Psalm 63:1-7
God, You are my God; I shall be watching for You;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and exhausted land where there is no water.
So have I seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and glory.
Because Your favor is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied as with fat and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
When a mother bird shelters her chicks from inclement weather, she raises her wings and draws the babies into the warmth of her soft semi-plume and down. The chicks do not yet have the wind and water resistant wing feathers that protect them from the elements and allow them to fly from danger. In the mother’s dark and downy breast, the little birds are safe and secure, protected from harm by her instinct to cover the chicks.
Baby nestling birds cannot survive on their own. If they somehow escape the safety of the nest or outside the protective covering of the mother’s wings, they will die. The only place where they can thrive is close to the mother and its siblings.
We aren’t that different from the fragile baby birds, especially when times are difficult. Challenging circumstances often leave us feeling deserted, in a place dry and desolate and without water. Like the baby bird, we must return to the source of good protection. When we turn to the Father and His faithful love, we can be satisfied– even though our situations remain unchanged.
When the psalmist says that he will rejoice in the shadow of God’s wings, he admits his utter helplessness to protect himself from his enemies. The goodness of God, revealed in His protection inspired the psalmist to rejoice. God’s good protection becomes most evident in the long nights of the soul, when we feel alone, threatened, and attacked. Our world, especially through social and legacy media, wants people to feel isolated because their influence and power is established when people are afraid. But God will shelter us and bring us together so that we generate a community of warmth and security under His care.
Jesus, after condemning the religious leaders as blind guides, hypocrites, and whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23) turned toward a vista of Jerusalem, saying,
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem! She who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers he chicks under her wings, yet you were not willing!”
The Father protects us, not by instinct like the mother bird, but because He wants us to be secure and safe in Him. Jesus’s heart broke over the people who rejected him and He wept for them, knowing that their future was destruction and desolation. God does not force us into his care. He calls to us and He reaches to us through the Holy Spirit and the Word, because He so loves us (John 3:16). God’s faithful love stems from His goodness, and when we acquiesce to His protection, we find satisfaction beyond measure and joy, meditating on Him in safety because He cares for us.
Resources
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Cook, Jason. “Begin Again: Part One.” Fellowship Bible Church, 5 Jan. 2025, Roswell, GA. https://fellowshiproswell.org/sermon7/begin-again-part-one/.
“Feathers.” All About Birds: Bird Academy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/feathers-article/.
Defaulting to Grace 