Standing Untouched, as Thousands Fall Victims

“A thousand will fall at your very side and ten thousand at your right hand; to you it will not come near.”​—Ps. 91:7.

1. In likening Jehovah to a mighty bird, how did the psalmist have God’s point of view as expressed through Moses?

WHEN the inspired writer of Psalm 91 likened Jehovah God to a bird mighty of wing, he had God’s own point of view. After God brought the people of Israel to Mount Sinai, he told Moses to say to them: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, that I might carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself.” (Ex. 19:4) Forty years later He inspired Moses to sing before Israel: “Just as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its fledglings, spreads out its wings, takes them, carries them on its pinions, Jehovah alone kept leading him, and there was no foreign god along with him.”​—Deut. 32:11, 12.

2, 3. (a) How is comparison between God and a mighty bird made in connection with his heavenly “woman” in Revelation, chapter twelve? (b) So, as we now read Psalm 91:4, what bird can we have in mind?

² According to the prophetic picture of Revelation 12:6, 14, after God’s heavenly “woman” gave birth to the Messianic kingdom and had to flee into the “wilderness” for isolation, God gave her the means of swift flight: “The two wings of the great eagle were given the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent.” What a fine comparison is thus drawn between Jehovah God and the “great eagle,” the king of the birds, the lord of the skies, the monarch of the air!

³ We can have this royal bird in mind, then, as we next read the inspired words of Psalm 91:4: “With his pinions he will block approach to you, and under his wings you will take refuge. His trueness will be a large shield and bulwark.”

4. (a) What are the pinions of a bird, and what can a parent bird do with them? (b) Whose approach to us is blocked by God’s outspread “pinions” over us?

⁴ The “pinions” are the terminal segments of a bird’s wings, and under them a bird can cover and protect its young close to its body. Thus the bird can keep away all predators from its young. We, too, like helpless fledglings, can take cover under the outspread pinions of the protective symbolic bird, Jehovah God, and there we can rejoice in our spiritual security. It is just as the psalmist David said to Jehovah: “All those taking refuge in you will rejoice; to time indefinite they will cry out joyfully. And you will block approach to them, and those loving your name will exult in you.” (Ps. 5: superscription, 1, 11) Being blocked from getting near us, those desiring to do us spiritual harm cannot do so. They cannot snatch us away from God’s organization. The great “birdcatcher,” Satan the Devil, is kept at a distance.

5. Where is the only safe refuge from Satan’s organization, and how was this beautifully illustrated in the case of Ruth?

⁵ Like endangered birdlings, we have no other place to flee to for safety but the Almighty God. “And under his wings you will take refuge.” (Ps. 91:4) Since there are just the two organizations, God’s and Satan’s, this finding safe refuge from Satan’s organization requires us to be brought into God’s organization of spiritual security. How beautifully this was illustrated in the case of the Moabitess Ruth, who forsook the false gods of Moab, and went with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi to Israel! In appreciation, Boaz, who later became Ruth’s husband, said to her: “May Jehovah reward the way you act, and may there come to be a perfect wage for you from Jehovah the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” (Ruth 2:12) As a reward to her, Jehovah chose Ruth as wife of Boaz, to contribute to the ancestry of Jesus Christ.​—Matt. 1:5-25.

6. Besides under Jehovah’s “wings,” under the “wings” of whom do Jehovah’s worshipers find spiritual security at the same time?

⁶ Jesus Christ himself drew upon the resemblance of a bird and its young, when he said to Jerusalem that rejected him as the Messiah: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it.” (Matt. 23:37) The book of Lamentations (4:20) speaks of Jehovah’s Anointed One or Messiah as “the very breath of our nostrils, the anointed one of Jehovah, . . . the one of whom we have said: ‘In his shade we shall live among the nations.’” So, today, the spiritual Israelites and their earthly companions who take refuge under the “wings” of Jehovah do, at the same time, take protective cover under Jehovah’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, like chicks under a hen’s wings. The refuge they seek there for spiritual security does not fail them.

THE REASON FOR FREEDOM FROM FEAR OF SPIRITUAL HARM

7, 8. What quality of Jehovah is like a large shield to us, and how does it characterize Him?

⁷ In giving a further description of protection for spiritual security, the psalmist now turns from the bird world to the world of warfare. Referring further to the Most High God, the psalmist adds: “His trueness will be a large shield and bulwark.”​—Ps. 91:4.

⁸ God’s trueness is associated with his loving-kindness. (Ps. 40:10, 11; 57:3; 61:7; 86:15) He recognizes his obligation to be true to those who worship him and trust in him. This characterizes His throne. (Prov. 20:28) He always proves true to his promise to us. He proves true to his name Jehovah and becomes what he needs to become in our behalf. This quality of His serves for our spiritual protection. It is like a large shield to us, and He becomes like a shield bearer to us. His trueness is demonstrated in faithful, loyal action in our behalf. Thus it shields us.

9. How does Jehovah’s trueness serve as a “large shield,” and what, on our part, must go along with it?

⁹ This shield of divine trueness stops the fiery darts or burning missiles of the Great Adversary and also wards off the blows or absorbs the thrust of the enemy sword. We can depend upon God’s protective trueness. We must depend upon it, have faith in it. It goes along with our faith, which also should be like the “large shield” in the “complete suit of armor” that God supplies to us. (Eph. 6:11-16) Our faith in “his” (God’s) shieldlike trueness will free us of fear.​—Gen. 15:1; Ps. 84:11.

