Deliver Us From Evil

Psalm 71

Within the past year my oldest daughter was living in Ireland volunteering in a church there. Being a single woman she had ample room for another to live. She had opportunity to open her dwelling for a refugee, a woman who was fleeing from the war in the Ukraine. This woman's husband had a delay being able to follow her for several months. This woman was able to get accustomed to life in a new country and obtain work.

Our daughter knew this hospitality from our own home when she was growing up. A few times we had whole families living with us and at other times individuals for a night or a few months. Our home became a refuge where different ones could have shelter, protection for various reasons. They could come and go as needed, be alone as a family or join our family, share our meals or have their own, their own freedom yet under the shelter and protection of our home

Be thou my strong rock, whereunto I may alway resort: thou hast given commandement to save me: for thou art my rock, and my fortress.

Psalms 71:3 GNV

An old hymn is entitled "A Shelter In The Time Of Storm". Though not ascribed to David this psalm reflects a familiarity David would have had as a youth being a shepherd, then later on when he was fleeing from King Saul. His whole family and hundreds of others with their families joined David as well. They hid in caves, in the wilderness which for them was a mountainous region always needing shelter and protection, a definite need for a shelter in the time of storm. Yet they were generally free to come and go as they pleased.

So often when speaking of heaven all most I have heard in their thoughts is only of the New Jerusalem where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Yet often left out is the fact of the new heavens and the new earth and that the twelve gates of the city are never closed. Continual access going in and out of the city. Among so much that it is it is a refuge.

There is no doubt in my mind that this psalm could easily been used by Jesus as a prayer, and often. In fact we read that He went up into a mountain to pray. The very essence of resorting up into a mountain to seek the shelter and protection of His Father is a powerful picture. He went into a mountain to pray the night before He chose His twelve disciples. He went up into a mountain to pray after the feeding of the 5000, but before walking on the Sea of Galilee to the disciples in the midst of a storm. How important it os to recognize He sought refuge in His Father, but did not stay there. Even praying for His fisciples and in that for all who believe in Him:‬‬

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou keep them from evil.

John 17:15 GNV

The encouragement and direction Jesus gave His disciples was that they should have protection as they remained, as we remain in this world The rock, the fortress, that refuge is not a place to permanently stay, but a place to dwell, to come in and go out. Like Jesus seeking His Father the protection to be kept from evil.