Psalm 17

"hide me in the shadow of your wings"

Here is one of those maternal images of God found in Scripture, God as a mother bird protecting her chicks under her wings. Jesus uses the image as he approaches Jerusalem for the last time:

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings."

Psychologists call this "God imagery," the different images we use to describe God and God's love. And while God is never directly addressed as "mother" in the Bible, maternal imagery is found throughout Scripture. Two beautiful passages are found in Isaiah 66 and 49:

For this is what the Lord says:

"I will make peace flow to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flood;
you will nurse and be carried on her hip
and bounced on her lap.
As a mother comforts her son,
so I will comfort you,
and you will be comforted in Jerusalem."

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Zion says, “The Lord has abandoned me;
the Lord has forgotten me!”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you."