10. What kind of wartime utility is a bulwark, and how is God’s trueness like one to us?

¹⁰ A bulwark is a much larger protection than a shield. In warfare it is a defensive mound that is thrown up around a position that is to be held. To the enemy advancing over the ground, it says: “So far you may come but no farther!” Jehovah’s trueness is like that. His trueness is very necessary in this time, which is described in Revelation as the time when the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, wages war against the remnant of the “seed” of God’s heavenly “woman.” Behind the bulwark of God’s trueness we can stand firm and beat back the onrush and assault of our spiritual enemies. This divine bulwark is untakable, insurmountable; so let us stay behind it. According to God’s trueness, loyalty and faithfulness, he will never desert us in this day of spiritual battle. His “bulwark” assures us of Victory!

11. The spirit of what command is the motivation for what the psalmist now logically says in Psalm 91:5, 6?

¹¹ The spirit of the divine command, “Fear not!” is the motivation of the psalmist as he logically goes on to say: “You will not be afraid of anything dreadful by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in the gloom, nor of the destruction that despoils at midday.”​—Ps. 91:5, 6.

12. What adds terror to the blackness of the night, and what about Jehovah at night removes fear of nighttime dreadful things?

¹² The blackness of night tends to add to the dread one feels in a dangerous neighborhood or in a time of danger, for in the darkness we cannot see any lurking enemy or harmful objects. But though we are in the period of moral darkness and spiritual thick gloom of the earthly national groups, Jehovah never gets drowsy and falls asleep as a guardian of his people. (Isa. 60:2; Ps. 121:4) So he is never unaware of wicked things that His enemies try to do secretly as under cover of darkness. The covert dreadful or dread-inspiring things by which the enemy tries to damage and destroy our spirituality are not to be feared. With strong confidence we can take up David’s words in Psalm 64:1, 2: “Hear, O God, my voice in my concern. From the dreadfulness of the enemy may you safeguard my life. May you conceal me from the confidential talk of evildoers, from the tumult of practicers of hurtfulness.”

13. Though we feel no dread, what must we do while trusting in God?

¹³ We can be sure that the dreadful things schemed by the enemies under cover in confidential talk of theirs will fail of their objective when suddenly launched. Though we do not fear such things from concealed sources, never should we be off our guard as we keep continually trusting in the God of trueness.

14. Why is it that we do not fear the “arrow that flies by day”?

¹⁴ However, there are also dangers by day when we can see menacing things. Though we expect and are aware of such things, we should not be paralyzed with fear. In this time of spiritual warfare, “you will not be afraid of anything dreadful by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.” (Ps. 91:5) Why is this? It is because we are behind the “large shield” of Jehovah’s trueness, loyalty, faithfulness, that can make of no effect the flying enemy arrows. Daytime is the period for the aiming of arrows accurately.

15. What are the ‘arrows’ that fly by day, and who are the bowmen?

¹⁵ In the spiritual warfare waged against us, these ‘arrows’ are unwarranted verbal attacks, false accusations, lying propaganda, malicious slanders, gross misrepresentations, violent intimidating threats, misapplications of law in legal courts, yes, the framing of mischief by law, the ‘framing of trouble by decree’ against the innocent! (Ps. 94:20) The anointed David, in Psalm 64:3-5, describes the enemy bowmen as those “who have sharpened their tongue just like a sword, who have aimed their arrow, bitter speech, to shoot from concealed places at someone blameless. All of a sudden they shoot at him and do not fear. They hold themselves down to bad speech; they make statements about hiding traps. They have said: ‘Who sees them [the traps]?’”

16. Despite such enemy ‘arrows,’ how have Jehovah’s witnesses fared behind His “large shield”?

¹⁶ Despite all such figurative ‘arrows’ that have flown by day since the year 1919 against Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, they have not ceased in their worship of the one living and true God or in the proclaiming of the good news of his Messianic kingdom world wide. It has been as Jehovah has said to those now belonging to his organization: “Any weapon whatever that will be formed against you will have no success, and any tongue at all that will rise up against you in the judgment you will condemn.” (Isa. 54:17) Fearless of the enemy ‘arrows,’ Jehovah’s witnesses have carried on behind Jehovah’s “large shield,” and the enemy bowmen have proved to be falsifiers, whereas Jehovah’s worshipers have been vindicated and keep spiritually alive.

17, 18. The “pestilence that walks in the gloom” has what source, is meant particularly for whom, and is not permitted to be cured among whom by what means?

¹⁷ Again the psalmist contrasts the darkness and the light and the dangers associated with each, for he says: “You will not be afraid . . . of the pestilence that walks in the gloom, nor of the destruction that despoils at midday.”​—Ps. 91:5, 6.

¹⁸ The “pestilence” here mentioned, like that of Ps 91 verse three, is not a pestilence that is sent by Jehovah upon his earthly enemies, or upon those disobedient to Him. It is a worldly pestilence that is bred in the morally, religiously diseased world amid its gloom. It is meant to infect and lay low not only worldlings, but particularly Jehovah’s worshipers. It haunts the moral, social, political, religious “gloom” of this world in its nighttime of impending doom, and the people of the world do not let the pestilence-laden gloom be dispelled by the “sun of righteousness” that has “healing in its wings,” its curative beams. (Mal. 4:2) Moreover, we are told in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that “the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.”

19, 20. What is the “pestilence” here mentioned, and what conduces to its spread?

