English 
Chinese 
Dutch 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese 
Continue reading with a subscription
Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.
Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.
Summary
- Psalm 121:8, “The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in,” and Psalm 91 are the Bible’s best-known prayers of protection; Psalm 91 is numbered 90 in the Greek, Slavonic and Latin Bibles.
- Short prayers cover travel, a loved one far away, the armed forces and emergency services, late nights, an unsafe relationship, disasters, silence, and the whole family.
- Traditional prayers are quoted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“For Those We Love,” “For the Absent,” “A Collect for Aid against Perils”), the Orthodox Rite of Blessing for a Journey in Hapgood’s 1906 translation, and the Catholic guardian angel prayer.
- Catholic and Orthodox Christians ask guardian angels and saints to pray for them; most Protestants pray to God alone.
- The priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26 can be said over someone leaving the house.
- For present danger, call the emergency services; domestic abuse helplines for the US and the UK and a Russian family helpline are listed.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Numbers 6:24–26; Psalm 91:1–2, 4–5, 11; 121:8; 127:1; 139:9–10; Isaiah 43:2). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version. Psalm 90 and Tobias 5. Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1581. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1581
- “Psalm 91.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_91
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Evening Prayer, “A Collect for Aid against Perils,” p. 31; Family Prayer, “For the Absent,” pp. 596–597, and “For Those We Love,” p. 597. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Sixth Hour, p. 49; The Office of Grand Compline, p. 150; The Rite of Blessing for a Journey, p. 525. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Morning Prayers, “Angel of God,” p. 54. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/54/mode/1up
- National Domestic Violence Hotline. https://www.thehotline.org/
- GOV.UK. “Domestic abuse: how to get help.” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-abuse-how-to-get-help
- Fund for Supporting Children in Difficult Life Situations. “Children’s Helpline,” 8 800 2000 122. https://fond-detyam.ru/detskiy-telefon-doveriya/
