God is man's only sure Refuge in the day of calamity.
"God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof" (Psalms 46:1-3). So sang the psalmist, and so Israel and Judah felt, so long as they clung to the worship of Jehovah, and served him, and strove to keep his laws. As their fidelity wavered, and they grew cold in his service, and allowed themselves to be attracted by the sensuous religions of the nations around them, their trust in Jehovah departed, and they could no longer look to him as a Refuge. Whither, then, should they look? Should it be to the gods of the nations? or to foreign alliances? or to their own strong arms and dauntless hearts?
I. FALSE GODS NO SURE REFUGE. Ahaz at one time "sacrificed to the gods Of Damascus which smote him" (2 Chronicles 28:23), thinking to obtain help from them; but "they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel." Other kings of Judah and Israel trusted in Baal, or Chemosh, or Moloch, or Beltis, or Ashtoreth. But none found any of them a" sure refuge." Indeed, how should false gods help, when they are either fictions of the imagination, mere nonentities, or else evil spirits, rebels against the Almighty, cast down by him from heaven? If the former, they can have no power at all, for how should something come out of nothing? If the latter, they are powerless, at any rate against God, who has proved their inability to resist him, and could at any time annihilate them by a word.
II. THE KINGS OF THE EARTH NO SURE REFUGE. "Put not your trust in princes, nor in any child of man, for there is no help in them" (Psalms 146:3). Hoshea trusted in Shebek of Egypt (So), Hezekiah in Tirhakah, Zedekiah in Pharaoh-Hophra; but all were equally disappointed. Even Ahaz obtained no real advantage from his appeal to Tiglath-Pileser, who "distressed him, but strengthened him not" (2 Chronicles 28:20). Foreign aid is always a poor thing to trust to; for the foreigner necessarily consults mainly his own interest, which he may find to conflict with ours at any moment. Let all go well, and an obligation is incurred, which it may cost us more than we bargained for to repay. Let things go ill, and we experience perhaps the fate of the horse when he called in man's aid against the stag. In the best case, foreign powers can help us only against man, not against God. They can never be a "sure refuge." "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2:22).
III. MEN'S OWN STRONG ARMS AND STOUT HEARTS NO SURE REFUGE. Better certainly to trust to these than to false gods or fickle princes. In many a strait, these will help us a long way. But let there come a time of serious trouble, of overpowering hostile force pressing upon a nation, or deep grief or dangerous sickness upon an individual, and their weakness and insufficiency is at once shown. In the one case, the strong man has met with a stronger, and all his struggles do but add to his sufferings. In the other, the heart and hands fail when the call is made on them. The stalwart frame is bowed down with grief or illness; the heart is "withered like grass" (Psalms 102:4), or become "like wax that is melted" (Psalms 22:14). Man discovers under these circumstances that he has no strength an 'himself,' and, unless he can find an external, refuge, is lost absolutely. Happy they who at such times can feel with David, The Lord is my Rock, and nay Fortress, and my Deliverer; nay God, nay Strength, in whom I will trust; my Buckler, and the Horn of nay salvation, and nay high Tower" (Psalms 18:2). "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalms 23:1-4).