Psalms 91:4: “He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
It is interesting that in many species of birds both the male and female will cover their chicks with their feathers and wings. It is not just the mother bird. Hebrew has no neuter gender, everything is either male or female. So if we speak of rock which has a feminine ending we will call the rock an it not a her. Just because birds have a female and male gender and the word for feathers has a male pronominal ending does not mean we need to say his feathers. We can grammatical say its feathers.
I feel it is important to give this a neuter ending because this covering of God, like a bird, covering its young, should express both feminine and masculine concepts of covering. The female is often associated with caring, loving and nurturing where the male is often associated with protection, provision and discipline. When God covers it is not only to protect us, provide for us and sometimes to discipline us, it is also to show His caring, loving and nurturing for us.
The word here for feathers is ‘ebrah which is often associated with the feathers of a dove, although I have found it used to reference the feathers of an ostrich or eagle, but generally it is associated with a dove. This is interesting when you consider the habits of the dove. Both genders of the dove take turns sitting on the nest to hatch the eggs and when the eggs are hatched both will feed the young with what is called pigeon milk which both the male and female produce. Since the chicks have no feathers to protect them the parents will take turns sitting on the nest with the chicks covered over by their feathers. I once watched a dove family guarding the nest. The female or male, I could not tell which, just sat on the nest, motionless hour after hour, the only movement was an occasional blink of its eye. It sought no water or food for itself, it just remained motionless guarding its young. About midmorning the mate flew in and exchanges places so the other dove could take off for its break to get water and food. The mate just sat on the nest, also motionless, never moving to get a drink of water or some food, just that occasional blink of the eye. For twenty four hours the happy couple guarded their young, never letting anything divert their attention to the welfare of their young.
I think it is fitting that as the Psalmist follows the bird motif of Psalm 91 that he would reference the protection of its feathers. It takes two birds working in two shifts to guard their young but it takes only one God to lovingly watch over us 24/7. We have His undivided attention, He will not move from his guard post, we are under His constant surveillance. If there is any threat out there it has to go through Him before it ever reaches us.
It is interesting that this word ‘ebrah for feathers comes from the Semitic root word ‘eber which means the feathers of a dove. However, it is rooted in the Akkadian word ‘abaru which is the word for being firm, fixed, strong, immoveable. Hence I believe this word has its emphasis on not just the feathers of the dove but is a picture of the dove covering its young with its feathers and sitting over them, protecting them, being firmly planted over them and immoveable. Jewish sages apply this word to the idea of covering for protection.
Rabbi Samson Hirsch related this word to the idea of a covering and concealing, hiding away. This creates the poetic connection to verse one where the Psalmist speaks of the secret place of the Lord dwelling in the shadow (of his wings) of the Almighty. Yet, Samson Hirsch also relates ‘eber to barar which means to cleanse and purify which poetically relates back to verse two and the reference to the chasah or refuge which also means an atonement. In fact this verse goes on to say that under his kanaph (another word for wings but more with the idea of wings spread out to be a covering rather for protection) we will find chasah a refuge or atonement.
The Talmud teaches that there are no synonyms in Hebrew so if you have two entirely different words which mean the same thing, they do not mean the same thing. There has to be some difference. The ‘eber is rendered as wings and the word kanaph is also rendered as wings. There must be some difference between the two. Kanaph has the idea of a skirt or the corner of a garment that flaps in the wind. Thus this has the idea of a flapping of the wings.
It is under the flapping of His wings that we take refuge or find our atonement. I know some translations render the word chasah (refuge) as trust. I believe this is appropriate because our refuge and atonement is all based upon our trust in God. However, chasah is really the idea of a refuge and atonement with trust as the key to its realty of this refuge and atonement in our lives.
Kanaph which has the idea of the flapping of wings comes from an old Persian word which has the idea of guards thrusting the people or objects they are protecting into corner and then spreading their arms around the individuals or objects placing themselves as a human shield for their protection.
So we not only have a picture of God covering us and concealing us from danger, if that danger does approach and discover us He will put us in a corner, spread His arms around us and be a Godly shield to protect us from that danger as it comes. I read in Jewish literature where kanaph has the idea of concealing from view. If an enemy approaches us, all he will see is God standing there, he will not see us.
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