In the Lord I Take Refuge: 31 Days in the PsalmsSample

This psalm upends our natural impulses of how to live a full and abundant life. The core message of this psalm is that true fullness of life comes not as we expect. It is found not in manipulating our circumstances, controlling those around us, or violently silencing those who threaten our ambitions but in quietly looking to God and letting him sort out our lives. “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (v. 7). There is a glorious inevitability to the final glory of God’s people as they look to him, trust in him, and delight in him (vv. 4–6). When the wicked, on the other hand, function out of self-trust and seek to build their lives on their own strength and reliance, the enduring significance becomes elusive (vv. 35–36). They vanish as quickly as plumes of smoke disappear from a roaring fire (v. 20).

“But the meek shall inherit the land” (v. 11). those who refuse to force their way into worldly control and power will, one day, inherit such rule. This deconstructs our motives and liberates our ambitions once again. We need not scramble for control. The way up is down. Jesus took this verse (v. 11) and reiterated it in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5).

And it is in the Lord Jesus himself that we see this counterintuitive truth fully embodied. Jesus, the glorious Son of God, was condemned and crucified. Yet through the horrors of this anguish, he was brought through death and out the other side into light and glory and splendor (Phil. 2:6–11). United to this Savior, we follow in his footsteps, knowing that the way to glory is through suffering (Rom. 8:18). We follow this pattern in the glad knowledge that the deepest possible suffering—condemnation and hell—landed on him instead of us.