The next entry for my Blog is You Are My Hiding Place by Michael Ledner and first released in 1980. A link to Selah performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.
You Are My Hiding Place
You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You
I will trust in You
Let the weak say I am strong
In the strength of the Lord
You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You
I will trust in You
Let the weak say I am strong
In the strength of the Lord
I will trust in You
You are my hiding place
You always fill my heart
With songs of deliverance
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You
I will trust in You
Let the weak say I am strong
In the strength of the Lord
I will trust in You
You are my hiding place (I will trust in You)
You always fill my heart (Let the weak say I am strong)
With songs of deliverance (In the strength of the Lord)
Whenever I am afraid
I will trust in You
When you are trying to escape whatever is going on in your life, where is your go to place or activity? I am talking about times when you need a diversion to get your mind off whatever is weighing you down. Maybe you dive into your go-to comfort foods, you pig out on sweets, perhaps you turn to alcohol, or maybe you just pull up the covers and stay in bed. Be honest, do any of these options last for very long? It is short term gain, but the pain and dread is still there.
As we continue along in the current COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the world, most of us are quarantined in our homes and told not to go anywhere except to purchase groceries or go for medical attention. So now we are “stuck” in our homes with our family and/or roommates twenty-four hours a day. I realize that most of us really love our families, but togetherness has its limitations, especially as weeks and months pass by in isolation. We feel as if there is no escape and our patience wears thin after a while and we feel as if we are at wits end with no place to turn. Everyone’s question is, will this pandemic ever end?
There is only one place we can hide successfully and this place is identified in Psalm 32:7, “You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” The other escape options I mentioned above are perhaps our first actions, but we eventually end up turning to God for the ultimate hiding place. He is the one who can give us the protection we are seeking, the love we need, and comfort that only he can bring. Not only do we get that secure feeling as he holds us, but we are surrounded with the songs of hope and deliverance, perhaps through the voices of angels. All of this gives us the peace and freedom that we have never felt before. Just think, we can get this incredible peace where we are; he comes to us. If we look to scripture again, we read that God is always there for us when we are afraid, David tells us the following in Psalm 56:3, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.” Here, David is acknowledging that God is his hiding place and that he knows there is no better place to put his trust than in the hands of God. Isn’t it amazing how this song has essentially taken 2 verses from scripture and almost used them verbatim in a song? Every time you sing this song, you are basically singing straight from the word of God.
One of the steps we must take to gain full advantage of what God offers us as our hiding place and his strength, is to acknowledge that we are indeed weak when it comes to facing the obstacles we face every day of our life. We must face the reality that we cannot do it alone and that we certainly can’t win the battles of this world alone. The writer of this song once again went to God’s word for the next line of the song. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul writes, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul is telling us that once we understand how weak we truly are, then we are ready to accept how strong God is and what he can do for us. As long as we keep trying to do things on our own, we will remain weak.
This song is basically a repeating chorus, but it has taken scripture straight from the bible and turned it into a song. I believe this is scripture turned into a song we can sing everyday of our lives, and it will continually remind us of the love of God and what he has to offer us. Singing to God using his scriptures helps to make an even more powerful prayer. It is true that we gain eternal life beyond this earthly life by accepting God’s only son as our personal savior, but isn’t it wonderful that he gives us a place of refuge during our time on earth?