O God ... I will hide beneath
the shadow of your wings
until this violent storm is past.
Psalm 57:2
As I write this, it's been raining for a few days. The creeks and ditches are full. My yard is waterlogged, and dogs and holiday guests keep tracking in half the outdoors. Worst though ... my car's developed a leak so my floor boards are soaked.
Ugg. Rain.
A violent storm -- as today's verse talks about -- is obviously worse. Inches of precipitation each hour. The threat of fire and electrocution hurtling from the sky. Boom!
Remember the story that Jesus told? A wise man built his house on a rock. A foolish man built his house on the sand. And when the rains came ... Wait, here's when we're supposed to stop and ask a question: Upon whom do rains and storms and trials come in this broken world? The answer is: upon the wise and unwise, upon the good and the rotten, upon the believer and the non-believer, upon, indeed, everyone.
No matter who we are -- even sweet, little Christians -- we'll occasionally have to face waterlogged yards, animals tracking across our kitchen, waterlogged floorboards, flooding creeks, home damage, the threat of lightning fires, illness, depression. Boom! That's life on a broken planet.
David begged God to be hidden under heaven's wings, though, until this particular storm passed. This storm for David was persecution. As the annotation at the beginning of the Psalm says, he was literally hiding in a cave from his pursuing enemies. Even more literally, he was hoping to hide beneath the true protection of God's wings and holy care.
So notice the pattern. One particular storm hovered over David. One particular enemy in one particular instance stalked him. So David prayed one particular prayer. It wasn't, "Save me from every storm ever." David knew that relationships are formed one conversation at a time.
Trust and dependence are forged each time we trust and depend. Sometimes God will say yes, and the storm will pass by. Sometimes God will say a greater yes. He'll allow portions of the storm to splash through, and as you keep praying, moment by moment, he'll teach you a deeper lesson. He'll teach you to cling to him continually.
Those who don't know God will say, "You're just fooling yourself, hedging your bets." If an answer comes, "look God is real." If it doesn't, "oops, but keep trusting (keep pretending), because God is still real."
Yes, I suppose someone who hasn't prayed like David feels logical and justified in having this view. But David prayed in the storms and in the sunshine. He prayed moment-by-moment. He'd seen God hand -- often clearly, sometimes subtle. He'd watched God paint in broad brushstrokes, and he'd watch God withhold his blessing for a season. David may not have been able to explain why God was withholding his blessing in key moments -- for example, why was God continuing to allow a deranged king to chase David all across the Middle East? Nevertheless, the prayer warrior had to admit the daily trials were forcing him to depend on God moment-by-moment, instead of when he occasionally remembered to pray.
That's God's deeper yes.
"Learn to fully depend on me ... because the rains will come on the wise and unwise."
Death has the final say on this earth. No one will escape. But ... death does not have THE final say. When we learn to fully depend on God, that's when eternal life really begins. Storms will still come, but we'll have a personal friend and a personal strength bigger than the storms.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who doesn't often
carry an umbrella
(I'm stubborn and foolish)
... but it's okay ...
the world may rain,
but God reigns!
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