Saturday, July 21, 2018
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength . . .
LET ME HIDE MYSELF IN THEE
The water began rising. The man was forced to climb up the rocky side of the gorge. His hands groped for something to hold. He slipped back several times. With all his strength he gradually inched his way upward. All of a sudden his hand felt a vertical opening in a huge rock. The opening became wider. There was room for his upper body, then for his entire body. He wedged himself into the split rock, and there found shelter from the fierce storm, high enough above the raging water to be completely safe. There he waited out the storm.
The man was a Christian clergyman. He had been praying during this whole ordeal. Now resting in the security of the split rock, words began to come to him -- words which, when he arrived home, he would put on paper for all the world to sing. The man's name was Augustus Toplady, the year was 1776. And the famous words were those of the hymn "Rock Of Ages, Cleft For Me."
The hymn points us to our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the 46th Psalm, our Refuge and Strength, our Mighty Fortress. As the hymn says, we have no other refuge. We need no other. His side was split (riven) so that we might hide in the wounds made there on the cross, where He suffered for our sins.
Every time we come to church we come to hide in the Gospel. Every time we have our home or personal devotions, we run and hide in Christ. Every time we preach or teach or tell the Good News, we are telling people there is a place to hide. Every time we pray, basing our prayer on a Gospel verse, we hide in the only safe place there is.
What a comfort, in life and in death. Thanks be to our saving God.
-- From the "Lutheran Spokesman"
