No One

In Psalm 142:3b, David laments, "Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me, I have no refuge; no one cares for my life."  Interestingly, when David expressed this abandonment, he was taking refuge in a cave with about 600 followers.

But, in David's heart, he was alone and without refuge because the one he wanted to care for him, King Saul, did not.  And the place he desired to take refuge, Jerusalem, was not open to him as long as Saul was pursuing him.  David was cut off from the one person and one place for which he longed.

But he was not alone or without refuge as even David would attest, "I cry to you, Lord; I say, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living'" (Ps 142:5).

David's vulnerability and his ostracism was simply part and parcel of his human frailty that often focuses on what is absent rather than what is present.  This focus is precisely what dampens the spirit within even when there is cause to rejoice.  David's cry reflected his loss of Saul's support even while God himself watched over David.

Jesus put it this way, "The eye is the lamp of the body.  If your eyes are healthy, you whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are unhealthy, you whole body will be full of darkness" (Matt 6:22-23).  If you focus on the good, you will be encouraged, if you focus on the bad, you will be instead discouraged.

It was not "no one" who cared for David, it was God.  It was not "no refuge" David had available, God was his refuge.  David was just temporarily looking in the wrong direction, focusing on the temporal circumstance instead of the spiritual reality.

Here is the truth for you and me as followers of Jesus Christ, he "will never leave us as orphans" (Jn 14:18).  There is never a time when he does not care for us or leave us without help.  Jus' Say'n.