ON THE VANGUARD

SAFETY ZONE
“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

Are you the kind of person who likes to live life on the edge? Honestly, I am not. Don’t get me wrong, I will step out and take a few chances, but overall I am the kind of person who likes to live safely. While I think parachuting out of a plane would be fun, I would pass on the chance to bungee jump. While I live for the excitement of a rollercoaster, I have cut back over the years as to how far the drop is. I say all this today because in some ways it fits with our next portion of dissecting Psalm 91. It is in verses 3 and 4 that we read of a safety zone found for those who dwell and rest in God. That said, let’s take a look.
I first want to define the word ‘fowler’. This honestly isn’t a word we use much, or at least I do not use much. In the Hebrew the word is YAQUWSH, meaning the trapper or bait-layer. It is God who will save us, NATSAL, rescue, snatch us away, or recover us, from the bait-layer’s PACH, trap or plot. I don’t know about you, but I know I grow weary of having to dodge so many of the enemy’s traps that lay in my normal path. Any bit of saving I can have to snatch me when I do get caught, or move me away from being trapped, I will gladly take! And what is more, He also snatches us away from the deadly pestilence, which in the Hebrew is HAVVAH, meaning perverse or wicked, DEBER, meaning plague or disease. To give you an understanding of the term ‘deber’, when we read of the plagues that fell on Egypt when Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, we read of the plague of cattle and livestock death. This is ‘deber’, a cattle disease or plague. How awesome to know that just as with the Israelites who were protected in Goshen, so we are protected from this plague under God’s covering.
Next we see that God will cover us with His feathers, and under His wings is refuge. Please note, God is not a bird. Hopefully you knew that already. But, like one who protects, we are covered, CAKAK, meaning fenced around, kept safe from the one approaching, or hedged, by His feathers. The translation of ‘feathers’ is ‘EBRAH, and this term translates as His wing. This wing is different than the next wing, though, as that is translated from the Hebrew word KANAPH, meaning border, edge, corner, or shirt. In essence, we are fenced in so that the evil one cannot approach us by His wing, and under the corners of His garment we find refuge. Was it not said in Malachi 4:2 that healing, health, and curing, MARPE’, would be found in His KANAPH. It all begins to fit together.
Lastly for today, though, we read His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. His faithfulness is translated from the word ‘EMETH, meaning a truth or reliability. Because we can constantly bank on God, we can also know Him as our shield and rampart. We make think of a shield as that metal protection a soldier would hold to protect them from arrows and swords, but this word is TSINNAH, and it means something piercing or hooking as well as a metal shield. The term rampart is COCHERAH, meaning shield or buckler, buckler derived from the French word bouclier, meaning shield. Here we see that God’s truth is our protection, but also our weapon. With the truthful words of God, Jesus defeated the devil when tempted in the desert. The Word became the protection and the weapon for Jesus, and in declaring this Psalm it serves the same for us.
Are we tired yet of the devil and his schemes? Then let us find our safety zone in God. He will protect us from the evils thrown at us, and His truth will prove as our protection and weapon if we allow it. Let us boldly declare the truth of this psalm and we battle under god’s protection and in His army.