Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Reflections on the Psalms (Psalm 16)


Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.


We live in a safe phobic culture.  We go to great lengths to make ourselves comforted from any fear.  Think about all the creature comforts we have and all the things we build around us to create a sense of safety.  He have home alarm systems to keep us safe, we pay police and firefighters to keep us safe, some people carry mace or a weapon for a sense of safety, we tend to try and live in areas we feel are safe, we save for retirement for safety, we pay for health insurance and life insurance and car insurance and the list goes on!

But the Psalmist reminds us we cannot purchase safety, in fact our refuge is free.  God is our refuge our portion and our lot.  We have been given the richest inheritance possible and yet we hoard and protect ourselves and our safety here on earth as if we could take it all with us to the grave.  Its when we realize these facts we can rejoice with the Psalmist saying "my body will rest secure"!  For its then we confess who really has the power over life and death and our joy comes not from earthly things but from Gods presence.  Our pleasures come from living in eternity with God and not from the temporary things of this world.

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