Under His Wings | June 21 Worship, First Lutheran Concord

Devotional

Day 1: When Home Base Can’t Read Maps

The refuge God offers isn’t static geography but pursuing safety. Like birds unaware of wildlife refuge boundaries, we often wander beyond God’s protection through ignorance or rebellion. Yet unlike fixed land, God actively seeks His straying ones – a shepherd chasing sheep, a mother tracking wayward chicks. Safety isn’t about perfect navigation but returning to the One whose presence defines refuge. His wings adjust to cover us mid-flight, transforming every stumble into a chance to rediscover home. [35:24]

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”
(Psalm 91:4, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you assumed God’s protection depends on your perfect understanding of boundaries? How might His pursuit reshape your view of mistakes?

Day 2: Arrows Over the Wall

God’s protection operates at both cosmic and intimate scales – a rampart against invading armies and a shield against individual arrows. The wall stops chariots but cannot block projectiles; the shield requires active closeness. This dual care rejects false choices between communal safety and personal vulnerability. Divine defense isn’t failure-proof but relationship-shaped, inviting us to hold the Shield-Maker’s hand when fiery darts pierce our peace. [37:50]

“You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.”
(Psalm 91:5-6, ESV)

Reflection: What “arrow” have you tried facing without the shield? How does God’s nearness transform threats you once thought solitary?

Day 3: The Fowler’s Bait Shop

Satan operates like a professional bird trapper, studying patterns to place snares where refuge-dwellers wander. His lures mimic God’s provision – counterfeit seeds of security, imitation calls of belonging. The fowler’s success depends on our belief that danger lives “out there” rather than in subtle heart-drifts. Yet every trap contains a backdoor: the scarred hands that dismantled death’s machinery now disable snares through whispered warnings. [39:24]

“Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.”
(Psalm 91:3, ESV)

Reflection: What bait have you pecked at recently, mistaking it for refuge food? How does Christ’s dismantling of death’s trap free you today?

Day 4: Feathers That Feel Like Fortresses

A mother hen’s wings seem flimsy against foxes – until you realize their true power lies in the brooder’s body heat and heartbeat. God’s “feathers” shelter not through brute force but covenantal presence. The wing-span that covered Moses in the rock’s cleft now enfolds us in resurrection warmth. This protection prioritizes intimacy over spectacle, transforming what appears fragile into the ultimate stronghold. [38:26]

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
(Luke 13:34, ESV)

Reflection: When has God’s protection felt “too gentle” for your crisis? How might His nurturing nearness be actively shielding you now?

Day 5: The Death That Became the Trap

Christ didn’t merely disable Satan’s snares – He let Himself be caught in them. The cross became the fowler’s net torn apart from inside, its barbs now hanging limp like broken teeth. Every trap since echoes with this subversion: what ensnares us first ensnared Him, and His escape route remains open. Refuge now lives in the Risen One whose scarred wings bear proof of both the battle and the victory. [40:48]

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.”
(Hebrews 2:14, ESV)

Reflection: How does Jesus’ entrapment free you to face current struggles? What “death machine” in your life bears His dismantling marks?

Sermon Summary

Psalm 91 is all about God’s protection. Psalm 91 piles up word after word for the way God protects his people: shield, fortress, refuge, rampart, rescue, salvation, protection. The word refuge names God as the safe place where trouble cannot finally tag his people. The image of home base says that safety is found by staying with him, because inside that refuge the hunted cannot be harmed.

The wildlife refuge picture makes that plain. Inside the borders, the birds are safe, because hunters cannot enter and harm them. The hunters right outside the refuge show the danger of wandering away. The birds cannot read maps, and over time they find out where danger begins. The wandering birds picture God’s people when sin, foolishness, or fear carries them outside the safe place God has given.

God is not like a piece of land that stays put. God comes and seeks the ones who have left his refuge. Like a shepherd seeking a sheep that has wandered away, God goes after his people, and wherever God goes, that is where the refuge is. God himself is the safe place.

The rampart image names God as the giant wall of a castle or fortress. A sword cannot break it, and a chariot cannot drive through it. The shield image brings that protection close, because arrows can still fly over a wall. God’s protection is holistic: God is the giant wall around his people, and God is also the shield held close to them. God protects communally, and God protects individually.

The most tender image in Psalm 91 is the bird. Under his wings, under his feathers, there is refuge. Jesus takes up that same picture when he calls himself a mother hen who longs to gather her chicks under her wings. The fowler image names the devil as the one who hunts and traps the birds, waiting outside the refuge to ensnare the ones who wander.

The bird image also points to the mystery of Christ. God’s people are made in God’s image, and Jesus comes into the world in human likeness. Jesus comes after the trapped birds, pries open the trap, and lets them go free. Then Jesus does the unthinkable: he allows himself to be ensnared, takes on Satan’s death machine, and dies. Jesus does not stay dead. Jesus rises from the grave and breaks Satan’s trap. The risen Christ invites his people back under his wings, back to home base, back behind the wall, back to the refuge where his protection is sure.

