Security and safety are opposites of danger and vulnerability. It’s obvious which side of the street we prefer to live on, especially in the midst of today’s unrest. Governments and leaders cannot offer guarantees, neither can commentators or friends, unless… Unless they refer us to assurances from the Bible.
In Psalm 16, David asks God for safety and confesses, “Apart from you I have no good thing.” In essence, he’s saying that apart from God, there is no safe place. Then he makes several confident confessions:
- “You have assigned me my portion and my cup.” God sees us and has positioned us in time and space to be right here, right now. He knows this is not too much for us. He is with us and rules in our circumstances.
- “You have made my lot secure.” The NLT says, “You guard all that is mine”—my family, my country, my freedom, my wellbeing, my heart. He’s got this! He’s got us!
- “The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places,” even when bombs fall, politics fail, and confidence flees. Any place with the Lord is a pleasant place.
- “I will praise the Lord… I will not be shaken… I will rest secure… You will not abandon me.”
David’s declarations can be ours. We find rest in God when we decide to trust Him.
David didn’t know Luke, who authored the book of Acts, but the words of Psalm 16 and those in Acts resonate with faith in God’s sovereignty.
From one man He made all the nations,
that they should inhabit the whole earth;
and He marked out their appointed times in history
and the boundaries of their lands.
Acts 17:26
May both writers bring peace to our hearts.
Image by Yuyi from Pixabay
BARBARA HIGBY 