A Refuge in Times of Trouble | Nahum
Phil Krause | July 27, 2025
We are looking today at the book of Nahum.
My name is Phil Krause; I’m one of the elders here, and it really is a privilege for me to open God’s word with you today.
We’re going to be looking, as I said, at the Old Testament prophecy of Nahum. We’re continuing our series in what are sometimes referred to as the minor prophets. Just a reminder that when say “minor prophets” it refers to the length of the books (as opposed to the major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah), not anything about their importance. These are equally important words from God, they just happen to be shorter prophecies. If you’re looking in the Bible that’s in the chair in front of you, Nahum starts on page 782.
While you’re turning there, I want you to imagine that you are a prophet, or were a prophet in the early 1940s. God reveals oracles to you telling you what to say. Let’s say you lived at that time and prophesied about that time, the early stages of World War II. Nazi tanks and troops and planes are spreading over Europe like cancer. They’ve reached the edges of France; they’re threatening to come across the English channel into England. The Luftwaffe is bombing London every night; it’s the height of Hitler’s power, and the world wonders, “Can this evil even be stopped?”
Now, imagine that the word of the Lord came to you and told you to say, “Berlin is going to fall. Nazi Germany’s days are numbered; the labor camp gates are going to swing wide open, and the captives will be set free. Hitler will end his own life.”
Or, related to the war in the Pacific, perhaps just after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, “God says the great cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan will be utterly obliterated, wiped out by atomic bombs; not even a blade of grass will be left standing. Japan is going to surrender unconditionally.”
Now, to hear a prophecy like that at that point in the war would have seemed hard to believe, as the Axis powers were running rampant over everything. But that’s exactly the sort of prophecy we have in Nahum. It is leveled against the wicked city Nineveh, the capital of the empire of Assyria, and it predicts their downfall at a time when they thought—and everyone else around them thought—that they were at their strongest. They didn’t know it yet, but they were going to be overtaken by Babylon.
So let’s get our eyes on Nahum 1. I’m going to be reading from the NIV, the New International Version Bible, today, so the wording is a little different from the ones that are in the chairs in the room. Those are ESV. But don’t let that throw you off. The passage is going to be on the screen, too, if you’d rather follow there.
Nahum starts his book with an introduction to God; now hear the word of the Lord.
“A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
“The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither
and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
The mountains quake before him
and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence,
the world and all who live in it.
Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
the rocks are shattered before him.
“The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him,
but with an overwhelming flood
he will make an end of Nineveh;
he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.
“Whatever they plot against the Lord
he will bring to an end;
trouble will not come a second time.
They will be entangled among thorns
and drunk from their wine;
they will be consumed like dry stubble.
From you, Nineveh, has one come forth
who plots evil against the Lord
and devises wicked plans.
“This is what the Lord says:
“‘Although they have allies and are numerous,
they will be destroyed and pass away.
Although I have afflicted you, Judah,
I will afflict you no more.
Now I will break their yoke from your neck
and tear your shackles away.’
“The Lord has given a command concerning you, Nineveh:
‘You will have no descendants to bear your name.
I will destroy the images and idols
that are in the temple of your gods.
I will prepare your grave,
for you are vile.’
“Look, there on the mountains,
the feet of one who brings good news,
who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, Judah,
and fulfill your vows.
No more will the wicked invade you;
they will be completely destroyed.”
This is the word of God.
Now, we don’t know much about Nahum the Elkoshite. This is the only time in Scripture that he is mentioned. But he writes these blistering words aimed at ancient Assyria, and he’s giving great comfort at the same time. Actually, nahum in Hebrew means “comfort,” and he’s bringing comfort to the people of Judah, and he’s teaching all of us some important things about Yahweh God himself.
