Reformation Week
Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7 (KJV)
Getting out of a sixty mile wind or a “bucket pour” of rain, or getting into the house after a long trudge home are all examples of reaching refuge. Martin Luther needed refuge after Worms. He was on the wrong side of the Emperor. He was given a twenty day safe conduct back to Wittenberg, but after, the full force of the outlaw edict would go into effect! Luther’s prince, Elector Frederic the Wise, however, wanted no harm to come to his subject. (“Electors” were men who chose the emperors.) Frederick secretly ordered that Luther be “kidnapped” en route to home. His abductors took him to the Wartburg Castle. Through the prince’s order, the Lord protected Luther! During his time away from the rush of life, Luther translated the New Testament into German. This was a great gift for the people of Germany, since only the educated could read the Latin Bible. Luther remained at the Wartburg for ten months, leaving in 1522. Luther found refuge and the edict was never enforced.
Through earthly means God also provides hiding places for you—whether mother’s arms when you were a baby, or father’s hand to keep you safe from the big dog, law enforcement from criminals, soldiers from enemies, or angels from ice on the road or dozing at the wheel. God provides your home, a retreat from the bickering and hate of the world. Pray for those whose homes are not like that. Sometimes we are too naïve about harm lurking around us or don’t use the common sense that God gave us. Yet the Lord mercifully grants hiding places.
Far out-shadowing earthly refuge, God grants the true hiding place from spiritual harm. In the crucified and resurrected Jesus and in God’s Word of Christ, you are safe from the strangle-hold of sin, the clutches of the devil, and the infinite agony of hell. In Jesus, you, the sinner, have God’s love, forgiveness, and His true hiding place in life and in death and forever at the great resurrection to glory!
Lord Jesus, “let me hide myself in Thee! Amen.” (The Lutheran Hymnal 376:4)