A Refuge

In psalm 5 today I was struck by what benefits come from making God our refuge. David cried out to God in the morning. He did so with words, groanings, cries, and prayers. I think it is interesting that after he prayed it says he watched. He prayed believing that God was going to answer. How many times have I left this part out of my prayers? The expectation of the answer. David calls God his refuge, his shield. What does it mean for God to be our refuge? David says that it means we rejoice and sing for joy. It also means we are protected and covered with favor. What an amazing place to be. When I find my refuge in God it is normally because of a circumstance that I am worrying about. But yet David says we are to be singing and rejoicing. That kind of changes my view of a refuge. I always looked as a refuge as almost a quiet, somber place but here David says we are to be rejoicing and singing. What I gather from this passage is that when I find myself in a place where I seek out God for help and refuge is when I need to be praising him the most. Not when things are going fine, although I need to praise him then too. Those times when I am crying out to God for help I need to do so with rejoicing. I guess that is always why when I am down or discouraged and I put on praise music I start to feel so much better. Have you ever stood in the middle of a room, with tears pouring down your face, singing with all your might to a song that has just touched your soul? I have, often. I guess those times were the ones where God was surrounding me with his shield of refuge and all I could do was to respond with rejoicing.

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