So, picking up on that idea of comfort, here’s how I’d like us to organize our thinking today. There are three words to notice here: wrath, refuge, and restoration. We’re going to talk about:
1. The Comfort of God’s Wrath
2. The Comfort of God’s Refuge
3. The Comfort of God’s Restoration
Now, if you’re thinking, “Wait a minute! I can see how God being a refuge is a comfort, and I can see how God restoring his people is a comfort to them, but how is there comfort in his wrath?” Well, good question! Keep listening; don’t tune out. Let’s start there.
1. The Comfort of God’s Wrath
(1) First, let’s make sure that we’re on the same page with a quick working definition of “wrath.” Here is wrath defined: God’s wrath is his holy hatred of and righteous judgment against sin. I’ll repeat that. God’s wrath is his holy hatred of and righteous judgment against sin.
The wrath of God is not him reacting in lashing out, like human anger often is. It’s an extension of his holiness. It is a constant, steady, righteous indignation against wrong.
(2) Next, let’s look at wrath expressed. We’ve already read this in Nahum 1:2 and 6, but let me read them again.
“The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.”
Verse 6: “Who can withstand his indignation?” These are all different ways of describing God’s wrath.
“Who can endure his fierce anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
the rocks are shattered before him.”
Now, something about that rubs modern people the wrong way, right? Maybe it’s because we don’t really understand righteous anger like we should, or maybe it’s because we don’t view sin as wicked and as horrible as it really is. We tend to want a nice God. We love it that he forgives—“Praise the Lord; his mercy is more,” right? But if we’re not careful, we overlook the fact that in order for him to forgive our sins, he had to pour out his wrath against those sins on his Son. So we have to worship God as he’s revealed himself to us in the Bible.
Again, the wrath of God is his holy hatred of and righteous judgment against sin. Really, the whole book of Nahum is an expression of God’s wrath revealed against Nineveh.
(3) Now let’s consider God’s wrath executed, or poured out. You might be thinking, “Why was God so angry at Nineveh? I mean, I thought Jonah—Pastor Brad talked about this a couple weeks ago—I thought Jonah went and preached to them, after his little fish detour thing; he preached to them and they repented, and God spared them from judgment.” That’s correct. That did happen. He did not destroy them at that time.
But now, Nahum is writing this prophecy about 140 or 150 years after Jonah went and preached to them. So that sweeping repentance that they had experienced, that Jonah had witnessed, is now a thing of the past. It’s maybe just a dim memory, something that happened to the great-great-grandparents of the Ninevites. So, there’s a lesson for us in this: you can’t live in right relationship with God just hanging onto the coattails of your parents or your grandparents. You can’t even operate on your own repentance from years ago, in your own lifetime! Responding in faith and obedience to God’s word should be an ongoing, grace-driven, cross-centered, Holy Spirit-empowered lifestyle, daily. The people of Assyria had gone back to their wicked ways.
So, the sins mentioned in Nahum fall right into this same pattern that we’ve seen all through the minor prophets so far. Let me show them to you from the text. What was God angry with Nineveh for?
First of all, we see idolatry. Look at the middle of verse 14. God says, “I will destroy the images and idols that are in the temple of your gods.” So, being idolatrous.
Secondly, Nahum also accuses them of being wicked enemies of God and destroying God’s people. Nahum 1:11: “From you, Nineveh, has one come forth who plots evil against the Lord and devises wicked plans.” Now, it’s not smart to plot evil against God, the God of the universe.
Nahum 2:2: “Destroyers have laid them [speaking of Judah] waste and have ruined their vines.”
Third, God expresses his anger at their cruel violence. Look at Nahum 3:1. “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims.” Then the very last phrase of the whole book in Nahum 3:19: “For who has not felt your endless cruelty?”
Now, Assyria was notorious for their cruelty. Archeologists have found clay cuneiform tablets that show that Assyrian kings were bragging about what they did to the people they conquered. It was torture too graphic for me to share with you here in this kind of a setting. It’s horrible, nightmare-inducing stuff. Basically, any way that a wicked, evil person could think of to torture or kill someone, Assyria probably did it. They also engaged in propaganda and psychological warfare—read sometime about Hezekiah’s confrontation with the Assyrian king Sennacherib in 2 Kings 18-19.