¹⁹ The resulting gloom conduces to the spread of the figurative “pestilence.” Adding to the terrors of the gloom, this pestilence strikes in the dark, that is, during the state of affairs when the minds and hearts of the people are bedarkened as regards the true God and his personality, his purpose and his loving provisions. So under these circumstances the pestilence produces a deadly diseased condition of mind and heart in those infected. (1 Tim. 6:4) It is apparent, then, that the figurative “pestilence” consists of the demon-inspired moral and religious doctrines that come through human agencies from what Ephesians 6:12 calls “the world rulers of this darkness, . . . the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.”

²⁰ That these spiritually diseased demon angels would insinuate their unhealthful teachings among professed Christians, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “In later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons, by the hypocrisy of men who speak lies.”​—1 Tim. 4:1, 2.

21. How far has this gloom-infesting “pestilence” spread?

²¹ True to prophecy, this pestilence of demon-inspired moral and religious teachings, including man-made traditions contrary to the Bible, has spread beyond pagandom all through Christendom. Thus the churchgoing people of Christendom have been infected and reduced to their sick religious condition, endangering their salvation. But God has enlightened us against pestilence-breeding “gloom.”

22. As regards “the destruction that despoils at midday,” what may we reasonably understand it to be like?

²² What, though, about “the destruction that despoils at midday,” of which the true Christians behind the “large shield” of God’s “trueness” are not afraid? Midday, the brightest part of a sunny day, is directly opposite to the gloom of night. (Job 11:17) Yet there is a ‘despoiling,’ a “destruction,” that accompanies the brightness and heat of this “midday.” It runs parallel with the “arrow that flies by day.” The “destruction” here is not described as anything visible or tangible, yet it despoils like despoilers who make an attack at midday. (Jer. 6:4; 15:8; 20:16) It may reasonably be understood to be a highly contagious, epidemical scourge that lays low many victims, despoiling them of life.

23. What is the “midday” here meant, and what is the “destruction that despoils” during it?

²³ The “midday” here is meant in a worldly sense. The brilliant light is the so-called “enlightenment” of the world’s Brain Age, its nuclear age, its space age. Its doctrines and propaganda boast of human intellectualism and are materialistic. Those yielding to such indoctrination suffer destruction spiritually, because it is against God’s Word, his worship, his Messianic kingdom. So it is pestilential, and many become confused and lose faith because of the “contradictions of the falsely called ‘knowledge.’” (1 Tim. 6:20, 21) In the end the victims suffer the bitterness of disappointment, frustration. The world today is eating the bitter fruitage of its falling for human intellectualism. The brightly shining scientists and political, educational, social philosophers have only increased the ‘heat’ upon worldly society. With their godless doctrine they have polluted the mental and moral atmosphere in which modern society lives.

24. When was that “destruction that despoils at midday” especially exposed, and what spiritual enlightenment was set in contrast with it?

²⁴ The spiritually deadly “destruction that despoils at midday” was especially exposed by the “fourth plague” described in Revelation 16:8, 9. The bowlful of this “plague” began to be emptied out upon the “sun” of human intellectualism in 1925, at the Indianapolis (Indiana) convention of Jehovah’s witnesses that summer. That same year the birth of God’s Messianic kingdom and the ousting of Satan and his demons from heaven were explained from the prophetic description given in Revelation 12:1-13. Thus the life-giving spiritual enlightenment of Jehovah’s worshipers was set in contrast with the modernistic worldly-wise enlightenment of those despoiled of spiritual life by the “destruction” at their midday.

SPIRITUAL SURVIVAL AMID THREATENING DANGERS

25, 26. Who are the “thousand” that “fall at your very side,” and in what sense do they fall, and why?

²⁵ The afore-described threats to spiritual life are things of which those who are “in the secret place of the Most High” and “under the very shadow of the Almighty One” are not afraid. Faith-inspiring assurance is now given by the psalmist in his next words addressed to these as a class: “A thousand will fall at your very side and ten thousand at your right hand; to you it will not come near.”​—Ps. 91:7.

²⁶ Those spoken of as being at the “very side” of these dedicated worshipers of Jehovah God would be the people of Christendom and Jewry who profess to worship the God of the Holy Bible. They “fall” in spiritual death because they are not in Jehovah’s place of spiritual security. Hence, they are exposed to the spiritually death-dealing things described by the psalmist, the dreadful thing of earth’s night, the flying arrow of the day, the gloom-infesting pestilence, the “destruction that despoils at midday.” They have not really made God their strong “refuge.”

27. Who are the “ten thousand” that fall “at your right hand”?

²⁷ As if a thousand to one were not a big enough contrast, the psalmist says that those falling will be “ten thousand at your right hand.” As in the case of the Almighty God, the “right hand” is pictorial of the hand and side that is the stronger. (Ps. 98:1) So those to whom we have had to offer the stronger spiritual resistance because of their greater religious strength fall victim because they are not proof against worldliness, modernism, antireligious propaganda, popular theology and demon-inspired religious doctrines and practices. They are not immunized by the help of God’s spirit.

28. How has it literally become true that ten thousand have fallen at the right side of the anointed remnant, and whom has God raised up to be companions to the remnant?

