It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
✙ Ps. 118:8-9 ✙
John Owen said that it's "the most foolish thing in the world to put our trust and confidence in anything that does not have the nature of God. Nothing but the immense nature of God can offer refuge to a poor soul in all the distresses into which it may fall." Therefore, to make God our refuge can be described as wisdom. He goes on to point out that nobody "takes their immediate refreshment out of the ocean," but that the ocean is the source of all refreshing streams. In the same way, we don't usually draw on "the immensity of God's nature" for our immediate refuge, but if we take the time to trace the places we find refuge to their source, all the providence that we depend on and all the true refreshment that we draw from the world have God's nature as their source.
The danger here lies in not looking to the source. When we see military might or public policy or human charisma as ends unto themselves, then we are acting as fools, who, after all, say in their heart that there is no God, or who look to other gods to save them or to make them feel whole.
The Bible never says to eschew human leadership. But it always calls on us to see such leadership as a conduit of God's wisdom and might.
The danger here lies in not looking to the source. When we see military might or public policy or human charisma as ends unto themselves, then we are acting as fools, who, after all, say in their heart that there is no God, or who look to other gods to save them or to make them feel whole.
The Bible never says to eschew human leadership. But it always calls on us to see such leadership as a conduit of God's wisdom and might.
Thank you, O Holy One, that you are sufficient. Forgive me for looking to other mortals for salvation, when all strength lies in and derives from you. In the Name of your Son, who taught me to pray...
