2024-07-18 “under his wings shalt thou trust”

Psalm 91:3  “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

After telling us that the Lord “shall cover thee with his feathers”, the Psalmist goes on to tell us that “under his wings shalt thou trust”.  Trust is based upon experience.  Many years ago, we took several children, from the Church, on a camping trip.  My son was often a mischievous young boy!  We were on a walking trail and came upon a swinging bridge; now my wife is deathly afraid of bridges, most especially swinging bridges.  So, my brave young son ran across the bridge several times to demonstrate that the bridge was safe.  Finally, after seeing evidence that it was safe, my dear wife had enough “trust” in the bridge that she slowly began to cross it, holding very tightly to the ropes.  When she was in the middle of the bridge, my mischievous son grabbed the ropes and started shaking the bridge, poor Sister Sarah almost lost her mind, then I ran out and helped her get across.  From the very instant that we are given spiritual birth, we are given “faith”, which is both the “substance” and “evidence” that God is Almighty, that He is perfectly faithful (reliable), that He loves us with great love, and that He will not forsake us; thus, through this experience we immediately learn to “trust” Him.  And then, as we face tribulations, temptations, trials, etc. from which our Lord delivers us, our “trust” in the Lord becomes stronger and stronger.  Paul explained “trust” this way: “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:  9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:  10  Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;” (II Corinthians 1:8-10).  We can perfectly “trust” our Lord to hide us “under his wings” while the storms of this life are raging, and when we take our final breath, we “trust” Him to take our spirit/soul to His paradise, and we also “trust” that one day He will resurrect our bodies and take us to eternally live on with him in the Mansions He has prepared for us!