²⁸ Today, when we contrast the reported number of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel, around ten thousand, with the thousands of millions of members of religious Babylon the Great, we can see it to be literally true that ten thousand have fallen at the right hand of this remnant of the “seed” of God’s “woman.” (Rev. 12:17) But in place of those tens of thousands that have fallen in spiritual death at the right hand of this remnant, Jehovah God has raised up a “great crowd” of sheeplike believers who have dedicated their lives to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ the Fine Shepherd. (Rev. 7:9-17; John 10:16; Matt. 25:31-46) Jehovah has been raising these up as companions of the remnant notably since the year 1935. Today they number into the hundreds of thousands, so that Jehovah’s Christian witnesses now number close onto two million who proclaim God’s kingdom.

29. To whom has the destructive, faith-ruining agency from worldly sources not come near, but to whom has it done so?

²⁹ To those who have fallen spiritually the destructive, faith-ruining agency from worldly sources has come near. But to those standing in God’s place of spiritual security, “to you it will not come near.” Since the postwar year of 1919 C.E., the remnant have accepted the spiritual healing provided by the Great Physician, Jehovah God. (Ps. 103:1-3) But not so Christendom, as foretold in Isaiah 6:9-12; Matthew 13:14, 15. Consequently, Christendom’s more than a thousand million members succumb to the spiritually ruinous influences and pressures of this disease-ridden world. But God has immunized his remnant and the “great crowd” of their Christian companions. To their place of spiritual immunity God does not let the worldly contagion draw near. Their obediently staying in God’s “secret place” keeps them safe, well.

30, 31. (a) Those “in the secret place of the Most High” are looking on and seeing the timely retribution of whom? (b) How and why has retribution come upon such ones?

³⁰ After many years now of trustfully dwelling “in the secret place of the Most High,” the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel and, latterly, the “great crowd” of their fellow witnesses have observed the truthfulness of what the inspired psalmist next says: “Only with your eyes will you look on and see the retribution itself of the wicked ones.”​—Ps. 91:8.

³¹ It is evident that here the Most High God does not class those in His “secret place” with the “wicked,” who are outside and who are part of this wicked world. Now especially, toward the end of this doomed system of things, those who have been indulging in the ways of this wicked world are eating the fruitage of their course as a retribution. Due requital is coming upon the worldlings as their problems multiply in political, commercial, moral, social and religious affairs. As they sowed, they are reaping. Modern society, which has become very permissive of the so-called “new morality,” the “sex revolution,” cannot immunize the sex perverts from “receiving in themselves the full recompense, which was due for their error.”​—Rom. 1:27; Luke 21:25, 26.

32. Already before the “great tribulation,” those in the “secret place” are seeing the difference, as regards consequences, between whom?

³² The worldly-wise are falling victims to their own schemes. Those who have rejected the wisdom of God’s Word and left themselves open to Satan’s machinations have become the dupes of “every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved.” (2 Thess. 2:9, 10) Already, before the approaching “great tribulation,” Jehovah’s safeguarded ones are looking on and seeing with their eyes the difference, as regards consequences, “between a righteous one and a wicked one, between one serving God and one who has not served him.”​—Mal. 3:18.

Benefits and Rewards from Being Spiritually Secure

1. Who are the ones that are secure from the dangers of the drifting world?

MATERIALISTIC, physical security of mankind is breaking down, but spiritual security is proving a safeguard against the moral, social, political and religious dangers of this drifting world. The spiritually secure are those who put the spiritual things set out in God’s Holy Word first in their lives. They know that God will take care of all other needs.

2, 3. How have the remnant and the “great crowd” really made Jehovah their “refuge”?

² As regards our giving God the predominant place in our lives the inspired writer of Psalm 91 goes on to give us a sense of security by saying: “Because you said: ‘Jehovah is my refuge,’ you have made the Most High himself your dwelling; no calamity will befall you, and not even a plague will draw near to your tent.”​—Ps. 91:9, 10.

³ What a wonderful thought, this making of the Most High God “your dwelling”! This is because of not only saying to Jehovah, “You are my refuge,” but also really making Him the place where we seek our haven for safety. Fearlessly, in open public, the anointed remnant of the spiritual Israel of God have declared Jehovah to be their refuge, especially from the year 1925 onward. The recently appearing “great crowd” that have joined the remnant in worshiping Jehovah as God have imitated the remnant in declaring and making Him their refuge, and hence their “dwelling.”

4. These two groups have been united in their course of action in behalf of what outstanding issue?

⁴ Unitedly these two groups have proclaimed the Most High, Jehovah, to be the Universal Sovereign. In the now-raging issue between God’s rulership of the whole earth and human rulership, they have taken their stand for Jehovah’s sovereignty. They continuously announce world wide that God’s Messianic kingdom in the hands of his Son Jesus Christ is the only hope for distressed humanity. In Jehovah they dwell as the only Source of all security. Their eternal interests for now and the future are secure in Him!

5. What is the kind of calamity that does not befall those who make God their life’s refuge?

⁵ For this wicked world, the calamities are mounting, not only in political and economic affairs, but far more hurtfully in moral, social and religious matters. But those making the one living and true God, Jehovah, their life’s refuge, “no calamity will befall you.” That is to say, none of the calamities described in the preceding verses of Psalm 91. Of course, they may share with the general public in large-scale natural calamities such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, epidemics, food shortages, the ravages of international and intertribal wars and political revolutions, but these do not destroy their spirituality or weaken their faith and trust in Almighty God. And they can recover materially and physically from those earthly calamities.

6. Why is spiritual calamity more serious, and who are those who suffer therefrom?

⁶ Spiritual calamity, however, is different. From it there is no recovery, as in the case of religious Christendom and Jewry. These religious groups are, just like pagandom, not spiritually prosperous. They continue in their sick, diseased religious state, with destructive calamity ahead of them in the coming “great tribulation.” (Matt. 24:21, 22; Rev. 7:14) Calamity is ahead for all not taking refuge in Jehovah and dwelling in him.

