By Brandon Cox: Ever messed with a mamma goose? Few mistakes are more costly!

The writer of Psalm 91 uses the picture of a protective parent bird to illustrate the fierceness of God’s guardianship over his people.

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

~ Psalm 91:3-4 NIV

Sometimes, our spiritual welfare is threatened by the temptations invented by Satan, our archenemy and the mastermind of all evil. He’s like a “fowler,” one who traps birds, and we’re the birds. And sometimes, our physical welfare is threatened by the fallen world in which we live, such as when viral outbreaks spread through the population (i.e., the “deadly pestilence”).

Regardless of whether our biggest problems in any given moment are spiritual or physical, internal or external, God himself offers us shelter and protection under his wings, like a mother bird rescuing her children from the traps of the hunter.

Isn’t it awesome that God makes space for us in the most intimate of hiding places? He stretches his wings over us and pulls us close to his heart, guarding us from harm.

Please understand, this psalm isn’t a magic spell or a good luck charm. It’s not an incantation that we pronounce to mysteriously protect us from the circumstances that others might experience around us.

Rather, it’s the promise that no matter the threat, no matter our circumstances, we always have a place under the wings of God in an intimate relationship with him. He purchased this possibility through the blood of his very own Son, Jesus.