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DOES GOD REMEMBER #5
COMFORT FROM A PIZZA
“I need a place to hide.”
Those six words have got to be the theme song of just about every person
on this planet. We’re all looking for someplace to get away, a secret
place where we can feel safe and protected.
One national magazine dug out the statistic that in the seven days following
the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, sales of pizza jumped
3.2% from the week before. Why? Because people wanted to hunker down in
their own homes and have some “comfort food.” St. Patrick’s Cathedral
in New York had to add six masses a week to accommodate the crowds that
wanted to sit in a quiet church and just feel safe. People bought fluffy
soft couches and televisions and stereos and just prepared to build their
own little emotional hideaways.
And even before the violent implosion of those two magnificent towers,
this has been the heart cry of a scared world. Housewives with three screaming
kids tugging at them would give a hundred dollars just to have one hour
of quiet. Men and women in the workplace put in 60-hour weeks, take work
home in a briefcase for the weekend, and have the boss call them up at
10:30 at night with a complaint about missing reports. Executives try
to get away for a three-day vacation only to have their beepers and the
hotel fax machine break up their solitude.
As a fragmented America and a jittery world still recovers here a year
and two days after the horrors of September 2001, the book of Psalms kindly
points us to “the secret place of hiding with God.” Psalm 91 is a beautiful
package of metaphors loved by Bible readers around the globe, especially
because it speaks about this place of refuge with God and answers the
heart cry of the universe.
Do you need a place to hide? There’s tremendous comfort
and hope and strength to be found in the first two verses of Psalm 91.
“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and
my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.’”
But do we really look to something as fleeting as a
shadow for protection? For security?
Not usually, no! A shadow isn’t really even a thing. It’s just a patch
of darkness; it might be here right now and gone in five seconds. Shade
is nice, but it’s kind of ethereal. When we want protection, we want protection
that has steel bars and locks and a secret security code.
Ah . . . but this shadow is different! This is the shadow of the Almighty!
Where is the secret place of the Most High, then? It’s in the shadow of
God Himself. Here is an obvious truth that maybe we forget. A shadow is
right next to its source. If we’re hiding in the shadow of God, we’re
standing close to God. We’re right next to Him; we’re as close as we can
get. That’s a shadow that can protect! That’s a shadow with some muscle
to it. In fact, verse 2 describes that “muscle”:
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress.”
Now, fortress . . . there’s a strong word! Even though
maybe it conjures up a picture of a medieval castle built back in the
1500s, you still get a sense of walls that are eight feet thick with a
huge gate and a moat and soldiers and security on the inside. Don’t we
feel wonderfully safe when we stand in church with 300 other believers
and sing together: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”?
Right after the hijackers did their worst, sales of gas masks went right
through the roof. GasMaskExpress.com sold more than 3,000 of their top-of-the-line
model, the Advantage 1000, in just three days, at $200 a pop. Gun sales
jumped 20%. But wouldn’t we rather have God Himself as our Fortress, our
protection?
Actually, maybe not. You may be thinking at this very moment: “No, Pastor
Lonnie, I cannot trust a song right now, with all due respect. I need
more than a divine shadow. I need a real hiding place. I have real enemies
and they have real bombs — either the physical kind or those made of cruel
words. I’ve got people at the office who want to do me in. I’ve got a
drinking problem, a methamphetamine addiction, that’s crushingly real.
I’m sorry, but ‘Hiding in Jesus’ is a little bit trite.”
I understand that. I feel it too. At the same time, as just one small
fragment of that “cloud of witnesses,” let me tell you: closeness to God
— standing in the shadow of God through a close daily relationship — IS
a fortress. It IS protection. This is no mere slogan.
I have Christian friends who have been through painful divorces. The temptation
to strike back and to seek revenge has got to be overpowering at times.
But I’ve watched them stand in the secret hiding place, the shadow at
God’s feet. I’ve watched them trust in God for their identity rather than
in the security of having a spouse and a father for their children. I’ve
seen discouragement turn into new hope and confidence.
It can work for a president who feels under attack. Many believers are
thankful to have a leader in the Oval Office who believes in Bible reading.
Instead of consulting astrologers, or inviting self-help gurus and infomercial
talk-show hosts to the White House, America’s Commander in Chief reads
the Psalms. And can find in those pages his truest identity, his core,
as a leader ordained by heaven to lead the nation in righteousness.
Do you feel like you’re the target of intrigue and office plots? It can
be hard to work where a supervisor or department head is out to get you.
And you need this job; you can’t leave. So you’re experiencing not just
misery, but INESCAPABLE misery.
But Psalms has an answer for that dilemma as well, found in chapter 31,
verse 20.
“You [God] shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence, FROM
THE PLOTS OF MAN; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion, from the
strife of tongues.”
The attacks may continue; the persecution may go on
day and night. Terrorists may concoct new schemes to hurt and kill. Al
Qaeda may regroup and come after its enemies again. But you have a hiding
place.
Psychologists sometimes tell their patients to have an imaginary place
of peace and safety where they can emotionally retreat during times of
stress. Maybe a childhood bedroom where the covers on the bed are fluffy
and warm. Perhaps a favorite vacation spot where the brook trickles right
past your secluded motel room and the fax machine is broken and your personal
palm pilot stays at home. Maybe a mountain retreat where the smell of
pine cones is heavy in the cool March air.
Sometimes that works. But how much better than an imaginary hiding place
is this real fortress we find in the shadow of God’s presence! It’s available
to us all the time; in fact, we can dwell there. It can be our permanent
place of refuge. Can you feel the strength of that Shadow? The shadow,
the quiet power, of the shade we find in the presence of God? It’s always
there for us, even when the temporary shadows of human resources abandon
us.
Perhaps you’ve sung the grand Christian hymn by Isaac Watts, “I Sing the
Mighty Power of God.” That title fits in beautifully with these two Psalms,
to be sure. But there’s a line in the third and final verse which goes
like this: “There’s not a place where we can flee, but God is present
there.” He really is an ever-present help.
Verse 4 of this same Psalm says about God our Protector: “He shall cover
you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.”
That very comforting metaphor does remind us of the way a mother hen takes
her baby chicks under her wing to provide protection. In fact, Jesus,
in the New Testament, used the same word picture to describing His aching-heart
love for Israel.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent
to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a
hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Speaking of wings makes us think of a popular song
that says this: “You are the wind beneath my wings.” There’s just one
problem. Sometimes the wind blows and sometimes it doesn’t blow. The wind
can support you for a while, but you wouldn’t call the wind an ever-present
source of lifting power.
Isn’t that the problem with this world? We have friends . . . but you
can’t depend on them. We have stock market portfolios packed with wonderful
tech stocks . . . but you can’t count on the market to keep going up.
The day the market reopened after the terrorist bombings, a six hundred
billion dollar mountain vaporized in one trading day.
There’s not much we can count on in life except the God of Psalm 46. He’s
always there. He’s an ever-present help. The Living Bible describes Him
this way:
“God is our refuge and strength, a TESTED HELP in times of trouble.”
Yes, as the new gospel praise song shouts out: “Our God is an awesome
God. He reigns in heaven above, with wisdom and power and love. Our God
is an awesome God.”
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