7. (a) What are the figurative “plagues” that infect the citylike world? (b) In what course does safety lie for us who are like tenting alien residents?

⁷ Those trustfully dwelling in the Most High God are pictured as alien residents, dwelling in tents in this present system of things, outside city limits. (1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:8-10) To these as a class the divine promise is: “And not even a plague will draw near to your tent.” (Ps. 91:10) Among the spiritually harmful “plagues” that now infest the citylike world are such contagious things as nationalism, fanatical patriotism, the teaching of evolution as a fact, selfish materialism, drug abuse, the blood transfusion craze, spiritistic practices, the modern “new sexual morality,” the love of pleasures rather than love of God, religious sectarianism, “Higher Criticism” of the Bible, worship of the “sacred cow” of science, also the worship of the political “wild beast” and worship of its postwar “image,” the United Nations, successor to the League of Nations. (Rev. 9:20, 21; 13:1-18) Only as those making Jehovah their refuge keep their “tent” pitched far away from the “city” of this world will they keep free from the contagion of its many “plagues.” So let us keep our distance, as being no part of this world.​—John 17:14-16; compare Hebrews 11:9, 10.

ANGELIC PROTECTION AGAINST FALLING VICTIM

8. What do we need rather than merely human guidance, and is it available to us?

⁸ As we walk about in this world of spiritual dangers, we need more than human guidance that our ways may be pleasing to God. Such superhuman guidance is assured to us, “for,” as the psalmist adds, “he will give his own angels a command concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.”​—Ps. 91:11.

9. This reminds us of what promise to fleshly Israel, and of what ministry rendered to Jesus, and of what assurance with reference to his childlike followers?

⁹ This promise reminds us that, through the prophet Moses, God said to the nation of fleshly Israel: “Here I am sending an angel ahead of you to keep you on the road and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. For my angel will go ahead of you and will indeed bring you.” (Ex. 23:20, 23; 32:34; 33:2) Also, after God’s Son, Jesus Christ, turned back three temptations presented to him in the wilderness of Judea, one of which involved Psalm 91:11, 12, “the Devil left him, and, look! angels came and began to minister to him.” (Matt. 4:1-11) With reference to his childlike followers, Jesus said: “Their angels in heaven always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 18:10) These heavenly angels are now under divine command with respect to the remnant of spiritual Israelites and their loyal companions.

10. The assignment of angels to “guard you in all your ways” applies to what “ways”?

¹⁰ The assignment of these angels to “guard you in all your ways” would apply to the “ways” that Jehovah’s worshipers take that are in harmony with His revealed Word and that are therefore under His approval and guidance. His angels would not go along with the “remnant” and the “great crowd” of their companions in ways that are otherwise​—selfish, self-willed.​—Matt. 13:41, 42.

11. How did Jesus’ prophecy on the “conclusion of the system of things” and of the messenger flying in midheaven indicate angelic involvement with his followers on earth?

¹¹ Jesus’ own prophecy on the “sign of [his] presence and of the conclusion of the system of things” plainly foretold that in behalf of the gathering of the chosen members of spiritual Israel he would send forth his angels. Also, when he came to separate the people of the nations like sheep and goats, the angels would be with him. (Matt. 24:3, 31; 25:31, 32; Rev. 7:1-8) The last book of the Bible, the Revelation as given through Jesus to the apostle John, definitely reveals that the heavenly angels would be involved with the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel in their earthly activities during this “conclusion of the system of things.” For instance, in the fulfillment of John’s vision of the angel that flew in midheaven with the everlasting good news to declare to all earth’s inhabitants, angelic guidance and guardianship are indicated in behalf of Jehovah’s worshipers who do that work on earth. (Rev. 14:6, 7) But more than that:

12. According to the Revelation, when the remnant of that time began pouring out the “seven last plagues,” why must they have had angelic guidance and guardianship?

¹² When the “seven last plagues” began to be poured out during the years 1922-1928 C.E., through the anointed “remnant” at that time, there must have been angelic guidance and guardianship. Logically so, for Revelation, chapters 15-17, reveals that the “bowls” or “vials” that were full of the wrath of God were held and maneuvered by heavenly angels who received these vessels at God’s hands. By proceeding thus in God’s ways of service Jehovah’s worshipers are assured of angelic guardianship.​—Ps. 34:7; Heb. 1:13, 14.

13. What do Satan’s earthly agents place in the path of those walking in Jehovah’s “ways,” and what does Psalm 91:12 say of this?

¹³ The “ways” that we, as worshipers of Jehovah God, take lie amid this worldly system of things of which Satan the Devil is “the god.” (2 Cor. 4:4) Hence, it might be expected that the earthly agents of this false god would place in our path figurative stones for Jehovah’s worshipers to trip over to a disastrous fall. But with reference to such causes for stumbling the psalmist speaks further about Jehovah’s angels, saying: “Upon their hands they will carry you, that you may not strike your foot against any stone.”​—Ps. 91:12.

14. In the first century of our Common Era, what proved to be “a stone to strike against” for the nation of fleshly Israel, and why?

