Corrie Ten Boom

Week Thirty-eight: My Times are in Thy Hands

Psalm 31

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted in grief; my soul and my body also….But I trust in you O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you….Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, “ I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride. Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord! (ESV)

There are a few people who truly know the reality of this Psalm as much as Corrie Ten Boom. She was the first female Dutch watchmaker in Amsterdam, and she lived with her family, as WWII began. Her father as a righteous man who feared God, began taking in Jews who had lost their home, when the Nazis invaded Holland. When their efforts to hide Jews was finally discovered, the family was all sent off to the concentration camps. 

As she was in line for processing to enter the concentration camp, Corrie asked God for a simple miracle. When she was first taken to prison she became very sick and was sent to the infirmary. One of the nurses there had asked her if she needed anything, and she had told her she needed a Bible. The nurse had then returned with four small copies of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and had given her a small pouch  in which she kept them hidden, hanging between her shoulder blades. Upon entering Ravensbruck, all the women were patted down and searched so that all possessions were taken from them. As she was next in line to be searched, she offered up a small prayer. She told the Lord she needed this Bible; it was her sole comfort. She asked the Lord to surround her with His angels and blind the eyes of the guards so they would not see her. The woman in front of her was searched, but when it was her turn, she simply walked by them, and they seemed not to notice her. Her sister behind her was searched, but Corrie was not. Even at the door, when they were again searched before leaving the room, she walked right by them unnoticed. She had that Bible with her for the remainder of her ordeal in Ravensbruck, until the day she left.  She left those gospels with them women, so that they would have the Scriptures for themselves. God also used a flea infestation in the barrack to keep the guards away from her barrack. She and Betsie were free for the remainder of her time there to daily read the Word to the women there, and have a time of study. They were never discovered doing this, and that Bible was never taken away from them.

A few weeks before she was released, Betsie came to Corrie  and told her that she had had a dream and they were both going to be released. Betsie died in the camp clinic a week later of anemia. At first Corrie was overcome with grief, and then she realized that God had released Betsie. He had released her from her pain and suffering into His presence. The following week, Corrie was called to the office. She was sure she was in some kind of trouble, and had been discovered for conducting Bible Studies. To her total shock, she was told that she was being released.  By a miraculous act of God, Corrie walked out of the gates of that death camp, on her on volition. Most amazing of all, it was later discovered that her release was due to a clerical error. Sometime later she found out that a week after her release, all the women in her age group were exterminated. Man’s mistake was God’s perfect will guiding and protecting her.

It was after her experience in the concentration camp, that God told her that He wanted her to travel around and share the message of His love with those who hadn’t heard. Her most famous saying was something her sister Betsie said to her before while they were still in Ravensbruck: "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.”

When I found out that the verse My Time are in Thy Hands  was one of Corrie ten Boom’s favorites, it became a lot more meaningful to me. The last several years of her life she had moved to a house in California, which she called the Shalom house, and she had it hung on a plaque on her wall. I can only image what that must have meant to her as a Holocaust survivor.  She knew what it was to be rescued from the hand of her enemies. Literally.

Most of us may never experience so dramatically what David describes here. But even in our own lives we do have to trust that Our times are in God’s Hands. That He knows every trial we face, and he is there to meet us in it with His presence and His grace. Psalm 91 says that: He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. (ESV) What a comfort to know that even as you face labor and the birith of your baby, with all its challenges, God commands His angels concerning you. Trust Him with this today. Give Him your fears and concerns, and let Him comfort you with His presence. The same God who preserved Corrie in the presence of her enemies, preserves you today. Meditate on this psalm and receive His promises to His children.