Psalm 90 verse 4 - The protection of his wings

Scápulis suis obumbrábit tibi: et sub pennis ejus sperábis.

He will overshadow you with his shoulders: and under his wings you shall trust.

Verse 4 of Psalm 90 presents us with a challenge: rely on God, not ourselves, but rather to heed the message of the Gospel, and conform ourselves with it.

On the one hand, it speaks of the protection God offers to those who place his trust in him; but on the other, Our Lord’s citation of it in his lament before entering the city of Jerusalem for the last time reminds us how often we reject God’s help and those he sends to teach us, and trust in ourselves instead.

Looking at the Latin

The key vocabulary for the verse is:

scapulae, arum, f, the shoulders

obumbro, avi, atum, are, to overshadow, shield, protect, with dat.

penna, ae, feather,  wing.

spero, avi, atum, are, to hope or trust in

Accordingly, a word by word translation might be:

Scápulis (by/with the shoulders) suis (his) obumbrábit (he will protect/shield) tibi (you): * et (and) sub (under) pennis (the wings/feathers) ejus (his) sperábis (you will hope).

Strong's concordance for the Hebrew Masoretic Text gives the two key words as ebrâh, meaning feather or wing, and kânâph, meaning an edge or extremity, a wing, feather or border.  

The literal meaning of scapulis, though, is shoulders, reflecting the Greek.  

Given the use of pennis in the second phrase, the words is often translated less literally, implying a reference to the image of the eagle of Deuteronomy 32:11:

Like an eagle that rouseth its nest, And poiseth o'er its young ones, He spread out His wings, and took it.  And bore it on His pinions. He carried Israel, like an eagle, on His wings’

or the hen guarding her chicks of Matthew 23:37:

 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 

Most of the the twentieth century Latin and English translations chose to strengthen the reference to the protection of an eagle: the Neo-Vulgate renders it as ‘Alis suis obumbrabit tibi, et sub pennas eius confugies.  

But the Septuagint/Vulgate version could equally be read, as St Jerome acknowledged, as an allusion to the New Testament image of a hen guarding her chicks (cf Mt 23:37), which St Augustine preferred.  

Both the Coverdale and Knox translations hint at this alternative imagery:

DR	He will overshadow you with his shoulders: and under his wings you shall trust.
MD	With His pinions will He shelter thee, and under His wings though shalt be secure.
Brenton	He shall overshadow thee with his shoulders, and thou shalt trust under his wings:
RSV	he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge;
Coverdale	He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers;
Knox	His wings for refuge, nestle thou shalt under his care,
Grail	he will conceal you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge.

The protection of God's shoulders and wings

The allegory of God's shoulders and wings can be interpreted in a number of ways.

St Augustine pointed to the most important meaning, in the offer of God's protection:

The expression, between His shoulders, may be understood both in front and behind: for the shoulders are about the head; but in the words, you shall hope under His wings, it is clear that the protection of the wings of God expanded places you between His shoulders, so that God's wings on this side and that have you in the midst, where you shall not fear lest anyone hurt you: only be thou careful never to leave that spot, where no foe dares approach.

The key message of this verse, he suggests, is that we need to trust in God's grace, rather than rely on our own abilities:

He says this, that your protection may not be to you from yourself, that you may not imagine that you can defend yourself; He will defend you, to deliver you from the hunter's snare, and from an harsh word...If the hen defends her chickens beneath her wings; how much more shall you be safe beneath the wings of God, even against the devil and his angels, the powers who fly about in midair like hawks, to carry off the weak young one? For the comparison of the hen to the very Wisdom of God is not without ground; for Christ Himself, our Lord and Saviour, speaks of Himself as likened to a hen...If you consider other birds, brethren, you will find many that hatch their eggs, and keep their young warm: but none that weakens herself in sympathy with her chickens, as the hen does. We see swallows, sparrows, and storks outside their nests, without being able to decide whether they have young or no: but we know the hen to be a mother by the weakness of her voice, and the loosening of her feathers: she changes altogether from love for her chickens: she weakens herself because they are weak. Thus since we were weak, the Wisdom of God made Itself weak, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, John 1:14 that we might hope under His wings.

St Cassiodorus takes this idea a level further, linking the imagery more explicitly to the use of the text in the Gospels:

The Lord's shoulders are enactments of miracles, by means of which the divine power is demonstrated as though by the shoulders. His wings are the prophets' warnings, which if accepted with pure minds lead faithful souls ever to heaven.

Psalm 90: Qui habitat 

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Laus cantici David.	The praise of a canticle for David
Qui hábitat in adjutório Altíssimi, * in protectióne Dei cæli commorábitur.	He that dwells in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.
2  Dicet Dómino : Suscéptor meus es tu, et refúgium meum: * Deus meus sperábo in eum.	He shall say to the Lord: You are my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.
3 Quóniam ipse liberávit me de láqueo venántium, * et a verbo áspero.	For he has delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.
4  Scápulis suis obumbrábit tibi: * et sub pennis ejus sperábis.	He will overshadow you with his shoulders: and under his wings you shall trust.
5  Scuto circúmdabit te véritas ejus: * non timébis a timóre noctúrno.	His truth shall compass you with a shield: you shall not be afraid of the terror of the night.
6  A sagítta volánte in die, a negótio perambulánte in ténebris: * ab incúrsu et dæmónio meridiáno.	Of the arrow that flies in the day, of the business that walks about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.
7  Cadent a látere tuo mille, et decem míllia a dextris tuis: * ad te autem non appropinquábit.	A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand: but it shall not come near you.
8  Verúmtamen óculis tuis considerábis: * et retributiónem peccatórum vidébis.	But you shall consider with your eyes: and shall see the reward of the wicked.
9  Quóniam tu es, Dómine, spes mea: * Altíssimum posuísti refúgium tuum.	Because you, O Lord, are my hope: you have made the most High your refuge.
10  Non accédet ad te malum: * et flagéllum non appropinquábit tabernáculo tuo.	There shall no evil come to you: nor shall the scourge come near your dwelling.
11  Quóniam Angelis suis mandávit de te: * ut custódiant te in ómnibus viis tuis.	For he has given his angels charge over you; to keep you in all your ways.
12  In mánibus portábunt te: * ne forte offéndas ad lápidem pedem tuum.	In their hands they shall bear you up: lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13  Super áspidem et basilíscum ambulábis: * et conculcábis leónem et dracónem.	You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon.
14  Quóniam in me sperávit, liberábo eum: * prótegam eum quóniam cognóvit nomen meum.	Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he has known my name.
15  Clamábit ad me, et ego exáudiam eum : * cum ipso sum in tribulatióne : erípiam eum et glorificábo eum.	He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.
16  Longitúdine diérum replébo eum: * et osténdam illi salutáre meum.	I will fill him with length of days; and I will show him my salvation.

You can find the next part of this series here.