We do not know when headings were added to the psalms. We do not know who added them. Many of the headings may contain a guess about authorship or circumstances that was made many years after the writing. Yet often these headings contain worthwhile food for thought. This psalm carries the heading “A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.”
When David was hiding in the cave, it was a very difficult situation. He was threatened by an enemy who was treating him very unjustly. On two occasions, it was within David’s power to do this enemy harm. But David was restrained from a counterattack by the realization that his personal vindication was not the highest good and was not in the best interest of God’s glory (1 Sam 24 & 26).
There are times when a preacher, a missionary, or an ordinary Christian must choose between his own vindication and what is best for the Lord’s work. The reaction most likely to protect our reputation might harm the Lord’s work. What should we do in such a case?
We must take refuge in God and set his glory above our convenience.
Refuge in God
To take refuge in God Most High means to trust in him to vindicate us, rather than to trust in our own skill. That is the reaction of David when Saul persecuted him. That is the reaction modelled in this psalm. “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (1).
His glory
This psalm does not stop at calling on God for protection. Most of its verses are seeking to glorify God. The psalmist does not see his life as the endless pursuit of happiness, but as the pursuit of God’s glory.
We have lost our sense of purpose. Christianity has become, in many minds, just a cosmic form of consumerism, a spiritual justification for selfishness. But look at what is said here about our purpose. 2“I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me. ….5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! …. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” The goal is God’s glory, not just the deliverance of the supplicant.
We need to recover our biblical sense of purpose (Isa 43:21; Mt 5:16; Phil 1:9-11; 1 Peter 2:9; 4:10-11). Our purpose is not “to live happily ever after.” Our purpose is to make the Lord known and to honour him in everything.
It is not wrong to seek our own salvation, but to find the real lasting value of Christian faith we must move well beyond such a self-focused faith. We must take refuge in God, not only because that is safe for us, but because it is right. It fulfils our purpose. It exalts God as God. We should be satisfied that his purposes are being fulfilled, and to feel that by glorifying him we are finding satisfaction in our true purpose.