Tag: comfort

God’s Resort

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“Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually” (Psalm 71.3).

Shame, escape, the plea for deliverance, refuge, rock, and fortress are all very clear indicators in this psalm.  If we linger over these words, they help us to understand the background of this Psalm.  All these definitive descriptors and we are still only three verses into the Psalm.  It is quite obvious that the psalmist is experiencing great upheaval and persecution from “the hand of the wicked, …unrighteous, and cruel man” (71.4).

However, the psalmist has experience in his relationship with God.  He has trusted and hoped in God from his youth (71.5).  Something has happened to him that has caused people to look upon him as a “wonder” or an astonishment (71.7).  This same idea is expressed in Isaiah’s Suffering Servant passage.  “Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man…” (Isaiah 52.14).  So, the psalmist pleads for the Lord to keep hold of him in his old age …to not forsake him when his strength fails (71.9).

The deepest hurt for him was the people saying that God had forsaken him (71.11).  It is very difficult to live a truly altruistic life and have people say that God has left you.  So he cries out to God to come near and help him (7.12) …to confound and consume his adversaries (71.13).

The psalmist clings in hope to God continually.  He cannot do anything else (71.14).  He will go in the strength of the Lord God (71.16).  Old and gray-headed, the only thing he cannot endure is the thought of God forsaking him (71.18).  He knows that even great and severe trouble shall give way to revival (71.20).  He will praise the Lord for deliverance and talk of the Lord’s righteousness all the day long (71.24).  But his adversaries who caused such deep hurt in his life will be confounded and brought to shame (71.25).

But I’d like to back up and linger upon verse 3:  “Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually.”

God has been gracious to us.  We probably haven’t had too many occasions where we have prayed like the psalmist has here.  But we have to realize that God alone is our strong refuge.  We may resort to Him continually.  There isn’t anything or anyone in this world that is able to stand in His place.  Look carefully at Psalm 71.3:

Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually.

God’s Strong Refuge:  The Mark of God’s Mercy

First, this refuge is a mark of God’s mercy.  Think about the word refuge and all that it entails.  The Lord is my strong refuge.  The Lord is my strong refuge.  He is mine, and He is strong.  Beyond this, I may resort to this refuge continually.  There is never a time when I cannot find all that I need in Him.  I shut the door on everyone who seeks to rob me of peace and safety and find my strong refuge in Him.  Nothing can be brought against us as children of God – at least nothing that God does not allow.  Then when He allows it, He graciously provides a refuge to which we may resort continually.

Amazing!  Don’t even think we deserve this privilege.  That God would provide each of us a refuge like this is amazing access.  It is a sure indicator of His mercy.  We are certainly undeserving.  We can identify with David who prayed, “Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?  Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him?  Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow” (Psalm 144.3-4).

God’s Strong Refuge:  The Manifestation of God’s Comfort

Second, this refuge is a manifestation of God’s comfort.  A refuge is a place of comfort and security.  You are assured of the fact that not only will you be safe, but you will find comfort and relief.  All can stand against you but if you find a refuge in God, you find comfort, wisdom, and strength to face the storms brewing on the horizon.  God is a faithful anchor amidst a faithless sea of humanity.  “Hide yourself …until the indignation is past” (Isaiah 26.20).

Life robs us of temporal comfort and joy so that we might find eternal comfort and joy.  God’s refuge is not only far more compelling to those seeking it, but far more satisfying than anything else they’ve been offered.  It takes a long time for some of us to learn this.

Think about this prayer as a whole:  Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually.  Now ask yourself if you pray like this.  I’m quite convinced that many believers do not have continual refuge in the LORD because they never ask for it.  Many are too busy building their own places of refuge.  These shanties cannot stand when trouble comes.  Some hide in the pursuit of pleasure or popularity or behind the veneer of a false profession, or underneath the cover of a zeal God will not own.  We should genuinely seek God as our strong refuge …the place where we resort continually.  There are two reasons why we should do this (apart from the fact that the Bible advocates it; I take that for granted).

God’s Strong Refuge:  The Wise Choice

First, it’s the smart thing to do; it’s the wise choice.  When you think of just the little things that consume Christians in our country, it is frightening to think of a future filled with real and persistent persecution!  As a church, we must be taught to fail in our own strength.  It is the most merciful thing God can do in order to teach us to resort to Him continually.

When God is our refuge, there is always hope even in the most miserable situations here on earth.  Believers who resort to God during these times find that out.  They are truly wise.  We must conclude that it is the height of foolishness to ignore the refuge we’ve been given in God.  Let us go to Him continually.  Let us rely upon His omnipotent arm instead of our feeble attempts to deliver ourselves.  Jeremiah wrote, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD …Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD” (Jeremiah 17.5, 7).

