By Jeremy Bell
I am going to share my personal study on Psalm 91 using groupings from my motif analysis. I have taken these groupings of the Psalm and put them together. So, the entirety of the Psalm will be posted, but these groupings will present the text in a different order. You can get the full highlighted pattern in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization.
Daniel Giraud Elliot lived from 1835 to 1915 and was an American zoologist. Zoology is basically the study of animals and their environments. Daniel published many books on birds and was the first curator of zoology at the Field Museum in Chicago. One day he shot a tundra swan and later reported that once it was wounded, it began a long glide down to the Earth. During this journey, the swan sang a series of “plaintive and musical” notes that “sounded at times like the soft running of the notes of an octave”. We now phrase this as a swan song.
Swan Song
The idea of swans singing a last song before they die was written in the 1300’s by Geoffrey Chaucer, penned in notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, and even theatrically performed in the plays of William Shakespeare. But 1928 marked the first time a scientist would record the lament of the bird. Since then, the phrase “swan song” has only become solidified in legend. In a metaphorical sense, “swan song” refers to the final work of a creative artist, especially when produced shortly before death, or more generally to any final performance or accomplishment.
Orlando Gibbons wrote the following in his madrigal, “The Silver Swan”:
‘The silver Swan, who living had no Note,
when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
thus sang her first and last, and sang no more:
“Farewell, all joys! O Death, come close mine eyes!
“More Geese than Swans now live, more Fools than Wise.”’
The Artist and Death
Music and death have been connected for thousands of years. Until recent human history, sickness to death was viewed as punishment from the divine. Music was used to calm and help people heal as well as to appeal to the divine for mercy and relief. Death is no joke, and the word bittersweet is one of many tidy ways authors attempt to briefly encapsulate it. Today, we celebrate the artist many times by revering their swan song.
We often apply this to individuals now. When people age, they often consider their legacy, they talk about their desired eulogy to help better construct a history of their lives before they die. We are hopeful our swan song will tell our desired memorable tale to those left. It is generally a nice thing to think that our lives matter and that the world will be a lonelier place without us. We certainly feel that way about those we loved who have died.
The Bible spends less time romanticizing sickness and death and rather recognizes it as a hard truth that should cause us to consider God in what should be the most dramatic and incredible consideration of our lives. In my motif analysis, I have found four distinct groupings in Psalm 91. I see this as two verses with a bridge, but here, I will group all the similar motifs together to demonstrate patterns. Remember to go back and read this Psalm as is for proper understanding. Remember it is a song, written for the congregation, a song of hope through hardship.
[ Psalm 91 ]
Here is grouping A
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of Yahweh, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.”
Because you have made Yahweh your refuge,
and the Most High your dwelling place,
no evil shall happen to you,
neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
Here is grouping B
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler,
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers.
Under his wings you will take refuge.
His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
For he will put his angels in charge of you,
to guard you in all your ways.
They will bear you up in their hands,
so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.
Here is grouping C
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
nor of the arrow that flies by day,
nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
and ten thousand at your right hand;
but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes,
and see the recompense of the wicked.
You will tread on the lion and cobra.
You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.
And now for grouping D, which is also the bridge of the song.
“Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him.
I will set him on high, because he has known my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him, and honor him.
I will satisfy him with long life,
and show him my salvation.”
Everyone is born with a swan song of some sort in their future because everyone will die. We hope it is the kind of song that will be remembered in a positive way. The reality is that in this life, that song is quickly forgotten and in fact, usually a random song of our lives since we don’t know the day of our death. Swans sing when mating, eating, fighting, and any time they want. They also sing when they’ve been shot and are dying. We weep over loss and celebrate a person for a time with the best memories we can conjure up. And then, we forget, living as if we’ll be different.
Death and Life
Psalm 91 reminds us that for those who belong to God, there is no real swan song. There are songs of endurance, trust, faith, and love that will help us change into the character God wants to see in His people, but these all culminate into perfect hope and eventual dropping away of all sickness and death. God will deliver from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover us with his feathers. His faithfulness is a shield and rampart. We will not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that wastes at noonday.
It doesn’t mean that for every sickness we’ll be instantly healed or for every trial we will be raptured to the best outcome for our personal needs. It means that we will be rescued from the ultimate conclusion of those things, death and eternal separation from God who is and who distributes love and goodness. When we are His in Jesus, He gives us the seal of His Holy Spirit to live inside of us. When Christians go through the same trials as everyone else, we hurt too, but we have the eternal life assurance from God’s spirit that He has promised rescue, deliverance, and salvation. These are birth pains, not swan songs. The swan song is a poetic view of a natural life. To exchange the swan song for a song of labor pains, that is a song written in truth in the Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Truth Basics for Christian Living with Strategic Options.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.