But notice here, though, that Nahum says they were never without victims. In other words, it was a constant, ongoing thing for Nineveh.
Fourth, the other thing that God is pouring out his wrath on them for was their unfair and unwise business practices. Nahum 3:16: “You have increased the number of your merchants until they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.” This is poor stewardship of the environment. It exploits people and it angers the Lord.
So, those are the reasons listed in Nahum for incurring the wrath of God. Again, it’s idolatry, being enemies of God and his people, for their cruel violence and their unfair, unwise business practices.
Nahum 2, then, talks about how Nineveh is going to fall. The choppy style, the language of Nahum…the wording of it is meant to mimic this battle feel; the short phrases, choppy commands. Just as an example, look at Nahum 2:1. “An attacker advances against you, Nineveh.” Who would that attacker be? Babylon. That’s going to happen; it’s not happening now. But,
“Guard the fortress,
watch the road,
brace yourselves,
marshal all your strength!”
You see the way it’s worded. Sure enough, Babylon did come and conquer Assyria.
Both Nahum 2 and 3 contain songs that taunt Assyria, make fun of them. Nahum pronounces woes on Nineveh, and there’s even a sarcastic funeral dirge for Nineveh. It’s an amazing work of poetry, employing divine sarcasm without ever stooping to be silly.
(4) So, we’ve seen wrath defined, wrath expressed, wrath executed; and now, wrath experienced as a comfort. Like I said before, this seems contradictory, but let’s camp out on this for just a minute.
How is it that God’s wrath, his anger towards sin, is a comfort? It’s certainly not a comfort to Nineveh, right? When you’re under the judgment of God, it’s anything but comfortable. The comfort here is for Judah, and the comfort is for us too. How? Well, it’s a comfort to know, first of all, that because of God’s wrath, wickedness is not going to win. Wickedness will not prevail. The rule and reign of evil is only temporary. And it’s a comfort to recognize that this is part of the character of our God—it has to be. God can’t show us his love and his mercy if he’s not also loving and just.
Someone might say, “I don’t want to serve a God who’s just angry all the time. I want a loving God, a God of forgiveness and mercy and grace, not a God who’s ready to blast me out of the water every time I tell a white lie or think a bad thought or say a bad word.” But listen, you don’t want a God who just looks the other way and doesn’t deal with evil!
Let’s just take one of the sins that Nineveh was accused of by God, idol worship. God absolutely hates idolatry and all the sins that follow in its wake. That is a comfort. Ancient idol worship often included sexual immorality, human sacrifice, demon worship, and sorcery. It was nasty, nasty stuff. Isn’t it comforting to worship a God who doesn’t just look the other way when this is happening? You don’t want a God who says, “Eh, I’m an open-minded God; I’m inclusive. Let them believe whatever they want; I’m not going to give them a hard time. If they want to heat up the metal arms of this demon god and throw their babies onto it to kill them, fine; so be it.” No! You don’t want to worship a God that is that way. That, by the way, was the Canaanite god Molech.
The Assyrians had over 900 gods. The main Assyrian god was Ashur, in which you hear the word Assyr-ian. It’s kind of in that name, Ashur. The god of war, the sun god. He was often depicted with a winged sun-disc—you see the photo there of a carving—and the figure of a man in the center. They believed that Ashur conquered the evil spirits and gave the Ninevites or the Assyrians success in their cruel battles.
God, in his jealousy, says, “No! I’m not going to share my glory with anyone else, certainly not with a false nongod.” And it’s blasphemous, because who is the one who actually has authority over the evil spirits? It’s Jesus! He does, and one day he is going to throw the devil and the demons into the lake of fire. So God’s wrath is executed against idolatry, and that is comfort.
Think of it in human terms. We can understand this. If a husband says to his wife, “Sweetheart, I really love you. I love you more than life itself,” and then a bad guy comes and starts attacking her, and he just stands and watches it happen, she would actually, I think, have reason to question his love for her! He says he loves her, but he’s not acting on that, and he’s not doing anything about this evil.
