Bible verses about protection

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Moses to Israel at the Red Sea, with the army behind them and the water ahead. The instruction is to stand still, which is the hardest thing to do when you are afraid.

For You have been my refuge, a tower of strength against the enemy.

David, praying from far away and feeling it. A tower is not a wall; it is a place to be, and that is how he describes God here.

For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

The verse the devil quoted to Jesus in the wilderness, which is a reminder that it is a promise of care, not a license for recklessness. Angels under orders, on your account.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them.

The heading places this after David escaped a foreign king by pretending to be mad. The picture is a camp pitched all the way around, so that no side is left open.

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forevermore.

A pilgrim song, sung on the road up to Jerusalem, where the hills rise on every side of the city. The mountains are the picture; the LORD surrounding His people is the point.

Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings

David asks for two things at once: to be treasured like the pupil of an eye and covered like a chick under a wing. The line runs straight on into the next verse, so it ends without a full stop, and it still stands alone well.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

One line from the book of wisdom. The righteous do not build the tower or defend it; they run to it, and the running is the whole of their part.

But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

Paul had just asked the church to pray for his own protection. He turns the request around: whatever happens to him, the Lord is faithful to them.

Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

From the sayings of Agur, a writer we know almost nothing about. Two claims in one breath: God's words hold, and He shields the people who trust them.

But You, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.

Written, the heading says, when David fled from his son Absalom. A shield around him and a hand under his chin: protection and dignity, from a man who had just lost his throne.

The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul. The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

The end of a pilgrim song for the road. Coming and going covers every journey, and now and forevermore covers every day, which is why it is so often said at a doorway.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

David's song after he was delivered from Saul. Seven pictures of safety in one verse, stacked, as if no single one of them were enough.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

The psalm has no named author, and few passages have been read aloud in more sickrooms. The first two verses set the terms: a place to live, and a decision to say it out loud.