God Our Confidence

Introduction

On September 19, 2021, breaking headlines across evening news stations in the United States and world, showed images of Border Patrol agents on horseback corralling Haitian immigrants as they were seeking asylum to come into the United States-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas. The images were horrific because it seemed to mirror a past time in America as slave patrol were on horseback chasing after African slaves in the South. One of the stories of the Haitians seeking refuge was from a young man named Gibbens Revolus. Gibbens, his wife Lugrid, and there young two-year old son, Diego, were fleeing there homeland of Haiti. There was so much turmoil at the time. A devastating earthquake had cause significant damage on the island country. There was even civil unrest as the former President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in his own home last year in July.

This young family had traveled from Haiti to Columbia, taken a jam-packed boat from Colombia to Panama , from Panama to Mexico by foot and an occasional bus ride. Revolus describes the journey treacherous and so long at times that he forgot just how long he had been on the journey to reach asylum in the United States. He remembers that day the inhumanity that was displayed at the border to all of those Haitian immigrants who were seeking refuge from the plight of their homeland. For many of those immigrants they noticed the difference in how they were treated compared to other immigrants who have made the same journey. Only a small percentage of them were able reach asylum and it took many attempts before they achieved the refuge they needed.

Currently, a Time Magazine article on January 10, 2022, indicated that in the chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States, that legislators are deliberating what to do with those who have been detained seeking asylum of the United States. I’m not trying to make a political statement with these facts here, but isn’t it interesting that there are thousands of people detained in detention centers in this country who have not had their due process of law or even sent to live in better conditions than they are now. They look at this country as a place of refuge because they have heard family members and loved ones tell them of the promises of the American dream.

Some of us may know someone in a situation like these, and then there are probably many of us who cannot relate to the physical refuge that these immigrants are seeking. However, many of us in here today are probably seeking other types of asylum.

The psalmist is in state of fleeing from the spiritual pressures of his time. As he pens these words to this particular psalm, it speaks to us in such a way that the underlying vibrato of the pain in the psalm, ultimately leads him to a place of confidence and trust in the one who orchestrates refuge. Many of us in here today need to be reminded of the confidence that we can have in the Holy God of Israel, for no other reason other than He is the one who we find refuge in.