Or, here’s another scenario. If a wife finds out that her husband has been unfaithful to her, maybe even through a concert kiss-cam video that goes viral on the Internet, as sadly happened this last week, you know that a wife who discovers that is going to feel indignation, anger, a lot of negative emotions. Why? Because she’s given herself to him in love! So we can understand on a human level how jealousy and love and anger can all happen in the same context.
That’s just on a human level. God is infinitely more aware of and grieved by and angered by our sins.
So, is God loving and merciful and gracious and forgiving? Yes! Praise God, he is those things, but never at the expense of his holiness, justice, and yes, his wrath. It is what makes the cross so beautiful, because in his mercy God the Father poured out his wrath against your sin and my sin onto his only Son. There’s great comfort in understanding that we serve a wrathful God who doesn’t just look the other way.
2. The Comfort of God’s Refuge
We see the word “refuge” used in verse 7, but let’s first look at Nahum 1:3. The prophets often worked hard to shock their audiences, and Nahum is no exception. In verse 2 he had talked about his jealousy, his vengeance and wrath against his enemies. Then look at the first half of verse 3. “The Lord is slow to anger but great in power. The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.”
This verse is echoing Yahweh’s words to Moses in Exodus 34, although there is a bit of a twist, and I credit this insight to Michael P.V. Barrett in his commentary on Nahum. Here’s what God proclaimed about himself when he had hidden Moses in the cleft of the rock on Mount Sinai.
“And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’”
Notice that phrase “slow to anger.” It’s associated with God’s compassion, his graciousness, his love, his faithfulness. The fact that he’s slow to anger is a merciful kindness of God.
But now look again at Nahum 1:3. God is still speaking about himself; in other words, the voice of God just happens to be through the prophet Nahum. And he says he is “slow to anger but great in power.”
Now, quoting Michael Barrett:
“The collocation [that just means the juxtaposition, the placement of words together] of God’s slowness to anger and his power is noteworthy since God’s longsuffering is most commonly associated with his compassion. Whereas human vengeance reckons with its victims swiftly out of concern that the enemy may somehow prevail, God is not threatened by any. His delay in executing judgment is not out of weakness but power. If he had less power, he would be less patient. Divine patience is not evidence of inability or indifference, but rather that which is designed to lead to repentance (Rom 2:4) and to remove any excuse from sinners.”
See, this is very, very different from the gods of the ancient Near East. Those gods were like souped-up, larger-than-life people. They were stronger, but they still had all the characteristics of people, because they were just made up. In all the myths and legends they flew off the handle easily; they were quick to anger, just like humans often are. But no, God is slow to anger. That’s why it can sometimes seem to us like he’s letting sin go unpunished. He’s not, but it can seem like it. He operates on a completely different timeline. On your own sometime, check out Psalm 90 to see about that, the fact that the way God handles time is very different from ours.
Nahum gives another shocking contrast about God’s character in Nahum 1:7. Right after talking about God’s wrath being poured out like fire, it can almost feel like this verbal whiplash that’s happening here. Nahum stops us all in our tracks with this amazing truth about God, verse 7: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.” Have you ever had times of trouble? Maybe you’re in a time of trouble right now. “He cares for those who trust in him.”
Again, I don’t want us to slip into pitting some of God’s characteristics, his attributes—like his wrath and justice—against his goodness and the fact that he’s a refuge and that he cares. No, he’s not capricious. He’s not one thing one moment and another thing the next. God is always wrathful at sin, and he’s always a refuge for those who trust in him. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.
The contrast here just happens to happen in the way that Nahum presents these truths about God. Of course, Nahum isn’t the only place in the Bible that talks about the Lord being our refuge. I don’t want you to try to look these up; just listen while I read this list of references in the Bible to God being our refuge.
Boaz commended Ruth and blessed her with these words: “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
In 1 Samuel 22,
“David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
“‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge…
As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.’”
