IN THE SHADOW OF YOUR WINGS
Posted: 20.10.22 in Articles category
Although the psalms are full of picture language and imagery, one avian metaphor stands out from the rest - the wings of a bird. Six psalms speak of God protecting people like a parent bird protects its chicks beneath its wings. God is likened to a bird with wings that offer a hiding place and shelter. The bird in question is typically unidentified, but the psalmist presumes it is large enough for its wings to cover him. All bar one of these psalms are attributed to David and were evidently written before and during his kingship. The sole exception is Psalm 91 which was likely written by an unnamed temple official. Its basic message is a glowing testimony to the security of people trusting in God. Those who do so discover God’s protection is like being covered by a bird’s feathered wings.
While most references to this image of protective bird wings are confined to the psalms, the metaphor appears thrice elsewhere in the Bible. The earliest comes in Deuteronomy chapter 32 as part of the song that Moses recited to the assembly of Israel. He likened the Lord to a parent eagle that “spreads its wings to catch its young” and carry them to safety. While this Mosaic metaphor differs in terms of wings being used to hide, nevertheless it incorporates an image of God offering protection through bird-like wings.
The more typical psalm metaphor is also found in Ruth. Chapter 2 tells the story of her meeting Boaz in the grain fields. He invited Ruth to glean grain on his land and to drink from his water jars. She in turn asked Boaz why he was showing kindness to her as a foreigner and Boaz replied:
“I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
What is lovely about this image is its inclusivity. Ruth, a Moabite woman belonging to a foreign people sometimes at enmity with Israel, was welcomed by a Hebrew to come and take refuge under the Lord God of Israel’s protective wings.
The third reference to protective wings is much better known – the words of Jesus when he prophesied Jerusalem’s destruction. Both Matthew and Luke record his lament as he longed to gather the city’s inhabitants like a mother hen sheltering her chicks.
Why was the metaphor of a bird’s wing such an attractive analogy, particularly to psalmists? How did they identify with it as a picture of divine protection and help? While it may seem a straightforward and beguilingly simple image, I think its popularity stems from its multi-purposed and nuanced meaning. In the psalms bird wings can represent refuge and shelter, as in psalms 36 and 61. They can mean a hiding place as in psalms 17 and 51. They can suggest security and reassurance as in psalms 63 and 91. Yet it is not a matter of the metaphor symbolising only one thing for any single reference. A bird’s wing can signify both strength and gentleness. Strength in terms of being powerful enough to protect from attack - like the wings of a large bird like an eagle or a swan. Gentleness in terms of the soft touch of its feathers – arousing a feeling of tenderness, warmth, and reassurance.
Not surprisingly, the bird-wing metaphor has resonated with Christian hymn writers. Probably the best-known employing the metaphor is the seventeenth century hymn, ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation’, written by Joachim Neander and translated into English by Catherine Winkworth. The second verse incorporates the metaphor as follows:
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth, shelters thee under His wings yea, so gently sustaineth.
Wonderful words and a reassuring metaphor of God’s protective love.