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. Psalm 57:1 (ESV)

The storm that blew its way through the Philadelphia area yesterday will not be long remembered. An early in the season storm, it arrived and departed quickly making more of a mess than most of us expected. The afternoon rush was horrible. Many of us have already heard stories of spin-outs and fender-benders and half-hour commutes becoming three-hour nightmares.

But today dawned clear and the late-fall sun and 36-degree air are doing their part to send the slushy snow packing.

We will hardly remember the inconvenience.

Like far too many, I have family connections with those who lives have been changed forever by the firestorms in Northern California this past week. Our recent inconvenience should not be mentioned in the same sentence. My sister and her husband are safe and their house escaped destruction, but they are not yet allowed home and while their house and the ranch’s outbuildings stand, the land is scarred and destruction is everywhere. Up the road in Paradise, California, things are much worse. Total loss. Scores dead and hundreds missing.

For those of us in the Philadelphia area the storm of inconvenience had passed by before the evening was out. We don’t have much about which to complain. It was a storm of inconvenience. Dare we suggest the shadow of God’s wings as a place of refuge for friends and family who have seen more of a storm of destruction than most of us can imagine?

The biblical text itself tells us that David wrote Psalm 57 just after escaping the storm of Saul’s rage blowing threats of death against him. Real threats of real death. The Psalm is no comforting devotional written from a pastor’s study.

Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, and other celebrities lost their homes in last week’s firestorm in Southern California. “I’m so humbled by your bravery,” Lady Gaga said. I don’t know what that means, but I should not be so cynical.

Entertainers are not the only ones who lost homes in the fire that roared through Malibu. This past Sunday morning members of Malibu Presbyterian Church, their church building threatened by the fire, worshiped with members of Canoga Park Presbyterian Church, a few miles away and safe. Jonathan LaBarge is the pastor at Canoga Park, a good personal friend, and a friend of LPC. The people of Canoga Park, some of them also under evacuation orders, welcomed their neighbors to breakfast and to worship.  Jonathan preached about trusting God and about hope. He spoke about knowing loss and living in the tension of hope and mourning together. Later that day he told me that the homes of some of those in worship this past Sunday had burned to the ground the day before. Still he preached hope.

David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, did not write Psalm 57 for our devotional consumption.  He wrote it from the shadows of God’s wings before the storms of destruction had yet passed by.

Storms of destruction, yes, like storms of inconvenience, blow where and when they will. We’d like to know why and establish responsibility if not blame. Mostly, though, we’ll never know. But we do know, and we can know, One who offers refuge in the shadow of his wings, a certainty in an uncertain world.

See you Sunday