Spanish vegetable and corn crib
The Bible uses the word picture of hedges in some provocative ways. Satan complains, for instance, that God has bought Job’s loyalty by building hedges of protection around him (Job 1:10). Later after the Lord has taken some of the fences down to give the Devil access, Job wonders why the Almighty has shut him up in such confining, unexplainable, and painful circumstances (Job 3:23).
Then there’s David who also knew what it felt like to be surrounded by trouble on every side. But he had moments when he saw hedges, fences, and walls as an occasion for wonder. In Psalm 139 while feeling overwhelmed by the thought of God’s personal attention, favor, and protection (Psa 139:1-4), David talks about how God has hedged him in and laid his hand on him (Psa 139:5). In such confidence he finds strength and hope.
Who among us doesn’t feel fenced in by circumstance, limitation, and a lack of real understanding? Yet the amazing thought of the Bible is that, within our confinement, God is with us (Psa 139:6-10).
The Lord of Israel even told his people that in their days of exile; when they were feeling so abandoned by God; forgotten in foreign cultures; unable to get back to Jerusalem; in conditions that seemed so wrong– that he would be like a little sanctuary for them… in the days and places of their confinement (Ezek 11:16).
Lord you have hedged us in on every side.
Yet the walls that have robbed us of our freedom…
Are now giving us reason to ask…
That in this sanctuary of circumstance,
You would enable us to believe in you…
Trust in you…
And live in the thought that– in our trouble…
and confinement…
You are with us.
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