Tag: refuge

Categories
Acts Devotionals

Stand by me

A few months ago, in one of the junior high school English classes that I teach, we had a lesson about the song “Stand by Me.”

I suppose that’s why that song popped up in my head as I read these words:

The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage!” (Acts 23:11)

Of course, there’s no way Paul was singing, “Stand by me” that night. But some of the lyrics in that song are based on Psalm 46, and it’s possible that Paul was singing those words that night.

God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble.

Therefore we will not be afraid,
though the earth trembles
and the mountains topple
into the depths of the seas
though its water roars and foams
and the mountains quake with its turmoil. (Psalm 46:1-3)

So to borrow Ben E. King’s words,

Lord, I won’t be afraid.
No, I won’t be afraid.
Just as long as you stand by me.

Categories
Psalms Devotionals

Though our world seems to be falling down around us

Psalms

God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble.

Therefore we will not be afraid (Psalm 46:1-2)

How often do we face situations in our lives where we are afraid?

We’re afraid because life seems crazy and out of control.

Or as the psalmist puts it,

the earth trembles
and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas,,,
its water roars and foams
and the mountains quake with its turmoil. (2b-3)

Do you ever feel like the world is like that? Do you ever feel your life is like that?

But the psalmist says in the midst of all the chaos, “We will not be afraid.”

Not because we are strong enough to handle it all. But because we have someone who is far greater than our problems, a Helper who is always found in times of trouble.

And it is because of Him, not because of how strong we are in ourselves, but because of Him, that we will not be afraid.

The psalmist continues,

There is a river—
its streams delight the city of God,
the holy dwelling place of the Most High.

God is within her; she will not be toppled.
God will help her when the morning dawns. (4-5)

The psalmist speaks here of Jerusalem, but it strikes me that as Christians, we ourselves are now the holy dwelling of the Most High.

God dwells within us, and streams of Living Water, the Holy Spirit himself flows within us to refresh and strengthen us. (John 7:38-39)

And because of this, we will not be toppled no matter what happens. God will help us. As Jeremiah wrote,

his mercies never end.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness! (Lamentations 3:22-23)

So often we struggle against our circumstances as if God has left us to flail around on our own.

But God says, “Stop fighting. Stop striving. Be still. Know that I am God.” (10)

So let us exalt him in our lives, as all the earth someday will. (11)

And remember,

The LORD of Armies is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold. (11)

Categories
1 Samuel Devotionals Psalms Devotionals

Stop fighting!

Be still

As I was looking at these two passages today, I saw a connection there.

Here is David running for his life from Saul. But as he did, he found what the author of Psalm 46 discovered.

God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble. (Psalm 46:1)

What do we make of what happened to Saul at the end of 1 Samuel 19? Perhaps it was God’s way of saying to him,

“Stop your fighting, and know that I am God,
exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

God humbled Saul that day. Yet Saul never stopped fighting God.

Had Saul ever stopped struggling against God, he would have found peace. He would have found that God is our refuge and strength. Instead, he constantly lived in fear, sinned greatly because of it, and eventually perished.

As I think back to my last blog, I can’t help but draw parallels between Jacob and Saul.

Like Saul, Jacob struggled to say, “My God.”

Like Saul, Jacob struggled against God.

But unlike Saul, Jacob learned to stop fighting God, and to follow after him. As a result, he ultimately found peace.

How about you? Are you still fighting God, doing things your own way, living only for yourself?

Or do you look at him and say, “You are my God. You are the one I trust”?

If we will do so, we too will find that,

The Lord of Armies is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold. (Psalm 46:11)

Categories
Psalms

The God who is where we are

Psalms

In Psalm 61, it seems that David is once again on the run.  Apparently, he was already king at this time, so it’s likely that he wrote it when he was in exile during the time of Absalom’s rebellion.

And he cries out,

Hear my cry, O God;
listen to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint (Psalm 61:1-2)

That second stanza strikes me.  “From the ends of the earth I call to you.”

Obviously he wasn’t at the literal ends of the earth.  But David was far from home, and far from the tabernacle that he loved.

Yet he knew it didn’t matter where he was.  God would hear him.  And so in his distress, he cried out to God, saying,

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe.

I long to dwell in your tent forever
and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.  (2b-4)

In other words, “I find my safety in you.  And I long for your presence.  But right now, you seem out of reach.  Please lead me to yourself.”

How many times do we feel the same way?  We feel abandoned.  We know our safety is in God, but he seems far away.

Sometimes like David, in our desperation, we make vows to God, saying, “If only you’ll hear and help me, I’ll do this or that.”

It’s important to keep those vows if we make them, but it’s even more important to know that they are unnecessary.  That we have a heritage from God that comes by grace, and that is available to all who fear and love him.

A heritage of hope and peace in the midst of trouble.

A heritage in which God calls us his children and in which he promises to answer our call.

And a heritage in which we will reign with Christ forever someday.  (2 Timothy 2:12)

So when we are in trouble, when God seems far away, let us remember these things.  He’s much closer than we imagine.

By His Spirit, he will lead us to the Rock that is higher than we are, and from that high place, we will see all our troubles for the specks of dust that they really are.

And when we do, as David said, we will ever sing in praise of his name.  (61:8)

Categories
Zechariah

The God who watches over all

Zechariah

This passage starts with the people’s eyes upon the Lord, looking to see what he would do.

And here we see how God would bring Alexander the Great to bring judgment upon Syria, Tyre and Sidon, and Philistia.

The prophecies here detail the route Alexander took in his campaigns. He started with Hadrach (probably a place in Syria) and Damascus. Then he conquered Tyre and Sidon.

Tyre had been a place that even the Assyrians and Babylonians could not conquer, despite sieges of five and thirteen years respectively. But Alexander managed to conquer it within seven months.

Alexander then went on to conquer the Philistines (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Ashdod were all cities there).

He ended the Philistine monarchy, and depopulated the cities before bringing in other people to live there in the Philistines’ place.

But then it says in verse 8,

But I will encamp at my temple to guard it against marauding forces.

Never again will an oppressor overrun my people, for now I am keeping watch. (Zechariah 9:8)

In the midst of Alexander’s campaigns, Jerusalem was spared.

Josephus tells the account of how God appeared to the high priest in a dream and told him not to fear but to open the city gates and to go meet Alexander when he came.

The high priest went out with purple and gold clothing, while the rest of the priests went out in white linen.

When they did, Alexander approached the high priest, and kissed the name of God that was on the golden plate that was on the priest’s headpiece.

When asked why he did so, he said that he had had a dream in which he had seen a person wearing the same clothing bidding him to cross Asia and conquer the Persian empire.

Alexander then allowed the Jews to keep living according to their own laws, and also made them exempt from taxes every seven years.

What can we get from this? God is truly the one who watches over all and is in control.

To those who defy him will eventually come judgment. But to those who humble themselves before him, he will protect them.

He did so for the Jews and he will do so for us. As David wrote,

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:7–8)