Our God is a Steadfast Refuge
Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu // Devotional #71
In Psalm 57, David records a prayer he lifted up in the wilderness as Saul pursued him, fearing that David would usurp his throne. In verses 4-6, he writes:
4 My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. (ESV)
Only a few months earlier, David was the most highly esteemed man in all of Israel. He was a captain among men, leading Israel to victory after victory in their struggle against the Philistines, most notably against the giant Goliath. He even had a theme song that sounded more like a children’s taunt, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
Yet years before any of this, something even more notable took place. The prophet Samuel came to Jesse’s house at the Lord’s direction to find the next king of Israel and to see which of Jesse’s sons the Lord might choose (1 Sam. 16). As a young shepherd boy, initially overlooked and not even named among his brothers, David was anointed king, though Saul was still technically in charge. Yet because of Saul’s pride and disobedience, the Lord rejected Saul, removing His blessing from Saul’s reign, and leading Samuel to seek out whom the Lord would choose next.
Although Saul had been rejected and David anointed, Saul remained in power, and as David’s fame grew, so too did Saul’s jealousy. Such was Saul’s jealousy that it eventually tipped over, turning from envy into a desire for David’s head, for fear that David might take from him what he loved most: power and prestige.
So, David fled to the wilderness, hiding in caves and dens, and even among the Philistines, all to escape Saul’s murderous pursuit. Though David was strong in his own right, even gathering 400 warriors cast out by Saul, David and his mighty men were no match for the full strength of Saul’s army. They lived and fought in the shadows, doing their best to remain undetected and unseen, with Saul seemingly always on their heels.
Yet, while David fled from Saul, he found himself surrounded by enemies on all fronts. Though he’d done what God had asked of him and had faithfully obeyed, his life and God’s promise to him still seemed on the verge of being lost.
It’s in his desperation that David prays this at the beginning of Psalm 57 in verses 1-3:
1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me.
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
One of the gifts of the Psalms is the picture it paints of what it looks like to faithfully contend with the Lord. In these opening verses, we see two things: David’s earnest, desperate request for God to spare him, paired with unwavering trust in God’s own faithfulness to His promises and purpose.
The anxiety David faces is real. The threat David faces isn’t trite. And David’s pleading in the midst of his trouble isn’t perfunctory; it’s a cry for God to make good on His promises. He isn’t presuming that God will intervene in the way he specifically hopes, but he is actively and intensely praying that God would show up and spare him from Saul’s pursuit of his life.
I think we sometimes come to the Psalms and to God’s Word generally believing that the biblical authors had a full view of God’s redemptive purposes as they wrote each word. Yet here’s a glaring example that, for all his confidence in God’s character and the certainty of His promise, David still found it necessary to cry out for God to act.
David didn’t know how it would all shake out; he just knew God’s promise to him. Even with enemies all around him, David considered God’s promise, His character, and His faithfulness, and chose to believe that God was the one refuge he could trust. Though all around our souls give way, He then is all our hope and stay.
Our God is a steadfast refuge. Despite what storms rage around us, He is the One in whom our souls can rest, because through Christ we’ve been reconciled to the One who controls even the wind and the waves.
In David’s turmoil, he turns to the Lord because of God’s promise that he would one day be king over all Israel. Yet the promise we have in Christ is the fullness of what David’s was only a shadow of. David was waiting for the day he would be made king. We await the day when Christ is revealed as King. David was promised a lineage that would never end. Christ inherited the eternal kingdom as its ever-present King. Where David was but a forerunner, Christ is the fullness in which all of God’s prior promises find their forever yes (2 Cor. 1:20).
If David can find refuge in a promise yet to be revealed, we can find refuge not only because the promise we’ve been given is greater, but also because that promise has already been inaugurated in Christ through His resurrection. It’s this steadfast confidence in both God’s character and His eternal purpose in Christ that enables someone like the apostle Paul to say that, regardless of what happens to him, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21 ESV).
No matter the storms that come, God is our sure anchor and our steadfast refuge, for He Himself is our peace (Eph. 2:14).
Take time to consider these questions:
When you think about the biblical writers, do you imagine them wrestling with God’s promises the same way we do? How does this Psalm illustrate David’s wrestling with God’s promise amid his circumstances?
Consider the moments in your life when it seems as if God’s promise contradicts the realities you are facing. Why can we still have hope in God?
Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. What has God promised us in Christ, and how can that promise sustain us in the day of trouble?
As you end your time, meditate on God’s character and His past faithfulness to you. Recount His goodness and all the ways He’s come through for you. Praise Him for how He’s cared for you, and like David, affirm that He is your refuge. In light of His goodness and faithfulness, lift up your requests to Him and ask Him to rescue, redeem, intervene, and heal. Pray that
