My Refuge

DEVOTION

PSALMS

MY REFUGE

Ps 73:21-28

21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. 23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

NIV

We have been visiting with this writer and his feelings as he watches the people of the world advance their personal wealth with their evil agendas, their self-serving lifestyle and how he has been wrestling with envy and a jealous nature trying to live for God but wanting what the world has as well. Then feeling guilty and having that feeling of shame and disgust with himself. We have related to some of his feelings alone the way, but now we see that coming to his sense of reasoning is surfacing. When he was feeling all that and was getting a little bitter toward God, being but a brute, a senseless brute, he realizes he still always held a place for God in his heart. That is how we have lived at moments in our life. There have been those times we wanted more, we wanted to be able to be free to do that which our human nature yearns for. But we know God is with us, we know God has always been there guiding us, holding by our right hand as a parent grips their children in a crowd, not to lose them, not to allow them to wander off. God has been our guide, our counsel. He has kept us within the palm of his hand, and in there we will not be shaken nor will anyone be able to take us from there. And after all this life, with all its struggles and even after wrestling with the desires of the flesh, he will take us into glory. Because although our temptations have been great and we have failed to resist them all the time, every time, we have never forsaken our trust in him, nor have we completely turned our back on him to live for, to pursue a life of pure self-indulgence. We have always wanted within us to live to please him and desire to resist those ways. We have never given up on God, even in those times we felt so far from him, or that we felt he was so far from us. Who else can we trust in? Surely not our self, for it is weak, but he is strong. He is the strength of our heart. He is our portion forever. Never will we stray that far from his side that we would be like those who will perish. Those who are far from him will indeed perish because they are unfaithful to him. But even in those times when we have failed, when temptation has gotten the best of us, we have never left his side to join those who are far from him and will perish. As for us, it is good to be near God. We have made the Sovereign Lord our refuge. We will tell of all his good deeds.