Key Takeaways

1. God is not fixed land. [35:41] God’s refuge is not a static place that can only wait for wanderers to return. God moves toward the ones who have left safety and gone into harm’s way. The comfort is not merely that a refuge exists, but that the refuge has legs, voice, mercy, and pursuit. [35:41]
2. Protection is wall and shield. [37:50] God’s protection is not thin or one-dimensional. The rampart speaks of a great defense around the whole people of God, while the shield speaks of nearness to the individual person under attack. God’s care is both wide enough for the village and close enough for the arrow aimed at one heart. [37:50]
3. Christ gathers wandering chicks home. [38:41] Jesus does not picture himself as cold stone or distant power, but as a mother hen longing to gather chicks under her wings. That image gives divine protection warmth, tenderness, and desire. The safety of Christ is not bare survival, but being drawn near to the heart of the one who wants his people close. [38:41]
4. Jesus breaks Satan’s trap. [40:33] The devil’s trap is not ignored, minimized, or treated as imaginary. Jesus enters the place of danger, opens the snare, and sets the trapped free. The cross looks like the trap closing on Christ, but the resurrection reveals the trap itself broken. [40:33]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[32:55] - Psalm 91 and God’s Protection
[33:55] - God as Refuge
[34:14] - Wildlife Refuge and Safety
[34:48] - Wandering Outside the Refuge
[35:41] - God Seeks the Wandering
[36:28] - God as Rampart
[37:50] - God as Shield
[38:09] - Under His Wings
[39:07] - The Fowler and His Traps
[39:57] - Jesus Takes Humanity’s Likeness
[40:33] - Christ Breaks Satan’s Trap
[41:19] - Invited Back Under His Wings

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Psalm 91:4
“He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.” [33:03]

Matthew 23:37
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” [38:41]

Luke 15:4-5
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.” [36:13]

Observation questions

In Psalm 91:4, what images are used to describe God’s protection, and what do those images suggest about the kind of safety he gives?
What details from the wildlife refuge picture help show the difference between being inside the refuge and wandering outside it? [34:14]
In Luke 15:4-5, what does the shepherd do when one sheep is lost, and how does that connect with the picture of God seeking those who have wandered? [36:13]
What two kinds of protection are pictured by the words “rampart” and “shield,” and how are they different from each other? [37:50]

Interpretation questions

Psalm 91 does not speak of protection in only one way. Why might it matter that God is called refuge, rampart, shield, and the one whose wings cover his people? What does each image add to the overall picture?
If God is not like a piece of land that stays put, but instead comes after those who have wandered, what does that show about his character and his mercy? [36:09]
Jesus speaks like a mother hen in Matthew 23:37. How does that image shape the way people should think about Christ’s protection—not just as power, but also as tenderness and desire to gather his people? [38:41]
Jesus allows himself to be ensnared and then rises to break Satan’s trap. How does that help explain what Christ has done for sinners who have wandered into danger? [40:33]

Application questions

Many people know what it is like to drift outside the refuge through sin, fear, foolishness, or simple neglect. Where does that kind of wandering show up most easily right now? [35:28]
God’s protection is both communal and personal—like a wall around his people and a shield close to one person. Where is there a need right now to receive both kinds of care: strength from the church as a whole and nearness from Christ personally? [37:50]
Jesus longs to gather his people under his wings. What tends to make a person unwilling to be gathered by him—pride, shame, distraction, self-reliance, anger, something else? [38:41]
The fowler sets traps outside the refuge. What traps seem especially believable or attractive right now, and how can they be recognized earlier before getting entangled? [39:07]
Jesus does not only wait for trapped people to fix themselves; he comes after them and opens the trap. Where is there a need to trust that Christ still seeks, frees, and restores those who have made a mess of things? [40:25]
“Under his wings” is a very warm and personal picture. What helps a person actually stay near to Christ during an anxious or tempting week instead of only agreeing in theory that he is a refuge? [41:06]
Home base is safe because the one who guards it is faithful. In the next few days, what would it look like in a concrete way to remain with Christ rather than stepping back out into places of spiritual danger? [41:10]

Sermon Clips

56s

“But Jesus does not stay dead. Jesus rises from the grave and breaks Satan's trap. And now risen from the dead, he invites us to come under his wings once again. He invites us to treat him as a safe place. He invites us to never leave home base, to never leave the refuge, but to always stay with him behind the wall, protected under his wings that act like the best shields in the entirety of the world. God is our refuge. God is our rampart. God is our shield. God is our protection in all of these different ways. And he invites you to come under his wings to be protected, to be with him, your refuge.”

40s

“But the difference between god as a refuge and a piece of land as a refuge is that the land doesn't move. The land stays where it is. The land cannot go seek the birds that have are in harm's way. They can just be there for them. But god is not a piece of land. God comes and seeks us when we leave his refuge. Like a shepherd seeking a sheep that has wandered away, god comes after us and seeks us and protects us.”

60s

“And like birds, we sometimes go outside the place that is safe. We sometimes run away from the refuge and find ourselves getting into trouble. We find ourselves outside of god's protection because we've left it. We've abandoned it. But the difference between god as a refuge and a piece of land as a refuge is that the land doesn't move. The land stays where it is. The land cannot go seek the birds that have are in harm's way. They can just be there for them. But god is not a piece of land. God comes and seeks us when we leave his refuge. Like a shepherd seeking a sheep that has wandered away, god comes after us and seeks us and protects us.”

80s

“That we are compared to birds and god is compared to birds, I find particularly interesting because it reminds us that we are made in god's image, That we are actually made to be in God's likeness, to be like him. And it reminds us also that Jesus came into our world to take on our likeness, to take on our humanity. And so even though we wander away from the Lord, even though we wander outside the refuge, outside the wall, outside without our shields and protection, and get ensnared by the fowler and trapped by the devil, Jesus comes after us. He pries open the trap and lets us go free. And then he does the unthinkable. He allows himself to be ensnared. He allows himself to be trapped by the devil. He takes on Satan's death machine and dies.”

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