God is our Refuge (Psalm 16 Devotional)
“Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take my refuge.” – Psalm 16:1
There is a story of a young Marine in World War II. He got separated from his unit and saw the Japanese enemy approaching. He ran for his life, and quickly found a shallow cave on the volcanic island and jumped into it to hide. Soon the area was swarming with enemy searching to kill any American soldiers they found. He immediately recognized that he had made a serious mistake and that, when he was discovered, the cave he took for shelter would soon become his grave. He bowed his head and began to pray, “Lord, please protect me.”
Some time passed and he could hear the enemy searching caves nearby. Then he heard enemy voices approaching his cave and he prepared for his final fight. But when he looked up out of his shallow cave, he noticed something odd. A spider had woven a web across the mouth of the cave. He could clearly see the enemy but saw them walk right past his position. Hidden in the dark of the cave, the enemy only saw the spider web, and did not see him. He was able to make his way back to his unit under the darkness of night. He knew that God had spared his life that day, but he never forgot that death had been only 0.001 millimeters away--the thickness of a spider web.
We have no promise for tomorrow. We have no promise for our next breath. We have no promise that life will be easy. Scripture is clear that the opposite will often be true.
But we do have some amazing promises in His Word. We have promises that God will never leave us or forsake us. We have promises that He will work all things for our good. We have promises that He will not let us go through more than we can bear.
Those are promises in which we can take great comfort. Our God is with us, He is for us, He is sovereign, and we can fully trust ourselves to His care. That WWII soldier walked away from his ordeal with a whole new understanding of the words in Psalm 91. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”
We have a God Who can protect us and shelter us. In Him we can find our only true security.
Questions for Thought:
Have you ever had a close brush with death?
Looking back, can you see God’s hand in it?
What do God’s promises say about our security?
