"The Cleft" by Gloria Gaither

So that is what a “cleft of the rock” looks like!  I could relate to “shifting sand,” for I’ve seen the “waves” of the sand dunes, or the “shelter from the storm,” for I’ve been caught in the fury of a Midwestern thunderstorm. I’ve experienced the eye of a tornado, the area that is peaceful and quiet while the circle around it rages and destroys. But clefts. I’d never really thought much of hiding in the cleft of a rock. Yet, here above me is exactly that: a “cleft of the rock.” All around this indentation made eons ago are rugged surfaces exposed constantly to the fury and heat of the desert climate. Yet, inside this cleft the rock is its original pink color, unspoiled and protected. I realize that if the “storm in fury beat around me” I’d want to be in the solid rock, halfway up the mountain, hiding in the fortress made by nature itself, in the cleft of the rock. Perhaps it was about such a place that Fanny Crosby wrote:

A wonderful Savior is Jesus My Lord, a wonderful Savior to me;

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see.

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, that shadows a dry, thirsty land;

He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand.

And covers me there with His hand.

Dear Lord,

Be my rock of refuge; the One I can always go to. Utter the command to save me because you are my rock and my fortress.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.