PSALM 61 - A Cry For Refuge

Introduction

Early on in the story of The Lord of the Rings, there is an episode that didn’t make it into the movies, but is one of the most memorable moments of the whole saga. Frodo and his friends are trying to avoid being seen by Sauron’s Black Riders, and so they take a shortcut through the Old Forest—an ancient and foreboding place full of dark, menacing wilderness. At one point the hobbits are nearly devoured by an old willow tree that lulls them to sleep. In desperation,

“…Frodo, without any clear idea of why he did so, or what he hoped for, ran along the path crying help! help! help! It seemed to him that he could hardly hear the sound of his own shrill voice: it was blown away from him by the willow-wind and drowned in a clamor of leaves, as soon as the words left his mouth. He felt desperate: lost and witless.” (Tolkien, J. (2012c). The Lord of the Rings: One Volume (50th Anniversary ed.) [E-book]. Mariner Books.)

He is interrupted by the sound of “a deep glad voice singing carelessly and happily”—Tom Bombadil, one of the most fascinating characters in all of Tolkien’s writings. After rescuing them from the clutches of Old Man Willow, Tom takes the hobbits to his house—a place of safety, rest, food and drink, a warm fire and shelter from the rainy days and dark menace that they had been eluding. When Frodo cried out in the wilderness, Tom heard and brought him and his friends to his refuge, where he and his wife Goldberry refreshed and strengthened them in tranquil peace, plenty and security until they were ready to continue their quest.

That story came to mind as I was reading Psalm 61 in preparation for this sermon. Like Frodo, David was in the wilderness (“from the end of the earth I call to you”), and was at the end of his strength and his courage (“… I call to you when my heart is faint...”) Unlike Frodo, though, who did not know whether or not anyone in the Old Forest would hear him or help him, David is certain that he will be heard by God—he knows God will hear his cry and listen to his prayer and lead him to His refuge.

This is what God has brought us together today to hear in this psalm. I don’t know what kind of week you have just come out of; I don’t know what weariness or stress or heartbreak you may be carrying with you. But I do know that in this weary, wicked world every one of us sometimes feels like crying out, at the end of our strength, “desperate: lost and witless”.

Whether its the indwelling sin that continues to dog you or family relationships that are strained and torn because of your faith or worries over your finances in a world with five dollar gasoline or the numbing tedium of long-term grief or struggling with the consequences of being betrayed or let down by someone you trusted: If you can identify with the weariness in David’s voice in this psalm, if you have the same longing for rest, then this is what I have been praying for you today—that you will see here in this psalm the great and precious promise that

God is a sure REFUGE for the FAINTHEARTED Christian

Just as David knew he could cry out to God “from the ends of the earth” and God would hear him, so I want you to be encouraged by God’s Word this morning that He is your refuge today. And in the first three verses of the psalm you are promised that you will

I. Find refuge by God’s LEADING (Psalm 61:1-3)

Psalm 61:1–2 (ESV)

1 Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint...

Right here in verse 1 is your first promise, Christian—that

He will RESPOND when you CALL (vv. 1-2; cp. Hebrews 5:7-9)

David isn’t crying out here saying, “God I hope you will listen to my prayer...” He is calling out to God in hope, knowing that God does hear him when he cries out. Christian, you have a sure and certain hope that God will answer you when you cry out to Him—because He heard when Jesus cried out to Him!

Hebrews 5:7–9 (ESV)

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Christian, because God heard His Son as He cried out to Him, He is now able to save you! Because Jesus was heard when He cried out with loud cries and tears, God will always respond when you call—even from the ends of the earth; even in the depths of your darkness or pain or bewilderment or grief or isolation. He will always hear you!

And when He hears you, He will do for you what you cannot do for yourself—look at the end of verse 2:

Psalm 61:2 (ESV)

2 from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I...

David can see the refuge, on the top of that rock, but he can’t get there on his own. And that’s your own experience, isn’t it? You know where you need to go mentally or emotionally or spiritually—you know what you need, but you cannot provide it for yourself. David knew that he needed to be on top of that Rock, and he also knew he needed God to lead him there!

Instead of flailing around in the wilderness, trying to find his own way through, finding his own ways to numb the pain or deal with the hurt or get out from under the anxiety, David cried out to God to lead him. It is only when we surrender ourselves to Him that He will then lead us to the Rock; it is only when you place yourself into His hands that

He will RAISE you to SAFETY (v. 3; Lamentations 3:22-24)

Psalm 61:3 (ESV)

3 for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.

Here is another reason we say that when David is calling out to God to hear his cry, he is not wondering whether God will answer him, he’s not crossing his fingers and hoping God will answer—he knows God will be faithful to answer him because He has rescued him before!

See how David says it here? Not “you will be my refuge...” but “you have been my refuge!” David can look back on all of God’s faithfulness in the past and say, “It will be no different this time—He will raise me to safety!”