It really is a no-brainer as they say.  Fire and brimstone is already coming upon the face of Sodom.  It’s time to flee to our strong refuge; to resort in Him continually.

God’s Strong Refuge:  The Loyal Choice

Second, it’s the loyal thing to do.  Loyalty matters to God.  When you look for a refuge in anyone or anything else, God will not put up with it for long.  He is a jealous God …He has perfect jealousy.  The psalmist was loyal to God because he experienced the all-sufficiency of God in his weakness.

Only God has the power to protect you.  Only God loves you enough to provide you with what you need instead of what you want.  If we don’t read and study verses like Psalm 71.3, it would never occur to us to pray as the psalmist did.  You discover who God is and what He wants to do for you by studying the Psalms.  Until you know God’s character, you’ll never really understand why people are willing to forsake everything and everyone else in order to serve Him.

The wonderful thing about God’s character is that as we discover Him together, we will conclude that He indeed is our refuge through all generations (Psalm 90.1).  When we flee to Him, we find comfort and security even in the midst of great chaos.

Conclusion:  We ought to have great pity upon those who still struggle to find a strong Refuge to whom they may resort.  If they think that their their troubles are burdensome now, just think of the terror that awaits them in Hell after they die!  People who fight against God will one day find that they fight against the Creator of all.  But if they pursue a relationship with God, they will have a peace that protects and keep their hearts for this life and the life to come.

Yet I hasten to add that those of us who have made the LORD a refuge and dwelling place may be assured that “no evil shall befall” us (Psalm 91.9-10).  “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverbs 18.10).  When we pray, let us ask that God be a strong refuge, to which we may resort continually (Psalm 71.3).

Satisfied

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“Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!” (Psalm 90:14)

The lovingkindness and mercy of God are precious.  When we find refuge in the mercy of God, we are abundantly satisfied and drink from the river of His pleasures (Psalm 36.7-8).  It is because of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is His faithfulness (Lamentations 3.22-23).  Moses in Psalm 90 prays that we would be satisfied early with God’s mercy.  If God makes known His abundant mercy and we are satisfied early in life, we will be a blessed people throughout our earthly lives.

True satisfaction in life is not found in anything or anyone on this earth.   Moses understood what life is like when you are handed all that this world offers.  He refused the privilege of being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather enjoying satisfaction from the passing pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11.24-26).  Solomon definitely enjoyed all that this world offers and found it empty (see Ecclesiastes 1.2).  God put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3.11), nothing temporal could satisfy them.

Even living a “moral, religious, or upstanding” life will not satisfy.  Self-righteousness only complicates life to an infinitely greater degree.  Our self-righteousness haunts us with questions like, “Have I done enough?”  When I work, my labor is never finished.  Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19.30)!  He meant it.  He satisfied the demands of God so that God might satisfy the needs of mankind.  But only God is able to do this.

God has chosen to satisfy our deepest need …fill our deepest void with His mercy.  I can never do enough.  All things are naked and open before the Judge of the living and the dead.  He will do right; I have not done right.  But Jesus has done right; therefore I have life-satisfying mercy.  Everything I need is found in Christ.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)  This is why when I believed on Christ, I rejoiced, do rejoice, and will rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

There is nothing greater than the mercy of God made available through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It provides untold comfort.  Let me suggest three ways in which mercy brings joy throughout our days on earth.

  1. When we are young in our relationship with Christ (relatively speaking, of course) discovering what God’s mercy and lovingkindness mean provides intense happiness that should never wane.
  2. When faced with all kinds of adversity we recall that we always have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Adversity is a light affliction for a moment.  It is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4.17).
  3. When facing the end of life mercy comforts us.  Our dying words and thoughts might well be articulated as, “O, Lord, remember mercy for Jesus’ sake!”

Those who are young and full of vitality and dreams would do well to remember that they must find the mercy of God early on in life.  Wisdom says, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me” (Proverbs 8.17).

If we are distracted by the cares of this life, we do well to remember that we labor for the food which spoils but not for the food which endures to everlasting life (John 6.27).  If you do not live life according to an eternal paradigm, you live it without understanding your need for mercy.  We must seek first the kingdom of God.  Then everything we need will be added to us.

If we know that our time is peculiarly short on this earth, we understand the priority of eternity by the mercy of God.  We cry out, “Satisfy me early with your mercy!”  We pray for the mercy of redemption …a mercy leading to rejoicing.  When my flesh and my heart fail, God will be the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  That is how we abide satisfied.