In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. – Psalm 71:1-3 (NRSV
What images come to your mind when you think of the word “refuge?” The image that generally pops into my head is a solitary place, like a retreat cabin in the woods or a wildlife refuge. It is a safe place, because it is cut off from dangers. This is not a thought out reflection on my part, it is just the immediate reaction that I have to the word. On the other hand, hearing the closely related words “refugee camp” brings up a very different image. Rather than an idyllic and solitary camping retreat, the words bring to my mind overcrowded and unsafe conditions by people who feel unwanted elsewhere. Again, these are my immediate reactions and connotations that come to my mind when I hear these words, not studied considerations of dictionary definitions. These two words/phrases that are linguistically so close together provoke starkly contrasting mental images for me.
I mention these mental images because it struck me today how often God is referred to as a refuge, particularly in the Psalms. In the NRSV translation of the bible, the word “refuge” appears in the Psalms 48 times. Nearly all of these are speaking of God as a refuge or asking God to be a refuge. It is a significant theme of the Psalms. This makes me wonder about the images we have of refuges. Do we see them as personal places or communal ones? Safe places or places of danger? A place of welcome or a place of dislocation? Certainly the intention of the Psalms is to convey that in God there is safety and a place of protection and care. Yet I wonder how people who do not read the Psalms regularly hear this theme. Does it come across as comforting to hear God referred to as a refuge, or is it confusing?
So many words used within the church take on different meanings when used outside of church circles. It is important to constantly ask ourselves not only what we mean by the religious words that we use, but also how those words are heard and understood by others who are not steeped in the language of the church. For that matter, even within the church we can lose sense of what the words we use mean. What do we really mean when we ask God, and by extension the church, to be a place of shelter, of protection, and of safety? What does that look like for you, and is that image in your head one shaped by scripture, by news of the world, or a bit of each? We need to recognize our immediate reactions to these words before we can consider whether those images are helpful interpretations of scripture or not, so that we can begin to sort out what God is saying to us today.