They're both to do with protection, so I expected that I would keep encountering both names in the same Bible verses, especially in the psalms. Even before starting to read the scriptures, my initial thought was that a refuge is somewhere you run to hide, while a shield is with you when you're out and about, especially when you're going into battle.
The Lord is both of those things to us; He's a shield to protect us from, "the fiery darts of the enemy" (Ephesians 6: 16) and to enable us to face all the dangers and battles of everyday life. But He's also a refuge, a hiding place when things get too much and we need a safe place to escape to.
Sure enough, I did find that the experience of God as a shield and a refuge often did appear in the same verse, but it wasn't always the Hebrew word machsi/maḥăsê; sometimes it was other names, like miśgāḇ, sēṯer or mānôs that were used to express refuge or hiding place. So I decided to zoom in yesterday on the Lord my Shield, and today I'm looking more closely at the different Hebrew names that mean the Lord my Refuge or Hiding Place.
Read on in the two posts below for more about these names of God.
