Reality is tough. This old world filled with pain and sorrow and sin can get to us at times. God’s will for us is to live in the world while avoiding as much corruption as possible. But this proves unattainable in our own power, and even difficult at times with the power of the Holy Spirit. Because of this difficult life, Christians and non-Christians alike too often seek to escape reality rather than endure it. Where do you run when the pressure of life squeezes you out of your comfort?
We all have some form of escapism. My escape used to be in sports. I could get away for a while and play a game of basketball taking a break from reality. However, the reality of getting older has caused me to change my form of escape into something that my body can stand. Reading a good book is one thing I like to do to escape. Maybe the highest form of escapism for this soon to be 50 year old is a trip to Dunbar WV to eat at the Thai House. Very few things I enjoy more than a dish of Gang Dang beef.
Entire industries have been built for giving people a form of escape from daily life. This list includes fiction literature, music, sports, films, television, role playing games, porn, drugs, the internet and computer games. Many of these activities that are normal parts of a healthy existence (e.g., eating, exercise, sexual activity) can also become escapism when taken to the extreme.
Augustine of Hippo claimed that people try to find satisfaction in material things to fill a void within them that only God can fill. I would have to agree with Augustine on this.
The Psalmist tells of how he escapes the world in Psalm 61
1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
The words “hear my cry” could be a cry of joy or despair. I feel the context demands this to be a cry of despair. The depth of David’s despair is shown as the crying that is once again mentioned in verse two. This time another word is added to give even a bigger picture of the situation. Life has become “overwhelming” to David the writer.
From the “ends of the earth” suggest David is away from home. This very well could be the time when David was driven from his home and his throne as king by his son Absalom and was in exile beyond the Jordan.
Have you had times like this? The overwhelming pressures of life makes you want to quit or just run away? I have been there more than once. Recently I had to make a very difficult decision. A pastor friend was involved in activities that were not becoming of a pastor. I was forced to ask my friend to resign from his pastorate. Many people were upset because of this decision I asked of him. They were upset, because they didn’t understand why I had to do this. I was not able to share that which led me to this decision with the other folks because of honor to my friend. This of course left people wondering what was so bad. I was pressured by a number of people to reveal what I knew. But I could not nor would not. This led to long nights of little sleep and it paid a heavy toll on my family.
3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
Notice David asked for the “rock that is higher then I” in verse 2. God often takes us down to very low points. So low that we become overwhelmed and cannot see a way out. God removes all crutches in order that we place all of our trust in Him.
When I made that difficult decision and could not share details, in turn people started attacking me and my family, saying baseless things about our salvation. I needed God to rest on during this time. God was my strong tower and in Him did I trust. God and God alone is where one finds real escape and shelter from this world.
4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
This verse is the gem of the Psalm. Many have cut the truth short in this Psalm. They have limited the wings to a visual of a mother hen protecting her chicks under her wings. While this is a good picture I think there is a deeper meaning here.
Notice the verse starts with David abiding in the tabernacle. This leads me to believe the wings talked about in this passage are the mercy seat. The mercy seat was found in the tabernacle inside the Holy of Holies. It was the slab of gold on top of the ark of the covenant and part of it was the two golden cherubim facing each other whose outstretched wings came together above and constituted the throne of God. It is under their shelter and upon the mercy seat David would abide. This is a great picture indeed. But we need to look a little more at this word “mercy seat”.
In Lev. 16 we are told of the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat.
The mercy seat did not derive its worth from the purity of it’s gold but from the fact that it was the place where the sacrificial blood was sprinkled in the presence of Yahweh.
The word for "mercy seat" is the same root for the word "atonement." It means to cover, cancel, appease, or cleanse.
The word "seat" speaks of a resting place so the mercy seat was the "place of mercy or propitiation."Paul says in Romans..
Rom. 3:23-26 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
The Greek work “hilasterion” is used here in Romans 3:25 where Paul says (literally) that God presented Christ as a propitiation or “mercy seat.” This means that Jesus Christ is the mercy seat.Now, this is where it gets good.
Ex. 25:21-22
"You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. "And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Notice this phrase, “and THERE I will meet with you”. "There" is the mercy seat.
The mercy seat is where sinful man meets Gods forgiveness. Salvation is in the blood of the atonement. The blood of the atonement found at the cross was not a picture as was the lamb in the Old Testament. Our Lamb, the Lamb of God, was placed on the Cross and His death was the final atonement and the only atonement with the power to wash away sins forever. No other atonement will work. No other blood is needed. It is finished! The washing away is done.
It is in this truth found at the cross that David rested. No matter what David faced in life, his hope was not found in what his friends and family said about him, but what God had done for him. This message is repeated many times in the New Testament.
1 Pet 1:18-19 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Heb 9:11-12 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Heb 9:28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
The sins were atoned for at the cross. This is God’s holy love. This is the atonement. God said, "there I will meet you," at the mercy seat. This is the only place to place your trust and fully escape this sinful world. This is where David went and met Christ. Have you met Him there?
The great songwriter Isaac Watts wrote this hymn about Psalm 61:
When, overwhelm'd with grief,
My heart within me dies,
Helpless, and far from all relief,
To heav'n I lift mine eyes.
O lead me to the rock
That's high above my head,
And make the covert of thy wings
My shelter and my shade.
Within thy presence, Lord,
For ever I'll abide;
Thou art the tower of my defence,
The refuge where I hide.
Thou givest me the lot
Of those that fear thy name;
If endless life be their reward,
I shall possess the same. issim quam. Suspendisse nec purus vel velit ultricies bibendum.