finding refuge by sheltering under the wings of god
““Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge.””
Psalm 91 always reminds me of the song “On Eagles Wings”. I’ve known it for years but I guess I’ve never really thought about the words, especially “the snare of the fowler will never capture you”. You know how you sing a song or even read a scripture and then one day, a light bulb goes off in your head and you are like…now I get it! That was the way it was with me and this passage.
In verse 3, the writer of this Psalm talks about being saved from the fowler's snare. According to the King James Version dictionary, the definition of a "fowler" is a sportsman who pursues wild fowls, or takes or kills them for food. The "snare" is a trap...like a mouse trap. It’s usually hidden and has an enticing piece of cheese in the trap to attract the unsuspecting mouse.
This is the way that Satan tries to entice us to stray from our faith! He offers us things that he knows we would like or we think that we need. He's always watching and waiting for us to slip up. Hoping that we will take his bait and not feast at the Lord's table.
Last summer, I looked out at our pool and saw this black bird perched on the hose of our pool cleaner. I just knew that at any moment that bird was going to fall into the pool and sure enough the bird did!
I really dislike black birds because they roost in our neighbor’s tree and then they decorate our spa with little bird droppings!!! I really didn’t want to rescue that black bird. He shouldn’t have been on that hose! But….
I did rescue the black bird. I tried to scoop it up in our leaf net and it didn’t really want to cooperate but finally, I think that the bird was so tired from trying to get out of the pool, it finally let me scoop it out. I emptied the net into the grass and the bird hid under a bush, shook the water off his feathers and waited for about 15 minutes before he flew off.
Isn’t that just like us? Sometimes we may find ourselves in situations that we should have never been. Instead of flying into the protection of our Savior, we let things bring us down or tempt us into doing something that we know we shouldn't do. Or we wrestle with the Lord and we don’t let Him have control of our lives.
There's a great little story that I found online at lighthouselebanon.com. “A man was taking flight training and as he was flying he discovered a rattle snake in the cockpit of the plane. Filled with fear, he asked the instructor what he should do. The instructor told him to take the plane higher, in so doing the pressure will kill the snake.”
So when you find yourself in the fowlers snare, fly higher toward the Lord, take refuge in the "shelter of the Most High" and let Him cover and protect you "under His wings".