May 09, 2021: SOAP #4175:  2Samuel 17; Psalm 71; Matthew 26

SCRIPTURE:  Psalm (NIV) 71:1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame…  7…you are my strong refuge.
3 Be my rock of refuge, …you are my rock and my fortress….
5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence…

OBSERVATION: Yesterday the Lord showed me that He is our hiding-place, our comfort, and our shield.  In the Psalm for today, the psalmist, probably King David, declares God to be his refuge, his rock, his fortress, his hope, and his confidence. 

These are in His presence.  This is the way the psalmist saw God!  This is what God was to the psalmist!  In the psalms we see the author having times of great joy and times of deep depression.  Sometimes he was the hunter but many times he was the hunted.  Whatever his circumstances these truths remained:  God was his refuge…strong refuge.  God was his rock and fortress.  God was his hope and his confidence! 

These were personal to the psalmist!  These were not something he had read about.  This was his personal experience! 

APPLICATION: God does not give these to me and then let me run away on my own.  These are not like something I put in my pocket as I walk away, something to keep until I need it.  These blessings are mine as long as I stay in His presence! 

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, your presence is with me all day and all night, in health and in sickness, in abundance and lack, when I am joyful and when I am discouraged.  Holy Spirit, you have been faithful to help me remember WHO is always with me!  Amen

Pastor Leon
Making friends for time and eternity!