In the Shadow of Thy Wings

From Refuge to Joy in the Lord

A few days ago, God saved me… again.

I prayed for His guidance, and His protection came to me before I opened my eyes in the morning. Having just experienced the loving perfection of His refuge, that felt like a warm embrace, the words of David’s prayer for the Lord’s refuge under the shadow of His wings were left impressed upon my heart. I want to tell you!

The phrase “shadow of thy wings” occurs four times in the Bible. Those verses are given below. Because the Bible is beautiful poetry, from the mind of God, the very structure and order of Bible verses often help to demonstrate their meaning.

If we take those verses in the order in which they occur in the Psalms, even if not necessarily in the order in which David prayed them, we can follow the experience first in seeking refuge in the Lord, then stepping into deeper trust by understanding His character, next reflecting on the experience of protection, and finally, in recounting and rejoicing in the Lord’s help.

Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings…

Psalm 36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

Psalm 57:1 To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Psalm 63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

This short meditation will follow David through the shadow of His wings in scripture to help us understand David’s experience, and the experience of any faithful Christian, in walking with the Lord through perils and snares. David’s example teaches us to hide in the Lord, trust in the Lord, find refuge in the Lord, and rejoice in the Lord.

Hide in The Lord

I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. Psalm 17:6-9

When God provided His recent refuge to me, I want to share with you that it felt like a warm embrace. It felt like the embrace of a parent to a child, or hen to her chickens, or an eagle to her young. It felt as if my Father in heaven had embraced me and kept me as the apple of His eye.

When David asks His Father to keep him as the apple of His eye, he is being hunted by wicked men led by a jealous and vengeful King Saul. David finds himself hiding alone in a cave with nowhere else to turn, like a child who needs his father. Many a faithful soul has found himself feeling alone in a cruel desert of wicked men. The Lord also kept the descendants of Jacob as the apple of His eye in a waste howling wilderness:

For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 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. Deuteronomy 32:9-12

How the Lord kept the descendants of Jacob as the apple of His eye is compared to how an eagle not only protects her young in the nest, but also taketh them, and beareth them on her wings, teaching them to fly. The Lord not only protects His people, David, and all of us who surrender to His name, but He also leads us as an eagle that beareth her young on her own wings. God wants to protect us in our refuge, but He also wants to bear us up in our efforts in the world, as we seek to do His will.

David is asking to hide in the Lord, but not forever. David, who will one day become king of Israel and Judah, is appealing to His Father in heaven as a child reaches for his father on earth, asking to be kept safe and cherished, as the apple of His eye, not to hide himself away in safety forever, but so that he might continue to discharge his duty given by God, safe from the prowling enemy.

This movement of David’s will, this surrender of his autonomy, this child like faith, is the beginning of trust in the Lord and the formation of a king.

Trust in the Lord

Here, David reflects on his experience finding refuge with the Lord:

Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Psalm 36:5 -7

Reflecting on this experience helps David to understand some of God’s characteristics, like His mercifulness, His faithfulness, His righteousness, the depth of His judgments (His justice), His preservation of man and beast (He is the benevolent source of all life), and, finally, His excellent lovingkindness. Through the experience of being hunted, threatened, scared, and alone, David steps into greater understanding of the character of God.

Beginning with mercy and ending with God’s excellent lovingkindness, this list follows the basis and culmination of God’s characteristics. Any hope of man begins with belief in God’s mercy, without which we would each and all be condemned. And this hope, seasoned with experiencing God’s righteousness and benevolence through trials and perils, leads to the fuller understanding of God’s love.

God’s loving kindness is the characteristic that shines out into the world in a way that all can feel with the heart. All but the most hardened would melt at the experience if not at the testimony of the excellent lovingkindness of the Lord. David leaves us this testimony, from his own experience, and he exclaims that it is excellent!

One can only enter this loving embrace through hiding oneself in trust and in hope in the Lord’s mercy, as parallels the structure given within these poetic verses. His mercy, that not one of us deserves, is the foundation of all hope. Stepping forward in faith, while trusting in the hope of that mercy, is how to discover how excellent is God’s love for you.

Refuge in the Lord

(To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.) Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. Psalm 57:1-3

David has found his refuge in a cave, after trusting in the Lord. But his repeated and urgent prayer reveals that he is not without fear from the very real imminent threat. David is but a man, and who among us would not tremble as the hunted prey of a deranged king’s army?

But David has already experienced the loving embrace of trusting in the Lord. He has already experienced God’s goodness and his protection of the innocent. So he focuses his prayer on these immediately reassuring characteristics of God, His mercy, His performance and sending of protection (His benevolence), and ultimately His truth. Truth is the best defense of the innocent, and remembering that truth is God’s very nature, that God is himself the source of all truth, is the refuge of the innocent.

David grounds his prayer in God’s mercy, His justice, and His truth, making this psalm timeless reassurance for all innocent who are persecuted against truth. We can trust in the Lord’s refuge in the midst of confusion and danger.

Rejoice in the Lord

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Psalm 63:3-7

After surviving his ordeal, David reflects on his experience of God’s lovingkindness, that is better than life! David can’t help but praise Him with joyful lips! I feel the same in writing this. I can’t help but praise His lovingkindness! May we all bless Him with joyful lips, and while we live lift up our hands in His name!

David tells us his soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness. The analogy of satisfaction of the belly represents the ultimate satiation of the spirit, which only comes through trust and refuge in the Lord. Going through difficult experiences builds trust in God’s protection, and each one of those experiences becomes a record of evidence in the file against the lying whispers of hopelessness from the enemy. Whether in times of peace of peril, we can recall acutely our personal experiences of how the Lord saved us, and we can remember them upon our bed, and we can meditate upon them in the night watches.

True rejoicing comes at the end of the perilous experience. The psalmist takes us along on his journey under the shadow of the Lord’s wing, the journey of hiding in the Lord, trusting in the Lord, finding refuge in the Lord, and finally, rejoicing in the Lord. Yay!

Only by passing through the waste howling wilderness with enemies hot on our heels can we truly understand the refuge and the joyful lovingkindness found in the shadow of His wings. The next time you find yourself in a waste howling wilderness, remember David, and that you are under the shadow of His wings!