Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Taking Refuge in God | The Writings | Psalm 142

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

How has sin invaded your life? Where do you turn when life is caving in? Is God your refuge? In today's episode, Jeff shares how Psalm 142 encourages us to find refuge in God's protection and connection. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 142

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Paul Krogel is one of the most influential guardians you've never heard of. He offered protection with sharp eyes, open ears, and a shotgun in his hands. He risked his life to guard a treasure. And when Krogel stood guard, he changed history. Now, what will likely surprise him, you most is what Paul Krogel was guarding. Back in the late 19th century, he moved to the state of Florida and became enamored with the wildlife, particularly the bird population of Pelican Island, a five-acre island inhabited by brown pelicans and other bird species. But this flourishing island

paradise wasn't only known for its inhabitants. It was also known for its invaders, for the hunters that killed off the pelicans without any regulation, putting the population in danger of being eliminated. Without any state or federal support to protect these birds, Krogel took matters into his own hands to rescue and protect the birds that he treasured. Others were inspired by his bravery of guarding the bird population, and eventually news of the endangered pelicans reached President Theodore Roosevelt, who in turn made Pelican Island the first wildlife refuge in the United States. That initial move of one man protecting a five-acre island with his shotgun, well, it developed into the National Wildlife Refuge System,

which now protects over 150 million acres of land. The story of Paul Krogel and Pelican Island, it's intriguing even as a simple survey of a historical moment. He was eventually added to the list of great Floridians, and he contributed to one of the most significant conservation movements in American history. But there's a significance to that story that transcends government agencies and taps into our very lives. See, the story of the Bible, it begins with a paradise,

a paradise where humanity flourished with God and with one another. but an invader entered that paradise and the realities of sin, death, and evil infected it. It infected the paradise almost like a parasite. And to this day, we live as people looking for refuge, looking for protection. But the story of the Bible, it doesn't end with the invader, with the parasite. It continues with God rescuing the people that he treasures. He is a rescuer, a protector, a refuge. That's something that all of us need.

Psalm 142 interrogates this very human need, drawing our attention to how the invasion of sin ruins our lives, but also showing us the protector, the guardian, the refuge, who is with us. As we approach God's word, let's pause and ask for his grace for his steadfast love to move through our time. time. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath and for your word. We bring before you our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars and our contingencies, all the things facing us today and this week. God, meet us in this time. Jesus, help us abide in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Psalm 142.

As we read these words, let these words read us and restore us with the hope of the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, the words of Psalm 142, they come from King David, and the title indicates that David composed this prayer while he was in a cave, fleeing from his enemies. The invaders are pressing in, and he's in desperate need of protection. You get that sense of desperation out of the gate in the first three verses. starting the first one. With my voice, I cry out to the Lord. With my voice, I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him. I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me,

you know my way. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Now, when we read these words, we realize that David is in the pressure cooker here. He is crying out, pleading. His spirit faints. Why? Well, because the sin of other people is invading his life. They've hidden a trap for him. And that alone is enough for David to lament, but he grapples with his situation in an even deeper way as we go into verse four. Let's see what he says there. Look to the right and see, there is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me. No one cares for my soul. That's a big statement. That's huge. Not only is David experiencing the presence of sin's invasion, he's also experiencing the vacuum of isolation. It feels like nobody sees him. It feels like there's no

refuge for him. Nobody cares. As he hides in the cave, the realities of his life are caving in on Him. Now, whether you're a devoted follower of Jesus or you're not sure what you think about Jesus and the Bible, we're all in the same boat here because you and I need a refuge when life caves in like this. Maybe you, like David, have been sinned against by other people with their words and their actions, and you need to cry out for refuge. Maybe you also like David are in a season of life when it seems like nobody sees you. Nobody cares for you. You're in the vacuum of isolation and you need a refuge not only for protection, but for connection. Do you see your need need for a refuge? For some of us, that can be a hard question to answer because we have a

functionally confused view of God. It's possible to intellectually believe that you need God as your refuge, that he can be that for you, but to functionally live with a false version of God, a false version of God who's distant and uninterested in your life. Maybe for you, God is nothing more than an idea to contemplate or a puzzle to solve or a conversation topic. And that's where a confused view of God gets exposed because you don't cry out to an idea. You don't find refuge in a puzzle. You can only cry out to a God who's really there.

You can only find refuge in a God who relates to you and responds to you. The good news for David and for us is that God is there. He does relate to us. He does respond to us. That's the substance of the closing verses of Psalm 142. We read this, starting in verse 5. I cry to you, O Lord, I say, you are my refuge. You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.

Bring me out of prison that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. David here is crying out to the living God who hears him and who responds. That is his refuge. What we most deeply need isn't the refuge of a physical location or changed circumstances. We need the protection and connection found with our creator, with the one who made us and seized us as his treasure. That's the astounding news of Psalm 142. The refuge we need is in a relationship.

But here's the thing that. really blows my mind with David's prayer here. This psalm ends with David still hiding in the cave. He's still there. His prayer expresses such a profound hope in God that it persists before anything changes in his life. When he's still surrounded, when he's still in the crucible, when he's still in the pain and in the isolation, David can say, you will deal bountifully with me. David's real refuge, it's not the shelter of the cave. His real refuge is in the shelter of his creator and the one who will deal bountifully with him. This refuge is in the God who restores. That sense of restoration, it's really at the heart of a refuge, isn't it? Let me just think about it.

The point of a wildlife refuge, for instance, it's not simply to protect the wildlife, but to restore it, to create more life. The point of having God as our refuge isn't to have a kind of protection that leads to a plateau of life luxury, to the stasis of retreat or relaxation. When God, the living God is our refuge, it leads to restoration, to a connection that deepens our dependence on him and delight in him. That is the abundant, bountiful life that we need. when we're in the cave. Christmas is around the corner and we're nearing the end of this

Advent season. As we encounter the wonder that God is with us in Jesus, we also embrace the truth of Psalm 142. The truth that the refuge we need isn't a place that we have to find. It isn't an idea that we conjure up or a problem that we solve. The refuge that we need is a person, the living God. The refuge is real and it's reaching out to us. Heavenly Father, we cry out to you in our pain, in our isolation, in our confusion. We cry out to you from the cave. Jesus, we thank you that you make a way for us to find a true lasting refuge for the good news that the real refuge is reaching out to us, even now. Holy Spirit, as we find our refuge in you,

would you restore us to greater degrees of dependence on you and delight in you? We need you, we love you. In Jesus' name, amen.