I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Psalm 61:4
There are several Canada goose families with baby geese at the pond near our apartment complex. The little goslings are so fluffy and cute; it’s hard not to watch them when I go for a walk or run around the pond. But I’ve learned to avoid eye contact and give the geese a wide berth—otherwise, I risk a protective goose parent suspecting a threat and hissing and chasing me!
The image of a bird protecting her young is one that Scripture uses to describe God’s tender, protective love for His children (Psalm 91:4). In Psalm 61, David seems to be struggling to experience God’s care in this way. He’d experienced God as his “refuge, a strong tower” (v. 3), but now he called desperately “from the ends of the earth,” pleading, “lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (v. 2). He longed to once more “take refuge in the shelter of [God’s] wings” (v. 4).
And in bringing his pain and longing for healing to God, David took comfort in knowing that He’d heard him (v. 5). Because of God’s faithfulness, he knew he would “ever sing in praise of [His] name” (v. 8).
Like the psalmist, when we feel distant from God’s love, we can run back to His arms to be assured that even in our pain, He’s with us, protecting and caring for us as fiercely as a mother bird guards her young.
How does it encourage you to remember God’s protective care for you? How have you experienced His care?
Dear God, thank You for Your fierce, protective love for me. Help me to rest securely in Your tender care.
INSIGHT
In Psalm 61, David describes his longing for God’s presence with metaphors of a “rock that is higher than I” (v. 2), a “refuge” or “strong tower” (v. 3), a “tent” and “the shelter of [God’s] wings” (v. 4). The combined reference to God’s “tent” and the “shelter of [His] wings” may allude to the cherubim wings on the tabernacle (Exodus 25:20). During God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt, He gave instructions for the building of a tabernacle through which He’d dwell with His people in a powerful and tangible way (v. 8). Later, the temple, modeled after the tabernacle, would become the centralized place to experience His presence. It also contained sculpted cherubim with wings in the inner sanctuary (1 Kings 6:23–27). Today, believers in Jesus experience God’s presence through His Spirit who dwells within us (1 Corinthians 3:16).