Deliverance!

Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer me, and in Your righteousness. Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous. For the enemy has persecuted my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me dwell in darkness, like those who have long been dead. Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed. Psalm 143: 1-4, NKJV.

Dear God, many and diverse are the difficulties and the challenges that we face as individuals. Oftentimes, like the psalmist, we are “overwhelmed” by them. Nevertheless, the “Good News” is that “Jesus saves!” If we look to You we know that we will be delivered from every yoke and bondage. We thank You for this assurance in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

Can you believe it – today is the first day of the second month of the “new year,” 2011! It seems as if it was only yesterday we were wishing each other a Happy New Year! Now the glow and glimmer of those festive days are growing dimmer by the minute, unless, our lives are blessed by the Presence of Jesus, the Light of the World!

Today is also the first day of the rest of our lives. Two days ago we commented on the benefits of talking to others about, “what great things the Lord has done for [us]”. Today, like a new book with unused pages, our lives open, inviting us to allow the Holy Spirit to write a success story of, “what great things the Lord” has in store for us! For the next few days we will spend some time in this psalm, simply meditating upon “life.” May God grant us deliverance from all our doubts and fears, but also from the tangible dangers we face in life.

Perhaps some of you have heard planet earth referred to as, “a valley of tears,” a very fitting analogy for a world that has become the dwelling place of our Adversary (Revelation 12: 10-12). From the looks of this psalm, David is treading this valley. He is having a challenging day, more like a challenging prolonged period, in his life, like so many of us have, from time to time. Therefore, his laments are not foreign to us. We may have uttered some ourselves. The others, we can, at the very least, understand. 

The beautiful sentiment enveloped in this psalm of laments, comes from the fact that David knows, that the response to his plight will come from One who is “faithful,” and “righteous;” One who will not fail him; One, who will deal righteously, with him. This is the note on which David begins his psalm.

Unlike many of the psalms of David, this is not one of confession and a plea for forgiveness. To the contrary, David makes a rather unusual request, “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous.” Do not judge me, I would not pass the test. Like all the sons and daughters of the human race, we are all sinful. This is not the usual, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139: 23, 24). Or, “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51: 1, 2). Today, it is all about God’s faithfulness and righteousness!

Some situations are so painful, and the scars so profound, that they drain those who are tried by them. While we are being buffeted, we feel as if we are living in the land of the dead. You remember the demon-possessed man who was living among the tombs (Mark 5: 2, 3)? He had become a literal living dead. David says that the enemy has “crushed” his life “to the ground.” This sounds like a “knock-out” punch; this is not a blow from which you bounce back at the count of ten. This is a blow that leaves you unconscious – in darkness – where you are counted out!

Notice again, how the psalm begins. David cannot even confess his sins. He is feeling distressed and overwhelmed by the “blows” of the enemy! When someone who knows God as the God of love and mercy that He is, and as a friend, the way David did, and gets to the place where he does not even want to confess his sins, that tells us that the turmoil within him, must be raging! Listen to the way he says it:  When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer” (Psalm 32: 3, 4).

While we dwell on this planet in rebellion, we will have days like these, but if, at these times we can remember that we serve a God who delivers, we are going to be all right. He delivers, not only from the fiery furnace, and the den of lions, but from all the unfortunate situations that we face from day to day.

We will continue.