In you, O Lord, I take refuge,
let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
Incline your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of refuge,
a strong fortress, to save me…..
For you, O Lord, are my hope,
My trust, O Lord, from my youth.
Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
(from New Revised Standard Version)
Some years ago I stayed for three weeks on the island of Lindisfarne, known as Holy Island, in Northumbria. I had stayed before at the retreat centre but this time I rented a cottage. It was high summer and Lindisfarne was very busy, until the tide came in! The island has been a centre of Anglo-Saxon Christianity since the 6th century, when St Aidan at the request of King Oswald converted the kingdom of Northumbria. The monastery he founded was later raided by Vikings in the 8th century, but the illuminated manuscript ‘The Lindisfarne Gospels’ still exists.
Our three weeks on the island were ruled by the tides as the causeway is covered by the sea twice a day. However, there is a refuge for those who think they can defeat the sea, and every year one or two people have to leave their car to climb the steps to the refuge as the tide sweeps inexorably over the road.
God is our refuge, says the psalmist, in this time of trouble. Ultimately it is God who will protect us. All our sophisticated plans and schemes are as nothing, when something like the coronavirus appears. Most of us are still very shocked at how our lives have changed over a period of three months, but God is with us, and He offers us safe haven no matter how bad things get.
Heavenly Father,
Rescue us from the virus that is
sweeping across our world;
protect all those who are vulnerable,
keep safe all health workers,
and enable us to learn lessons
from this pandemic,
not least that we must learn to
trust in you.
Amen.