On Chantale’s thirteenth birthday, after hours of joyful celebration in her quiet home village, gunfire shattered the peaceful evening. Chantale and her siblings ran into the forest, obeying their mother’s frantic command to hide. All night, they huddled underneath the sanctuary of a tree. “The sun appeared in the morning. But not our parents,” Chantale recounts. She and her siblings were now orphans and refugees, joining tens of thousands in a refugee camp.
When we hear stories like Chantale’s, it can be tempting to turn away from such overwhelming loss. But those who believe in the God of Scripture believe in a God who never looks away from suffering, who attentively “watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow” (Psalm 146:9).
The “Maker of heaven and earth . . . remains faithful forever” (v. 6), ever at work upholding “the cause of the oppressed” and providing “food to the hungry” (v. 7).
Chantale Zuzi Leader, who founded an organization to educate refugee girls, says her experience taught her that “anyone can become a refugee—to lose that place of safety they once had.”
May our response to those who’ve lost a place of safety reflect the heart of the God, who is an ever-faithful “refuge for the oppressed” (9:9), who “lifts up those who are bowed down” (146:8).
How have you or someone you know lost a place of safety? How can God work through such experiences?
Faithful God, thank You for being a refuge for all who hurt. Please help me reflect Your heart.
For further study, read Broken Down Cars: Grieving with Those Who Grieve
The book of Psalms is Israel’s hymn book. The final five praise songs (Psalms 146-150) are known as the “Hallelujah Psalms” because each one begins and ends with the very definition of hallelujah—“praise the Lord!” The psalmist calls us to celebrate the greatness of our faithful God, the powerful Creator (146:6), the loving Deliverer (vv. 7-9), and the everlasting King (v. 10). He also calls us to celebrate His grace, thanking Him for His many acts of deliverance, provisions, and sustenance (vv. 7-9). The object of our faith is crucial. It’s futile to “trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save” (v. 3). We’re to trust God only and to look to Him for help. For “blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God” (v. 5). We can reflect the heart of God by being a refuge for the oppressed and caring for the “fatherless and the widow” (v. 9).
