Chapter 9
Under His Wings
Dear reader, for a few minutes let’s you and me look at the thirty-sixth psalm and seventh and eighth verses: “How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.”
Here we have everything that we need to make us happy as we journey through this world. First, we notice that we are to have God’s love and kindness. In the second place we are to abide in the shadow of God’s wing. Just think how secure a man is if he is under the wings of the Almighty. There is not a devil in the pit or out of it that could get on the top of a building at night and throw a brickbat off on the man’s head if he is under God’s wing. That is the best protection that a man could have in the whole wide, wide world. Third, we notice that a man shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God’s house. Here we have the abundance of fat things, which means spiritual food, spiritual protection, thank God! The abiding Comforter, the Holy Ghost! It means that God will touch our hearts and we will love right; He will touch our brains and we will think right; He will touch our eyes and we will see right; He will touch our ears and we will hear right. All that is included in a house of fat things. In the fourth place we notice that we are to drink out of a river of pleasure.
We know today that the world has gone pleasure-mad. There is no scheme that hell can concoct to entertain a lost world that the devil hasn’t pulled off during this generation, and sorry to say, he has not only captured the world as we see them in their mad rush seeking pleasure, but he has actually invaded the house of God and has well-nigh captured both pulpit and pew. Series of lectures are put on now in the great churches sometimes running for two weeks on such subjects as “Government Ownership,” “Five Cents’ Worth of Beef Liver,” “One Feather from the Tail of the Dog That Flew at the Tramp.” “Will the Future Woman Marry?” Such degrading subjects along now with the moving picture reels are taking the place of the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. When the church members can’t find as much frolicking going on at the church as they desire, they even go to places that are very, very questionable. There is a kind of shadow that hangs over such places that would make a saint tremble in his soul to be found there, but cold, dead, formal church members are often seen around such questionable places. For six thousand years they have been on such searches for pleasure but will never overtake it, but will die on the trail, and many without God. Just think of it, God has said that His people will drink out of a river of pleasure. I judge that the real meaning of this statement is that God will give His people such quantities of satisfaction that He even compares it to a river. This is said by some to be satisfied satisfaction. For He has just said that we will be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of His house, and then He adds, “and drinking out of a river of pleasure,” which is without a doubt the best condition a soul could be in, in this world.