Where is Your Refuge?
This morning I was reading Psalm 11, and I was struck by a how relevant it is to what we are walking through today.
Lord, don’t you hear what my well-meaning friends keep saying to me:
“Run away while you can!
Fly away like a bird to hide in the mountains for safety.
For your enemies have prepared a trap for you!
They plan to destroy you with their slander and deceitful lies.
Can’t you see them hiding
in their place of darkness and shadows?
They’re set against you and all those who live upright lives.”
But don’t they know, Lord,
that I have made you my only hiding place?
Don’t they know that I always trust in you?
What a valuable reminder this is to remember where we turn to? We don't run to the mountains and we don't turn to any earthly comfort. Our only refuge, hiding place, place of strength, rock, is Jesus. That is the only place we will find unchanging, unshakable hope. Everything else is simply sinking sand. It can be so tempting to turn to other things as our refuge, but in this season, God is allowing everything that is able to be shaken to be shaken, not out of condemnation, but as an invitation to realign ourselves to be positioned in the shadow of his wings. Our Father is fiercely protective of his children. I don't want to be anywhere else but in him!
The Psalm continues:
What can the righteous accomplish
when truth’s pillars are destroyed and law and order collapse?
Isn't that a sign of the times? It seems that everything around us is coming against what is right and true. At times it feels like darkness is prevailing, BUT the Psalm doesn't stop there:
Yet the Eternal One is never shaken—
he is still found in his temple of holiness,
reigning as Lord and King over all.
He is closely watching everything that happens.
And with a glance, his eyes examine every heart.
For his heavenly rule will prevail over all.
He will test both the righteous and the wicked,
exposing each heart.
God’s very soul detests those who love to resort to violence.
He will rain down upon them judgment for their sins.
A scorching wind will be their portion and lot in life.
This both brings both an encouragement and a challenge. The encouragement is, no matter what happens in this world, God is always on his throne. He never misses a single thing that happens in this world. Nothing escapes his watchful eyes. He fully sees and discerns what is truly going on to the very core of the intentions of every heart. And in that, there is a challenge: the Lord knows all that goes on in my heart and life - things that people see and things that people don't see. It is a precious and sobering to invite the Lord to search my heart and to let his love and refining fire deal with anything that is not in alignment with him and his ways. I want all parts of my life to be surrendered to him.
And, finally, this Psalm ends with a powerful and beautiful reminder:
But remember this: the Righteous Lord loves
what is right and just, and every godly one
will come into his presence and gaze upon his face!
Our righteous Father reminds us of our true position. Because we are in Christ, we have the very presence and DNA of God in us. Because we are in Christ, we are seen by the Father as pure and godly. And because of that, we have the privilege of intimacy with him. We get to gaze upon his face. That is a picture of real intimacy. We get to gaze upon the face of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and we get to do that without fear, because we are in Christ.
My prayer is that this Psalm encourages you as it has me today.