In the Shelter of Your Wings, O God
My grandmother use to tell me about her hens and their baby chicks. If the hen suspected danger, such as a hawk circling above, she would make a distinct squawk and all of her chicks would run close to her as she raised her wings over them. Psalms 36:7 says, “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” Psalms 61:4 also says, “I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings (let me find refuge and trust in the shelter of Your wings). Selah.” Our Lord calls us to Himself; to His Word; to times of praise and worship; and to times of being still in His Holy Presence. This is the place that He spreads His wings over us to protect us from our enemies. Is it possible to be sheltered by God at all times?
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Is. 26:3). Notice the Word “stayed on thee.” “Stayed” means to prop; to lean upon the Lord (His Word). When the Word is where our trust (confidence) is, then we are kept in God’s “perfect peace.” We are trusting in the shelter of His wings. Church, it is when we consider our problems, fears, what we feel, negative thoughts, etc., that we move out from under the shadow of God’s wings. Fear is a “trust” (confidence); a believing what the devil is saying. Yes, those thoughts of worry that you believed came from you; but many thoughts that oppose God’s Bible are spoken over and over to us by demons. He knows that “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17); so he speaks words of fear, doubt, and trouble over and over in order to get us to believe him more than God. Satan heard Jesus say, “According to your faith (your believing) be it unto you" (Mt. 9:29). Let us resist the devil (Jms. 4:7) and cast down his thoughts in Jesus’ name and speak the Word (God’s thoughts) (2 Cor. 10:4&5). Speaking the promises of God out loud will move us to the shadow of the Almighty, experiencing “the peace of God, which passes all understanding” (Phil. 4:7).
God’s leading of Israel and us is compared to the eagle. “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.” (Deut 32:11-12) The eaglet begins to grow and the mother begins to flap her wings over them. The movement forces them to flap, too. Their wings become strong as they exercise them, and they will soon attempt to fly from the side of its nest built on the side of the rocky mountain. Mom is ready. When the eaglets are weary from flying, mama bird flies beneath it lifting it from a deadly fall. She carries the eaglet away from the archer’s deadly arrow except it pierce the body of the mother. Brothers and sisters, Jesus has already been pierced on Calvary’s tree. Do not get too comfortable where you are in life. Allow the Holy Spirit to stir you to fly. You may feel like you are falling, but God will catch you and carry you on his wings to soar to new levels of glory with Him! Amen.