...is a place
where you can come in from the cold,
seek shelter from the rain,
find protection from danger.

RIGHT-
AROUND-THE-
MOST
POWER-
FUL

...is a hideaway
that can shield you from too much heat
and can hold off pressure you can't take.

You should go there, you know, and if you do...if you feel that that's where you belong,
where you know you're at home...you have the right to say to no one less than Jehovah:

"You Yourself are my safe home, my strong castle;
You are my God and I can just ease myself into
Your hands and be relaxed to be myself."

Sometimes you get into a situation that appears to have you cornered, trapped.
Well, He will be able to liberate you.
He will take you right out, even if the hold is deadly.

He has these huge wings that you can crawl under, these soft feathers that will warm you.

You will find Him so determined to guarantee your safety
that anything harmful bounces off the hardness of His resolve.

The dark, stark silence of the night can get scary sometimes.
And in the exposing light of day it can be hard to get away from people
who have a plain view of you and who mean to hurt you.

Whether day or night, there's always a threat, which is no lesswhen it comes stealthily stalking on stocking feet
to grab you unaware in your sleep, than when you can see it coming for miles.
But for you that should basically be OK.
It should not so shake you as to knock your feet from under you.

FOR YOU KNOW WHERE TO GO

Destruction may get uncomfortably close sometimes.
All sorts of brokenness and sorrow may seem to occur
all around you without any true solution.
But don't let it get to you, for that kind of bottomless grief won't ever be yours.

What you are really seeing is
Evil
running out its natural course.

But as for you,
you have a permanent pass to safety,
for you call Lord Jahweh your very home,
the God of gods your protection.

So, surely there's no way that you can ever be unsafe.
You can count on it that nothing basically unsound, nothing disastrous
can ever enter or take over that home of yours.

If you're perhaps wondering just why you can be so trusting
in the face of all the misery,
danger,
breakdown,
sorrow,
Sin
and grief
we know so well in our world,
then just remember that the Most High has special standing orders
for His angels to make sure that wherever you are, you will be safe.
No matter where you go, your path will be made straight.
They'll even carry you if they have to, to make sure you'll be all right.
As far as they're concerned, you shouldn't even risk a stubbed toe.

But, if your calling should take you into very dangerous situations, or
if life's road passes through marshes or along steep gorges
that seem impossible, they'll clear your way as though
it cost them no effort, so easily.

Hard to believe?

Well, this is what your Lord Himself is saying about you,
and that ought to make it acceptable:

"Simply because he holds me tight in love,
I'll guarantee his escape from harm.
He really knows who I am,
so in return I'll be the protector he takes Me to be.
I'll be on call for him twenty-four hours a day,
ready to respond whenever he makes a request.
If he runs into an anxious moment,
I'll hold his hand.
Even more, I'll bring him out of it.
Yes, more still,
I'll make him feel like a king.
I am going to let him live life fully,
day after day after day,
and then some.
I am going to show him
right in his own life
what I mean by salvation."

~Used with Permission~
Paraphrase of Psalm 91
by Hendrik Hart,
senior member in philosophy
at the Institute for Christian Studies.