The Psychology of Measurement

This study has to do with the last in the series called The Psychology of Measurement and it deals with words that are translated in the English Bible as refuge. You can take your concordance to see what various Hebrew words are. As you take the compilation of those terms, bring them together, you find that there is some commonality. Of course, when you talk about a refuge, there is this aspect of place. However, I like the idea of a state of being. But a state of being doesn’t quite grasp it all either because when we describe the term “place” we are talking about something into which you go for a kind of solace. Maybe both of these terms should be used here. Refuge is a place, not just a set of ideas, but it is someplace to which we can run, to the Lord himself; and it is also a state of being. So when you are in a refuge, you are somewhat impervious to attack; or at least to some of the effects that are brought on by attacks. Of course, as we read throughout the book of Psalms, there are a lot of statements that are made here about being under the gun, being under attack. Therefore, it forced me to a conclusion that a refuge is a reality.

Now we can say that it is a rhetorical reality. But yet it is more than a rhetorical reality because this is supposed to be something with space/time effect. Therefore, it has to be a reality that is shaped by God. And that means that it is very different than a reality that would be brought into existence by the psychology of measurement, which says that we have to have our interest at heart. Here is what it takes to deal with the real world in which we find ourselves, so here is the way we are going to develop our version of refuge. This is a refuge that has been shaped by God. We really don’t have anything to do with that. As such, it provides us with a number of advantages.

So it is what we can refer to as a shaped reality. Now there were at least five things that came to the surface, when I looked at all the places where the concept of refuge is used—not just the word. We don’t just look at words. We look at concepts. We look at the way these perceptions are developed. There are at least five distinct categorizations where this kind of shaped reality is presented to us in a very attractive way so that we are encouraged in the midst of our difficulties here on this side of the great divide, on this side of the gulf—to go to this kind of shaped reality.

I hadn’t thought about that before. I had looked at the idea of refuge and I had spoken of it to myself in poetic terminology—that our Lord is a refuge, that God is refuge, that we have to run to the Lord for solace and for help and for succor. But I had never really looked at what he was talking about. It has to be in the final analysis understood at least in part as a shaped reality, that is a reality shaped by God for us on the temporal side in a very non-commutative way of movement.

The first of these categories is embedded in Psalm 61:1-4, especially vs. 3 and 4. Vs. 1 reads “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer.” So here he is in the midst of real space/time circumstances. He raises his voice to a source of help. He believes this.

Vs. 2: “From the ends of the earth I call to you.” This is a rather extreme probing of the unseen world. “I call as my heart grows faith;” so psychologically and perhaps physically, he is reaching what he thinks is going to be the end of his tether. “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” He is lost. A picture of a wasteland is described. He doesn’t know what to do or where to go. He has only one resource and that is God, the rock. So he asks out of the depths of his misery, his uncertainty and his perplexity to be led to the rock that is higher than him.

Vs. 3: “For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.” Now that is historical. He knows that there were circumstances in his life where God shaped a reality; and, therefore, as he stayed within the cusp of that shaped reality, within the rim of that shaped reality, then nothing could get to him. He was a strong tower against the foe. So the Lord reached out and put a reality around him, a shaped reality. God shaped space and time so that the enemy would not destroy David.

Vs. 4: “I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.” Coming back to the idea of the tabernacle in the desert, later the temple, this is an idea that is too delicious to ignore. What he is describing, among other things, is that this refuge is external to the subjective self. That is an important principle. We don’t just retreat into symbols. We don’t just retreat into ourselves, into our own psyche, or into the psyche of others. You know that often happens. We often reach out to others for help and what we want them to do is either to agree with us or to say what we want them to say; and in doing that somehow we think we will be assuaged. But that is a retreat into the subjective self or into the subjective selves as a collectivity—the minds of others.

Now he is describing here something that is very much external to the subjective self. He is trying to get out of his subjective self. He is looking for some solace that comes form the Lord, not from his own consciousness so we have to escape our own consciousness from that point of view. Well what would that be? It is the Lord and he is going to shape this reality for us. So reality as indicated here is something shows up on the space/time side of things. This is very different than a reality that would be created or forged on the amble of the psychology of measurement. Because that has to be a uniquely subjective thing. Anything that I produce is produced by my psyche. It is a product of the central system. So inherently what we are talking about there is something absolutely subjective.

Now when we think about how to find succor, how to find health, how to find solace and protection, one of the things that this brings to the surface for us, one of the things that this generalizes is that we have to go outside of ourselves and we have to go outside of the collectivity of selves. So it is not just running to the brethren although that is indicated, and we encourage one another. But each one of us brings these realities to the Lord; and we are asking him to serve as that refuge, to lead us to the rock that is higher than us. Let me stand upon the rock. This is a rock that is impervious. Well as a rock, it is certainly a reality that is separate form our own consciousness. And if we don’t remember that, then I am afraid we have no way of really and ultimately learning to depend upon God.

