AP

Psalm 55:4-8  My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.  Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.  And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah.  I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”

I love the Psalms of David.  I love the King’s honesty in expressing the deep feelings of his heart without losing his deep trust in the Sovereign grace of God guiding his life and sustaining him.  I ask myself, in the light of this, how often am I feeling totally overwhelmed by the strange Providence of God in my life, and in the privacy of my heart, crying, “Stop the world, I want to get off” (a colloquial version of “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest;”), while publicly displaying a stoic ‘stiff upper lip’ so that I give the impression that my faith and trust are stronger than they really are?

Although many Psalms of David like 23, 42/43, etc, make it clear that David was always anticipating God’s provision of a ‘Shepherd’ who would continue to care for him and provide for him when he might be called on to “walk through the valley of the shadow of death”, and could therefore say confidently to God: “for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4), and that God would one day act in a way that would allow him to reflect and say: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?  Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” (Psalm 42:5)

As I’ve said many times before, we have the blessing of being on the other side of the cross from David, and we can experience the reality of finding in Jesus ‘a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.’  “The Lord’s our Rock, in him we hide, a Shelter in the time of storm; secure whatever ill betide, a Shelter in the time of storm.  O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land; O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in the time of storm.  The raging storms may round us beat, a Shelter in the time of storm; we’ll never leave our safe Retreat, a Shelter in the time of storm.  O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land; O, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a Shelter in the time of storm.” (Vernon Charlesworth)

– Bruce Christian