As you know, David was on the run a lot in much of his life. He thought a lot about needing to have a refuge from his enemies.
Psalm 7: “Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me.”
Psalm 9: “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”
Psalm 11:
“In the Lord I take refuge.
How then can you say to me:
‘Flee like a bird to your mountain…’”
Psalm 14: “You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.”
Psalm 16 might be familiar to you: “Preserve me, O God,” or, “Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.”
Psalm 17:
“I call on you, my God…
Show me the wonders of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.”
Psalm 22: “Guard my life and rescue me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.”
Are you getting the idea here? Four times in Psalm 31 David refers to God being his refuge, his rock, his fortress; twice in Psalm 34. He says it in Psalm 36, Psalm 37. Psalm 46 is a psalm of the sons of Korah, and it served as the inspiration for Martin Luther’s great hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.”
It’s in Psalm 57. I love Psalm 59, which connects singing with this concept of God’s refuge.
“I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.”
Singing is a great way to remind yourself of the refuge that you have in God.
Psalm 91:
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’”
Forty-three times in the Psalms we read of God being our refuge, seven times in the Proverbs, and then multiple times in the prophets as well.
By the way, for that list, all I did was I went to BibleGateway.com and I searched for the word “refuge.” You can’t read that there, but the main point is the thing at the top: BibleGateway.com. You can do this. Just look up “refuge” in there, and then prayerfully work your way through the results and praise God for being your refuge as you work your way through the results.
One of them is going to be Nahum 1:7. Let’s look at it again.
“The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him.”
So, the obvious question for Nahum’s audience and for you and me today, is, To what or to whom am I turning for refuge? To what or to whom am I turning for a sense of security or safety or protection? Is it to God or to someone or something else? Am I going to experience his slowness to anger as a sweet mercy or as a steadily building judgment against me?
The prophets often denounced the people of Israel and Judah for turning to false gods or other nations to save them instead of Yahweh. Do we do the same thing? Yes, we do. Oh, we want a refuge, absolutely! We want protection from harm, no doubt about it; but the problem is that by default we miss the part about trusting him as the key to finding refuge. We try all sorts of things to fill that longing, that true need that we have, only to keep coming up short.
Here’s the simple truth—in fact, let’s put it on the screen. Let’s read this together out loud, and maybe you can memorize it today. Let’s read it.
“The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him.”
Amen.
Charles Simeon, writing in 1832, said,
“To those who are in trouble, God is the only refuge! We may go to the creature, and obtain no benefit; but, if we make our application to God, he will hear and help us. In him we shall be as in an impregnable fortress; and if the whole human race were combined for our destruction, not a hair of our head would perish. Let every one of us then turn unto God; and we shall find him a very present help in times of trouble.”
Or, as we sing in that great hymn of the faith and we will sing later in the service,
“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”
Have you fled to him?
3. The Comfort of God’s Restoration
So, Nahum, the prophet whose name means “comfort,” shows us the comfort of God’s wrath, the comfort of his refuge, and then third, the comfort of God’s restoration. We see an amazing promise in Nahum 1:15 and 2:2. The last verse of chapter 1, verse 15, says this:
“Look, there on the mountains,
the feet of one who brings good news,
who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, Judah,
and fulfill your vows.
No more will the wicked invade you;
they will be completely destroyed.”
And Nahum 2:2:
“The Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob
like the splendor of Israel,
though destroyers have laid them waste
and have ruined their vines.”
To the ancient Jews, this was good news indeed. The messenger of the good news has truly beautiful feet. And what’s the message he’s proclaiming? It’s ultimately a message of restoration.
We see three things mentioned here that are going to be restored.
(1) First, it’s the restoration of peace. This messenger with beautiful feet is proclaiming peace, it says. It says, “No more will the wicked invade you.”
A parallel passage in Isaiah talks about the fact that this is a proclamation of peace based on the face that our God reigns. No more war, no more invasion of wickedness. Peace, safety, security.
