Confidence in God’s Protection.
For the choir director; on a stringed instrument. A Psalm of David.
61 Hear my cry, O God;
Give heed to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For You have been a refuge for me,
A tower of strength [a]against the enemy.
4 Let me [b]dwell in Your tent forever;
Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. [c]Selah.5 For You have heard my vows, O God;
You have given me the inheritance of those who fear Your name.
6 You will [d]prolong the king’s [e]life;
His years will be as many generations.
7 He will [f]abide before God forever;
Appoint lovingkindness and truth that they may preserve him.
8 So I will sing praise to Your name forever,
That I may pay my vows day by day.
As this psalm begins, it seems pretty straightforward. God is our rock, our refuge, a tower of strength against our enemy. Then we have verse 4, “Let me dwell in Your tent forever…” We could get sidetracked by the fact that a tent isn’t very trustworthy shelter, but when I read this, it brings to mind a word picture of us just sitting in God’s tent forever and not moving. That seems a bit… odd, and it is.
Think of God’s “tent” in the Old Testament, it was specifically a tent (the tabernacle) because it was mobile. It was not built to stay in one place, nor was it permanent. The word “dwell” could have also been translated “sojourn” or a temporary stay, so that’s a bit weird to say, “Let me make a temporary stay in Your tent forever.”
But if we know that God doesn’t stay in one place, he isn’t complacent, or stationary, it begins to make more sense. And that reflects how God works in our lives. He doesn’t rescue us, and then just leave us there to sit in blissful ignorance the rest of our days. Rather, God is continually moving us, pushing us to bigger and higher places. He wants to develop character in us, and that doesn’t come from sitting still forever.
Yes, there are times to sit, to rest in Him. Yet we cannot stay in one place for our whole lives, or we would miss the move of God. We’d be left behind, no longer dwelling in God’s will, in God’s “tent”. The psalm wraps things up with something that I think connects it all together, “That I may pay my vows day by day.”
For David that meant serving God as he had promised, and for us it means the same. When we invite God into our lives, we are making a vow the serve Him the rest of our days. Anything less would be breaking our “vows”. So, indeed let us sojourn in the tent of the Lord forever, so that we can fulfill our promise(s) to Him. To follow where He leads, to have His heart in us, to serve and live the life to which He has called us. That’s a life worth singing praises about, a life preserved by God’s lovingkindness and truth.