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Key Bible Verse: Just as the mountains surround and protect Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds and protects his people (Psalm 125:2).Bonus Reading: Psalm 125:1-5

As a child I walked a mile to school with my two best friends. Along a quarter of that distance was a railway. We always walked on the rails. Each wanted to make it that whole stretch without falling off, but didn't want the others to similarly succeed. We'd throw things at each other to upset balance, or say things to divert attention, cry out that the train was coming, or announce that there was a dead body in the ditch.

Some have supposed that that's what Christian living is: teetering and wobbling along a rail, taunted by the devil. With some skill and a lot of luck, we might just make it to heaven, but it's an uncertain business at best.

Psalm 125says it's not that way at all. Being a Christian is like sitting in Jerusalem, fortified and secure. So the last sentence is "Let Israel have quietness and peace." A colloquial, but in the context accurate, translation would be "Relax." We're secure. God is running the show. Neither our feelings of depression nor the facts of suffering are evidence that God has abandoned us. There's nothing more certain than that He'll accomplish His salvation in our lives and perfect His will in our histories.

—Eugene Peterson inA Long Obedience in the Same Direction

My Response: How can I factor God's protection and provision into my outlook?

Thought to Apply: Do you know what the most frequent command in the Bible turns out to be? It is "Fear not. Don't be afraid."—N.T. WRIGHT (British theologian)

Adapted from A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (InterVarsity, 1980, 2000) by permission.

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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You are my hiding place.

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