Nahum 1:7
“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.”
It was April 3, 1974, the day when 148 tornadoes ripped through the South. I don’t remember everything clearly about that day and all the tornadoes because of my age. The one thing I do remember is my mother waking me out of sleep, grabbing me in her arms and running to take me to the car. As soon as we got close to the car, I remember lightning striking the tree above our car and a branch falling near us. When our whole family was in the car, my father raced over to the church to get us down into the church basement to keep us safe from the tornadoes. Our home didn’t have a storm cellar, so the church opened the basement to anyone who needed a place to stay safe from the storm. That was a long night as siren after siren went off with men running down the stairs to tell us another tornado was coming. Though our house made it through the storm, many in the church basement were not as fortunate as we were as the tornadoes destroyed their home.
That church basement was our storm cellar. It was our “strong hold in the day of trouble.” It is a common thing in the South for people to have storm cellars to keep them safe in the storm. God denotes that He is the “strong hold” for the Christian. In essence, the LORD is the storm cellar for every Christian. He is the One to Whom the Christian can run on the day of their storm.
The “day of trouble” is that day when something happens that literally shakes your soul. It might be the day when the doctor tells you that you have a disease that will soon take your life. It may be the day when your financial assets have suddenly been taken because of a financial market crash. The “day of trouble” might be the day your spouse left you, and you are sitting in your house alone wondering what just happened. It might be the day when someone threatens you, and the threat is credible enough that you see everything you have done is over. “The day of trouble” might be that day when your child or infant baby is suddenly taken to Heaven. You know what your “day of trouble” is, and if you don’t, you will find out at some point in the future.
Christian, when that day comes, the LORD is the one place to Whom you can run to be safe through the storm. He is your storm cellar. The storm cellar on that dreadful day didn’t stop the devastation around us, but it did keep us safe from the storm. Likewise, the LORD may not stop the devastation around you in your “day of trouble,” but one thing you can rest assured in is the fact that He will protect you from the storm. The LORD is your storm cellar in the “day of trouble.”
Friend, I don’t know what you are facing today. Maybe the spiritual sirens have sounded that the tornadoes of life are on the way. When you see those tornadoes headed directly towards you, the LORD is that storm cellar Who will keep you safe from the storm. God never said in this verse that He would stop the devastation around you, but He is your “strong hold” Who will keep you safe during the devastation. That storm cellar that we went to that devastating night helped this young boy to be able to sleep peacefully in the storm because I felt I was safe. The devastation of the “day of trouble” may be all about you, but if you make the LORD your storm cellar in the “day of trouble,” you will find the peace to make it through the storm and have the courage to continue on when you have to rebuild from its devastation.