11/09/2026
Hide me Now, under Your Wings
by Canon Rob Penrith
I have found in recent years (as I get older, I guess?) that I am getting irritated more and more with some of the everyday things that I should be bigger than!! A mini-bus (Taxi!!) deliberately going straight through a red robot! Excessive noise coming from the flat next door to us while we were on holiday! The war in the Gulf and Ukraine and further talk of war emanating from more and more regions around the world etc, etc! Minor events keeping me at a level that sets my angst off at the least sign of provocation? So, I did some research – to enable me to pull myself together.
Being in a state of constant anxiety primes the nervous system to be on permanent high alert, which means your brain and body are always scanning for threats — Chronic anxiety keeps stress hormones (like cortisol and adrenaline) elevated. This reduces your tolerance for minor irritations, so things that might normally be a mild annoyance can feel like a huge “storm-in-a-teacup”. The amygdala (your brain’s alarm system = I had to look that up !!) fires more quickly and more regularly when you’re anxious. That makes it easier to slip into fight-or-flight mode before your reasoning brain (prefrontal cortex) can calm things down. Okay, so that is the theory of it all.
But the Word of God delivers a counter-plan for those who trust God and are able to turn to the Lord in states like this!
Let me take us back to King David and the precious book of Psalms – where so many of our questions are answered. King David lived in our kind of world, surrounded by enemies, betrayed by friends, hunted down, living under political instability, and sometimes even feeling God was far away.
David often accurately described that “constant high alert” state, but instead of letting it burn him out completely, he teaches us to repeatedly bring it all before God, venting honestly and then reorientating our hearts and minds. He cries before the Lord: “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.” (Psalm 55:4–5).
But, then, we are reminded of a plethora of Scriptures bringing comfort and peace. I received a word of encouragement from the Lord when he took me to Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you; you only need to be still!” (NIVUK). Or, from the Amplified Bible “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent and remain calm.” You see, God alone can calm your spirit. God alone can deal with the angst and the stress and the panic that the world inculcates into our minds. We simply need to humbly approach him and relinquish ourselves into His lap and be still – and the healing balm of the Lord will flow over us. That is the promise of the Word of God!
Try to remember this verse: - “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who are out to destroy me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.” (Psalm 17:8–9).
Even as I read that verse, I begin to start feeling my angst lifting – one’s sense of a permanent state of high alert being mitigated by the power and the peace of the Word of God. For God alone is above all the chaos of the world and the angst and stress of living within that chaos. All you have to do is to “keep silent and remain calm.”
King David felt the very symptoms I described in my own life — racing mind, heightened alertness, reduced patience — but his pattern was to pause, name his feelings before God, remember God’s promises, and choose to rest in in the stillness and peace of the Lord. That’s how he lengthened his emotional fuse in an anxious world.
Listen to the beautiful comforting words of the song: Hide me now, under your wings.
A Calming Prayer for the Anxious Soul
Christ of the quiet waters,
still the storm within me.
Christ of the steadfast rock,
anchor me when fears pull me adrift.
From the rising of my thoughts to their setting,
be the guard of my mind,
the shield of my heart,
the breath that slows my breathing.
Take the weight of what I cannot carry,
lighten the shadows that trouble my steps,
speak Your “peace, be still”
into the winds that howl inside.
Circle me, Lord Christ,
above and beneath, before and behind.
Let Your presence be my dwelling,
Your promise be my pillow,
Your love be the calm in my bones.
Amen.
May the Lord grant you peace under the shadow of His wings.
With my love,
Rob Penrith
