Let the travelers through the parched deserts of Arabia, tell
how comforting the shadow of a cloud is which diminishes the heat in a arid
place. Let the desert wanderers tell what it is to hide their scorched shoulders
from the burning sun in the shadow of a rock. How much greater reason have I to
boast of my Rock! From his pierced side the fountain of life flows which pours
refreshment into my panting soul. Here I have not only shadow from the heat, but
shelter from the storm.
What is firmer than a rock? Winds may rend the cedars of
Lebanon, and tear them up by their roots: but here the tempests beat, and are
baffled; the billows dash, and are broken; time hovers, and corrodes not the
flinty mass. Nevertheless, rocks are not armor against every invasion from
destruction and ruin. For see, the enraged thunders rend their towering tops,
and angry earthquakes toss them from their seats, while the earth beneath opens
fearfully, and hides the ponderous heaps. But my Rock shall stand fast
forever, when the foundations of the earth are moved, and the pillars of heaven
tremble! There shall I be safe, when the hail shall sweep away the refuges of
lies; yes, when God shall rain on sinners snares, fire, and brimstone, in the
furious storm of wrath, I shall sing in safety, being an inhabitant of the Rock
of ages, from which I never shall be moved!
[James Meikle]
✞✞✞
Deuteronomy 32:13 ... He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
Psalm 18:2 ... The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Isaiah 32:2 ... And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.❤
