The Blessed Refuge

Psalm 2:12

“Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”

In mid-June, I returned from a trip to Israel with a group of students. One of the topics we discussed while at the traditional site of the Sermon on the Mount was the meaning of “blessed” in the beatitudes (Matt 5:2-12). Drawing on the scholarship of Jonathan Pennington, I taught the students that the meaning of blessedness has more to do with flourishing than it does with what we might call “happiness.” Life may throw many challenges at us, but we can still be “blessed” (flourish) by displaying the characteristics of the beatitudes (poor in spirit, meekness, hunger for righteousness, merciful, etc.). The Holy Spirit fuels a deep, inner peace within us, giving us incredible comfort during life’s difficulties.

A couple of other passages that we discussed on the Mount of Beatitudes were Psalm 1:1–2 and 2:12—”Blessed is the man who … his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” and “Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (ESV). The idea that I gave the students is that the prescription for blessed flourishing is (1) delighting in God’s instructions and (2) taking refuge in the Lord’s Messiah (Psa 2:2), who is the King (Psa 2:6) and the divine Son (Psa 2:7, 12). I think that most of us can wrap our minds around the spiritual flourishing that comes from delighting in God’s instructions through His Word, but what about “taking refuge” in the Messiah? What exactly is that, and how does it lead to blessed flourishing? How can we access the ‘blessed refuge’ found in Jesus Christ, and what does it actually look like?

If we consider the word “refuge,” most of us will think immediately about a cover, protection, or hiding place. Merriam-Webster defines “refuge” as a “shelter or protection from danger or distress.” [1] In the Old Testament, the Word is primarily used to refer to the Lord as a place of protection. He is a “rock” (Deut 32:37), a “shield” (Psa 144:2; Prov 30:5), and is even depicted as a mother bird stretching her wings over her chicks to protect and comfort them (Psa 57:1; 61:4). [2] The Lord is a rock and fortress when life gets shaky (Psa 46:1–3). He is a shield of defense when enemies hurl their flaming arrows at us (Eph 6:16). He is a gentle protection for those who seek refuge in the shadow of his wings (Psa 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7). What we find then is that our ultimate place of protection, our ultimate refuge, is not in a place, but in a person, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In Psalm 2, the overall context refers to the Lord (the Father) placing his Anointed King (the Son) on the throne as the one who conquers the nations that rage against him. And then, at the very end of the psalm, we get the statement, “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” Another, more expansive, way to say this is, “Flourishing are all who find their rock-solid protection in the divine Son.” But now, we may ask, “Protection from what?”

For the psalmists, the idea would have surely meant protection from literal enemies. The historical background to Psalm 46 is often understood to be the invasion of Sennacherib in 701 BC (2 Kings 18–20; Isaiah 36–39). Psalm 61:4 indicates that the Lord has  been David’s “refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.“ Psalm 62:8–9 refer to God as a refuge against those who “batter“ David (Psa 62:3) and “take pleasure in falsehood“ (Ps 62:4). In Psalm 91:2, the Lord is a refuge because “he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from deadly pestilence“ (Psa 91:3). Finally, the superscription to Psalm 142 tells us it is a psalm of David “when he was in the cave,“ likely a cave of En Gedi when he fled from Saul (cf. 1 Sam 24). While we face literal enemies today, there is also a bigger application of this concept of the Lord as our refuge, a spiritual one.

If we consider that our biggest enemy is a spiritual enemy, then how do we find refuge in Jesus against that enemy? First, Jesus has saved us from sin and death. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin are death. Our sin deserves death, and yet when Jesus took our sin upon himself and then conquered death through his resurrection, we can now sing with Hosea, “Oh Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?“ (Hos 13:14; cf. 1 Cor 15:55). Against the spiritual enemy of eternal death, Jesus is our only refuge. He is our only hiding place. He is our only source of protection against the consequences of our sin. As we continue our fight against sin in our lives, we have great confidence that Jesus has already won. We are “more than conquerors“ against our sin if we hide in Jesus as our refuge (Rom 8:37). Will our sin sometimes raise its ugly head against us? Will we sometimes take two steps forward and one step back? Yes. But with Jesus as our refuge, we can look sin in the eyes and live with great confidence that eternal death will not be our outcome. Taking refuge in Christ gives us a blessed hope that Jesus will see us through to our promised eternal inheritance.

A second way that we find refuge in Jesus is as we endure the calamity of living in a fallen world. The world we live in bombards us daily with the results of the fall, such that it is often difficult to find joy and delight in this world. For those who find refuge in Jesus, it can be difficult to sense the intended flourishing. Apart from personal sin, which we have just discussed, there will be times when the fallen world rages against us. Sickness, calamity, natural disasters, and other similar events are all part of living in a fallen world. Even in these circumstances, Jesus is our rock and refuge. What do we do when a devastating diagnosis comes our way? What do we do when the floods of life’s difficulties billow over us? Jesus remains our hiding place in these moments because He has promised to make all things new (Rev 21:5).

Jesus is not our hiding place in the sense that we have physical shelter. Certainly, Jesus protects us physically, but most of us will benefit more from considering how Jesus is our spiritual refuge. When we know with certainty that God has forgiven our sins, defeated our greatest enemy—death—and secured us in His love through Christ Jesus, nothing in this fallen world can can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39), there is a deep satisfaction that comes our way. Our anxieties flee when we take refuge in Jesus. Our depression may subside when we see Jesus as our greatest treasure. Yes, the evil one will continue to hurl flaming darts at us, but when we know that Jesus is our refuge, the blessed flourishing that he promises becomes a reality in our lives. We can breathe a spiritual sigh of relief when we take refuge in Jesus. He is our blessed refuge, the one to whom we can turn so that we flourish spiritually.

[1] Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refuge, accessed June 14, 2025.

[2] Andrew Hill, חָסָה, in Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 2:219.

-Dr. Adam Howell

Adam teaches Hebrew and Old Testament at Boyce College and is the primary teacher for the NAOBC College group. He is married to Liz and has four children: Noah, Tovah, Judah, and Norah.