July 24, 2017
Central Truth
The words rescued, delivered, and saved are used interchangeably to express our need for intercession from One great enough to help us. The plea of the psalmist is not unlike our need today. Our pressing need may not be for deliverance from the Amorites, but for deliverance from our sin and destructive choices.
Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.
(Psalm 119:153)
153
Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.
154
Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise!
155
Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.
156
Great is your mercy, O LORD;
give me life according to your rules.
157
Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
158
I look at the faithless with disgust,
because they do not keep your commands.
159
Consider how I love your precepts!
Give me life according to your steadfast love.
160
The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
A little over 33 years ago, I sat on the steps leading up to the nursery for our newborn son. I started to cry because I had no idea what it meant to be a godly father to a new baby. You see, I did not have a pedigree from a Christian family. The families I grew up around were not Christ-centered, and most of my peers were first generation Christians. We were all doing this Christian thing for the first time, and I was scared.
Crazy, right? By this time in my life, I had been leading hundreds of high school kids on trips all over the country, finished grad school, and gotten married. But children of my own? I needed help that could only come from a source much greater than me. I needed Jesus to rescue me and lead my family in an area where I was unprepared to lead.
Men and women throughout the Old Testament repeatedly found themselves in danger and called out to God to deliver them, save them, rescue them. Our psalmist in Psalm 119 was a man who recognized that his utmost need was to have God step in and take care of him. His concern about his enemies, though temporary, was very real. He needed God to be real and present in the same way I did 33 years ago, and just like I need Him today.
Consider the words the psalmist uses to seek the Lord: rescue, redeem, revive, plead my cause, remember me, remember your testimonies, remember your Word. Turning to the Lord should not be for a bailout or an action of last resort. Seeking Him should be our first action long before resorting to gimmicks, medicative habits, or fear.
The psalmist was scared but wise. He ran hard toward the waiting arms of the Great Deliverer. Today, Jesus is still delivering me on a daily basis. He is delivering me from myself and my need to be known or important or approved by men. The result of this deliverance is freedom. Jesus first. Everything else is a coping mechanism.
1. What areas of life bring you the greatest stress?
2. Where do you turn when you're afraid? What is your coping default?
3. Make a list of "hot buttons" and begin to pray daily that the Lord will show up and deliver you when you encounter one of them.