(2) Secondly, it’s the restoration of God-honoring worship. It says, “Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows.” This is no more bowing down to false gods.
(3) Then third, the restoration of splendor. The NIV uses the word “splendor”; your translation might say “majesty” or “excellency.” To the average Judean Hebrews person, this would have meant, “Yay! God is restoring our prosperity to us and he’s promising that we’re going to get our vineyards back!”
And God was promising that, but we know from the rest of Scripture that he actually meant it all as a picture of a much bigger and better reality. The ultimate splendor of Judah would be seen with the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. You see, he is the majesty. He’s the excellency. He’s the splendor of Judah, and he brings peace not just between nations, and the cessation of war, but also peace between sinful humans and a holy, righteous God. First Timothy talks about him being our mediator, and Ephesians 2 talks about the fact that he himself is our peace, who has broken down every wall. So, Jesus reconciled us to God and he entrusts to us this ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5), and that is great comfort.
Jesus has beautiful, nail-scarred feet. Jesus is the point of all the Old Testament festivals and feasts, so in dealing with our hearts he sets our worship right. This prophecy about the restoration is actually an amazing promise that has already been partially fulfilled with the first coming of Christ and will find its completion, its ultimate fulfillment, in his second coming, when the curse is lifted and all things are made new.
Pastor Brian is going to talk more about that next week. He’ll be looking at the book of Zephaniah. So maybe you can take some time this week to read and begin meditating on the book of Zephaniah.
In conclusion, if you are here today and listening to me and you don’t have a relationship with God, a personal relationship, it is important for you to know this: we are born more like Nineveh than we are like Judah—all of us. We’re all under God’s wrath when we start out. We need a refuge; not just a refuge from the difficulties in our life, we need a refuge from the wrath of God! Romans 1 talks about the fact that his wrath is already being revealed against unrighteousness. Ephesians 2 says that we are children of wrath, and Romans 5 says that when Christ died for us he died for his enemies. So turn to Christ, who had the wrath of God poured out on him on the cross. Turn to him for refuge.
If you are stuck in sin and you are a backslidden Christian, you’ve slipped back into something that is controlling your life, your sin is evidence of the fact that you don’t fear the Lord as you should.
Now, it can be helpful to think hard about the wrath of God. Perhaps you could read all three chapters of Nahum carefully and prayerfully. Realize the dead seriousness of sin. But don’t stay there. Then, meditate on what Jesus went through for you, and repent. Say, “I’m changing my mind about that, I’m changing my behavior about that, and I am turning in faith to Christ.” Ask him to help you.
To all of us walking through times of trouble, keep the bigger picture in mind. The full, ultimate restoration has yet to be brought to completion. When Jesus returns, he will make all things new. Your times of trouble now are just a pinprick on the timeline of eternity. So the prophecies will be finally revealed, and we can now pray the final words of the Bible: “Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.”
Charles Wesley wrote thousands of hymns in his life, and one of them he titled “In Temptation.” We know it now from its first line, “Jesus, lover of my soul.” So as I close I’m going to read some of the lyrics from that hymn. It’s written as a prayer to Jesus, our refuge. Here’s what Wesley said.
“Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone,
Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.
“Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound;
Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art,
Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart;
Rise to all eternity.”
Let’s pray.
Father, thank you that you are a God of wrath, but you are also a God who is good, and you are a refuge to your people. Thank you that we can rest in knowing that you poured your wrath onto Jesus, your Son, so that we would not have to experience that. What an amazing truth that is.
Thank you that someday you will make all things new. We so look forward to that day, not just because it means an easier life for us—that’ll be nice—but also because it means we’ll be with you, and that’s the best there is. So thank you for the beauty of who you are. Help us to worship you in spirit and in truth, and help us to keep our eyes on you, the—yes—wrathful, just, holy God; but also the merciful, forgiving, loving God. Nothing in us can claim this. It’s not I, but Christ in me. So we thank you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Phil Krause