If we think about all the great pragmatic examples of faith, that is what they did. They ran to this refuge that was external to the subjective self. So that when somebody prays, this is not just a word game, and it is not just a coping procedure as is often believed by our friends in the medical world or in the therapeutic community. This is running to something from outside of the self that we believe exists in the heavens and that has created something for us called a refuge on the temporal side. So it has to be understood primarily as a shaped reality. Therefore, since it exists we are called “free entrance come and find solace here.” Part of that is going to involve the experiential side of things because only once we are inside the refuge, do we have a readily available understanding of our circumstances.

The second of these categories is found in Psalm 57:1-2: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you’re my soul takes refuge.” This is going to affect the way he thinks, the way he feels. This is going to affect the totality of the man. His soul is taking refuge. “I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” That is a very strong word. Great and compelling events are swirling around the individual in question. “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.” He is one who will complete his promises.

Now in Psalm 59:16-17: “But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.” Now notice the persistence of trouble. It never goes away for the Christian; it never goes away for the believer. He is always up against something or another. There is always some kind of wall of resistance. We know from 1 Peter that these things occur in our lives to help us develop faith. “O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.” We have something here that can be described as a reality that out dimensions all circumstances. Why would he rise up in the morning with his heart full of love when he is under such stress? Why is it that he is not depressed? Why isn’t he anxious? Why isn’t he overloaded? It is because there is something that he has to deal with the situation—this refuge, this shaped reality that has out-dimensioned all of his circumstances. That is why he says “you” are my strength. He is not depending upon his own personal strength, nor does he depend upon things running well within the space/time context. He is not concerned about that at all apparently because he has this refuge. Now wouldn’t it be true, and something that is corollary to this, that Christians as they grow in faith ultimately come to outgrow their circumstances.

In the book of 1 Peter, when these brethren are under persecution, and he says your faith is going to be refined, it is going to grow. Ultimately that faith has got to outgrow and to outstrip and out dimension the circumstances in which those Christians would have found themselves. So it is with us. What is the great focus of human life? It is to out-dimension circumstance. Well it is certainly true that if we look at Jesus, when he comes onto the scene, he operates on the basis of what the Spirit of God has told him to do. He operates in close unison with the eternal father. He is going to follow through and he follows through on the basis of faith. So the faith in the man Jesus, far outstripped his circumstances. It was something that out-dimensioned the world that surrounded him.

Paul in the 2^nd Corinthian letter would talk about the fact that they are often overwhelmed, but they are never destroyed. They may be beaten down, but they are never going to be knocked out of the box totally. Well why is that the case? It is the case because the nature of faith and the nature of the Spirit, as it is enhanced by God and as it is taken over and fueled by him, is going to be allowed to out dimension circumstances. That would be a corollary to the idea that this refuge, which is a reality as far as we are concerned, would have to out dimension all circumstances. So where is the first place we would run to when we find ourselves in such times of trouble? Well we run to the reality. We don’t run to a myth. It has to be real to us. We have to know that it is there. Well we know that it’s there. How? Because of revelation that says that it’s there. So when you have pain, distress, or a difficult what do you do? Run to something that has out-dimensioned all of the circumstances. Well we know that the psychology of measurement will never be able to out dimension its circumstance. Because the psychology of measurement is embedded deeply within the context of our experience so it will never rise above the circumstance.

That is one of the great things that I have against the therapeutic community—the idea of measuring. First of all if you are going to create an instrument to measure something you have to decide that what you are going to measure can in fact be measured. You can’t measure what they pretend to measure. What we are looking for is something that is outside of the circumstance. The psychology of measurement never does. When you have pain, you say “ooh, this hurts really bad and it’s getting worse.” Well what do we do in these stressful times? Reach out for something that exists that is real and that is inherently beyond the circumstance and inherently out dimensions the circumstance. That is what Christians are supposed to come.

Of course, the faith of Joshua and Caleb during the awful experience at Kadesh Barnea out-dimensioned the circumstance. They were along with the rest of the spies. They saw the fortifications up to the sky, they saw all the realities that the rest of the ten spies saw; but their faith out-dimensioned their circumstance. The refuge that they saw in God out-dimensioned all of this. They were going to fight from within the framework of that refuge.

The temple is indicated as a place of refuge. The tabernacle is a place of refuge. This is the source of our protection. So the outside world might say that we are operating on irrationality and that we don’t know what we are talking about and are clinging to daydreams. But that is not how it is depicted in the text. This is a reality that exists for those who wish to operate on the basis of faith.

