The Shelter Of Your Wings

Album: Found (2012)

Songfacts®:

  • As drummer for the top-selling group Hootie & the Blowfish, Jim Sonefeld seemed to outsiders to have all: money, fame and notoriety. However, road life involved an extreme partying lifestyle, and Sonefeld found himself relying heavily on alcohol and drugs. At the height of his career and the peak of his addiction, the stickman was struggling to hold his personal life together and in 2004 the drummer entered a 12-step program as a last-ditch effort to find some peace of mind in his life. The program proved not only to be the stimulus Sonefeld needed to ditch his addictions, but it also became the catalyst that ignited the stickman's relationship with Christ.

    In 2008 Hootie & the Blowfish collectively decided to come off the road and take a break from touring, and Sonefeld's second wife - a strong Christian - encouraged him to pen music about the faith that had pulled him out of his darkest hour. The songs poured out and he culled five of the best tunes and created his debut EP Found. "The Shelter Of Your Wings" is the lead single from that set.
  • The song's lyrics are taken directly from Scripture: Psalm 61 verse 4, which reads: "I long to dwell in your tent forever, and take refuge in the shelter of your wings."

    "I can't imagine living anywhere else but in the shelter of His wings," said Sonefeld in reference to the song. "I surrender to Him every [morning] that He would shelter me."

    "Morning, in particular, has taken on a new meaning in sobriety," he continued. "It was something that was a painful scenario at best - waking up every morning either hung-over or just bleary-eyed. So morning has become something way more beautiful to me in my sober life… The sunrise [comes] up, and that's His offering every day if I choose it."

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