The Rock of My Refuge (6)

 

 

“But Yahweh has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.” Psalm 94:22.

 

What can we see in the immediate context of our verse?

 

Here are the two verses that precede it:

 

“Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, one which devises mischief by decree? They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.”

 

Here is the verse that follows our verse, and which concludes Psalm 94:

 

“He has brought back their wickedness upon them and will destroy them in their evil; Yahweh our God will destroy them.”

 

There are three explicit ideas in this passage, and others that we can extrapolate from them – I am sure that there are more than I can see and share, hopefully you can complement them with what you also see…is this not the nature of God’s Word?

 

1.    We ought not to ally ourselves with powers of destruction – no matter how attractive they may be, no matter how pragmatic they may appear.

 

2.    The world is in rebellion against God and is intent on destroying those who belong to Him. Can we see the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Psalm 94:21?

 

3.    God will destroy the wicked – their own wickedness will consume them.

 

In the midst of the foregoing, those who belong to Christ can say with the Son of God, “But Yahweh has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.” (See also Psalm 71:1 – 3, especially the idea that God is our “rock of habitation”.)

 

Our hearts and minds, our souls, can either live in the world or we can live within our Stronghold, our Rock of Refuge. We can either take our ideals and images from the world, or we can participate in the Image of God, Jesus Christ, and convey His image to the world as we are given grace. We can either live as if the world accurately portrays ultimate reality, or we can live with God being our present and enduring Reality.

 

Are we convinced, as Peter was, that Jesus Christ has “the words of eternal life”? (John 6:68).

 

Is Jesus Christ our Rock of Habitation? Are we living within Him?

 

As we conclude our reflections in Psalm 94, I want to encourage us to live in the Psalms, to ponder at least one Psalm each day – for in Psalms we will encounter the depth and length and height and breath of the Divine – human relationship and experience. In Psalms we will see Christ and His Body. In Psalms we will see teaching, such as that on theodicy, that will partner with us through the vicissitudes of life. In Psalms we can learn to see life as it really is, in the light of ultimate reality.

 

In Psalms we can discover the Voice of Christ, the Voice of His Body, and our own voices as we are drawn into the Trinity, and into koinonia with one another – drawn into the communion of the saints.

 

Will you accept your Father’s invitation to live with Him and the Son and the Spirit in Psalms?