People who live in the desert southwest and walk trails during the summer months have to be cautious of poisonous rattlesnakes that live there. My stepson and his five-year-old daughter took this to heart one morning when they were out for a hike. At one point he climbed atop some large boulders and told his daughter what he could see from there. She in turn described what she was seeing near her from below: the rocks, the wildflowers… and the snake. Snake! He rushed down the boulders and snatched her up to safety. For a few moments, those rocks up above had become their refuge and security.


We don’t know what the writer of Psalm 71 was feeling or thinking as he recorded the words we read today. Whatever it was, you and I can identify with times when we’ve cried out to the Lord for deliverance. If you haven’t yet, you probably will.


The psalmist looked to the LORD as his Rock, the place where he was safe and hidden from the enemy. This is the same Rock we can run to in all of life’s big or small crises.