Psalms 36:7: “How excellent is your lovingkindness O’ God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.”

“Who know what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows!”  Lamont Cranston – The Shadow.

Salal is a Hebrew word that has haunted me for many years.  There are a few words in the Hebrew that I have spent a lifetime meditating on.  Two are found in this verse, chasad for lovingkindness and salal for shadow.  My father used to always quote the words of Lamont Cranston, the main character in The Shadow series: “The Shadow knows.”  So maybe that started my thinking about the word salal (shadow), does it really mean all that we think it means?  What does it mean to put our trust under the shadow of God’s wings.  Would it not be better to be covered by His wings.  When preachers speak of being under the shadow of God’s wings they always tell that story of the mother bird discovered by a forest ranger after a fire standing like a statute burnt to a crisp and when he moved the bird little chicks come running out underneath her wings.  Heartwarming but not a good illustration for the shadow of His wings in this verse.  Those little chicks were not covered by the shadow of the mother’s wings but were actually covered by the mother’s wings. In this verse we learn that we are not covered by his wings but only by the shadow of His wings.

The word shadow  as found in this verse is besal.  The Masoretes pointed this up so that the Beth  is a preposition and the root word would be salal.   Yet, there are rabbis who would argue that the root word really is basal and the Beth is not a preposition. Basal which is another word which has often been rendered as shadow. This word, however,  has the idea of nakedness, stripping off or peeling off like the layers of an onion.  In its Semitic root basal has the idea of tingling or quivering lips. In other words to shiver in the cold which is what happens if you are stripped naked.  It developed a later meaning of  being shaded or dark.  This evolved from the idea that when one is cold he feels a tingling sensation or quivering sensation. The shade lowers the temperature as well as makes things a little darker.  Later the word eventually took on the idea of a shadow.   A salal is simply a shadow, but a basal has a much richer idea of a shadow.

So what could David had been thinking when he used the illustration of being in the shadow of God’s wings?   The word wings is kanaph which means not much more than wings.  In its Semitic origins, however,  it is a word for the sound the bird makes when he flaps his wings which sounds almost like speaking but with unintelligible words.  Thus, the word has been related to niggums.  A niggum is the singing of nonsensical words.  The purpose in singing nonsensical words is to block out your flesh and allow your spirit to speak in purity to God’s Spirit.  Don’t laugh, I know some of you speak in tongues and are you not trying to accomplish the same thing?  I’ve heard some even refer to it as praying in the Spirit.   Traditionally among Jewish sages wings are a symbol of divine knowledge.  I’m going somewhere with this – I think.

Years ago I ran across a set of tapes at the library which were recordings of the old radio series called “The Shadow.” After hearing my father quote the famous words of The Shadow, “The Shadow knows.”  I was hooked and listened to the entire series on tape.  The Shadow was about a  crime fighter who appeared in pulp fiction around 1930.  He had the ability to cloud men’s minds so that he would be invisible to them.  The idea came from a trick that the magician Denninger  performed where he was able to make himself appear several feet from where he really stood.   He would even have someone take a pistol and shoot at him where the person thought he stood.  The gunman only discovered he was shooting at Denninger’s shadow.

So let’s ponder this idea of a shadow.  David is saying it is not him but his trust is “in the shadow of his wings.”  If I use the Beth as a preposition we would render that as in, then my trust is “in the shadow.”   If wings represents the Divine knowledge, then my trust is in the shadow of God’s knowledge.  That means that when the enemy tries to attack my trust in God with his lies, trying to create fear in me by questioning whether God will take care of me, he is attacking only a shadow and like “The Shadow” crime fighter I can just let out a sinister laugh and dare him to keep trying to shoot down my trust in God with his lies.  But with each shot God just moves away and the enemy keeps shooting His shadow doing no harm.

I wonder too if maybe David intended for a double meaning with the dual root of basal which means to peel like an onion.   As the enemy keeps taking his pot shots at the shadow of my trust and my true trust lies within God’s wings or Divine knowledge, I stand there singing a niggum exposing my true heart to God.  His knowledge is removing layer after layer of all my defenses, pride, self-righteousness etc.  I am being peeled backed like an onion to expose a pure heart to God.

So putting my trust in the shadow of His wings for me is to put my trust in the Divine knowledge of God. Resting in His Divine knowledge and promises, the enemy will try and attack my trust but he will only be attacking a shadow and my trust is untouched by the enemy.   However, in this process as I sing my niggum to God He is revealing my true heart.  “Who knows what lurks in the heart of men, The Shadow of His wings knows.”