The third of these categories is found in Psalm 5:11 “But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.” This shows a deep affinity between the refuge that is God himself and the reality that he has extended because he is present in our circumstances. In Psalm 7:1-2: “O Lord my God, I take refuge in you; save and deliver me from all who pursue me (now here is a sociological problem, but it is also going to involve biology because if they get him, they are going to kill him) or they will tear me like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.” To generalize, I believe that we are talking here about a space/time effect. I am quick to draw a distinction between a space/time effect and something that is merely spiritualized. It is more than that.

There is supposed to be what I refer to here as a demonstrable differentiation between something that is spiritualized and something that is a space/time effect, or between the need that we have and what God is able to afford us. In other places and I mention those just tangentially down at the bottom of the third category, is that we are blessed. And that must be what it means to be blessed by God—to have a demonstrable deference projected over us. Because the psychology of measurement operates on the sensorium, it will never be able to detect these kinds of differentiations. It doesn’t know what it is looking at. This is a space/time effect. Therefore, we have to look at it as a space/time effect and operate on that basis and never doubt it. Well we know the cost of doubting.

I don’t think we know a whole lot about running to refuges, and what that means, or even how to do it. I suppose in times of great stress, great crises, great difficulty, it is much easier to run to something that you can see, something that you can touch. Now I have done that. I am not very proud of the fact, but we do that. We don’t stay within the confines of something that we are told is a space/time effect. Now if it is not a space/time effect, then what is it? This is something that God projects from eternity across the gulf into the temporal world, and creates a situation that is to our benefit, that acts as a kind of protection. We know that it is there and to assume the risk. You go into battle with an assumption as they would have had to if they would have taken God’s command directly in the book of Numbers 13 & 14, and as it is reiterated in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 1. To go into the land and dispossess the Amorites, they would have had to know that every Israelite is encased in this shaped reality. That is why he could put to flight 10,000. That is either true or it’s a lie. It is either a space/time effect or it is just something that we conjure up to sort of help us to get through psychology. I don’t think that we are talking about a psychological effect that is created by the human psyche. It is a space/time effect.

The fourth category is found in Psalm 18:1-3: “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer (now that is point specific); my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.” Now that is an action on the part of the believer. “He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called the Lord who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.” So this individual knows the truth of holding on to that refuge. Psalm 31:1-3: “In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.” That is very much in concert with the other statements that the writers make in the Psalms about shame. Look at the number of cases where he says “O Lord don’t let me be put to shame.” Now what he means by that is I have decided to take up living on the basis of you, the rock. Everything I say is related to your reality and to this truth that you have projected. Everything that we do is based on the assumption that these things are true. Now as I go out before my enemies and as I live on this basis, please don’t let me be put to shame. Vindicate your word. It is important. “Turn your ear to me. Come quickly to my rescue. Be my rock of refuge.”

Now from a human point of view, the Lord never shows up quick enough for us. We always want it instantaneously. The first time you feel pain, you want relief. The first time you get in trouble, you want relief. We are not prepared to wait. We want God to drop everything else and run to our case. “Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.” Among other things he is describing what I generalize here as a mediated reality. This is something that man is not capable of creating. Our hands are not occupied with creating this kind of refuge. It is mediated. Somehow there are forces involved with setting up this rockness of God. He is a fortress. We have to see him as a fortress. If he is a fortress, you would stand psychologically much better off. For example, just to give this a sort of tangible real-world, palpable feel to it, if some enemy is coming up to you and you are standing behind walls that are 50 by 60 feet, and all the armaments in the world, and your enemy basically looks disarmed, you would feel pretty confident in that situation. Well here is the fortress within which we stand. So it is going to affect us from that point of view. There would be great confidence. And when we have confidence, it is because we believe the words that the Lord has stated.

Why were the Psalms written? They were written to convey to us a reality about the world in which we live—that this is a mediated state. Well in every circumstance, whether it is in the biological realm, or economic realm, or the sociological reality with which we have to deal, we know and we are confirmed that there is and can be a mediated reality. That is why we say “Lord help us; help us deal with this. Give us wisdom so that we know what to do. We stand within this framework. Don’t let us be put to shame. You are the rock, you are the refuge. We have come to you. You are the shield. If you remove the shield, we are defenseless. If you are not the horn of salvation, we will die at the altar. You are the stronghold.” So we call to the Lord. Why? Because he is worthy of this kind of praise. He says that when we do this, we are saved from our enemies. This is a mediated reality. Anyone who wants to operate in this world without that kind of mediated reality from the Lord’s point of view would certainly be severely disarmed physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

The psychology of measurement will, of course, urge us to take another kind of direction almost exclusively—to find some other mediated course; for instance, therapy, where others would get involved and bring their wisdom to bear. But the subtle effect of that is that suddenly God is no longer the refuge. You know how easy it is to take refuge in money. If you have a lot of it, and the supply of forthcoming funds is pretty predictable, you feel much better than when you are living from hand to mouth. Subtly, the refuge shifts away from God onto what we can see. It happens biologically and in every sphere of life. That is because we shift away from understanding the world rhetorically; and we are wafting back and trying to make sense of it on the basis of a unity that exists between our central nervous system and the external world—a fact that is very obvious to us, and a reality that is forbidden by the revelation.