Christian, even when you are lost in the wilderness of your stress or sorrow or anxiety, you can always look back and see how God has been your refuge in the past. Moses says the same thing in Psalm 90:1

Psalm 90:1 (ESV)

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Jeremiah, in the midst of his tears over the fall of his beloved city Jerusalem, is able to sing

Lamentations 3:22–24 (ESV)

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

David looks around at the stronghold God has led him to and says, “Yes! I remember being here before! He has always rescued me in the past, and He has led me to safety once again!”

And Christian, what greater stronghold do you have than the Rock of your salvation, Jesus Christ? When everything else is being swept away, in this day when every other source of safety and security and comfort is tottering like the thirty-ninth minute of a game of Jenga, Jesus Christ is your Rock!

Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

His love for you will not fail, His care for you will not falter, His protection will never be withdrawn, His reign over all of the kings of this earth will never for one moment be usurped or overturned—and in Him you are raised to safety—as David sings in Psalm 144:2,

Psalm 144:2 (ESV)

2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

God is a sure refuge for the fainthearted Christian—you find refuge in His leading, and in verses 4-5 you see that you

II Find refuge in God’s PRESENCE (Psalm 61:4-5)

Psalm 61:4–5 (ESV)

4 Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah 5 For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

The imagery here in these verses are drawn from the Tabernacle, the tent that housed the Ark of the Covenant and represented the dwelling place of God with His people in the Old Testament. So when David is asking God to let him “dwell in His tent”, he is asking something extraordinary: He wants to live in the Tabernacle itself!

Think of this—the Tabernacle was meant to be God’s dwelling place, not man’s! The Levites were the only ones allowed inside, and only for specific rituals of sacrifices and offerings. It wasn’t a bed and breakfast, and yet David is asking God if he can live there!

David never actually did live in the Tabernacle—he wanted to, but he never did. But Christian,

You BELONG in His DWELLING (v. 4a; cp. Hebrews 10:19-20)

in a way that David never did! The author of Hebrews tells us that

Hebrews 10:19–20 (ESV)

19 ...we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

The dwelling place of God is no longer separated from man by the thick curtain of the Temple—it was ripped open at the death of Christ (Matthew 27:51)! And now, not only do you belong in God’s presence, to dwell with Him forever, but He dwells in you!

1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV)

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

Christian, you have a refuge in God’s presence when you are fainthearted—you belong in His dwelling, and

You are COVERED by His MERCY (v. 4b)

When David says here “let me take refuge under the shelter of Your wings” (4b), we can be reminded of other verses where God’s protection is likened to a mother hen covering her chicks with her wings (Ps. 91:3; Luke 13:34). But remember that David is talking about the Tabernacle here—and what is the central feature of the Tabernacle? The Ark of the Covenant—and what was on the lid of the Ark? Two cherubim, who covered the Mercy Seat with their wings.

David is pleading with God, in the midst of his fainthearted struggles, that God would cover him with His mercy! His cry to God is a cry for mercy, that God would show compassion on David’s misery, that He would take pity on him and show kindness to him. Christian, when you are so fainthearted that you don’t feel like your prayers can make it any further than the ceiling; when you are “at the ends of the earth” in your weariness, you have a God of great mercy and compassion to call upon!

Charles Spurgeon once wrote, “God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water or deprive the sun of its light or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.” There is no sorrow or faintness of heart or weariness or discouragement or depression that can drain your God of His mercy! You have a sure and eternal refuge under His wings!

God is a sure and certain refuge for the fainthearted Christian—you will find refuge in His leading, you will find refuge in His presence, and you will

III. Find refuge in God’s PROMISES (vv. 6-8)

All of a sudden in verses 6-7 David seems to completely switch topics—he has been praying for refuge in God as his rock and fortress, praying to be sheltered under His mercy, and then all of a sudden he starts praying for the life of the King:

Psalm 61:6 (ESV)

6 Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations!

This seems like David has gone off-topic until you realize that David himself had been promised by God that the kingship of Israel would always remain in his line. God had said to David in 2 Samuel,

2 Samuel 7:12–13 (ESV)

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

And so what I think David is doing here in these verses is the same thing that he has been doing throughout the psalm—he is taking refuge in God’s promises--

He always KEEPS His WORD (vv. 6-7)

David says, “I have lost my way, I am at the ends of the earth, I am fainthearted and crying out to You, LORD—but you have promised that I will survive!” A while back Dad and I were watching a History Channel dramatization of the It may be a bit of a silly comparison, but David’s confidence that God will bring him through is kind of like watching a Marvel superhero origin story prequel—no matter how much peril the protagonist suffers, you know he will not die! He has already appeared in a movie that takes place after the one you’re watching, so you know that nothing can happen to him in this one!

David already had a promise from God that his throne would endure forever—he had a promise from God that He would pull David through—and so he rested in the fact that God always keeps His word!

Christian, when you are fainthearted and crying out for refuge in God, one of the sweetest and most potent things you can do is ask God to keep His promises! A prayer calling on God to keep His promises is a prayer that He will always answer!

