Seven Whos From the Book of PsalmsMuestra

Who Is Your Shelter and Refuge?

Many Christians around the globe cannot read this verse without thinking of the life of Jim Elliot. Elliot was born in Oregon in 1927. Raised in a family devoted to Christ, he exuded a fearless resolve to follow Christ early on.

A natural leader, he would not shrink back from speaking out for Christ. He made it his practice to meet God daily in the Scriptures. He knew and loved the Bible, and he loved the God of the Bible. In fact, he had a most uncommon hunger to know God. He was also a gifted writer and kept a journal. He once wrote, “He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” He wrote this as a college student.

As a young man, he went to Ecuador to reach people for Christ. He learned Spanish, and then he moved to the edge of the Amazon jungle to minister to Quechua Indians. There he married Elisabeth, a woman he had known since college. Elliot and four other young missionaries were drawn to the Huaorani, a small tribe that had never been reached for Christ. 

The tribe was known to be dangerous to outsiders. In 1956, the Huaorani martyred Jim and his four friends. He was only 28. Fortunately, his wife Elisabeth compiled his letters and journal entries into a book about her husband. She decided to take the title for the book from Psalm 91:1 and called it Shadow of the Almighty. 

The book is powerful. Jim Elliot epitomized Psalm 91:1. God was his shelter, his refuge. He lived his life, too brief by our standards, to its full capacity, resting in the shadow of the Almighty. If I could choose one person in the last hundred years who best reflected the passion Paul had for Jesus, I would choose Jim Elliot. He is one of those few people who could say what Paul said and mean it just as much. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).