“I love You, O LORD, my strength.” The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1–2)

Fortresses are impregnable by definition. Of course, at a human level no manmade fortress is absolutely impenetrable, for there is always something more powerful than super-thick walls, no matter how deeply buried the building is.

One of the most famous bunkers, called “America’s Fortress,” is found deep in Cheyenne Mountain, near Colorado Springs in Colorado, a facility of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). The command complex was built, beginning in 1961, under 2,000 feet of granite covering five acres. Fifteen three-story buildings are protected from earthquakes or explosions by a system of 1,000 giant springs and flexible pipe connectors to limit the operational effect of movement. The bunker is certified to sustain an electromagnetic pulse and designed to deflect a 30-megaton nuclear explosion as close as 1.2 miles away (www.norad.mil).

But what happens if a 30-megaton nuclear bomb lands half a mile away? What if a meteor hits it dead on? Or an earthquake just beyond the accepted threshold or a cyber-attack or espionage from within? To the designers and military brass, these threats fall into the realm of “tolerable” or “acceptable risk,” for assumedly the enormous cost of creating a better, more modern, more technically advanced version of this complex would be prohibitive, plus it would still be vulnerable beyond a certain tolerance of acceptability.

David trusted in God as his fortress, greater than which nothing exists. There is no force, earthquake or nuclear blast that can budge God even one iota.

Though the springs supporting the NORAD command facility may allow movement up to one inch, God is completely immovable. Rather it is He who shakes the earth. Let us not forget “the LORD your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth” (Is 51:13). Remember what David wrote at another time: “The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh” (Ps 29:8). People may criticize us or threaten us. Satan may come like a ferocious lion, but we are safely tucked away, protected by Him who is the strongest force in the universe. Nothing gets through Him to us, unless He allows it—and then it is only for our good. The only danger comes if, through unbelief, we do not rest in Him as our fortress.

Lord, I have nothing to fear from anyone, for in You I am completely protected.