When it is said
It is the troparion of the feast of the archangels Michael and Gabriel and all the bodiless powers of heaven, kept on 8 November.
Each day of the week has its own hymns, and Monday’s are to the angels, so prayer books print this troparion for every Monday.
Where it comes from
No author known
Commanders of heaven’s armies
The hymn calls the archangels archistrategoi, the Greek word for the commanders-in-chief of an army. The Greek Bible uses the same word in Joshua 5:14, where the one who meets Joshua calls himself commander of the Lord’s army, and Joshua falls face down before him.
Greek Menaion, 8 November; Joshua 5:14
The shelter of wings
The hymn borrows a picture from the psalms. In Psalm 17:8 David asks God to “hide me in the shadow of Your wings,” and the hymn’s phrase “the shelter of the wings” is the Greek Bible’s wording of that verse. Here the archangels are asked to wall us around by their prayers, under the wings of their glory.
Psalm 17:8
The Scripture in it
Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings
“Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as Commander of the LORD’s army.” Then Joshua fell facedown in reverence and asked Him, “What does my Lord have to say to His servant?”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Τῶν οὐρανίων στρατιῶν Ἀρχιστράτηγοι,
δυσωποῦμεν ὑμᾶς ἡμεῖς οἱ ἀνάξιοι,
ἵνα ταῖς ὑμῶν δεήσεσι, τειχίσητε ἡμᾶς,
σκέπῃ τῶν πτερύγων, τῆς ἀΰλου ὑμῶν δόξης,
φρουροῦντες ἡμᾶς προσπίπτοντας, ἐκτενῶς καὶ βοῶντας·
Ἐκ τῶν κινδύνων λυτρώσασθε ἡμᾶς,
ὡς Ταξιάρχαι τῶν ἄνω Δυνάμεων.