Does doubt and worry creep into your mind and heart because of all the “bad stuff” happening around you? Does life sometimes feel like a flurry of activity, with purpose and meaning difficult to find?
What an incredible place of Refuge in Psalm 7! David begins, “O LORD my God, I take refuge in you.”
As I envision these 17 verses on a graph of intensity, the apex (peek) verses are 8-10,
“Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness,
according to my integrity, O Most High
O righteous God,
who searches minds and hearts,
bring to an end the violence of the wicked
and make the righteous secure.
My shield is God Most High,
who saves the upright in heart.” (Psalm 7:8-10)
Getting It Right
Righteousness (or right-ness) seems to be a key element of Refuge. In the New Testament (NT), Romans 3:22 says, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” The Apostle Paul says a few verses later, “to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). Trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation (Refuge), establishes the only means of a person’s righteousness (right standing) before God. Therefore, Psalm 7:8 can be interpreted as a bold and substantive declaration of Refuge in the midst of doubt, confusion, or enemy attack. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
May I invite you to read Psalm 7 in its entirety. Notice that verse 1-7 leading up to verse 8 express a great deal of fear and anxiety regarding David’s right standing before God. He even doubted his Refuge status as a result of some potential oversight (sin of omission) against another person. We know from a historical context that David was very motivated to follow all the Old Testament (OT) laws of God to secure his right standing–certainly most qualified of anyone among his people. Hence, it is as if he is trying to reassure himself when he states “judge, me O Lord, according to my righteousness” (v8). In the next verse (v9), he regains confidence in God “who searches minds and hearts,” and exposes wickedness (offenses of any sort) for God to forgive and make right once again. The remainder of the Psalm praises God for His ability to deal with evil and willingness to act on behalf of those who turn their hearts away from sin to become devoted to Him.
The real punch of this Psalm comes in the last verse which summarizes David’s journey and foretells of times beginning with the NT through today.
“I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”
Rest for Your Soul
God’s requirement of righteousness was satisfied through His very own “right son,” Jesus, the only right source of salvation and refuge. Because Jesus made us “right” (a work of HIS, not ours), we are judged “righteous” before Almighty God. We can join with the writer of Phillippians in the NT in proclaiming, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:8-9). Our most sincere endeavors cannot secure our Refuge. The most religious, altruistic, or socially just efforts are never good enough to earn right standing before God. Psalm 7:8-9 has been answered once and for all in what Jesus accomplished through his death and resurrection. A flurry-filled, activity-based Christian life should be evaluated against Matthew 11:28-29 where Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Human behavior tends toward extremes. We sin or err in one of two directions. We are sometimes lazy and try to make God responsible for changing what is up to us to change. Or, we put too little faith and trust in Jesus and what he completed (making us “right” with God), and we place too much confidence in our own efforts to appease God and please others to make things right. Christ as Refuge makes right. He corrects either path of error. It is his finished work that gives us right standing with God which is justification in theological terms. And in terms of sanctification he gives us strength (through the help of the Holy Spirit) that empowers us in the ongoing change of our natural man to conform to the image of Christ. As our desire grows stronger to cooperate with God’s ways, we gain more peace and rest in our hearts. Refuge becomes more and more a reality.
May the reader find Refuge and rest for your soul.
Note: For more depth to this topic, check out my book PACE to Peace: Finding Inner Rest in a World of Unrest.