The Dilapidated House
We all like those places of safety. As a child, the first place you probably wanted to run to when you were afraid was into your parent’s arms. Those big arms wrapped around you offered a safe haven in the face of fear. As a young boy, my friends and I built hideouts out of plywood, dirt and tree branches, and without the secret password nobody could enter our fort. We were safe from the neighborhood girls.
Most of us today consider our house a safe place. The metal, wood, brick, concrete, stone, and asphalt offer us a measure of safety that isn’t found in hideouts made by boys. We can regulate the thermostat to a comfortable temperature while outdoors it could be 100 degrees or below freezing. We are told that the safest place during extreme weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes is in the basement or an interior room without windows. Not only do our homes provide protection, most of us agree with Dorothy Gale, “There’s no place like home.”
But, while our homes do provide us with some measure of safety and security, we also know that they need regular upkeep and maintenance, along with the occasional major repair, in order to not become dilapidated and unsafe. Even with proper upkeep, our homes at times let us down, they fail to be safe places. Have you ever seen a tree fall on a house? Did the roof or the tree win?
On the contrary, in Jesus we have a safe place that will never let us down. The Bible calls Jesus our dwelling place, our safe shelter. Psalm 118:8 tells us, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans.” Psalm 91 is a beautiful testimony to the security we have when we trust in God. I encourage you to read this psalm in its entirety; today I offer you just four verses:
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust’” (vv. 1-2).
[In these two verses we see four different names for God – Elyon (Most High), El Shaddai (Almighty), YHWH/Yahweh/Jehovah (LORD), and Elohim (my God, plural: Father, Son, Holy Spirit). These names reveal to us that (1) God is elevated above all else, the sovereign ruler, (2) He is the all-powerful One, our sufficiency, (3) YHWH is God’s personal name, the self-existent One, first revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3, and (4) that He is the Creator, found in Genesis 1:1.]
“If you say, ‘The LORD is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overcome you, no disaster will come near your tent” (vv.9-10).
To be clear, those verses do not say that bad things will never happen (read John 16:33), but rather, they do say that Jesus is your safe haven in both good times and in bad times.
I will end with these hopeful words, found in Psalm 46:1-3 – “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
So, I ask you today, where are you putting your trust – in the dilapidating things of man or in the safe and secure shelter of the Most High?