◄ What Does Psalm 31:1 Mean? ►

In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me.

Psalm 31:1(NASB)

Verse of the Day

As believers in Christ, our citizenship is in heaven. This world is not our home, we are simply passing through. As the days get darker and persecution, disaster, tragedy, and fear become more overwhelming, it can seem like there is no safe place to run to. Like refugees displaced from a war-torn country, we yearn for a place of safety, a place where we are protected, a place of sanctuary.

David wrote this psalm in a time of deep distress and severe sorrow and pours out his heart to the Lord, but as with all the psalms he wrote, he inevitably restates his abiding confidence in the faithfulness of God, for David knew that there was nowhere else to fly to and there was no-one else in which to place his trust. "In you, Lord, I have taken refuge," he writes, "You are my rock and my fortress."

It is the trusting heart that has confidence in God's character and believes His promises that pleases the Lord, and it is such a man that remains persuaded of God's never-failing goodness no matter what difficulties rise up to confound the heart or confuse the mind. Such a man is a man after God's own heart.

Faith is expressed in prayer and prevailing prayer is an expression of faith - and David pleads God's righteousness as the legitimate reason for his own cry of deliverance: "For the sake of Your name, You will lead me and guide me. You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength." His trust in the Lord rests on the promises of our covenant-keeping God, for He has placed His Word above His holy name.

When we trust in the Lord we may be sure that no matter what bitter circumstances of life rise up against us, the Lord will always be our refuge and strength, our anchor and our deliverer even when we don’t understand – for He has promised.

Although this entire psalm catalogues his overflowing grief and grievances, nevertheless his prayer begins and ends with a proclamation of God's trustworthiness, and an entreaty for God's deliverance. David knew that his God is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of everything, for God alone can be trusted.

My Prayer

Loving Father, like David, I have taken my refuge in You and I trust in Your sure Word and never-failing promises. For Your righteous name's sake, I pray that You will deliver me out of the difficulties I am facing today. Please give me the grace to get through. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.