September 3 – A Safe Refuge (Psalm 16)

“Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.” (Psalm 16:1)

IN WORD:
If we are to receive the wisdom of God, we must know who He is. Though knowing who He is begins with reading about Him in the Word, it does not end there. God is to be experienced. And, much to our anxiety, He is to be experienced in the crucible of life, where fires burn and hearts melt. It is in the trials that we learn the most about God. It is in having to trust Him that we become wise.
David often referred to God as his refuge. He would know. The would-be king had spent long seasons hiding in caves and fleeing the irrational wrath of Saul. But the caves were not his refuge. David knew that there was a surer, safer source of protection. When all of life seemed to be against him, David could hide in the safety of God.
Dictionaries define refuge as a place of safe retreat. No refuge conquers the threats and the dangers we face — it protects us from them. It will not promise us an absence of conflict or pain. But it will provide a haven of rest when the conflict or pain is intense. And we can take deep comfort in the refuge we are promised. It is not a cave or a bunker or a bank account or a good plan. It is God.

IN DEED:
Do you know Him as your refuge? You can never know this side of God until a crisis strikes. But when it does, He is there to be found. He may seem absent at first, but He does not ignore your pleas. Though you pray for deliverance — and deliverance will come, in one way or another — He first wants you to know Him as the place of safety and rest. The Father’s desire for His children is that we know, in the most treacherous trials of life, that His presence will welcome us home. When we just want to hide, we can hide in Him.
Storms rage, but the good Father never leaves His children out in the elements. He takes them in. They will have to wait out the storm, but they can wait it out within the solid walls of His presence, where a warm fire glows and His hand comforts. The wise will always go there first.

“This is a wise, sane Christian faith: that a man commit himself to God; . . . That therefore that man ought not to be afraid of anything.” -George MacDonald-