¹⁴ This means that these heavenly angels will sustain us, support us, so that we are not affected by such a “stone.” Back in the first century of our Common Era the apostate Israelites, “both the houses of Israel,” did not have such angelic assistance against stumbling into spiritual ruin. They stumbled over Jehovah’s true Messiah, Jesus Christ, who was to them “a stone to strike against” and “a rock over which to stumble,” as foretold in Isaiah 8:14. (1 Pet. 2:7, 8) Their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah has hurt the circumcised Jewish people spiritually to this very day. However, this is not the “stone” spoken of in Psalm 91:12.

15. How is the “stone” of Psalm 91:12 different, and how can this be illustrated?

¹⁵ This “stone” is something from Jehovah’s Great Adversary, Satan the Devil; and so if one accepts what this “stone” is, one falls out of favor with God. This is unlike the Messianic “stone” of the first century, which, if accepted by the Jewish nation, would serve for their continued favor with God. But back there the nationalistic Jews followed false Messiahs not from God. Looking forward also to our time, Jesus Christ warned his disciples against false Messiahs or Christs in this “conclusion of the system of things.” (Matt. 24:3, 5, 23-26) True to prediction, these “false Christs” have risen up, not particularly in the form of individual men, but in political and economic systems to whom Messianic powers have been ascribed and through which Messianic blessings were expected. For example, as when Nikita Khrushchev promised that Russian Communism of his brand would establish paradise for the people. And how could we ever forget that, in December of 1918, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America hailed the proposed League of Nations as “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth”?

16. Thanks to the angels, what are some of the ‘stones’ against which Jehovah’s witnesses have not struck the foot to a fall?

¹⁶ Faithfully Jehovah’s angels have ‘carried His worshipers upon their hands’ so that they have not struck their foot against “any stone” of that kind and fallen out of his favor. When, in November of 1939, they came out publicly in adherence to Christian “neutrality” toward all worldly controversies, this fortified them in their already chosen course of refusal of military conscription, in peacetime as well as wartime. Dictators in political government rose up after World War I, such as Adolf Hitler who aimed at reestablishing the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation for a thousand years. But Jehovah’s Christian witnesses never yielded to such dictators as taking the place of Jehovah’s true Messiah, Jesus Christ. In times of test regarding the supremacy of the law of the Most High God, they have taken up the words of Christ’s apostles and have said to politicians, judges and police: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) Thanks to Jehovah’s angels, not even “any stone” like bans and proscriptions against them and their preaching of God’s kingdom has caused His worshipers to stumble and fall.

SECURE AGAINST OPEN AND SECRET ATTACKS

17. As to kind of language, how does Psalm 91:13 resemble Luke 10:19?

¹⁷ Near the end of the year 32 C.E., Jesus Christ sent out seventy disciples as evangelizers of God’s Messianic kingdom. Evidently speaking in symbolic language to them, he said: “Look! I have given you the authority to trample underfoot serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will by any means do you hurt.” (Luke 10:19) Similarly, in a symbolic sense, the psalmist now says to the class that has made Jehovah its dwelling: “Upon the young lion and the cobra you will tread; you will trample down the maned young lion and the big snake.”​—Ps. 91:13.

18. How, figuratively, has the “young lion” been trodden down?

¹⁸ The young lion makes an open, frontal attack, exposing itself. So, too, powerful political states have resorted to legislative action that names the victim. They have openly passed laws aimed at Jehovah’s witnesses. Or they have applied nationalistic laws against these. With what purpose? To devour them, to assimilate them, to make them religiously subservient to the State, making them a national religious institution, torn apart from the worldwide body of Jehovah’s witnesses that is ruled from God down. Loyal witnesses of Jehovah have turned down such a totalitarian, State-controlled arrangement. Theocratically they have held firmly to God’s Rule!

19. How, figuratively, has “the cobra” been trodden down?

¹⁹ Unlike the young lion, the cobra strikes in the dark from a place of concealment. It is dangerous, like a “serpent by the roadside,” to which the tribe of Dan was compared and which “bites the heels of the horse.” (Gen. 49:16, 17) Venomous, unsuspected attacks like those of the cobra have been made upon the intentionally victimized witnesses of Jehovah as they carry on their public work of proclaiming God’s kingdom from house to house, even in lands where State religions hold power. Hiding behind the State as executioner for them, clergymen of Christendom have made covert attacks upon Jehovah’s witnesses through the politicians, the lawmakers, the police authorities and the judges of law courts. (Ps. 94:20) But as respects Jehovah’s witnesses, they have not been paralyzed with fear by the venom of the unfair attacks. They have remained law abiding and have peacefully applied to the law courts for their constitutional rights, appealing to the Bill of Rights granted by the State. To the highest courts of the land they have carried their legal fight for establishing and defending by law freedom of religion and the right to preach God’s kingdom. (Phil. 1:7, 16) Victory has often crowned their efforts!

20. Despite bans upon their Bible literature, how have the Witnesses still made disciples?

²⁰ Whether the enemies used open, frontal attacks or covert, underhanded ones, they have been trodden down by the onward-marching witnesses of the Most High God. When their literature has been banned they have kept pressing forward in their Scriptural work of making disciples of Christ by using just the Bible alone in their witnessing work. Disciples have resulted!​—Matt. 28:19, 20.

