God Is My Refuge

“He that dwelleth 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 will I trust.” (Psa. 91:1-2).

I recently listened to a talk on Psalm 91 by Peggy Joyce Ruth. She said some very interesting things that made me look at Psalm 91 more closely. This is a very powerful Psalm and if we choose to hear His Word and believe it and learn to trust in Him He will be our refuge.

For Psalm 91:4, and I have heard this before, she used the example of the hawk flying overhead and below was a mother hen with her chicks a little ways away. The hen spread out her wings and the chicks ran under her wings and then she closed her wings gathering them under her to protect them. She did not run to them gathering them all up, they ran to her. In Matthew 23:37 we also see this picture of God as a mother hen waiting to gather her chicks under her if they would only come, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” My mother also mentioned the story of the firemen who found a burned hen in a fire and they wondered why the hen had not run out of the building but when they lifted the dead hen her little chicks ran out. They had run to her and she had protected them through the fire giving her own life.

Is this not a picture of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ who gave His life to save us and is now holding out His arms to gather us in and protect us through all that is happening and all that is to come? Why do we always run away from Him rather than run to Him? He can only protect us if we run to Him. We must choose to make Him our refuge and strength. We have a powerful source of protection in choosing Him. In Psa. 91:15 it says, “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.” Wow, this is powerful. We must call upon Him, speak it. They say that saying something out loud confirms it in your heart and mind. We must learn to run to God first in our time of trouble instead of to the world. The Holy Spirit is powerful working in us and if we can learn to dwell in the righteousness of Jesus Christ instead of dwelling in our own righteousness we will be protected and He will show us the way. “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound [put to shame] the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base [significant] things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (ICor. 1:27-30). My Bible’s commentary say for these verses: “The selection by God is designed to silence the wisdom of man. He chooses the foolish to shame the wise. He chooses weak things to shame things deemed by man to be mighty and things we do not even realize exist to counteract things which are, powers and institutions erected and relied upon by man. Paul concludes that all the riches of salvation exist in Christ Jesus.”

It seems that when we get our minds off of ourselves and make a choice to just believe and put our faith and trust in the Word of God we can have no fear. Jesus tells us not to be afraid. He would not have said this if it was not possible. My goal from now on is that when I start to feel afraid I am going to put my faith in the Word of God rather than what I see happening in the world. If I run to Him He has promised that I will not be afraid of the terror by night.

In Psa. 91:9 it says that “Because thou has made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation:” I am promised all of His protection. He promises that if I call upon Him in my time of trouble that He will answer me and will deliver me and honour me. He has made this promise to me because I love the Lord and believe in Him. We must choose to believe and trust God. He has made a promise to us if we believe and we can certainly trust Him! He is our Refuge!