{"id":8562,"date":"2020-09-09T01:53:31","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T01:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8562"},"modified":"2020-09-09T01:53:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T01:53:31","slug":"psalm-914-faithful-to-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8562","title":{"rendered":"Psalm 91:4 Faithful to cover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He shall cover\nyou with His feathers,<\/em>
\nAnd under His wings you shall\ntake refuge;
\nHis faithfulness shall be\nyour shield and buckler. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you picture feathers or wings, do you typically think of\nmilitary shields? That\u2019s not my customary train of thought, but this unusual\npairing reveals how intensely protective God feels about you. His heart brims\nwith the desire to cover you when danger lurks and to be your shield against\nincoming attacks.\n<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shall cover\nyou with His feathers,<\/em>
\nAnd under His wings you shall\ntake refuge\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Creator has always had a bird\u2019s eye view of the animal kingdom, and He chose\u2014out of all His creatures\u2014to liken Himself to an eagle when revealing His protective nature toward His people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Song of\nMoses, it says of God\u2019s relationship to Jacob, \u201c\u2026He encircled him, He cared for him,<\/em>\nHe guarded him as the\npupil of His eye. Like an eagle<\/strong> that stirs up\nits nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions<\/em>\u201d (Deuteronomy 32:10-11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David also use this same imagery in five of his Psalms. In Psalm 57, you can hear his anguished devotion when he cries out, \u201cBe gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; and in the shadow of Your wings<\/strong> I will take refuge until destruction passes by <\/em>(verse 1). I love this! In the hour of greatest desperation, you, like David, have the right to hunker down under the shadow of God\u2019s wings until destruction passes you by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only did God\u2019s people the Jews have access to the powerful shelter of God\u2019s wings, but the Moabite Ruth also found refuge under His protective wings as well. Boaz spoke highly of Ruth\u2019s deep devotion to and care for her mother-in-law Naomi when he said, \u201cMay the Lord reward your work, and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge<\/strong><\/em>\u201d (Ruth 2:12).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

David, Moses, and\nRuth each found refuge under the majestic wings of the Lord. The Almighty God is\nstill ready and willing to cover anyone who seeks His help; He will never tire\nof protecting you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026His faithfulness shall\nbe your shield and buckler. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I come to this section in prayer, I am reminded of another shield\u2014the mighty shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one <\/em>(Ephesians 6:16).<\/em> But how many times\u2014instead of believing your faith could quench every incoming missile\u2014you\u2019ve felt absolutely worthless? The enemy works overtime to make you feel like a complete faith-failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt like that more times than I\ncould count\u2026until this verse came alive to me. You see, God\u2019s faithfulness<\/em>\nitself is your shield! You don\u2019t have to have monster faith; your God has\nenough faithfulness for the two of you! Just put your faith into His<\/em>\nfaithfulness, and when you feel weak, your trust is no longer in your own\nability to be some kind of faith giant; your trust is in God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when it comes to God\u2019s protective care over you? Place your trust fully in His faithfulness to do what it takes to keep you safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One night as a thirty-something\nwoman, I had been passing out gospel tracts on the St. Louis Arch grounds with\na group from my church. Because I was somewhat \u201cseasoned\u201d at this sort of\nthing, an inexperienced young couple were paired with me. Toward the end of the\nevening I was sharing Jesus with a young woman. The couple got bored and\nwandered off to find the rest of the group. I didn\u2019t care because she was very\ninterested in giving her life to Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, her eyes popped open as big\nas silver dollars, and she scrambled away. I turned and immediately was surrounded\nby a group of six to eight men. As they closed in around me, the oddest thing\nhappened. I had a vision!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No longer was I standing near the top\nof the south stairway of the Arch; I was at a Charles Capps meeting at my\nchurch! There Brother Capps stood, preaching with his Arkansas twang, \u201cMy\nbrother, sister, Jesus SAID \u2018Let us GO to the other side of the lake\u2019; and if\nJesus SAID \u2018Let us GO to the other side of the lake\u2019, then no wave, no wind, no\nstorm could stop Him!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with that, there I was, back at\nthe Arch, surrounded by the same six to eight men. I looked across the way and\nsaw the old Riverboat McDonald\u2019s. I SAID to the men, \u201cI am GOING to McDonald\u2019s!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked right through that circle;\nno one touched me. As I descended the long stairway, the Holy Spirit spoke\nclearly, \u201cWalk. Don\u2019t run. Hold your head high, and don\u2019t look back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were whistles and catcalls as I fearlessly walked across Leonor K. Sullivan Blvd. to the gangplank leading to McDonald\u2019s. Down the gangplank I marched, opened the door to the Golden Arches and saw my whole team\u2014including the young couple. In an instant it dawned on me what God had just shielded me from. My knees became Jello, and I wobbled to the counter to order a bag of fries and a Coke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God’s faithfulness was my shield and buckler that night; and the good news is that He will always be the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put your faith in the faithfulness of the Lord and take refuge under His all-encompassing wings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2020, Dorothy Frick <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His faithfulness shall be your shield and buckler. When you picture feathers or wings, do you typically think of military shields? That\u2019s not my customary train of thought, but this unusual pairing reveals how intensely protective God feels about you. His heart brims […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,537],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","category-psalm-91"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8564,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8562\/revisions\/8564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}