“For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. (Psalm 32:7 NLT)

One sheet and four kitchen chairs made a perfect hiding place.

Lovey was my maternal grandmother’s half-sister. My memories of her are fading, but I do recall that she played with me and my cousin. One of our favourite things to do was to make a tent. This we did by taking a sheet and spreading it over four kitchen chairs. It seems like an easy enough exercise, but if the chairs weren’t positioned correctly, the entire thing would collapse.

After we constructed our tent, my cousin and I entered and sat. Being young boys, we probably giggled and talked. We were in our hiding place, safe from the world. Though anyone could have easily discovered us by looking beneath the cover, we didn’t see ourselves as exposed.

God was the psalmist’s hiding place, someone to whom he could run for protection when his enemies were fast upon his heels, someone who comforted him when it appeared that others had turned against him.

I’ve experienced other than honourable conditions in which I’ve tried to hide from God, mainly when I had intentionally sinned or involved myself in other shameful behaviours. Rather than confessing, I tried to hide, like Adam and Eve. Hiding didn’t work for them, and it didn’t for me either. God’s convicting Spirit worried me until I made things right with Him.

God would rather me hide in Him for more honourable reasons. I can hide in Him for comfort. When life — or others — have frustrated, disappointed, betrayed, or angered me, I can hide in Him for comfort.

We can hide in God’s unconditional love. Nothing that we do or say can make Him love us more or less. He loves us consistently — although this doesn’t relieve us of the need to live according to His standards.

We can hide in God’s power. Nothing that life throws at us is more powerful than God. Not lions, bears, nor an angry king were more powerful than the psalmist’s God, and life’s present enemies aren’t more powerful than God’s power to deliver us.

We can also hide in God’s salvation — not salvation from life’s trials and tribulations, but salvation from sin’s power. Through the forgiveness offered by Christ, we can enjoy the assurance of being forgiven and accepted by God. No more do we dwell under condemnation.

Let’s allow God to teach us to hide in Him — not from Him, nor in anything else.

Prayer: Father, thank You for the comfort of hiding in You for Your love, power, and salvation. Amen.

Copyright © 2021, by Martin Wiles <mandmwiles@gmail.com>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Greenwood, South Carolina, USA