Scriptures, which exhort us to live well. Why do I speak of letters only? 

The King himself descended, and became a path to us in our wanderings: that walking in Him, we may neither stray, nor faint nor fall among robbers, nor be caught in the snares that are set near our path...

Reconciling the scourges of life and God's protection

This verse deals with the benefits that come to those who make God their refuge, continuing the thought from the previous verse.  But how can we reconcile the promise of freedom from evil (sin),  scourges or plague (punishment) with what we actually experience?

St Cassiodorus explained the seeming contradiction by applying it to Christ:

Here is powerfully recounted the blessed state of the humanity He assumed; for he says that though the Lord endured both taunts and scourges from the Jews in this world, no evil could approach His dwelling, that is, His holy body. He spoke rightly, for the scourge is divine vengeance, which is wont to restrain human crimes. As we read elsewhere: Many are the scourges of sinners." 

So the scourge is said with the greatest truth not to have visited Him, for He was known to live a spotless life; the scourge mentioned here is that which punishes sins and exacts vengeance for wicked deeds, so by mention of the scourge, there is a denial that sin drew near to the Lord Christ...

St Robert Bellarmine, however, suggests two more direct lines of response for our consideration.  The first is that while even those who trust in God can fall into sin, and suffer punishments in this life, such events are ultimately providential for us, in that God brings good out of the evil resulting in an increase in our sanctity, as it did in the case of the great penitent saints like King David himself, St Mary Magdalene and St Peter:

…their very sins will tend to their improvement, making them more humble and caution and more inflamed by the love of God, in proportion to extent they are indebted to his grace and mercy.

The second line of response is that the promise relates to our future life in heaven, not this fleeting one.

Psalm 90: Qui habitat 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Laus cantici David.	The praise of a canticle for David
Qui hábitat in adjutório Altíssimi, * in protectióne Dei cæli commorábitur.	He that dwells in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.
2  Dicet Dómino : Suscéptor meus es tu, et refúgium meum: * Deus meus sperábo in eum.	He shall say to the Lord: You are my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
3 Quóniam ipse liberávit me de láqueo venántium, * et a verbo áspero.	For he has delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
4  Scápulis suis obumbrábit tibi: * et sub pennis ejus sperábis.	He will overshadow you with his shoulders: and under his wings you shall trust.
5  Scuto circúmdabit te véritas ejus: * non timébis a timóre noctúrno.	His truth shall compass you with a shield: you shall not be afraid of the terror of the night.
6  A sagítta volánte in die, a negótio perambulánte in ténebris: * ab incúrsu et dæmónio meridiáno.	Of the arrow that flies in the day, of the business that walks about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
7  Cadent a látere tuo mille, et decem míllia a dextris tuis: * ad te autem non appropinquábit.	A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand: but it shall not come near you.
8  Verúmtamen óculis tuis considerábis: * et retributiónem peccatórum vidébis.	But you shall consider with your eyes: and shall see the reward of the wicked.
9  Quóniam tu es, Dómine, spes mea: * Altíssimum posuísti refúgium tuum.	Because you, O Lord, are my hope: you have made the most High your refuge.
10  Non accédet ad te malum: * et flagéllum non appropinquábit tabernáculo tuo.	There shall no evil come to you: nor shall the scourge come near your dwelling.
11  Quóniam Angelis suis mandávit de te: * ut custódiant te in ómnibus viis tuis.	For he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you in all your ways.
12  In mánibus portábunt te: * ne forte offéndas ad lápidem pedem tuum.	In their hands they shall bear you up: lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13  Super áspidem et basilíscum ambulábis: * et conculcábis leónem et dracónem.	You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon.
14  Quóniam in me sperávit, liberábo eum: * prótegam eum quóniam cognóvit nomen meum.	Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he has known my name.
15  Clamábit ad me, et ego exáudiam eum : * cum ipso sum in tribulatióne : erípiam eum et glorificábo eum.	He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
16  Longitúdine diérum replébo eum: * et osténdam illi salutáre meum.	I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation.

For the next part in this series, go here.