Christ Our Anchor And Refuge

When was the last time you faced a real storm in your life? Think back about what you went through, and about how you got through that time of real difficulty.

Today, we’ll give some serious thought to how it is we can weather the bigger trials that come our way. When we face hardship, when we’re unsure; when we’re not sure who we can trust, when the world is caving in around us, what can we do? What can we do? Where can we turn?

Someone has said “Inside every large problem is a series of small problems struggling to get out.” Felling one giant often only unleashes a boatload of other adversity.

Often we wonder why God allows the storms to enter our life but as Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Bible Church in Chicago, has said. “God often puts us in situations that are too much for us so that we will learn that no situation is too much for him.”

Now, the author of the Psalm that was read today by ______ was King David, King David was a complicated man. His choices in life led him to a lot of dark places.

Psalm 62 was a Psalm written by David during a hard time in his life! The background of Psalm 62 is that anguishing time of Absalom’s rebellion. Absalom, his son, had been attempting to take the throne away from David and the conspiracy was growing stronger each day. It was a very disturbing and distressing time for David!

When we face tough times, David’s song that we know as Psalm 62, gives us some good insight and direction.

God our Rest

5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.

Hardship leads to stress, stress that we can feel as weariness in our bones. We all know this time of year how we can get so cold that it feels like we’re chilled to the bone. Well, we can be tired to the bone too.

Recently as I recovered from a serious back injury, once the pain was pretty much all gone, there was still about a month when I was very easily fatigued. At first I was tired by 3 in the afternoon, then it became later and later until I was tired at the normal time of night.

The issue is: when we need rest, where do we go? Where do we go? Entertainment is a great opiate. There is now so much leisure entertainment in our world that we could spend, if we wished, most of every day consuming movies and TV shows. It is a real temptation. Netflix is a great and cheap source of entertainment, but it can also provide us endless distraction from really getting the rest we need.

David could never have imagined the kinds of distractions we have today, but in this psalm he spoke to his own soul in his own day and time. And what did he say to his soul? “Find rest in God alone; my hope comes from Him”.

There’s this connection between rest and hope that David knows deeply. I love the Jewish notion of Sabbath. The Sabbath is not thought of as a time to recover from the trials of the previous week. It is understood to be preparation for what lies ahead. It is rest that points to renewal. It is a pause in the week where we put our focus firmly on God, God who is the source of our hope.

By May I’ll have been at the mission for 27 years. That’s a good chunk of time. And I look forward, if God wills it, to continuing to serve here for a long time still. But I’m due for some rest. So at some point in the next year I’ll be taking what’s called a Sabbatical, where I’ll be away for some months to rest, to focus on interests I’ve not pursued for some time, and to grow deeper in my relationship with God.

I will find my rest in God alone. And I’ll have my vision for the future and my hope for things to come restored.

God our Rock and Refuge

6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God ; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah

For King David, everything in his material world was topsy-turvy. The kingdom that had been given to him, the realm of his influence was under serious attack from an interloper who was, you guessed it, a relative.

Anyone here experience stress from those closest to you? Whatever the source of our trial, there is One we can look to, to be our anchor. The past seven years has been rough for Barb and me.