When you are weary, pray Matthew 11:28

Matthew 11:28 (ESV)

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

When you are fainthearted, remind Him of His promise in John 7:37-38

John 7:37–38 (ESV)

37 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

When you are anxious, remind God of His promise in Philippians 4:6-7

Philippians 4:6–7 (ESV)

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

When you are overcome by guilt and shame over who you used to be before you came to saving faith in Christ, pray His promise in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When you are tempted to doubt God’s kindness to you, pray back to Him His promise in Matthew 7:11

Matthew 7:11 (ESV)

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

When you grow faint in your faith and worry that God’s promise to save you will fail, pray Numbers 23:19:

Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Take refuge in God’s promises, dear fainthearted Christian! He always keeps His word, and

He KEEPS you in His FAITHFULNESS (vv. 7-8)

What a beautiful turn of phrase David the poet ends verse 7 with!

Psalm 61:7 (ESV)

7 May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!

The word “steadfast love” is the Hebrew word chesed, referring to the covenant love of God that He shows to His children; the love that does not fail, the love that is not contingent on our faithfulness to Him, but on His faithfulness to us! It is not your grasp of Christ that saves you, but His grasp of you!

John 10:27–28 (ESV)

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Jesus Christ is the Faithful One; He is the One who has perfectly kept every last requirement of the righteousness of God, for He is God Himself. And when you are in Him by faith, all of that faithfulness is counted as yours!

Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Dear fainthearted Christian, can’t you see the great and precious refuge that you have in God this morning? He leads you into the refuge of Christ your Rock, He seats you on the Mercy Seat that has been sprinkled with His blood, He keeps you by His great and precious promises that can never be broken and will never let you fall from His grasp.

As this is Father’s Day, I cannot let this psalm pass without a word to the dads in our church family. And my word to you from this psalm is this: Be this refuge for your family! Be the Rock of refuge for your family as you hide yourself in the Rock of Christ. Be present in your family—not hiding behind a newspaper or a video screen, not burying yourself in work so that you have nothing left for your family—be the father that dwells with your kids so that they know that they have a place where they belong!

Be a merciful father, loving and compassionate towards your family with the compassion that you have received from Christ. Be the man who always keeps his promises—that your children will grow up with the comfort and security of a dad who does not let them down. As God your Father has been faithful to you, make it your aim to watch over your family with the same steadfast love and faithfulness. God calls you to be the refuge that your family needs in the howling wilderness of our ruined culture.

But for many of you this morning, your father was not a refuge—your father was someone you needed refuge from. One of the central wounds of our nation is fatherlessness: Fathers who were absent, fathers who abdicated, fathers who instilled fear instead of faithfulness and bitterness instead of compassion. And to you who bear the scars inflicted on you by faithless fathers, there is one more thing about this psalm that you need to know.

The best indications we have for this psalm is that David wrote it when he was on the run from his son Absalom. We read in 2 Samuel how David committed adultery with Bathsheba. Absalom—like so many sons after him—saw his father’s unfaithfulness and despised him for it, culminating with a coup against David that drove him out into the wilderness.

Psalm 61 was written by a father who had screwed up his family. This psalm was written by a man who had destroyed the lives of his children by his faithlessness, and who was mourning over the way he had been driven away. But even here, even the enormity of David’s sin was not enough to put him out of the reach of the mercy of God!

Beloved, God’s mercy is a refuge for every sinner. No matter how your dad screwed you up, no matter how badly you have screwed up your children, there is mercy and restoration for you under God’s wings! David says at the end of verse 5:

Psalm 61:5 (ESV)

5 ...you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

Mark it well: No one gets to choose the family you were born into. Some of you can look back at faithful fathers and grandfathers and see a rich heritage of God-fearing ancestors. That is a gift indeed—but it is a gift! It is the grace of God that gave you that godly heritage. And for you who grew up with a heritage of ungodly fear and fatherlessness and turmoil and insecurity and hopelessness—this heritage of godly fear is yours as well when you place your faith in Jesus Christ!

When you come in faith to Jesus Christ, then all of His faithfulness is counted to you! When you repent of your sin and turn to Him for salvation, He gives you His people to bless you with that heritage, to give you the refuge of having faithful brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers in His body, the Church!

And not only so, but in Jesus Christ you can break that cycle of fatherlessness! No matter what kind of brokenness you grew up in, you have the refuge of the mercy and faithfulness of Jesus Christ to be the father that you never had! Build your house on the Rock that is higher than you, and you can build a household that will be a refuge for generations to come—a heritage of godly fear for you and your family that is the gift of God to you through your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What are some of the struggles that you have faced that have worn you out and made you fainthearted in your faith? What does David’s song here say you must do?

David asks God, “Lead me to the rock that his higher than I” (Ps. 61:2). What does this say about your own ability to recover from faintheartedness in your own strength?

How does God’s faithfulness give us confidence to pray His promises back to Him? Read through these verses again and pray them when you cry out to God:

When you are faint hearted - John 7:37-38

When you are weary - Matthew 11:28

When you are anxious - Philippians 4:6-7

When you feel shame over your past - 2 Corinthians 5:17

When you doubt God’s kindness - Matthew 7:11

Read Psalm 61:5 again—how does this verse comfort you if you have a family history of brokenness? How does it encourage you for your own family?