The City of Refuge

The city that David captured and made his capital was an excellent fortress, and David and his son, Solomon, did much to strengthen it. Nevertheless, Jerusalem was threatened numerous times by armies mighty enough to overcome it. It came away unscathed not because of its walls and other defenses but because God was in its midst. Jerusalem never stood or fell except at His command.

As we saw in yesterday’s study, the earthly Jerusalem was a type of the heavenly city of God. This idea seems to have been on David’s mind as he wrote Psalm 46. Here he speaks of God as the “refuge” of His people, a fortress for their protection. Safe in Him, believers had no need to fear, “even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.” The Psalms, of course, are poetry, and David here uses a poetic image—the sea—that appears often in Hebrew verse to denote chaos. The Israelites were never a sea-faring people; they saw the sea as the place from which came marauders (such as the Philistines) and violent storms. Here in Psalm 46, David depicts the sea in such violent upheaval that even the mountains of the land are shaken. But then he brings in another popular Hebrew image, that of the river. Because the Jordan River bisected Israel and supplied it with water, the river was a very positive image for the Israelites; it was their life source. And David speaks of a river that “shall make glad the city of God.” He is saying that God will keep His people safe from the chaos of life and provide all they need for life and peace.

The chief reason why the city of God is a city of refuge for God’s people is that God Himself is in the city. David says the city is “the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.” Also, he adds, “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.” When God constituted the people of Israel as a nation in the wilderness of Sinai, He directed them to camp around the tabernacle, the symbolic place of His presence. Later, the temple fulfilled the same role in Jerusalem. The symbolism points to a glorious reality—in the spiritual city of God, the invisible church, God is with His people as a refuge from all danger.