Psalm 16:1
Keep me safe, O God, for in You I take refuge. Psalm 16:1 (NIV)
Safe – guarded, protected, attended to – in some Bible versions this word is translated Preserve
Refuge – flee to for protection, confide in, have hope in, have trust in, to hide away in – in some Bible versions this word is translated Trust
This verse is a request for protection.
David is asking God to protect him and declaring he trusts Him for that protection..
David tells God he is seeking refuge in Him.
To take refuge in God means we are clinging to Him.
We see Him as our shelter, a safe place to hide.
When we take refuge in God, we choose to trust Him and His love for us.
We flee to Him for protection, even when nothing is chasing us.
We make staying very close to Him part of our everyday life.
We are trusting Him to be a fortress we can safely stay in that will shield us from harm.
David also asks God to keep him safe.
David wants God to protect him.
He knew God was the only One who could truly protect him and keep him safe.
Trusting God to keep us safe means we choose to intentionally stay close to Him, whether in good times or bad.
In the bad times He shelters us through the storm.
In the good times He strengthens us and helps us see just how much He loves us.
These help us to be stronger and to know we can trust Him.
In return, He protects us and keeps us safe.
This safety is not just physical.
It is also spiritual and emotional.
When we are walking with God He helps us stay safe in all these areas.
When outside threats come, we can often avoid them by clinging closer to Him in obedience and trusting Him to shield us from them.
Sometimes, hard or bad things will affect us.
That doesn’t mean God failed to keep us safe.
If we will take a step back and look at the bigger picture we will see things could have been much worse than they were because sometimes God protects us by holding back what could have happened and by giving us a better outcome instead of eliminating the threat completely.
This seems odd and we might wonder why God didn’t just stop the problem, but we need to remember God understands things we don’t and can see how all the pieces of life work together and what the perfect timing for them is.
Sometimes those pieces work in ways we don’t understand or agree with.
That doesn’t make them wrong or mean that God isn’t doing His part.
It means we don’t understand things like we wish we did.
As long as we live in this broken world, bad things will happen.
That’s just how life works.
But, if we will take refuge in God and look to Him to protect and care for us, a lot less hard things will happen, and He will be there to help us through the things that do happen.
He will walk with us through whatever life throws at us, protecting, comforting, and guiding us.
No matter what happens in life, we can look to God to protect us and to be our refuge – our shelter.
We can look to Him to take care of us no matter the situation, care, or concern.
All we have to do is look to Him and trust Him for it.
Prayer – Father, thank you that You are a refuge I can go to, cling to, and take shelter in. Will you please keep me safe as I seek to trust You more and to lean in to You as my refuge? I know You are the only one I can look to for this. Thank you for all you do for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen
In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Psalm 31:1 (NIV)
.Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me, Psalm 7:1 (NIV)
To see all the posts I’ve shared in this series, please visit my Psalm 16 page.
To learn more about what a Psalm is, please visit my post, What is the Book of Psalms?