Steady Your Soul: Clinging to God in Change and TrialSample

Firm Foundation

Read Psalm 57:1–3

Stand Firm in Truth

I packed my duffel bag with only a few t-shirts and pairs of shorts, some pajamas, and a small toiletry bag—everything I’d need for a week, maybe two, of staying with my mom to help her recover from a simple outpatient surgery. But just hours before she was due in the operating room, her situation went from routine and low-risk to complex and emergent because of compounding and unforeseen complications. Rather than simply driving my mom home that same day to administer ice packs and pain meds, I was signing the dotted line of an advance directive as primary medical caretaker. After a grueling week-long hospital stay, I faced months of uncertainty as I moved in with my mom to help her recover.

As is often the case with abrupt change, I was disoriented and overwhelmed. Maybe you’ve experienced it as a result of job loss, a broken relationship, a chronic diagnosis, or the betrayal of a loved one, but I’m guessing you know that feeling of stumbling groggily in the aftermath, grappling with a new and unpredictable reality. Suddenly you’re faced with problems that seem to have no solutions, crippling despair, and the notion that if you could just make it out of the trial, the grief, the season of instability, all would be well. But some seasons of change have no end in sight.

How do we continue when there are no obvious next steps? When the uncertainty we face stretches on and seeps into every part of our daily lives? We can look to God’s Word, especially to King David’s response to his own dire, indefinite circumstances. When he wrote Psalm 57, David was being hunted by King Saul. Jealous of his increasing military success and afraid of him because of his favor with God, Saul tried to kill David on more than one occasion, sending David on the run for his life (1 Sam. 18–20).

In the midst of this manhunt, David took physical refuge in a cave and penned this opening verse: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (v. 1). David could have used this time undercover to strategize his next move, take a rest, or throw himself a pity party. Instead, he “[cried] out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for [him]” (v. 2).

David wasn’t primarily concerned with asking God for safety or for some miraculous rescue or even for a specific revelation of when this would all be over. No, David knew that what he needed most was refuge for his soul in God.

But finding refuge for our souls in God can feel ambiguous in the face of a very real trial. It’s easier to seek refuge in more tangible ways—in devising an end to our hard circumstances, in answers from other people, in our own power.

In the early days of caring for my mom, I often tried to identify a date that I could point to and say, “This is when she will be better, when she can live on her own again.” I looked for direction from medical professionals, my siblings, anyone who could tell me what to do next. I toiled in my own strength to attend all the follow-up appointments, put a home-cooked meal on the table every night, and keep up with my job, pridefully embracing the lie that everything depended on me. But looking to these other places for refuge only left me weary, full of doubt and disappointment.

When we do the harder work of turning to God for refuge for our souls, we find that this isn’t just good advice from the Bible—it’s a promise God actually keeps. We don’t have to look to the future to find hope or comfort; we can experience it right now because God sends out His Steadfast Love and Faithfulness to meet us right in the middle of our own storms of destruction. It may look like playing worship music while driving to that scary appointment or praying that God would use this circumstance to deepen your dependence on Him, then believing that He will. It may look like keeping verse cards by the kitchen sink to recite out loud each time you wash dishes or clinging to the encouraging words texted to you by a friend on a particularly hard day.

During that unexpected nine-month stay with my mom, refuge for my soul most often looked like walking the tree-lined streets of her neighborhood with Scripture on repeat in my AirPods. The shadows of the trees’ branches reminded me of the Shadow of God’s Wings.

I’d make a beeline for the shaded portion along my route, leaning into relief from the scorching sun. There’s no escaping the discomfort of a hot Georgia afternoon, but under the shadows, my walk became more bearable. The path was still tiring, but I experienced moments of reprieve under the trees’ cover, protected from the direct line of rays and extreme heat. I could walk farther, endure longer. This is the gift God offers us when we take refuge for our souls in Him.

Hold Fast to Hope

Where are you seeking refuge from the storms of life right now?

What would it look like to seek refuge for your soul in God? Make a list of practical ways to do so this week.