(C) Cheryl Howard 2008 

But I will sing of YOUR power, YOUR strength, YOUR might & boldness, I will stroll about like a minstrel telling of YOUR Majesty, of YOUR force & the security there is in YOU, I will sing YOUR loud praise.

Yes I will sing aloud, I will cry out & shout for joy about & rejoice in YOUR mercy, & love strength & steadfastness, YOUR kindness, YOUR grace & goodness, YOUR faithfulness, YOUR pity toward us & YOUR devotion to us. I will sing of YOUR generosity, YOUR loyalty & YOUR beauty in the morning – at the start of each day, as the sun comes up at the dawn & breaking of a new day.

For YOU LORD have been my defence, my lofty, inaccessible cliff-like place, my high tower & fort. YOU have been my refuge, my retreat, my safe place to which I have fled, my escape in the day, the time, the moment & the heat of my troubles, when I am full of dismay because of the distress I find myself in. When I am in a narrow, tight place, when all around me causes me sorrow & anguish, when I feel closed in & crowded out. When I am in the midst of tribulation & affliction & my adversary & foes are closing in on me – YOU have been that safe place to which I can run & they can’t reach me!

thought for the journey ….

It is in the heart of humanity to seek and desire a ‘haven’, a ’safe-place’ - a ‘Place’ we can run to and find protection and security; but also a ‘Place’ where we can really be ourselves - unguarded, exposed ….. completely accepted just as we are …. seen, known and yet loved …..

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved GOD, but that HE loved us and sent HIS SON to be the propitiation for our sins.” (HIS sacrificial death covered our sins, atoned for them and reconciled us to our merciful GOD)

John 6:44 “No one can come to ME unless The FATHER Who sent ME draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

What unmerited grace that Perfect, Sinless, Spotless GOD ALMIGHTY would call and choose us, would forgive our sins, would reconcile us to HIMSELF, would give us life, HIS Life, through the redemptive work of The Cross of Calvary - The Cross of the death and resurrection of GOD The SON! It is HE we all long for - whether we acknowledge that need or not; for we were created by HIM and for HIM - to know HIM in the warm and intimate fellowship that comes from yielding our lives and wills to HIS at the foot of Calvary, and living to bring HIM glory all the days allotted to us …. HE is our Haven!

Oh the joy and the peace that awaits those who would heed HIS call and wisely ‘choose’ The LORD as their Refuge, their Bolt-Hole - their Rescuer!

Isaiah 26:3 “YOU will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on YOU, because he trusts in you. Trust in The LORD forever, for in YAH, The LORD, is everlasting strength!”