“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Psalm 43:5

Written in the 1990s. The world is an increasingly dangerous place, and at the moment it is becoming potentially more dangerous from confrontations with Iraq and North Korea. Is there any safe place left? As the US prepares to invade Iraq, think of those living in the countries around Iraq and how unsettled they must feel, to say nothing of the Iraqis themselves!

What should our response as believers be to such a situation; what if you were living in a country bordering Iraq, as we are at the moment, well within the range of Saddam’s missiles?

Certainly Satan would like us to worry and fret: his three major weapons are lies and fear, along with violence. But our weapons are more powerful: Truth, Faith and Love. Psalm 91 gives us some definite perspective here.

Verse 2 says: “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge.’” Picture Him drawing you onto his lap where you are safe and dearly loved.

He is “My fortress.” Picture a huge, solid castle wall surrounding you, keeping the enemy out.

“My God in whom I trust.” Picture a mighty and glorious being, standing there protecting you; He is so big that all you can see is the bottom of his big toe! No one can get to us without His permission. We are absolutely safe with Him no matter how things appear. Our eyes need to be lifted from the situation to God: He is the Almighty Ruler, the One who has never been defeated and never will be.

And so it turned out as God protected us from Sadam Huseyien’s missiles and other threats. And so He will protect us today, for He is still our refuge and Fortress, our God in whom we can trust. Our job is to trust. Can we do that?