Living in a world filled with uncertainty
may cause one to feel that they want to go and hide themselves. But where does
one hide? The recent missile launches and threats of nuclear conflagration from
the leader of North Korea aroused a memory of my elementary school days in the
1950s. Periodically the public schools of that day would have drills for the
students in the event of a nuclear attack. The drill was to teach us protective
actions to take during the initial minutes after an explosion. We would crawl
under our desks, assume a fetal position, cover our heads, and as one teacher
said, “Pray!” Very possibly today that last instruction would be prohibited in
this climate of “theophobia.” This drill carried a label, “Duck and Cover.”
Only years later did we learn that this exercise offered negligible protection
depending upon the bomb’s yield and one’s distance from the explosion’s center.
I remember after that disclosure sarcastically thinking in high school, “Great,
all those wasted exercises!” I was somewhat encouraged later to realize the
same “Duck and Cover” was recommended for tornadoes and earthquakes. Alas, all
was not wasted!
There are many things that happen in life
that make us realize how vulnerable we are in this world. Perhaps the words of
Martha and the Vandellas 60s rhythm and blues song, “Nowhere to run to, baby,
nowhere to hide,” aptly depict of how many feel in our current culture. Recently
it seems like “bad news” has to stand in line to be broadcast. What is the new
health scare this week – mosquito or tick bites? What natural disaster is
overtaking us – global warming or pollution? What social problem is dividing us
– racial, sexual, gender, or generation? What spiritual deficiency is
polarizing us – apathy, radicalism, bigotry, or ignorance? What governmental
crisis is distressing us – political paralysis, scandal, ineptness, or
burgeoning of the national debt? What financial concerns absorb or attention –
paying bills, struggling to save, college debt, or personal indebtedness? Maybe
the Vandellas words are right, “Nowhere to run to… nowhere to hide.”
Was King David feeling like this when he
wrote Psalm 61? Maybe it is reflective of his early life as he was on the run
from King Saul who was intent on putting him to death. Most likely it is later in
life when as king (61:6) he was on the run from his son Absalom who sought to
kill him and rule in his place. This is certain, he was crying out to God in
his adversity, “Hear my cry, O God: attend to my prayer. From the end of the
earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed” (61:1-2). The words of
David’s song reflect, unlike the words of the Vandellas, that he knew where to
run and where to hide. He turns to God that he regards as, “the rock that is
higher than I.” Then he uses words to describe who and what God is to him. He
says God is “a shelter… a strong tower from the enemy” (61:3). He sees God as
the place where he can, “trust in the shelter of your wings” (61:4). He ends
the song not in the desperation in which it began, but with delightful
assurance, “So I will sing praise to you forever” (61:8). David found a sure
place to run to and a safe place to hide.
Living in a sin-scared world has always
been tough. A song writer of another era William O. Cushing (1823-1902)
discovered this. He was raised in a Universalist family, but after reading the
Bible as a teenager he became an orthodox believer. At 18 he trained to be a
minister and served in small churches in upstate NY for 20 years. His wife died
suddenly and he became depressed. Shortly afterward a creeping paralysis of his
vocal cords left him unable to preach. At the age for 47 he found himself in an
emotionally hopeless wilderness. He did, however, have a place to run – and
that was to the Lord. During this time he wrote the words to the hymn, “Hiding
in Thee.” In the following 30 years he went on to write 300 gospel songs. He
ran where all can run “when our heart is overwhelmed.” Cushing’s testimony
imbedded in the song was this: “How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the
foe, I have fled to my Refuge and breathed out my woe; How oft when trials like
sea bellows roll, Have I hidden in Thee, O thou Rock of my soul. Hiding in
Thee, hiding in Thee, Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee.”
In this uncertain world, we can do more
than “Duck and Cover.” We can run to our Lord, who “is higher than I.” There is
somewhere to run and someplace to hide!
