In You I Take Refuge

“Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from You.”

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
You hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the Lord always before me;
because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let Your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life;
in Your presence there is fullness of joy;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
-Psalm 16

We aren’t given much insight into the circumstances of David’s life when he wrote this Psalm, but we are told that it is a Miktam. While scholars are uncertain as to the meaning of this word, some believe that it is a musical term for crying out to God.  In each of the five other Psalms that are labeled as Miktams, David is crying out to the Lord in the midst of hardship and peril. We can learn much from these verses about what it looks like for us to cry out to God from under the burden of grief and pain.

David begins this Psalm by asking God to preserve him while also acknowledging that God is His refuge. Throughout the rest of these verses, David proclaims his confidence that God will bring him through life and death to complete and everlasting pleasure. He boldly declares that the storms of this life will not shake him, because he has found refuge in the Lord. 

This refuge—this blessed hope—is available for you too, sweet sister. 

As you day by day learn to place your hope in Christ, you will find refuge. And the certainty that God will uphold you through the sorrows and difficulties of life, leads to great joy. As you turn to Him, you will find that nothing else satisfies—nothing else can sustain you as He does. He is our portion, our treasure, our greatest good. And we know that God will be all of this to us perfectly, for all of eternity.

After my son went to be with the Lord, I spent as much time as I could soaking up God’s Word. When it seemed as though everything in my life had been shaken, I needed the constant reminder that my foundation—Jesus Christ—was secure. As I continued to cling to the life-giving Word of God and the hope that is found in Christ, I found myself turning again and again to this Psalm. It was as though every cry of my broken and weary heart was answered through the words in these verses. It contains such a wealth of hope and promise because ultimately, this Psalm points our hearts to the work of Christ.

Although Psalm 16 was penned by King David, Paul gives us additional insight into these verses in Acts.

“This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. For David says concerning Him,

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of his descendants on His throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.”
-Acts 2:23-31

Did you catch that? Christ loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it! And because it was not possible for Christ to be held by death, our precious babies who have gone home before us have been given new life! The rich promises described in Psalm 16 are made possible because of the resurrection of Christ. This sorrow that you now bear, will not leave you without hope and purpose because you are steadfastly anchored to the living Christ.

Sister, in the midst of your grief, it is God’s love that sustains you—love that sent His Son to die in your place so that by Christ’s death and resurrection you may be joined with Him for all of eternity, love that has done more for your baby than you could ever possibly have done for them yourself—namely granting them salvation and fullness of joy in His glorious presence.

Ashlee is the Editorial Coordinator for Hope Mommies and author of their I AM, Identity, and Sojourn Bible studies. She and her husband, Jesse, live in Milwaukee with their children—five on earth and two in heaven.

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