Sometimes I do a word or term search in the Bible. Websites like biblegateway.com make that really easy. Today I did a search for the word, “hunker”. It’s not in there. Not at all. Not even once. I think that’s a shame. Hunker is a great word, and when you pair it with the word, down, you’ve good a world class phrase.

Hunker down.

People may not use that phrase much if they aren’t from the south, but it’s a great phrase if you are preparing to face a storm. Every weatherman I’ve heard cover a tornado event uses the phrase. It’s also often used by the military. If they find themselves under attack, with no way out to safety, they hunker down where they are and wait for help to arrive.

If you look up the meaning, you will find that to hunker down means to hide, find refuge, or take shelter. Now that is mentioned in the Bible. In Psalm 91, David says,

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

I fully believe that if David had known about hunkering down, he would have used it when he wrote that psalm. Can’t you picture someone hunkering down in the shadow of the Almighty? I absolutely love the picture that comes to my mind.

When the world gives us a sucker punch to the throat, we need to hunker down. When we aren’t too sure what God is up to in our lives and we just don’t see what’s going on, we need to hunker down. When we feel attacks coming on every front, we need to hunker down.

Our lives take unexpected twists and turns. We take hits we didn’t see coming. We suffer losses for which we were not prepared. These things happen to all of us. What if our first reaction was not panic?

What if our first reaction was to rest in the shadow of the Almighty? What if we run to Him and allow Him to be our refuge and fortress? What if when we don’t know what God is doing, we just hunker down and wait Him out?

God is at work on a solution before we ever knew there was going to be a problem, working on our behalf, and bringing glory to His name from the midst of our mess.

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.” Proverbs 18:10.

There is protection in the name of the Lord. There is peace in the name of the Lord. There is healing in the name of the Lord.

It’s a really good place to hunker down.