You Are My Hiding Place

Psalm 32:6-11

6Therefore, let all the godly confess their rebellion to you while there is time,

that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.

7For you are my hiding place;

you protect me from trouble.

You surround me with songs of victory.

Interlude

8The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

I will advise you and watch over you.

9Do not be like a senseless horse or mule

that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

10Many sorrows come to the wicked,

but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD.

11So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him!

Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!

Saint Augustine, the fourth century theologian, had always loved the Psalms. In his classic, Confessions, he alludes to the Psalms on almost every page. He spent countless hours studying the Psalms and wrote two commentaries on them.

Augustine especially loved Psalm 32, which was inscribed above his bed so that he would be reminded of it as soon as he awoke each morning. He said he liked it because “the beginning of knowledge is to know oneself a sinner.”

But it wasn’t until later in life that Augustine fully appreciated the statement in verse 7: “You are my hiding place.” In those later years Augustine witnessed the collapse of the Roman Empire, and just before his death, the Vandals besieged his hometown of Hippo in North Africa. No doubt Augustine learned to find refuge in God rather than in the earthly powers around him, just as David learned to do as he fled from Saul.

What makes a good hiding place? It must be free and accessible so that we can get there when we need it; it must be large and able to sustain us for as long as we remain there; and it must be impregnable to all our enemies.

God is our hiding place, and Jesus Christ is the way, the door, the truth that leads us to him.

Hide me, O my Savior, hide,

Till the storm of life is past;

Safe into the haven guide;

O receive my soul at last!

CHARLES WESLEY

Bible Networking

Compare Psalm 32:8 with Proverbs 3:17 and see how God’s pathway is the scenic route.

Notable Quotable

“If you are willing to know, he will make you know somehow. If not one way, then another.”

F. B. MEYER