Monday, December 16, 2024  //  Day 16

August 23, 2011 – I found a cozy spot under some beautiful, sunshiny, floor-to-ceiling windows at the local public library. Suddenly, the reflection of the room on the glass began rippling like disturbed water. The next moment, I felt it too – earthquake! Everyone scrambled away from the trembling windowpanes.

It seems to be a given that at some point or another we will all go through moments or seasons that put our very foundations in jeopardy. These may be physical, emotional, or spiritual (or an all-of-the-above, bitter, on the rocks, shaken-not-stirred cocktail). In these ‘scared to death, rattled to the core, disorienting, unsettled, totally shaken, rock your world’ times, we might pray, “Preserve me, O God...” (Psalm 16:1).

Amazingly, God has already provided the answer to those prayers by revealing and offering Himself to us. But we should not expect God’s help unless we are also responding with the rest of that prayer – “...for in You I take refuge.” That is how the Psalmist arrives at the confidence he has in vv.8-11. The same is true for us. Our hope is not to be safe and comfortable in life now, but content and satisfied in God forever. We step into God’s peace and shelter by submitting to Him (“I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; ...’”) and renouncing anything this world has to offer without God, prizing Him above all else (“‘...I have no good apart from You.’” Psalm 16:2).

Jesus came from Heaven to reveal God as a man. He endured life’s trials and temptations without sin, yet died a sinner’s death, offering himself in place of those who repent of their sin and trust Him. Jesus fulfilled this Psalm (especially v.10) when He rose again from the dead (Acts 2:25-33; 13:35-37). Jesus came to give life – incorruptible, all-satisfying, perfectly-gratifying, unshakable, everlasting Life (John 10:9-11). Find yours in His.