{"id":20358,"date":"2014-06-24T00:20:57","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T04:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=20358"},"modified":"2014-06-23T23:00:16","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T03:00:16","slug":"god-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/24\/god-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"God Our Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to Your name;
\nThe righteous will surround me, for You will deal bountifully with me.
\nPsalm 142:7<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the title, this psalm was written by David while \u201cin a cave\u201d\u2014probably when he was on the run from King Saul. \u00a0If you recall, Saul and his men pursued David with the intention of killing him (for the whole story, see 1 Samuel 18 ff<\/a>). T his was clearly a very difficult time in David\u2019s life, as one can tell from this psalm. \u00a0He is greatly troubled, and it seems had no friends, nowhere to run, and his life was in danger at every moment. \u00a0His enemies laid traps for him; he was overwhelmed and desperate. \u00a0And yet he knew the Lord was on his side, and it was to the Lord he turned with his supplications, crying out his troubles to Him. \u00a0He recognized that the Lord is his \u201cRefuge\u201d (verse 4) and his \u201cPortion\u201d (verse 5). \u00a0He asked the Lord to heed his cry, and to deliver him from his persecutors. \u00a0Notice that David doesn\u2019t suggest to God any particular method of rescue, or way of dealing with those who threaten his life. \u00a0He just wants God to deliver him.<\/p>\n

In verse 7 (or verse 8 in the Hebrew text), David gives the reason or purpose behind his desire for deliverance: \u201c…so that I may give thanks to Your name\u201d\u2014for the purpose of exalting the name of the Lord. \u00a0David didn\u2019t want glory for himself. \u00a0He didn\u2019t want revenge on his enemies, nor did he want to prove a point to his persecutors. \u00a0All he wanted was deliverance\u2014a mighty act of God that would chase away his fear, raise his spirits, and cause his heart to well up with praise and thanks to the Lord.<\/p>\n

In the second part of the verse, David expresses his confidence that God\u2019s overwhelming provision for him will be shown by his being surrounded by the righteous. \u00a0I want us to pause at the first part of verse 7, though, and take note of the motive behind David\u2019s request for deliverance. \u00a0How many times when we\u2019re feeling oppressed or wronged do we seek vindication for its own sake? \u00a0We want those who wrong us to be shown their error, and we want the satisfaction of seeing them grovel for our forgiveness, or being humbled in some way. \u00a0How often do we ask for deliverance simply that we might have yet another reason to praise and give thanks to God?<\/p>\n

Too often, in situations like this, we don\u2019t seek the glory of God, rather we seek our own glory. We want to be elevated above our situation, and above those who brought the situation about. We want to overcome at the expense of others…not so that God\u2019s name will be praised. May David\u2019s example be a reminder to us to lead God-centered lives, where we are truly seeking after Him, His honor, and His glory, in all that we do and ask for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>*<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord, we pray for Your guidance as we are making the decision to seek after You where You are always found. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to Your name; The righteous will surround me, for You will deal bountifully with me. Psalm 142:7 According to the title, this psalm was written by David while \u201cin a cave\u201d\u2014probably when he was on the run from King Saul. \u00a0If you recall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[6624,3188,3367,1287,425,6610,6625,3174],"class_list":["post-20358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1-samuel-18","tag-ann-mwafulirwa","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-psalms-1424-5","tag-psalms-1427","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5im","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20360,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20358\/revisions\/20360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}