Refuge

Psalm 1-41

Refuge.  It is not the most frequent word found in Psalm 1-41.  However, it is the word that I am left with after reading that beautiful section of scripture straight through.  In fact, I've been pondering it for weeks now.  Once when I was a kid, we were surprised by a big thunderstorm while camping.  My mom, dad, brother and I were in the camper when we heard a knock.  I will never forget the sight of my soaked grandparents standing out in the rain, after their tent had been badly damaged in the storm.  They needed refuge!  We laughed and played games that night, waiting for the storm to pass.  As I read Psalms, I wonder if I really do take refuge in the LORD.  Could Hebe inviting me to something deeper that the Psalmist understood?  When storms come, where do I take refuge?

 Once again, the concordance proves to be the best place to start finding answers to my questions!  I pulled it up, typed in the word "refuge," and read every verse in Psalms where it is found.  I discovered that the word “refuge” is connected to God in each of the 44 times it appears throughout the whole book.  What does it mean to take refuge in God? 

Using an online Hebrew Interlinear Bible, I found that the Hebrew word for “refuge” almost always used in Psalms 1-41 (which the King James Version translates as "trust") is the word chasah.  It’s a verb.   What would it be like to use ‘refuge’ as a verb?  I’ve always thought of refuge as a place, not an act.  Places are fixed locations.  But an act can be done in lots of different places and conditions.  Thinking about refuge as a verb really changes things.  I know very little about Hebrew, but I notice that the interlinear Bible translates the word chasah into English as “take.” And, as my concordance search revealed, it is always connected to God.  Take God.   I have turned this information over and over in my head for a few weeks. (It is so easy to meditate on scripture when you are trying to understand it.) 

Take God.  God is so much more real than I can comprehend.  David knew.  God is not only able to provide what I need, but he is able to give Himself and fill my need.  What an invitation!  God is here, for the taking.  His salvation, strength, wisdom, hope, help, healing…. Take!  Blessed are those who take.  I thought of my soggy grandparents.  What if they had run somewhere else in the storm?  What if they had chosen to stay in their damaged tent?  Sometimes the hard thing to do is to get up and run for cover in the LORD.  Sometimes I run the other way because it seems to be the easier option.  Don’t take something else.  It won’t be enough.  When nothing else is left, when nothing else is right, when nothing else is within reach, take God.  David knew the pain of great loss, he knew what it was to flee for his life, and he knew the value of personal safety and security.  He Took God.  He Refuged.  And from his Refuge, he Rejoiced!

“ The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.”

--Psalm 18:2a