Psalm 31:2

Psalm 31:2

Emergency Services     

Four short statements that read almost like demands! Dare we be this insistent with God? 

1.     Turn Your ear to me.

2.     Come quickly to my rescue.

3.     Be my rock of refuge.

4.     Be a strong fortress to save me.

There is a sequence in this verse, it’s a bit like calling for a lifeguard or ambulance or some other kind of emergency response unit.

1.     Firstly, we call for assistance. 

2.     Secondly, we ask for rapid response. 

3.     Thirdly, we ask to be taken out of immediate danger. 

4.     Fourthly, we look for longer term safety and protection.

Our God seems so big and mighty and majestic, can we be this persistent? If you are in danger right now, remember that He is your Father, of course He wants to help, it only takes a prayer. Once heard, the spiritual Emergency Services get to work and isn’t that exactly what God is all about? Saving lives?

 

The Moorgate tube crash occurred on 28 February 1975 at 8:46 am on the London Underground's Northern City Line; 43 people died and 74 were injured after a train failed to stop at the line's southern terminus, Moorgate Station, and crashed into its end wall. I was not on that train, but I was there at the Station and saw some of the victims and witnessed the horror of the following days as the emergency services cleared the twisted remains of the coaches and their inhabitants. It was horrible and left me with a deep fear of the Underground system. For years I would not travel on it and when I eventually did it was in a state of blind panic. As I write this, my wife and I have just spent two very happy days celebrating her birthday in the capital and we travelled miles on the Underground. On one of those trips, I recalled the events of 1975 and thought of those whose lives changed dramatically that morning. It was while I was writing this, 2 days later, that I discovered that I had been on the tube train having these thoughts on 28th February 2020, exactly 45 years to the day after the disaster!! I wondered why I no longer experienced fear and this verse, in Psalm 31 came to mind. The Lord is, “My rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.” Be it on a tube train or the deck of a small boat or in the seat of a passenger plane my Lord is my rock, my feet are on solid ground. Wherever I go He has built strong walls around me - before me, on either side and behind me. I am always in His fortress and over my head are the everlasting wings of His protection. As these thoughts went through my mind on the Underground earlier this year, I found myself smiling with the joy of His presence as our tube train rattled along the Jubilee line. Another passenger caught my eye and smiled back. Hallelujah!

 

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