Refuge and Fortress

A man sits in his car in the hospital parking lot with the engine off. Before he opens the door, he says one sentence to himself that nobody else will ever hear.

That is how today's verse begins: "I will say of the LORD." It is a decision more than a feeling. The psalmist never claims that he feels safe or that he has been comforted. He is choosing a sentence and saying it out loud, whether or not the day has given him a reason to.

Then look at the two words he chooses, because they do different jobs. A refuge is a shelter you run into when the weather turns; Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word for "a refuge from the storm." A fortress is a stronghold on high ground, a fixed place with walls. It is the kind of place David used when he was running from Saul and "dwelt in strong holds at Engedi," up in the cliffs where a hunted man could stand and not be reached. One is a place to retreat to, and the other is a place to hold. He wants both in his sentence, because trouble comes in both shapes.

After that, the smallest words do the heaviest lifting: "my God." This is more than a general fact that shelter exists somewhere. It is a claim of belonging, made by a man who is not safe at that moment.

So say it before the hard thing, and do not wait until afterwards. Say it in the parking lot, on the stairs, or in the hospital corridor. Your circumstances get a vote on how you feel about the day, but they do not get to write what you say about God. He is your refuge and your fortress before the door opens, and He will still be after you walk through it.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 323 is All This Assembly (1 Samuel 17:47).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna