Wings Are Better than Caves

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.” (Ps 57:1 AV)

This life is full of calamities.  Not all is a calamity, but there are enough to be sure we know there are some.  David is speaking directly of Saul.  He was hiding in a cave when he penned this Psalm.  Perhaps few of us can truly understand what it is like to have a father-in-law and his army hunt you down.  Few of us can comprehend when one’s own family has turned on him.  Now, that is a calamity.  Yet, we are faced with calamities of our own.  Our failing health is something of which we will deal until the day of our death.  The loss of a loved one is a special kind of hurt.  When our children or grandchildren face difficult times, perhaps turning their backs on the LORD.  These are also calamities.  What ever we face which is impossible to face alone is a calamity.  It is in those times we often need the LORD the most.

It is also in these times that we realize just how important a daily walk with God is.  We realize that had we known the future of these calamities, we would have spent far more time investing in our relationship with the LORD.  There is a difference between going to the LORD when you have spent time with Him every day as opposed to going to Him when one barely goes to Him at all.  It is quite sad to see.  As a hospital chaplain and pastor, I have had the experience of praying with patients in dire circumstances.  There is difference between the prayer of a faithful saint and the prayer of an occasional one.  There is a difference between those who suffer calamities while walking with God and those who suffer calamities only to search for God in the process.

Something I have learned the older I get.  We do not depend upon God nearly as much as we should.  We tend to want to do as much as we can on our own and only ask the LORD for help when we are so far into a fix that there is no way out.  If we were wiser, we would walk with God in complete dependence from the first minute of the day until we rest are head at night.  Perhaps this is the saving grace of your older years.  One begins to understand the truth of how truly dependent he is on the God who saved him.  He begins to understand just how helpless he is and how gracious God is.  If we could only do this from the first day of our salvation to the last day of eternity!