REFUGE (Psalm 91)

(Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for study during times of depression by counselor/pastor David Seamands, author of Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

When a wildlife education group brought these critters to our county fair, I was grateful for their cages! But “safety” is not always a given, as the author expressed in Psalm 91. The author is unnamed, but besides the natural threats of the wilderness, he apparently lived under the constant threat of human enemies. His solution: abiding under the “shadow of the Almighty” (v. 1) amidst the very real dangers he faced. The assurances that God is my refuge and fortress, worthy of trust (v. 2), are the stakes that affix this psalm to my heart.

There are lessons in every verse, but one image has become especially poignant for me in recent years:

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. (v. 4)

The initial picture this presents, of course, is a hen gathering her chicks under her for safety. Jesus drew on this image when He lamented Jerusalem’s (and the world’s) spiritual issues:

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37, also Luke 13:38)

PROTECTED

What doesn’t come across in English translations—and this is where I think it most deeply can reach the heart of a disheartened person—is the powerful word in Hebrew for “wings”—kanaph. It’s prominent in the book of Ruth, who was the great grandmother of King David. Whether or not he wrote the psalm, it still intensifies the hope that rides above the dark images of danger.

Ruth, of course, was the Moabite widow who came back to Jerusalem with her glum, widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. Their desert journey, fraught with dangers like many of those described in the psalm, took them to even more desolation as helpless, landless, starving women. But Ruth rolled up her sleeves and gleaned to help feed them. God was in the shadows in having her glean from the field of a distant relative, Boaz. When Boaz commended her work, he remarked:

May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings [kanaph]you have come to take refuge.(Ruth 2:12)

When Naomi heard of his favor toward Ruth, then connected the dots that he was a distant relative and marriageable, she saw a solution to their desperation. A marriage to Boaz would bring both of them under his protection. So Ruth went to threshing floor, where he slept during harvest, to encourage a “proposal.” It sounds strange to us, but remember, it’s not our culture.  Quietly, she uncovered his feet and lay down.

With his feet getting cold, Boaz woke and was shocked to see Ruth there. Ruth shared their need and how his being the “kinsman-redeemer” could help them. She added:

Spread the corner of your garment [that’s the “kanaph” part] over me. (Ruth 3:9)

He readily accepted her proposal, and set about to make it happen.

ENOUGH

There’s more—so much more—in this psalm, including prophecies about Jesus and Satan. But just the one idea of God as our protector carries immense comfort for those times when we feel down from all the negatives of life and troublesome people. When we have to go through trials, God promises to go through them with us (vv. 14-15). Even better, He can turn our sense of loss to a sense of victory:

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. (91:16)

This is not necessarily a formula for long life. Only God knows the length of our days. Psalm 90 emphasized that. Rather, I think it’s saying that “in the God-ordained fullness of our days” He will be all we need or want. And that is wonderful, encouraging news!

UNDER HIS WINGS

Real feathers—trophies from bird-hunting—graced this Bible verse display given me recently by a friend. As I read the scripture she’d chosen, I thought of how she lived it out in modeling grace through hardship. From the Living Bible she quoted Psalm 36:7:

How precious is your constant love, O God!  All humanity takes refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

It was just perfect for the relational challenges I’ve faced in recent years with troubled people. At times I felt like a little chick scurrying around the scary barnyard while a hungry dog or possum threatened. But when I ran to the Lord—like a hen gathering her chicks underneath her—I felt removed to a place of safety.

This tender image from real life crops up several times in Psalms.

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings. (Psalm 17:8)

I will take shelter in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (Psalm 57:1)

I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. (Psalm 61:4)

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 63:7)

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge (Psalm 91:4—from one of my favorite psalms)

Poetic analogies help me visualize the invisible, like the constant presence and help of God. But sometimes I run across real-life examples that match up with such scriptural truths.  I found one recently in book by Charles Stanley, The Source of My Strength (Nelson, 1994). I learned that this well-known pastor and author lost his father when he was very young.  Then his mother married an abusive man. They both endured his physical and verbal abuse. It took a long time for Stanley to work through the wounds of his childhood, but he did. He found shelter under the wings of the Almighty, and that made the difference.

I especially appreciated his practical advice on dealing with an abuser, by focusing attention not on your supposed “faults” (according to the abuser) but on the bitterness and wounds that cause the abuser to lash out (p. 77):

If a person criticizes you intensely, say, “Listen, what it is about me that is really at the core of what you dislike? Do you realize that you are constantly at me about something?  It is because something is eating away at you? Is there something you don’t like about yourself that is behind the way you criticize me?”

…Intervening in a person’s abusive behavior is actually an act of love for that person.  It is saying to that person, ‘I don’t want to see you so violently unhappy.  I want to see you live in a way that is not marked by repetitive abusive behavior—either verbal or physical.  I want to see you become whole in Christ Jesus.’

Instead of trying to reason with an abuser, Stanley said, we need to turn that person over to God to deal with.  That might include saying this to the abuser: “I will no longer take your abuse. I’m trusting God to defend me.  I’m turning you over to Him, and I’m trusting that He will deal with you.”

I’ve been through some tough stuff in my life, always at the ready to “fix things.”  But some things only God can “fix,” like troubled minds. That’s when He beckons me, like a protective mother hen, under His wings. It’s safe and warm there as He faces what only He can—and should—handle.