WINGS OF MERCY

“How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your WINGS” – Psalm 36:7

Some of the Bible’s most vivid portraits of divine love derive from the ways of birds, an example being “the WINGS OF MERCY”! The striking figure of a bird sheltering her young under her wings is consistent in the Scriptures, depicting Mercy: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your WINGS I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by (Psa.57:1). God assured Israel: “As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her WINGS: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him” (Dt. 32:11-12).

As Boaz welcomed Ruth from her heathen home to the land of Israel, he called her attention to “the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you are come to trust” (Ruth 2:12). The Psalmist consistently contemplated the Wings of Mercy: “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your WINGS” (Psa.17:8); “I will trust in the shelter of Your WINGS” (Psa.61:4b); “He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His WINGS you shall take refuge…” (Psa.91:4). The Lord Jesus lamented over Israel, with much pain in His heart: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her WINGS, but you were not willing!” (Mt.23:37).

The Wings of God are WINGS of MERCY – of kindness to the undeserving – a place for penitent sinners, not the self-righteous. Perhaps if we look closely, we would find the Blood of the Saviour on the Wings of Mercy, even as Love suffered for us! Some birds, when guarding their young, put their own bodies between them and the danger, receiving the stroke meant to destroy their offspring. Likewise, Jesus was wounded and slain for our sins. His gentle hands hold the scars. His sacred feet that took Him on many errands of love bear wound-prints in them! By His side, over His heart which throbs with tenderness is a spear-wound. Jesus interposed His own blessed body to receive the stripes that would have fallen upon us. He received the wounds to save us (Isa.53:5a).

The Wings of Mercy are infinitely broad and wide-spreading to cover the Blood-bought brood of countless souls saved since time began till time shall last under His blessed shelter – with room left! Malachi prophesied of the coming Messiah – the Sun of Righteousness – with spreading beams like wings of healing (Mal.4:2). The Wings of Mercy spread over every spot on earth, in which is a penitent, weary or lost soul. His wings reach out to the sinning, sorrowing, failing and fallen. His love is as wide as the human race and as free as the sunshine. No sinner has fallen so low but that the wings of God can reach out over him. There is room for all under the Wings of Mercy: little lads, vibrant youth, and feeble aged; the poor and the rich; the wise and the ignorant, the weak and the strong, the healthy and the invalid, life's victors and the defeated, the gentle and innocent, and the worst sinners.

The Wings of Mercy are gentle and tender, like a mother’s love-embrace, intimate attention, and shelter from life's harsh storms. More than the feathers of a bird, God’s Love and Tender Mercies are gentler than the fondest human gentleness. The world rarely offers more coldness than comfort, but the gentleness of God is over all who will nestle beneath it, and it never lacks in tenderness.

Psalm 36 reveals four blessings that are found under God’s Wings of Mercy: Satisfaction – “They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house” (v.8a); Joy – “You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures” (v.8b); Life – “With you is the fountain of life” (v.9a); and Light – “in Your light we see light” (v.9b). May these marvellous blessings and much more be our portions under the Wings of Mercy!