GOD OUR REFUGE | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 20, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 40.

GOD OUR REFUGE.

HAPPY is everyone that seeks and finds this refuge. What does the word of God say concerning it? Hear Moses speak at the close of life: "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Listen to the song of David "in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies." He said: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." When wickedness prevails, and the righteous are tried on account of it, Jeremiah speaks to us of comfort out of his own experience: "O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction." Isaiah, contemplating the spiritual church of the future, predicts her glorious security: "And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defense. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."

The best of all is, these words may be adapted by everyone to daily life. Are we pursued by secret and powerful foes? We do find that "the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Does our work sometimes oppress us? We always find that "God is our strength," as well as refuge. His strength is the strength of the "everlasting arms." When we are shown "great and sore troubles," and imagine that our God is far distant from us, then he proves to us that he is, indeed, "a very present help." As this word implies—he is a help already found, though we may not realize it at the time.

So it was with the psalmist. He had struggled long with a difficult problem, namely, the apparent inequalities of God's Government. "His feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped." But during all those dark hours he came to see that God's help had never been denied him; "nevertheless, I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand."

Let it be, therefore, the joy of everyone to say, "Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort; thou hast given commandment to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress." Let it be the glad song of our life, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in him will I trust." Matthew Henry said, truthfully: "If Jehovah be our God, our refuge, and our fortress, what can we desire which we may not be sure to find in him? He is neither fickle nor false nor weak nor mortal; he is God and not man, and therefore there is no danger of being disappointed in him." Let the whole earth be filled with Luther's sacred anthem:—

"A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper he, amid the flood, Our mortal ills prevailing."

"Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing; Were not the right Man on our side, The Man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth is his name, From age to age the same, And he must win the battle."

—Christian Advocate.