So it is up to us to decide what kind of reality we want. We are asking the Lord to mediate this for us because he is the rock, the horn of salvation. He is the refuge, if he doesn’t do it, we will starve or die. We need to stick with this until we drop if that is the case. What other choice do we have? We are not interested in some kind of other man-made mediated reality. This would suggest of the concept that we have talked about under the quantum categorization of a kind of self-structuring human race: that man is a bundle of potentialities and that he ought to be freed to achieve all of these potentialities. Sounds good to the human psyche, makes sense to some people who operate form the worldly point of view; but the problem, of course, with that is that it just isn’t biblical. We want the Lord to mediate reality—every aspect of it, and to do so well in advance. He is the refuge.

I get the impression here that we are constantly appealing to this refuge. He is the one that stands up for his people. So when the Amorite nations defied God, when the Egyptian Empire defied God, they had no chance of survival at that point. Now notice, earlier in their history, especially the history of the Egyptian Empire, it was God who saved them from absolute disaster. He had the forethought to wrench Joseph away from his family and to send him down into Egypt and gave him the wisdom in order to guide the Egyptian population through this terrible ordeal of 7 years of famine–an onslaught that would have destroyed any human-based empire. But he kept these people alive, because he had a purpose for them. Later, they decide to act treasonously with the Lord and then he decided to remove the refuge from them and so they fell, and they died by the hundreds or thousands in the Red Sea as they come up against this rock, this refuge.

Now in our lives as Christians, one of the remarkable aspects that we have to remember here is that this is a privilege to be in this refuge. We don’t just walk in there and take up residence because we feel the need to. It is because we are invited, and because he will allow us within the framework of this refuge. We don’t want to find ourselves in a position of being on the outside of the walls attacking the refuge, because there is no hope of victory there. Yet man has consistently stood outside of the refuge and denied God and his reality and they have bashed themselves against the rocks and they died. In the short term, they think they make gains; but ultimately, everybody has to stand before this rock, this refuge. They will have to be judged. This is a mediated reality. The reality that surrounds us is mediated. We have to believe that. God is acting around the world to bring men to account for their sins. He is uplifting others. He is bringing some down as he brings others up. We know that from other places in the prophets in the Old Testament. The world we live in is mediated. Nothing happens here without the Lord knowing about it. He said birds don’t drop dead, and hairs don’t fall out of your head unless the Lord knows that. So this is a world that is mediated by the presence of the reality of God. The world has to act on that basis.

Now, finally, in Psalm 118:1-9 we find a remarkable set of statements made here about the nature of the Lord. He says, “I give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever. Let Israel say: ‘His love endures forever.’ Let the house of Aaron say: ‘His love endures forever.’ Let those who fear the Lord say: ‘His love endures forever.’ In my anguish I cried to the Lord and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me, I’ll not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” Those last two verses, of course, refer to everything that you can see. Anthroposphere means everything thought by man (whatever that is). In general, we are surrounded by what men think, what they think is wise, what they think is best, what they think makes sense, what they think is rational. The psalmist here says that when we operate on this refuge, on this God-shaped reality, it is a literal advance and an absolute advance over the anthroposphere. Now that becomes a question of faith that has to be decided by every believer. Until we Christians take these statements made in these books of revelation, these symbols, and we are ready to say that everything we read here is a literal advance and an absolute advance over anything we have ever read down here, over anything we have ever heard down here from anybody within the human context, how can we pursue faith? That becomes a key question. Everybody thinks they have a better way. Eventually someone comes up with a “new” way (at least they think it is new, may be new to them), but it is probably an old way because human ideas just get recycled and regurgitated, whether it is the building of empires or the operation of economic empires or the living of an individual life. The psalmist stands in a unique position even though he is anguished. What are the advantages? He feels the love of God and he knows this is enduring. He knows that God is there and he is never going to be abandoned. He knows he has the privilege to cry to the Lord and to ask for help. He says the Lord will set him free. He believes this. He has the way out. He knows that the Lord is with him; and if the Lord is with him, he says, “I will not be afraid.”