“But the Lord has become my stronghold and my God, the rock of my refuge.”
– Psalm 94:22
What strong language to describe God in the midst of a tumultuous time, which is what Psalm 94:22 is talking about. And the Psalmist looks up and says, “The Lord is my stronghold. My God is my rock and my refuge.” I think this is one of the themes that has been prevalent in my time with the Lord each morning during these days as the world is spinning to seek refuge in God, to know that He is a rock to stand on.
I cannot imagine walking through these days without the Lord as my rock, the Lord as my refuge in a world where there’s storms all around, to know the confidence that we can have in God in who He is, in His characteristics, His attributes, in what He has said, in all of His promises, in what He is doing. Ultimately, His purposes in the world that we know are good for all who trust in Him.
Lord, we ask that You provide opportunities for gospel conversations during this time. Father, cause many to come to faith in You as the Rock of their Refuge.
This Verse Reminds Us God Can Be Our Rock
He is a stronghold, a rock, and a refuge. But that’s where I’m just so broken for people who don’t know the Lord as stronghold and rock and refuge during these days. We’re praying specifically each day for different requests that people are sending in during this pandemic. I want to read from Scott and Susan today. They write, “Please pray for Scott’s parents in an assisted living in Florida. They are sick with cold symptoms. His mom has an appointment Friday and is planning to get COVID tested then.”
So, that’s today. “Regardless of the outcome, we are going to schedule a call with them this week because they don’t know Jesus, and we want to lay out the gospel and explicitly invite them to believe. We want them to stay healthy, but more than anything, we want them to trust in Jesus. So please pray for that conversation and for their testing.”
I know there is so many people like this. People that come to our mind in our families, particularly, or maybe close friends who maybe are in particularly vulnerable situations physically. But as we’ve seen, this virus strikes the healthy as well. And so I just want to lead us all to pray particularly specifically for Scott’s parents in assisted living in Florida and scores of others like them who don’t know the Lord as their stronghold, rock, and refuge that they would come to know the stronghold that is found in Jesus. That they would come to know the refuge that is found in Jesus, the rock, amidst just storms and waves all around that they would come to stand on Jesus as the rock.
Psalm 94:22 Worships God As Our Rock
So God, we pray for this. We plead for this, even as we praise you, we glorify you, we worship you as our rock today. You are our refuge, an ever-present help in trouble. You are our stronghold. We trust in you. We trust completely in you. Our lives, our hope is in your hands, and we know this is a good place to put our lives. You are the only good source for our hope.
Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sins. For coming to this world of sickness and disease and suffering and death and paying the price for our sins that we might be forgiven of our sins, reconciled to you, that we might have the hope of eternal life. That we might know that this world and its sufferings are temporary, and your joy and your peace and your life are eternal. God, we pray that you would bring Scott’s parents to know this, to know you. God, please by your spirit, bless this conversation that they have.
I think about how Scott and Susan have shared the gospel with his parents before. God, I just pray that something, we pray together that something would be different this time, that you would open their hearts to believe, to know your love, and define in you the rock of their refuge. And God, I pray for multitude of other conversations like that. God, help us to set up these explicit gospel conversations with people we know, to call people to faith in you, to call people to trust in your love for them. And God that you would turn many people to Jesus today and tomorrow and the next day. God, that the stories of salvation would multiply during these days of sickness and disease and death. God, please bring many, including Scott’s parents, to you as the rock of their refuge. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
