April 1
The Shadow of His Wing
In the Hour of Silence"As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem."
As birds fluttering over their nests with quivering and palpitating wings, thus will Jehovah of Hosts protect Jerusalem.
So God shelters me. Like the bird brooding above its young when some danger threatens, He offers to screen and secure my soul. My greatest perils are spiritual ones—my own sin and the death which it deserves. But nearer than the shadow of death, nearer and mightier, may be the shadow of God's guardian wings.
And God loves me. For He is like a mother-bird, the prophet says, as tender, as solicitous, as unconquerably pitiful. He has not only a father's strong right arm; He has a mother's strangely, marvellously, unsearchably affectionate heart. I should not fear Him. There is no woman, there is no mother half so mild.
And God suffers for me. The parent-bird may have to lay down her life in her defence of her young; to that supreme sacrifice she may have to nerve herself. Is it not a little homely parable of Calvary? I know the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ—how He drank the bitter cup, how He bade the sword awake and smite Him. I have rest through His sorrow.
Yes, and thus sheltering, loving, suffering, God saves me. He will protect and deliver. He will pass over and preserve. His expenditure of love and grief are not in vain. There is forgiveness with Him for me. There is purity untainted. There are a divine power and a divine peace. There is heaven in the shadow of His wings.
Surely I will hide myself there.