One Refuge

As followers of Christ we are to have one refuge and one refuge alone. God. The psalmist makes this point in Ps 91.2: "I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust." There it is, the whole Christian life summed up in one verse. God is our refuge. God is our salvation. We will trust in God. And nothing else.

God is...

According to Ps. 46.1, "our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (KJV). I love the simplicity of that statement. God is; not God and; or "put anything else here." When we have trouble—and we will have trouble—our refuge is not our bank account or our wisdom or intelligence, God is our refuge when our world falls apart. He is our solace when we get that nasty medical diagnosis. He remains when our financial world crumbles.

And that...we find out, is all that we really need. Him.

God is Good...Trouble Comes

I find it interesting how Nahum juxtaposes God's goodness with trouble coming in Nahum 1.7: "The Lord is good; a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him." Nahum saw no difficulty in the fact that God is good, and that he allows trouble to come into the lives of those who trust in him (actually he allows trouble to come into the lives of all people). We sometimes connect God's goodness to no trouble, the Scriptures never do. In this way the Scriptures face reality much better than we do. They obviously see no paradox between God's goodness and men's troubles. In other words it is quite obvious from the Scriptures that God is both good and he allows troubles to enter into men's lives. He does this for many reasons, some that make sense to us, and some that we cannot fathom, which is to be expected. He is God; we are not.

The second part of the verse is the one to hang onto here. God is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to all who trust in him. Are you in trouble? Do you trust in God? Then he is close to you. That's what you need to know. That is what you need to hang onto. That is enough.

Prayer: O Lord God may I understand deeply that it is exactly at the point of trouble and difficulty that you are most present; that your refuge is the strongest; that you are most demonstrating your goodness to us.