1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,

for in you my soul takes refuge;

in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,

till the storms of destruction pass by.

2 I cry out to God Most High,

to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

My girl and I are sitting here, awaiting the arrival of hurricane Irene.  We’ve done all we know to do, to prepare.  And now we are resting, marveling at the calm before the storm.  It’s calm and peaceful.  We have bags packed just in case we need to evacuate–they have posted a mandatory evacuation of all low-lying areas of Seaford, Dandy and Dare.  But at this point we intend to stay.

I was awakened around 1:30 and then unable to get back to sleep this morning.  I’ve been tense and on edge ever since waking up.  Not scared of the storm to come, just unsettled.

I’ve had so many thoughts about this upcoming storm.  There is a stubbornness streak inside of me–not that much unlike Lieutenant  Dan in the movie Forest Gump during the storm in that movie.  There is also this strange fascination of wondering what such tremendous power will look like in the form of a hurricane.

But there is also this part of my soul that wants to say much to God in the midst of this hurricane.  Or rather, has much to say to God in this storm.

A little earlier I did scripture work on the passage above.  And tonight, those are the verses I am grasping on to.  They are the verses that I am trying to stand fast on.  Yes, they speak to the coming storm Irene and the potential for destruction, but they also speak to the kind of storm that only the soul and the mind knows—the storms that are sacred and hard and terrifying and life changing.  This Psalm is a Psalm of hope.  Read it.  The whole Psalm, all of Psalm 57.

I’m very struck tonight by verse 2….”I cry out…to God who fulfills His purpose in me.”   To cry out is hard to do, humbling to do.  Yet the Psalmist, by letting us “look over his shoulder” at the words he pours out to God, does just that .  He cries out to God.  And he believes with certainty that the God to whom he is crying out to be merciful, is the God who will fulfill His purpose (not the Psalmist’s purpose!)  in him.  O, that I would have that certainty, that confidence in this storm and the storms of my mind and soul.

And may I stand fast and praise You in the storm, like the Psalmist in 57:7 “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast!  I will sing and make melody!

Sunset Tonight Before The Storm