During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
Psalm 32:7
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Devotional
When our kids were younger, they would ask to play hide and seek with Lauren or me. The game was always a challenge, for what felt like the silliest reason in the world: each of them had a single location in our house which was their preferred hiding place. The challenge was that we needed to ensure that we took as long as possible to “find” them in those hiding places. Of course, the positive of how they hid was that we always knew where to find them when it was time that we needed to do so.
So many of us have built numerous “hiding places” within our lives, where we seek to find our fulfillment, the sense of success that we desire, not within the presence of God, but in the idols of our hearts. I am reminded of the words of Blaise Paschal: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, and only God can fill it.” We often think that we can fill that particular void with money, with success, with family, or with any of the myriad other potential “hiding places” that we so easily find around us, yet all of them continue to leave us still with an empty feeling that remains visible to all around us.
When we are able to be open and vulnerable with the Lord, to express our need for his forgiveness, and even to accept the grace that we have been offered through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we find that our hiding place is in Him. We have the protection of our Creator, who seeks to keep us from falling again into our sinful nature. We simply need to remember to ask for forgiveness, to seek to follow the path of sanctification, and to enjoy each day what it means to be called the children of God.
For Reflection
- What are the other hiding places you have sought after in your life?
- What makes it difficult for you to accept God’s grace?
Prayer
Lord, we know that you desire to forgive us. We know that you wish for us to make your dwelling our hiding place, yet so many of us fight against what we know to be your good. Help us to listen to your voice and to make you our hiding place for all the years of our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray; amen.
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Devotionals