“Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you. I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides you.’” (Psalm 16:1-2 CSB)
Devotional
Some days nothing is technically wrong and I still feel like the ground could give way at any moment.
David opens this psalm from that exact place. He does not tell us what the danger was, only that he needed protecting, and the first thing out of his mouth is not a plan or a strategy. It is a plea. Protect me, God, because I have already run to you for cover. That order matters. He does not work out his own safety first and then thank God afterward. He takes refuge first, before he knows how things will turn out.
I find that both comforting and a little convicting. My instinct in an uncertain season is usually to manage it, to think my way to safety, to keep circling the problem until I feel in control again. David skips that step. He goes straight to the one place that is actually stable, and he stays there before he has any resolution.
Then he says something even more striking. I have nothing good besides you. Not “you are my favourite good thing” among many, but nothing good apart from you at all. That is not David denying the real gifts in his life, his family, his kingdom, his gifts as a musician and a leader. It is David naming what all of those gifts rest on. Every good thing he has is on loan from the one good thing that cannot be taken from him.
When the ground under your feet feels unsteady this week, whatever that ground happens to be, this psalm is not asking you to pretend it is solid. It is inviting you to run to the one place that actually is.
Reflection
I notice how quickly I try to steady myself before I run to God, as if he is the last resort instead of the first refuge. I want to change the order this week. When something rattles me, I want my first move to be toward him, not toward my own plans for fixing it.
Prayer
Father, you are our refuge before we have any idea how things will turn out. Thank you for being the one steady place when everything else feels like it could shift under us. Teach us to run to you first, not after we have exhausted every other option. Remind us that every good thing in our lives rests on you.