How God Saves

Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.  Psalm 16:1

Take Refuge – Yesterday Nahum told us that God knows those worshippers who willingly turn their lives over into His hands in the day of trouble.  Now we can see what David thought about this kind of refuge. 

There is an implication in the Hebrew phrase hasiti bak (“I take refuge in You”) that we might not see unless we look at the next verse.  “I have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.””   Did you see the surprise?  David is not anticipating any rescue because he deserves it.  He proclaims that God is his only good.  Whatever will come because of his need for protection will be God’s choice alone and it will be good because it comes from God. 

Does this sound like Job?  “Though He slay me, yet will I worship Him.”  “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  When will we adopt these revolutionary attitudes toward life?  If God is my good, and He is the sovereign Master of all the universe, what have I to fear, or to complain about?  I need to take a seat next to Job, or crouch in a cave with David, before I have anything to add to the idea of “taking refuge.”

There are many times when I cry out to God, “How long, Lord, before I see the hand of Your rescue?”  What I have in mind is usually something that I think is necessary for my preservation.  I echo David’s opening words.  “Preserve me.”  But that’s where David and I part company, because David worships God in spirit and in truth.  His solution to every problem is this:  more of You, Lord, more of You.  He’s not looking for a financial fix, a political resolution, a family settlement or a legal victory.  He confesses that God is all that he needs, no matter what the other results might be.

Can you make it past the first two words?  Are you ready to let the solution to all your troubles be simply “more of You, Lord”?  David’s rescue comes immediately.  Before the second verse is finished, he has already been saved because his mind is set on the living God alone and God knows him.