He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:
his truth is a shield and buckler-Psalm 91:4.
The main idea in this image is that of protection and fostering.
There seems to me to be a very distinct triad of thoughts. There is the
covering wing; there is the flight to its protection; and there is the
warrant for that flight.
"He shall cover thee with his feathers"; that is the Divine act. "Under his
wings shalt thou trust"; that is the human condition. "His truth shall be
thy shield and buckler': that is the Divine manifestation which makes the
human condition possible.
Thus the idea is that of the expanded feather, beneath the shelter of which
the callow young lie and are gathered. Whatsoever kites may be in the sky,
whatsoever stoats and weasels may be in the hedges, they are safe there. The
image suggests not only the thought of protection, but those of fostering,
downy warmth, peaceful proximity to a heart that throbs with parental love,
and a multitude of other happy privileges realized by those who nestle
beneath that wing.
But while these subsidiary ideas are not to be lost sight of, the promise of
protection is to be kept clear as that chiefly intended by the Psalmist.
This psalm rings throughout with the doctrine that a man who dwells "in the
secret place of the Most High" [91:1] has absolute immunity from all sorts
of evil, and there are also regions in which that immunity, secured by being
under the shadow of the Almighty, is exemplified in the psalm: the one, that
of our outward dangers; the other, that of temptation to sin and what we may
call spiritual foes.
Now, these two regions and departments in which the Christian man does
realize, in the measure of his faith, the Divine protection exhibit that
protection as administered in two entirely different ways. No man that lies
under the shadow of God, and has his heart filled with the continual
consciousness of that presence, is likely to fall before the assaults of
evil that tempt him away from God; and the defense which He gives against
external evils.
For, as the New Testament teaches us, we are kept from sin not by any
outward breastplate or armor, or even by the Divine wing lying above us to
cover us, but by an indwelling Christ in our hearts. His Spirit within us
makes us free from the law of sin and death, and conquerors over all
temptations.
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr. Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
" Everything is wrong until God makes it right,"
