A Prayer of Protection

Meditation on Psalm 16:1

“Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.”

Before a child goes out to play tag or another sport, I have often seen the little boy or girl hand something to his parents.  Perhaps it might be a bracelet, a necklace, a toy or even a cell phone.  The child does not want to risk losing the delightful item and asks the parent to watch it for him or her.  The child has full confidence that the parent will keep this item safe from harm.  This is at the root of David’s prayer; only he is asking God to keep him safe, not an item.

The word ‘keep…safe’ has the strong nuance of guarding something or paying close and careful attention to something.  Thus the parent in the above illustration guards her child’s special item and often says, “Don’t worry, I’ll watch it for you.” 

In ancient days the word often conveyed a serious and somber side.  When a commander entrusted a prisoner one of his soldiers, he would often say, “Your life for his life.”  In other words, if the prisoner escapes, you die.  This puts the soldier on high alert.  He carefully observes the prisoner to make sure he isn’t loosening his bonds in someway.  He guards him with the utmost perception so that he doesn’t lose his own life. 

It is the constant care, the careful watch and the perceptive protection David, the author of the Psalm, asks God for.  “Keep me safe, my God.”  Carefully watch over my life and protect me.  What does he ask protection from?  The passage does not say.  It could be his enemies, wicked men, betrayers, sickness or plagues or any number of things.  He doesn’t mention it.  He only asks God to keep him safe.

The reason for this is the second clause of the prayer: “for in you I take refuge.”

I remember a time as a child when my sisters and I were playing out near the barn.  As we played dark clouds gathered, a storm was coming.  We did not pay attention to the sky until a low rumble of thunder shook the earth.  We looked at each other and then bolted to our house.  Our house was a refuge from the storm and all things frightening.  It was a shelter from the rainstorms in the spring, the thunderstorms during summer and fall and the blizzards and cold in the dead of winter.  It was a ‘safe place’ away from the mean teachers at school that would burden us with homework, the bullies and the long days at school.  My home was my refuge when I grew up.

In a far greater way, God is our refuge.  He is a shelter from the storms of life whether they are angry bosses, gossiping friends, slander, sicknesses, heartbreaks, loneliness, depression and the list goes on.  The Lord as our refuge does not necessarily take the storm, enemy or troubling circumstance away from us but he does offer protection, security and solace in the midst of it.

When I seek him as my refuge, whether I realize it or not, I acknowledge that God is secure but I am vulnerable; God is strong but I am weak; God is all-sufficient but I am the one who lacks.  It also demonstrates our reliance upon him.  A rabbit runs for shelter under a brush pile because it knows it cannot defeat a red tail hawk.  In the same way, we must learn to fly to God when troubles assail us, circumstances overwhelm us, enemies are all around us or sickness overtakes us. 

Go to God first.  Seek him.  He is our refuge.  He is our shelter.  He is the one who will keep us safe.