Hidden Safely

In 1521 Martin Luther stood before the emperor and a great council in the German city of Worms, and he was told to take back what he had written. He refused. People remember that day, but they mention less often what came after it. Luther's friends hid him in the Wartburg castle under a false name for most of a year, and while he was hidden, people all over Germany argued about him, attacked him and wrote against him. He could not answer most of what was said.

You may know a smaller version of that. You rehearse your reply to someone in the shower. Three days later, one remark is still living in your head, and you never invited it in.

David tells God what He does for those who fear Him, and he is exact about what they need hiding from. He does not speak of danger in general. God hides them "from the pride of man" and "from the strife of tongues." The talking does not even stop, and seven verses earlier you can see that it had not stopped for David himself: "For I have heard the slander of many." What God gives is a place to be. "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence," he says, and "thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion." A pavilion is a tent or a shelter. Inside it you are covered and safe, even though you can still hear what is going on outside. In that place, what people say about you no longer decides who you are. God decides that.

So if you must write the reply, write it, and then delete it before you send it. Take the twenty minutes you were going to spend defending yourself, and spend them telling God exactly what those words did to you, as plainly as you would describe an injury to a doctor. Then rest in His presence, and let His word about you be the last word you hear tonight.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 79 is The Crowns (Revelation 4:11).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna