Today’s Bible reading from the Five Day Bible Reading Plan: Genesis 30-31, Psalm 11, Mark 12

All of us have places that serve as retreats, especially when times become difficult. I remember that my refuge was shooting basketball. Yes, I would listen to music to make myself feel better or hang out with a buddy of mine up the road. My mom would tell you that she could tell the type of day I had by the amount of time I would shoot ball. Well, modesty forbids usually, but my kids will tell you that I can shoot ball well—but sadly that came from really difficult days at school. We all have a refuge.

David had a refuge—and his refuge was not in his kingdom or in his reputation nor in his musical skill nor in his toughness as a shepherd and as the one who struck down the nine-foot-plus giant Goliath. The Lord was his refuge. Yet, was this doing him any good?

This Psalm is centered around a question found in verse 3: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Here me out: every generation has a narrative, a script that the press or educators or politicians or Hollywood are trying to get us to believe and speak. They have their worldviews, their ideologies, their foundations. In this passage, the word foundation is that of social order. And so the culture, the “world” to use biblical language, struggles with the design and foundation God has laid, so they begin to craft a narrative, a script to which everyone bows the knee. That’s the salvation, that’s the refuge—and anyone who does not subscribe to this will receive blow after blow on social media and the like.

For we as believers, we have a foundation: Christ, our True Foundation; God the Son, who showed us by the Spirit God’s design for the world. Through Him, we can understand the script, the redemptive narrative. We know that the “world,” the culture will do all they can to undermine the foundations. May we as the Church of Jesus Christ continue to reinforce and build on them for this generation and the one to come.