The Humble Shelter

Ps 9.9-10 (ESV): 9  The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10  And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Amazing that You, Lord, whom we have all rejected, set Yourself up as "a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." If I were in Your position, I would have respond in kind for what had been done to me; I would have done unto others. I would have paid back according to what I had been given—because that's fair, isn't it? For the rejecter: rejection. For the reviler: revulsion. For the rebellious: I'd turn my head, plug my ears and say, "I can't hear anything, I can't hear anything."

But You, who have every reason and all the power to kill me where I stand, not only don't do that; You say, "Come." You set Yourself up as a stronghold, a place of refuge when I need You. You make Yourself a lighthouse, a stone fort, a storm cellar. And You look at me and say, "Yes, even you—you who have spit on me and rejected me and rebelled against me—seek me. I am your lighthouse. I am your storm cellar. I won't forsake anyone who seeks me." (And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Didn't You, Jesus, die in order to make that possible? Weren't You mutilated for this reviler?)

That kind of incomprehensible, humble love pushes me to put my trust in You—as David said, "Those who know your name put their trust in you, FOR you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you."

Who could be more trustworthy than someone so kind as this? Whom would anyone want to love more than this? Who would be crazy enough to put more value in anything else than in You, the ultimately valuable? 

The answer is me. I don't trust You, I don't love You, I put more value in a million other things than I put in You. And so, like David the murderer, I ask You to incline my heart to Your testimonies (Ps. 119.36); like Moses (also a murderer), I ask You to show me Your glory (Ex. 33.18), so that I might see with clearer eyes exactly what You've done for me, and so be prompted to seek You...and be rewarded (Heb. 11.6).