Psalm 142

1 I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy.
2 I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.
3 When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me.
4 I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.
5 Then I pray to you, O Lord. I say, “You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.
6 Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
7 Bring me out of prison so I can thank you. The godly will crowd around me, for you are good to me.”

"Let me out of prison!"

Plato is famous for defining the body as a prison for the soul. Our real being...the spiritual being...can never truly be free as long as it is encumbered by the body.

Well, long before Plato, David penned much the same thought. After expressing his many travails in this psalm, David implies that life is a prison of sorts. As long as we live on this earth we are surrounded by trouble.

We Christians often take the same view and say "if I could just die and go to heaven..." But...David is not asking for an escape from this life. He is asking for a place of refuge. He says to God "You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life."

And in that place of refuge David finds peace. It is a place where We can "pour out all our complaints before God and tell Him all our troubles." It is also a place where God will "tell us the way to turn."

I imagine if we could find a place like that...we would be at perfect peace. Geritol once aired a commercial that claimed "if you have your health, you have just about everything." I suggest "if we have our peace, we have just about everything!"

Jesus said "seek me and I will be found." I don't know where that place of refuge is for you. I do know...if you get to the point where you can tell God "you are all I really want in life," you will find it. I have.

Live boldly out there today...