August 22

Under His Wings 

Today’s Scripture Readings: Psalms 91:1-8 | Job 4:1-7:21  | 1 Cor. 14:18-40  | Proverbs 21:27

Today’s Scripture Focus: Psalm 91

“Under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:4 ESV).

I was struck by the contrast between Psalm 91, which looks with hopeful expectation for God’s protection and blessing and the readings in Job where he is trying to make sense of a situation where he feels abandoned and beat up by the circumstances of life.

Psalm 91 is filled with wonderful promises of God’s protection and blessing for the one who loves him and holds fast to him. He describes his protection like a bird gathering up her young in her wings to protect them from danger. “He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”

It’s a beautiful picture of God’s protection and faithfulness. And we’ve all walked with the Lord long enough to know that what the Psalmist says is absolutely true. God does watch over us. He does protect us. He is faithful.

Job reminds us that while all that is true, life is difficult.  It’s sometimes hard to understand.  We may love God deeply and be holding fast to him, only to find the trials of life intensify rather than diminish.  Job wrestles with the questions brought on by his devastating circumstances but he refuses to lose hope; he continues to trust God even when he doesn’t understand. It didn’t come easy, and his friends weren’t much help in the process.  But we all know that Job ultimately perseveres in his faith.  And in the end, God’s blessings were poured out into his life.

Somehow I wonder if it isn’t in the circumstances like Job’s where the truth of Psalm 91 becomes most obvious.  It is when life becomes dangerous and hard when protection is needed.  It is then that the mother hen gathers her chicks and covers them with her wings.  So in our lives, it is in the midst of the trials that God gathers us close and protects us in the refuge of “his wings”.

“It doesn’t matter, really, how great the pressure is; it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes between you and the Lord–then the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast.” –Hudson Taylor–

He is our refuge.  Let him pull you close today.

Jesus, draw me near today, pull me close. Protect me. Pour out your love into my heart. Prepare me for the day. Thank you for the place of refuge I find in you. Amen.