Daily Word of Grace # 102 (August 5, 2020)
On his 1975 masterpiece album Blood on the Tracks is one of Bob Dylan’s best songs, “Shelter from the Storm”, comfort for those in need of just that: “I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail, poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail, hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn. Come in, she said, I’ll give you shelter from the storm.” Who among us cannot relate to that? Who among us has not had times when we too found ourselves “burned out from exhaustion” or “blown out on the trail”? In the penultimate verse Dylan continues, “In a little hilltop village they gambled for my clothes. I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose. I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn. Come in, she said, I’ll give you shelter from the storm.” That is a reference to Good Friday. As Jesus suffered “on a little hilltop” called Calvary soldiers indeed gambled for his clothes (Matthew 27:35), and on the cross Jesus “offered up (his) innocence and got repaid with scorn” (Matthew 27:39-44). Jesus did all this to bargain for your salvation. And even now the Risen Jesus remains your “shelter of the Most High” (Psalm 91:1), your “shelter from the storm.”
Love and Prayers,
Dave