Everlasting Arms

 “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms”
   Deuteronomy 33:27a

I love this verse, don’t you?  For many years when I have pictured this verse, I’ve imagined a father cradling his child, protecting, comforting, sheltering, providing a place of rest, perhaps even singing over the child as the Scripture speaks of in Zephaniah 3:17.  While studying this verse in context, however, I came away with a different picture.  Verses 26 and 27 together read this way:
“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun* who rides across the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.  The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.  He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, ‘Destroy them!’”
​Reading through several commentaries on the Blue Letter Bible website I find this information:

•  The “arm” is the symbol of power (Adam Clarke).
•  “Refuge” – dwelling place, at home, at rest in Him (Barnes; Wesley).
•  “The almighty power of God is engaged for the protection and consolation of all who
    trust in Him, in their greatest straits and distresses and under their heaviest burdens”
    (Matthew Henry).  I like that!
•  Wesley quotes Henry and adds this:  “driving out the enemy before them by His                 almighty  power.”

The picture here is not of a daddy holding an infant in his arms and singing lullabies, but rather of the majestic warrior-Father, the Almighty God who charges across the heavens to come to the aide of His child, driving away the enemies, even willing to destroy the enemy who would destroy His child.  All of this so that His child remembers He has a home and a strong (mighty) loving Father, a dwelling place of safety where the enemy cannot reach, a place to experience rest from the weariness of life.  Wow!

I know many people who are discouraged these days. 

• COVID-19 has affected our lives far longer and in much harder ways than we ever dreamed it could.
• There seems to be an unkind spirit at work in the world that has wormed its way even into the church. 
• Many of us have been separated from our support systems – friends, Bible study groups, work colleagues, etc. – so that we feel as if we’re going it alone.
• So many things have just seemed so much harder this year and we don’t have an end date.

The enemy of our souls has used all these (and more) on top of our everyday temptations and trials and difficulties to fight against God’s people and to bring many to a place of discouragement.  Weepy days.  Days we can’t seem to control our anger.  Depression.  Discouragement.
BUT –
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Ps 46:1).
AND –
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust” (Ps 91:2).
AND –
We overcome this enemy “by the blood of the Lamb, [Jesus Christ], and the word of our testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
Don’t give up!  Keep holding on tightly to your Lord.  Encourage yourself with those things you always said you believed.  Hang on to the promises of God!  Hold tightly to Jesus.
BECAUSE –
THERE IS NO ONE LIKE YOUR GOD!  He rides across the heavens to help you.  He is Your refuge.  His everlasting arms fight for you as He drives out your enemy before you. 

The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms!
Deuteronomy 33:27a
 
*Jeshurun is a poetic nickname for Israel meaning the upright or righteous one.
~BB

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