“For he will conceal me in his shelter on the day of trouble; he will hide me in the folds of his tent, he will set me on a rock.” ( Psalm 27:5)
Trouble is no stranger to the majority of people, particularly this season in which we live. Yesterday, freak storms hit the South Coast of South Africa in KZN, and California (USA) faced devastating fires leaving many stranded and homeless. The sheer scale and intensity of these events came unexpectedly and obtrusively as orderly living for huge numbers of people was turned on its head.
Sudden trouble is a reality of life which we all hope will never visit us, but when it does, many of our support systems that keep us living comfortably can be stripped away in an instant.
What does the Bible teach us about such things? In Psalm 27, read daily by observant Jews from the 30 days of the previous month in the Hebrew calendar (Elul) until the Feast of Tabernacles, (Sukkot) God promises all those who know and love Him that, ‘He will conceal us in His shelter on the day of trouble’; in such times, He will place us on a solid ‘rock’ (i.e., a secure place). The Psalmist cried out with great intensity: “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” (Psalm 61:2)
The day of trouble is no gentleman and always an unwelcome stranger, yet in God’s economy believers can know in and through it the deep unfathomable riches of His love because nothing is wasted within His eternal purposes. This is the victory which surpasses all victories; the fiercest statement and ultimate response in even the darkest of times that carries us from moment to moment, from strength
to strength and from glory to glory, strengthened by His all-surpassing greatness! Nothing can shake our confidence in His faithfulness!
When we place our full trust in God, His thoughts permeate the very air we breathe. His promises for us are unswerving; in the good, the bad and the ugly; in a crisis and in a God-moment, in restoration and transformation, in the darkness of soul and epiphany, shadows and fullness of glory. Truly He deserves every vestige of praise and worship, every fibre of thanksgiving as expressed in the totality of our lives lived unto Him!
Here in this beautiful Scripture of Psalm 27 is contained something which transcends the beauty of words and becomes an exquisite treasure manifested within the furnace of affliction. To be ‘hidden in the folds of His tent’ is to know His all-sufficiency in every circumstance.
