Updated on September 13, 2026

Prayer for Protection

Q: Does Psalm 91 guarantee nothing bad will happen?

No. Satan quoted it to Jesus as a dare, and Jesus refused to treat it as a guarantee. It is a promise of God's presence and care, prayed by people who still got sick and died. That does not make it empty; it makes it honest.

Q: Can I pray for protection for someone far away?

Distance is the whole point of this prayer. You cannot be with them; God can. Paul prayed constantly for churches he had not seen in years.

Q: What should I pray before a journey?

Psalm 121 was written for travellers and ends with going out and coming in. Read it at the door, add the names of who is travelling and where, and that is the whole prayer.

For your family, a journey, or a danger you can see coming

This is the prayer at the front door before a trip, over a child's bed, or on a night when the news is bad and the house feels thin. Psalm 91 was written for exactly this, by someone who knew about arrows and plague and still called God a shelter. Pray it whole, or say only the line that fits the moment.

The prayer

Lord, I am asking you to keep safe the people I love. I cannot be everywhere they are, I cannot see what is coming down the road towards them, and tonight that frightens me. You can see it. You are already there.

Put your protection around this home and around everyone who leaves it today: on the roads, at school, at work, wherever they go. Guard them from accident, from harm, from anyone who means them ill. Bring them back through the door.

And guard my heart from the fear that would keep me up all night. Remind me that you do not sleep, so that I can. Make me wise where I can act, and calm where I cannot.

You are my refuge and my fortress. I trust them to you. Amen.

In one breath

Lord, keep the people I love safe today, on every road and in every room, and let me sleep because you do not. Amen.

Verses to hold on to

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psalms 91:1-2The opening of the psalm people have prayed for protection for three thousand years, in plagues and wars and ordinary nights.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Psalms 121:7-8A travel blessing, going out and coming in, from the psalm pilgrims sang on the road to Jerusalem.

But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
2 Thessalonians 3:3Paul's short promise that the Lord keeps his people, written to a church under real pressure.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 was the verse of the day on September 8, 2018. See that day

How to pray it

Name the people and the places: the car, the flight, the school; protection prayers work better with an address.
Pray it at the door or in the car before you leave; a fixed moment makes it a habit rather than an emergency.
Ask for protection and take the sensible step too; Nehemiah prayed and posted a guard.

Make it your own

Say what you are living, in a few words, and receive this prayer written for your situation.

Your words
Your prayer

Questions

Does Psalm 91 guarantee nothing bad will happen?+

Can I pray for protection for someone far away?+

What should I pray before a journey?+

Other prayers

All prayers