Meditation on the Text of the Week

All Christians are Refugees

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
O fear the Lord, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him, there is no want.
Psalm 34: 8.9

David's proposition is simple. If you align yourself with the Lord, life will be good. He is so sure of this truth that he invites us to test it out experientially. Taste the Lord for yourself, and you will find out that life becomes good.

Now, of course, David is not implying that man can taste the Lord while remaining neutral towards Him. He is not suggesting that it is possible to put the Lord in a laboratory and conduct objective experiments on Him. For if we are to experience the Lord's goodness in this life we must be aligned with him in the sense of David's father, Joshua when he challenged Israel: “choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

So, to taste of the Lord is the same as becoming so aligned with Him that we take refuge in Him. We do not test Him to approve Him, but rather we come as needy to shelter under His wings, and to seek protection in His strong fortress. We come as refugees—for that is what it means to seek and take refuge. The war is on. Dangers abound. Death and dissolution is on every hand. We, however, have cast our lot in with the Lord, and we have hurried as refugees into His city.

We are so aligned to Him that we fear Him. We fear Him above all men and kings and armies. We fear Him above sickness and disease. We fear Him above trial and tribulation.

As we fear Him and seek refuge before Him, we find goodness. We find the streets of His city wide and clean, open and light, lined with streams of water and trees that bear much fruit. We hear the sounds of peace punctuated with song and laughter.

Now the strange thing is that we still live in the realm of the world we have just fled. But everything has changed. The world we have just fled has become tenuous: it is passing away. Everything has become new. As Paul says, "if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature. The old has passed away. Behold new things have come."

Foremost is the knowledge that we have entered into the realm of His love. In entering His refuge, we come to know that the Lord loves us—not just in a general sense. Not in an abstract sense or merely conceptual sense. Not in just a corporate sense. But also in a deeply personal sense. The Almighty God loves each one: personally, deeply, infinitely—for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ Who offered up His very blood that He might win the Father's love for us.

Secondly, we have entered into a realm where He loves not just one individual, but all His people. His love is upon all who have taken refuge in Him. Therefore, as we take refuge in Him, we are made part of a second, new human race that is bound together in the deepest and strongest bonds of human fellowship. We were made for human society: as we come to the Lord, human society is suddenly remade and recreated. We have brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in this life that we have never before known. Blood is thicker than water; but faith is thicker than blood. This, too, is part of the goodness that we taste.

Thirdly, we experience the personal providential care of our loving heavenly Father. No circumstance, regardless of how trying, is anything but a manifestation of His regard and love for us. Our very food and clothing, every breath that we take, are all expressions of His love and goodness toward us and of His regard for us.

The immortal words of the Heidelberg Catechism express it so aptly:

I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact all things must work together for my salvation.

Fourthly, in entering that city of refuge we align ourselves with the Lord in such a way that we are enlisted in His service and begin to take up our duties as His servants, working to bring about the inevitable triumph of His Kingdom throughout the entire world. To be entrusted with such work and duties is a great honour. To know that none of our labour is in vain is a vast encouragement. To believe that success is infallibly certain brings lighthearted joy.

This is all part of tasting the goodness of the Lord. The heavens and the earth of the old realm are passing away. The Word of our Lord is standing forever. Out of the old, the new is coming. All is being re-constituted around the Head, even Jesus our Lord. His resurrection is the first fruits. It also signifies and seals the triumphant outcome for all creation.

Indeed it is true that for those who fear Him, there is no want. Nor shall there ever be.