Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
Psalm 91:3-4 (NKJV)
There are two metaphors in these verses, the first is as a mother bird gathering her brood underneath her wings, and the second as a shield and a buckler.
A mother hen will protect her chicks at all costs. When in danger she shelters them with her fragile wings. She shelters her little ones from the burning heat, rain, and cold by bearing the harsh elements herself.
The other metaphor is as a shield and a buckler. In biblical times, a shield was a massive piece of armor that covered a large portion of the torso. A buckler was a small round shield to be used quickly in battle.
The vision of God being compared as a mother hen, and as a shield and buckler reflect how He can be warm and caring and also fierce and powerful. God is a loving Father who has compassion for us and who is also our protector.
He protects us from the hunter and the fowler, or in other words, from things that would harm or try to destroy us.
Let Him shelter you under His wings today and every day.
"I have complete confidence that God is able to take care of any situation and provide an answer to any question or problem - He has all the resources of the universe to draw upon in helping each one of us through any type of crisis if we will trust Him." Charles Stanley