Psalm 91 was constructed as an apotropaic prayer to relieve suffering from the afflicted. And so the Jews have used it. Muslims claim that it was messianic like Psalm 22. Although some Christians - like Augustine - have shoehorned it into the Ecclesiatical History; most Christians have observed that no Jew has ever read this messianically. But... what if the Jews, opposite our Muslims, used it antiMessianically?
I have in mind the tradition where a protoChristian holy man was thrown from a high roof. This is what Hegesippus said of Saint James, Jesu's brother. The Gospel of Matthew has brought a parallel into Jesus' temptations which we shall commemorate in Lent. Here the Devil, no less, brings Psalm 91 as relevant Scripture. Jesus doesn't exactly deny this - the Passion had already brought Psalms like 2 and 22 - instead, countering its abrogation with Deuteronomy, "do not put the Lord-your-God to the test".
Matthew will present a nondocetic Crucifixion, more so than Mark by the way; so Matthew already knew that Psalm 91 was not a relevant Scripture. I would even venture Matthew was structuring a Gospel that excludes Psalm 91 from consideration.
I think we're missing a scene from the oral-tradition around James where Psalm 91 was used against James' claim to be the heir to the Messiah, therefore the Messiah of his day. But the Jews had not thought to use it against Jesus. Jesus wasn't killed in that way and it hadn't occurred to Jesus, nor to his immediate followers, to use Psalm 91 for their own cause. Matthew was safeguarding not just Jesus, but also James.
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