He Rescued Me
Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)
(Psa 18:19 NIV) He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued
me because he delighted in me.
(Psa 18:19 NKJV) He also brought me out into a broad place; He
delivered me because He delighted in me.
(Luke 13:16 NKJV) "So ought not this woman, being a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan has bound; think of it; for eighteen years, be
loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?"
Psalm 18:19 brings out two important aspects of salvation. Firstly
that salvation is a bringing out of confinement - either the
confinement of sin, the oppression of an enemy, the constraints of
poverty or the "binding up" that comes with disease (Luke 13:16
above). The saved person comes out of a "narrow place" and into a
"broad place" of freedom, joy and liberty. A place where they can
truly be themselves - the person God created them to be.
Secondly Ps 18:19 tells us that salvation, deliverance and rescue
come because God delights in us. Why He delights in us is a mystery -
for our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah
64:6). But God can love someone clothed in rags! (Zechariah 3:1-7).
God saved us when we were unattractive, helpless and ungodly. (Romans
5:1-10) We are described as "dead in our trespasses and sins"
(Ephesians 2:1-4) and yet we have become "objects of mercy" (Romans
9:23,24) so that we are saved by grace, not by anything we have done
(Ephesians 2:5-10). I find this hard to absorb. Why on earth God
would delight in me I do not know! Then I see a parent with a
disabled child and I see their love for that child and I sense how
God could perhaps love me too like that. Not for my performance -
but for me. He loves me simply because I am His.
The Psalmist was confident of God's love. He was daring about it - he
could put pen to paper and claim that God delighted in him. He could
connect God's saving acts in battle with His delight in the Psalmist.
That shakes me to the core. My initial reaction is that it seems
presumptuous to say out loud "God delights in me!" and rather
prideful to connect victory with God taking pleasure in you
personally. Well my reaction is wrong! God did delight in the
Psalmist! God does delight in us personally! We can say that out
loud! We can believe that! He delights in us because we are His and
because we believe in His Son. (Rom 8:31-33 NKJV) What then shall
we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
{32} He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? {33}
Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who
justifies.
God delights in you! He has a great future and plan for you and
wants to bring you out into a "broad place". That broad place has
eternal dimensions and an ethical character to it. The wide heavens
are also holy. (Rom 8:28-30 NKJV) And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
according to His purpose. {29} For whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. {30} Moreover whom He predestined,
these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and
whom He justified, these He also glorified.
As well as the spaciousness of eternity God wants to bring you into
wholeness and healing now. Like the woman bound up for eighteen years
with a disease - who was set free by Jesus. Jesus is not just
concerned with your soul but with your career, relationships, health,
and whatever else is important to you. There was a great saint who
visited an old peasant woman and talked to her about the care of her
turkeys. Someone asked the saint why he talked about something as
mundane as turkeys with the woman. His reply was "Her life is bound
up in those turkeys." Jesus is like that saint - He understands the
tiny details of our life that are vital to us. He wants you to
experience "spaciousness" in all your life (Luke 4:18,19). Like the
Psalmist you may have to cry out to God for a while in order to
experience it. Prayer and fasting and a godly life helps but
ultimately it is pure grace. Cry out now for God to bring you out of
confinement into a broad place - because He delights in you.
Prayer:
Lord there are many areas where my life is confined (list them) -
please bring me out of my areas of confinement and the places where I
am oppressed and into the broad places, the spacious places of Your
salvation. Thank You that You delight in me - that is incredible.
Lord thank You that You see me as precious and wonderful. Thank You
that You cherish me even though my performance is so far short of
what it could be or should be. O Lord cause me heart to understand
Your love! Lord I am still trembling, there are so many areas I am
bowed down with O Lord, lift me up! Lord save me because You love me!
Praise You! Praise You Jesus! Amen
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John Edmiston ([email protected])
Editor - Eternity Online Magazine http://www.eternity-magazine.org/
Cults, exegesis, bible teaching, Christian life and leadership.
For the thinking Christian!