Tuesday: The Lord Is a Refuge in Adversity

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 23rd of January 2024

Read Psalms 17:7-9, Psalms 31:1-3, and Psalms 91:2-7. What does the psalmist do in times of trouble?

The psalmist encounters various sorts of troubles and, in them, turns to the Lord, who is a refuge in every adversity. Trust is a deliberate choice to acknowledge God’s lordship over one’s life in all circumstances. If trust does not work in adversity, then it will not work anywhere.

Image © Graham Braddock at Goodsalt.com

The psalmist’s testimony, “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust’ ” (Psalms 91:2, NKJV), springs from his past experience with God and now serves to strengthen his faith for the future. The psalmist calls God the Most High and the Almighty (Psalms 91:1-2), remembering the surpassing greatness of his God.

The psalmist also tells of the security that one can find in God: the “secret place” (“shelter” or “hiding place”), “shadow” (Psalms 91:1), “refuge,” “fortress” (Psalms 91:2), “wings,” “shield,” “buckler” (Psalms 91:4), and “dwelling place” (Psalms 91:9, NKJV). These images represent safe havens in the psalmist’s culture. One needs only to think of the unbearable heat of the sun in that part of the world in order to appreciate the shadow (or shade) or to recall the times of wars in Israel’s history in order to value the security provided by the shield or the fortress.

Read Psalms 17:8 and Matthew 23:37. What image is used here, and what does it reveal?

One of the most intimate metaphors is the one that refers to being “under the shadow of Your wings” (Psalms 17:8, Psalms 57:1, Psalms 63:7, NKJV). This metaphor elicits comfort and assurance by implying the protection of a mother bird. The Lord is compared to an eagle who guards its young with its wings (Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11) and to a hen who gathers her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37).

How, though, do we deal with the times when calamity strikes, and we can’t seem to see the Lord’s protection? Why do these traumas not mean that the Lord is not there with us?