God’s Word for You

Nahum 1:7 The Gospel in Nahum

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, May 5, 2026

7 The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him.

Here the prophet truly proclaims the meaning of the First Commandment. First, what kind of God is it that we worship? We know his name: It is the LORD. Spelled this way in the Old Testament, “LORD” (with all capital letters) is the translation of Yahweh or Jehovah, the God who proclaimed himself to Moses to be “I AM” (Exodus 3:14), the God who was, who is, and who always shall be. His name expresses his eternal nature (Romans 16:26), his divine nature (Romans 1:20), his constant presence outside and inside his own creation (Matthew 28:20), and his almighty power (Genesis 17:1). This is his identity, the name that he gave to us so that we would know him, so that he could call his temple “the place I gave to you and your fathers, the house that bears my name” (Jeremiah 7:14), where man would revere him and stand in awe of his name (Malachi 2:5). When God speaks, we know that it is the LORD who has spoken (Obadiah 1:18).

In addition to this, whenever God’s name “the LORD” is used, we know that there is a Gospel promise attached to his name, the Lord who comes as the Savior of his people.

The Lord is also wonderfully described by the prophet as “good.” This is precisely the same word, the Hebrew word tov (טוֹב), that the Holy Spirit uses in Genesis 1-2 when the creation is described as each day draws to a close and everything is judged to be “good” (Genesis 1:4, etc.). Our God is good and there is nothing perfectly good besides him. He is the good God who keeps his promises, who remembers us even when we sin against him, and most especially he is the God who makes a covenant and keeps it.

The Lord provides a shelter, a refuge, from whatever may come to fight against us. God’s children are safe in him, through faith in Christ, and he watches over us. He sends his angels to guard us from dangers both seen and unseen, as he says: “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11). Even when danger is so close that it lays its hands on us he protects us: “The hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes” (Isaiah 66:14).

God knows when we are in trouble. When we are in a bad way, about to fall, he is there to help. Paul assures us: “A testing has not overtaken you yet except what is common to man. But God is faithful. He will not let you be tested beyond your ability. But when he tests you, along with the test he will give you an outcome that you will be able to bear” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The prophet goes on: “He cares for those who trust in him.” We could also translate we-yodah (וְיֹדֵעַ) as “he knows.” This is a sentence filled and overflowing with comfort. God keeps his eye on us, watches over us, knows what we are going through, precisely the way a good shepherd watches over his sheep and knows them all, caring for them all (John 10:14). When we are tempted to say, “Nobody cares about me,” there is God himself close by, leaning on his staff, and smiling the smile of love and familiarity. He has always been there, since he wrote out our names and the path of our lives before he even began to form the universe (Ephesians 1:4-5). But this is only true of those who love him, who believe in him. As our confession teaches: “God’s predestination to salvation does not extend over both the godly and the ungodly, but only over the children of God, who have been elected and predestined to eternal life ‘before the foundation of the world was laid,’ as St. Paul says, ‘even as he chose us in him, he destined us in love to be his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ’” (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration XI:5).

This trust in God, which is faith, is described here poetically with the participle hosai (חֹסֵי), “seek refuge.” Our dear Dr. Luther teaches what faith is and what God is in his Large Catechism. He asks, “What is it, to have a god? What is god?” And he answers, “A god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of trouble. To have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe him with our whole heart. As I have often said, the trust and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol… The purpose of this commandment, therefore, is to require true faith and confidence of the heart, and these fly straight to the one true God and cling to him alone. The meaning is: ‘See to it that you let me alone be your God, and never seek another’” (Large Catechism I:1-2, 4). Notice that when Luther, writing in the sixteenth century, says “these fly straight,” he is not talking about airplanes and perhaps not even of arrows, but rather the flights of birds, like swallows and sparrows zipping and zooming quickly through the air and into a tree full of branches, where there is a place for every little pair of legs to perch in safety and with complete confidence that the branches will not break, “a place near your altar, O LORD,” as the Psalm says (Psalm 84:3). The birds fly there for cover and shelter from rain or heat or predators, just as all the birds know the right time for their migration (Jeremiah 8:7), and we fly straight to the Lord our God for the very same protection.

This verse is well worth memorizing and using whenever someone is in trouble, or afraid, or lonely, and so on. I have assigned it as a confirmation verse to a boy who cannot speak or read, but who knows his Jesus. In a book that has many threats and proclamations of God’s law against the enemies of God’s people and against God’s holy church, this verse is very much a hidden treasure in a field (Matthew 13:44), or a pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46). All by itself, it is not the whole Gospel, but it is a reminder of the whole Gospel, a bright little candle in a dark room; a beautiful blossom in a field of thorns. A night light for a frightened child. I pray that you will treasure it as much as I do.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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