I find the Psalms to be fascinating reading. They are these wonderful snippets of intensely heartfelt prayer. Each radiates a singular emotional state such as gratitude, desolation, joy, fear, need, and wonderment--one juxtaposed with the next seemingly at random. It manifests the variety and the intensity of a life lived in the shadow of a loving, mysterious God. It also reflects the ups and downs of life--of our lives.
A recurring image in these early Psalms is the idea of God as our refuge. Happy are all who take refuge in Him! (Psalm 2) But let all who take refuge in you be glad and exult forever. (Psalm 5) O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge. (Psalm 7) In the Lord I take refuge. (Psalm 11) Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge. (Psalm 16)
I tend to think of a refugee as a person fleeing from something--war, disease, persecution, famine. But the Psalmist focuses on what he is running to: the saving and loving God. Whether we are fleeing our fear, our sadness, our loneliness, or our enemies, it is to Him we flee. He is our refuge, our shelter, our protector.But we don't just hide there; rather, as we learn in the very first Psalm, we flourish:
Happy the man who . . . delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, he prospers.
There is that theme of fruitfulness again!
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