21. How do Jehovah’s worshipers trample down the symbolic “maned young lion”?

²¹ The psalmist heightens the intensity of the figures of speech when, in a parallelism, he speaks of trampling down “the maned young lion and the big snake.” The maned young lion should be older and also fiercer-looking than just the young lion; and the big snake would be a monstrous reptile, which the Greek Septuagint Version of the Psalms calls a “dragon.” However, no matter how impressive-looking, how fierce-looking the symbolic maned young lion may be when making his open, frontal attack, Jehovah’s worshipers trample this dangerous attacker down. They walk right on, obeying the Most High God as Sovereign Ruler rather than lionlike men or lionlike man-made organizations. They render to lionlike Caesar only what belongs to Caesar and in no way holding back anything that belongs to God, giving to him all the things belonging to Him. (Acts 5:29; Matt. 22:21) So they are not spiritually hurt by the menacing action of the “lion.”

22. How do Jehovah’s worshipers trample down the symbolic “big snake”?

²² The dragonlike “big snake” reminds us of the father of the “seed” of the serpent, Satan the Devil, “the original serpent.” (Gen. 3:15; Rev. 12:9) The psalmist here pictures him, not as a “sea monster,” but as a land monster, a reptile of unusual size, long enough to get its coils around a human to crush him and swallow him. (Jer. 51:34) So if Jehovah’s worshipers discern that Satan the Devil, by means of his monstrous world organization, is trying to wrap his coils around them and crush them with worldly pressures and swallow them down into his demon-controlled organization, they shake themselves loose and trample down this “big snake.” They avoid and resist all forms of spiritism, thus not permitting the demons subtly to take control of their mind and will. (Luke 10:17) For one thing, the anointed remnant of joint heirs of Christ must do this if they desire to share in the fulfillment of Romans 16:20, having Satan crushed under their feet shortly. They must take positive steps against this fiery-red “dragon” now and keep him always underfoot.​—1 Pet. 5:8.

LOVING GOD AND KNOWING HIS NAME

23. What does God say in Psalm 91:14 with regard to those who love Him for what he is?

²³ Satan the Devil denies that human creatures can love God the Creator just for what He is. But the Most High God appreciates the true love of even earthly creatures of His. How God expresses his appreciation the psalmist shows, when he now represents God as speaking and saying with regard to His loving worshipers as a class: “Because on me he has set his affection, I shall also provide him with escape. I shall protect him because he has come to know my name.”​—Ps. 91:14.

24. So, rather than for just finding spiritual security, why have His worshipers taken refuge in him?

²⁴ The worshipers of the one living and true God have set their affection upon him because he is the highest personification of love. They have cleaved or clung to him affectionately, with their hearts simply going out to him spontaneously. They are commanded to love him, but they love him because he first loved them and expressed this love through his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. (Deut. 7:7; 10:15; Mark 12:29, 30; 1 John 4:19) So it is not merely a matter of finding spiritual security that they have taken refuge in Him.

25. From what has Jehovah provided escape for his worshipers, and what about the future?

²⁵ In responsive affection toward them, God the Almighty One has provided his worshipers with escape from being religious captives to this world and, yes, from being exterminated. In testimony of this, his true worshipers exist today in this most perilous time and are increasing in number. His ability to provide escape in the future cases of need is still as great as ever!

26. What is the point that is made by Jehovah’s saying: “I shall protect him because he has come to know my name”?

²⁶ Never will those who worship the Most High God with spirit and truth be wiped off the face of the earth. Otherwise, his name would be expunged from the earth. This is the point in his saying with respect to the company of his worshipers: “I shall protect him because he has come to know my name.”​—Ps. 91:14.

27. In 1925, attention began to be focused upon what, this resulting in what Watch Tower article of January 1, 1926?

²⁷ From the year 1925 C.E. onward the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel took note that the Scriptures indicated that the time had come for God to make a name for himself world wide. (Jer. 32:20; Isa. 63:12) This focused attention upon God’s personal name, Jehovah. So right at the start of the following year, readers of The Watch Tower were confronted with the challenging question, “Who Will Honor Jehovah?” this being the title of the leading article published in the magazine issue of January 1, 1926.

28. In 1928, to show that Jehovah’s worshipers had “come to know” His name, what did they do at the I.B.S.A. convention in Detroit?

²⁸ Less than three years later, showing that they had “come to know” the divine name, the International Bible Students Association, in international convention assembled in Detroit, Michigan, in the summer of 1928, adopted with loud acclaim “A Declaration Against Satan and for Jehovah.” This proclamation as reproduced in print was then circulated around the globe in tens of millions of copies. In that marked year of 1928 there were 44,000 Bible Students reporting for field service to take care of that distribution. Still later, to cap the climax, what?

29, 30. (a) To announce the divine name still further, what was done with the front-page legend of The Watch Tower in 1939? (b) Has Jehovah made a name for himself, and, if so, then by whom?

²⁹ On Sunday afternoon, July 26, 1931, at the international convention of the I.B.S.A. in Columbus, Ohio, there came the heartfelt adoption of the Resolution in favor of embracing the New Name, Jehovah’s witnesses. Thereafter this Resolution was adopted by congregations around the world that thenceforth identified their religious organization as Jehovah’s witnesses. To advertise the divine name still further, on March 1, 1939, some months before World War II broke out, the official magazine of the Witnesses came forth with the new legend, “The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.” And now, as the critical year of 1975 enters, it may well be asked: Has the Most High God of prophecy made a name for himself? The answer is self-evident, Yes! By whom? Not by Christendom or by Jewry, but by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses!

³⁰ Truly, Jehovah’s protecting his worshipers because they have “come to know my name” has meant protecting his own name and having a means for declaring his name “in all the earth.”​—Rom. 9:17; Ex. 9:16.

