The oddest thing happened to me the other morning. I couldn’t get the image of an umbrella out of my head. I was pretty much forced to ponder it for far longer than I would have liked. But, the more I thought about it, the more that I realized how God is actually pretty similar to an umbrella.
Before you think me too crazy, consider the idea for a moment. Doesn’t God act like an umbrella for those who draw close enough to him to be covered by his protection?
Psalm 91:1-4 reads, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”
The psalmist refers to God as a shelter, a refuge, a fortress, a cover, and a shield. I’m pretty sure that my umbrella idea falls in the same category – God promises to protect us.
He just doesn’t promise to protect us from everything. No, instead, he promises two things.
First is protection from the snares of the fowler and the deadly pestilence. Exciting stuff, huh?
Seriously though, I know that the metaphor is slightly lost on us because we don’t go around building snares for fowl (aka birds) and we don’t worry that much about some weird pestilence creeping in and wiping us out. But, back in the day of our psalmist, those images meant a great deal.
So, what then, do they mean to us? What is God promising to protect us from in 21st century?
Snares are traps and tricks designed to get you stuck. We all have plenty of those lying in wait. There are snares, traps, tricks, and all sorts of temptations out there ready to trip us up. The promise to protect us from this threat can be found in the New Testament too.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
This is the verse that many people misquote, claiming that God will not give you more than you can handle. That’s not what the Bible says. Of course God gives you more than you can handle. Because if you could handle everything on your own, then you wouldn’t need him!
No, the Bible promises that you will not be tempted beyond what you can handle and that God will always provide an escape from that temptation. He will protect you from being snared, as long as you are close to him and remain under his protection. If you choose to wander out from underneath his wing of protection, like those silly little chicks that wander off on their own and put themselves at risk for harm, then you will have a harder time of it.
Stay under the cover of God’s wing and you will be protected from the snares and traps of the Enemy.
You will also be protected from that deadly pestilence. Pestilence is plague and disease. In Scripture, those are often symbols for the spread of evil.
Ain’t that the truth of it?! Evil does spread like a disease. And God promises to protect you from being overcome by the pestilence that is evil.
In Romans 6, Paul talks about how we are no longer slaves to sin, but children of God. We are not bound by sin and evil anymore. We have been set free. That doesn’t mean we can’t continue to indulge in it. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be affected by it.
If we choose to stay close to God, tucked nicely under his wing, then we won’t be overcome by it. No matter what it tries to do, it will not win.
Again, God isn’t promising that nothing bad will happen. Evil will still hurt those we know and love. Consequences of the bad choices we and others make will still be there. But, evil will not win. It will not overtake us.
As long as we are under God’s wing. And that is the second part of the promise. We will always have a place under his wing.
In Matthew 23:37, Jesus used the imagery of a mother hen and her chicks, lamenting about how often he would gather us together like “a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”
We are like those silly chicks. We get curious. We get tempted to venture out on our own. We think we know better or know enough. So we wander away.
I hope that you have figured out that sticking close to God and remaining under his wing is a far better life than wandering on your own, but even if you are still figuring that out and experiencing the consequences of being out from under the cover of his protection, God is waiting with his arms open to you. He is waiting for your return. You have no idea how often he would gather you back up under his wing.
This is the reason that his faithfulness is called a shield and a buckler by our psalmist.
To be honest, I had to look up what a buckler was because I was pretty sure that the writer wasn’t describing someone who makes buckles. I found that a buckler is a large shield that curves so that it completely covers a person.
So, not only is God’s faithfulness a shield, but it is a shield big enough to cover us. Just like a wing. Just like an umbrella. He is the shield that protects us from the snares of the Enemy; from the spread of evil.
It is no wonder, then, that when Paul talked about the armor of God, he called our faithfulness in God a shield too. In fact, it is a shield that extinguishes the flaming darts of the evil one (Eph 6:16). Our faith in God draws us close to him, under the cover of his protection. So, in reality, the shield is his faithfulness to us. Our faith just puts us underneath it.
So, you have a choice. As ever. As always.
Do you choose option A – God, or option B – not God? That’s seriously what it comes down to.
Do you choose truth (aka God) or do you choose to wander away toward lies (aka not God)?
Do you choose faith or the trap of fear and doubt?
Do you choose love or the evil taint of hate and discord?
Do you choose humility or the pestilence that is pride?
Do you choose to take cover under the wing of God’s protection or… not?