These last months we have felt very much like we’ve been inundated by wave after wave of difficulty. No sooner had we raised our head above the waters to take a breath, than the next breaker rolled in smashing into us and shoving us against the rocks behind. For the first time in my life I truly understood the Sons of Korah when they wrote, “all Your breakers and Your billows have swept over me” (Ps. 42:7b – HCSB).

However, as I was meditating on this reality, I was led back to Psalm 62, which is one of my father’s favorite passages. There, after David laments in verses 3-4 how men are assailing him, he commands himself, “Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken” (Ps. 62:4-5 – HCSB; emphasis added). My father has interpreted this passage, saying that when men assail us, a tottering wall, they press us harder into Jesus. And truly, that is the image that came to me:

We are in a cave on a high and mighty rock, surrounded by waves that bash and batter the rock, sometimes flooding and inundating the cave where we hide. But the cave is such, that even though wave upon wave batter us, even to the point of a tsunami rolling over us, we cannot be swept out of that cleft, for it is God who holds us fast (Isa. 43:2). Our God is our stronghold, our sanctuary (Isa. 8:14a). When the waves batter us over and over again, we must cling to that; that he is good; and that he will hold us fast.

He will hold me fast, He will hold me fast;
For my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast.1

• 1Ada Ruth Habershon and Matthew Merker, “He Will Hold Me Fast” on Facing a Task Unfinished, (Getty Music Publishing and Matthew Merker Music: 2023).