31. In whose name are they determined to walk, and upon what name to call for aid?

³¹ The decision of these Christian witnesses of Jehovah now is that of Micah 4:5: “All the peoples, for their part, will walk each one in the name of its god; but we, for our part, shall walk in the name of Jehovah our God to time indefinite, even forever.” Upon His name they will continue to call for aid, with full confidence in what he next says, in Psalm 91:15: “He will call upon me, and I shall answer him. I shall be with him in distress. I shall rescue him and glorify him.”

RESCUE AND GLORIFICATION

32. How does Jehovah show that he has not renounced as His witnesses those who call upon him, and how will he yet show this?

³² Because of the world’s mounting hostility against them and because of Satan the Dragon’s unceasing war against them, Jehovah’s worshipers have already passed through much distress. But, true to his word, Jehovah has ever been with them, never renouncing them as His witnesses. In the tremendous distress yet ahead of them, as this wicked world comes to its end in utter destruction, Jehovah will be with his worshipers and miraculously make this known! Rather than let them be ingloriously destroyed by all their enemies visible and invisible, Jehovah says: “I shall rescue him and glorify him,” or, “bring him to honour.”​—New English Bible.

33, 34. After they are rescued, in what way is it that Jehovah’s worshipers are glorified by Him?

³³ The glorification here promised does not necessarily mean the glorification of the members of the anointed remnant of spiritual Israel in heaven with the reigning King Jesus Christ. This will come in Jehovah’s due time, after a promised “length of days.”

³⁴ But already He has made brilliant rescues of his worshipers on earth, and this has brought spiritual glory to them, to the honor of His name. After such divine rescues, they have been privileged to glory over their enemies, who are also His enemies. To this day they have been honored with further service on earth as His witnesses and proclaimers of His invincible Messianic kingdom. Of course, during the world’s coming “great tribulation” and its culmination in the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon, there will come Jehovah’s greatest, most remarkable rescue of them. Hence, they will survive that world-destroying “great tribulation” and share the glory of the winning side of that War of all wars! They will be honored with entrance into God’s new order for this earth.

35. Thus they live on to enjoy what glory on earth, and what on God’s part makes this possible for them?

³⁵ Thus they shall live on to enjoy the glory of being those whom the Most High God rescues as he wars victoriously for the vindication of his universal sovereignty and the sanctification of his worthy name. (Rev. 16:14, 16; Ezek. 38:23; Ps. 83:18) His salvation of them will make this possible for them. By his psalmist, Jehovah says, in concluding this exquisite psalm: “With length of days I shall satisfy him, and I shall cause him to see salvation by me.”​—Ps. 91:16.

36. When was the prospect of surviving God’s “war” at Har–Magedon opened to the view of the remnant, and to what point may they be satisfied with “length of days” on earth?

³⁶ Only from the end of the year 1928 was the prospect opened up to the spiritual understanding of the anointed remnant of the “Israel of God” to survive the “war of the great day of God the Almighty” at Har–Magedon and enter here on earth into Jehovah’s righteous new order. (See The Watch Tower under date of December 15, 1928, page 376, paragraphs 35, 36.) And now, as the year 1975 opens up, some thousands of the anointed remnant, still alive on this earth, look ahead to realizing that joyful prospect. The increasing “great crowd” of their sheeplike companions look forward with them to entering the New Order without interruption of life. In the New Order Jehovah God will add to the “length of days” of the anointed remnant on earth to the point of satisfying the members thereof. It remains to be seen whether they will be yet retained here on earth to see the start of the resurrection of the earthly dead and to meet faithful witnesses of ancient, pre-Christian times. They would enjoy that, before being taken off the earthly scene to the heavenly reward with Christ.

37. With what “length of days” will it be possible for the members of the “great crowd” to be satisfied?

³⁷ Those of the “great crowd,” remaining faithful to the Universal Sovereign Jehovah God clear through the decisive test after the end of Christ’s thousand-year reign over mankind, will be satisfied with “length of days” to life eternal, life without end in the earthly “Paradise of Pleasure” under Jehovah’s universal sovereignty. O how rewarding is the worship of Jehovah!

38. If anyone “dwelling in the secret place” dies in faithfulness before the end of God’s war at Har–Magedon and the abyssing of Satan, why will this in no way disprove the all-importance of the spiritual security?

³⁸ Do we now appreciate, do we sincerely desire, the spiritual security that Jehovah God furnishes? Is not this kind of security all-important if we want to be safeguarded for the glorious rewards that He has in store for all his faithful worshipers? All those who trustfully remain in Jehovah’s place of spiritual security, “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High,” will be caused “to see salvation by me,” by Jehovah. (Ps. 91:16) This will hold true, even if one’s days in faithfulness are cut short in death before the righteous New Order is actually ushered in after Jehovah’s “war” at Har–Magedon and the imprisoning of Satan and his demons in the abyss. (Rev. 20:1-6) The Almighty God can still provide salvation from a death in faithfulness by the promised resurrection of the dead. Those who leave the divine place of spiritual security will never get through the coming “great tribulation” with God’s approval and see salvation by Him!

39. What pleasure should we want Jehovah to have in the case of each one of us, and how can we let Him have it?

³⁹ Jehovah will take pleasure in causing us to see salvation by Him and through Jesus Christ his Son. May we lovingly let Him have this divine pleasure in the case of each one of us. We can do so by remaining worthily in the “secret place” of spiritual security that he has provided for His faithful worshipers.​—Prov. 21:31; Rev. 7:9-17.