Psalm 140- I need to be rescued.

Click here to read Psalms 140

Crying out for protection, Psalm 140 records once again, David's need to be rescued. I read and I re-read, and I meditate on this passage, mulling it over in my spirit, and I am coming back empty. I finally sit down, not particularly inspired, but determined nonetheless, and then that moment happens, that moment when the light goes on and you see what you were missing.

This is what I saw.

I need to be rescued.

Unlike David, however, I do not have a world leader hunting me down. The fact remains, however, that there is a roaming, roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And God reminds me, “For you wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Reading this passage in Psalms again, everything becomes so clearly relevant. Now with David I pray, Rescue me, keep me, You are my God, the strength of my salvation. You have covered my head in the day of battle, because this life is a battle.

I can't be the only one who feels that war raging inside.

I can't be the only one who doesn't always want to do the things I know I should do!

Thank God for His inspired word that documents that same feeling from Paul the Apostle because He lets us know that if we have felt that way, then we are in great company. My sweet 9 year old daughter has often voiced the same complaint. “When,” she questions me with a tear stained face, “When will I stop making the same mistakes?” Oh sweet girl. Sometimes I wonder the same thing. When Lord?

I know that this struggle is from the cradle to the grave. I know that greater men and women then me have warred against their flesh, yet I also know that there is victory in Christ Jesus. How do I know this?

Number one, because He has told me. It is all over His Word. Countless examples of the power to change lives from a murderer to a preacher, from a coward to a warrior, from an orphan girl to a queen who saves. Greater is He that is in me, than He that is in the world.

Number two, I have seen it up close and personal. I have seen His hand in my life, in my family's lives, in my friends' lives. Oh, I have such stories. Such stories. I thank God that I am not who I was. Truly, I was a very stupid teenager, (yes mom's of teens, there is hope in Christ Jesus for your teen!) I was a slightly less stupid twenty something, and now I continue to praise God for His grace in my thirties. If you are still who you were, then we have a problem. Part of the problem and part of what holds us back is that we don't know how badly we need rescuing. Every day. Every hour. David did. He knew the traps were being set. And he was vigilant in prayer. What are those same traps that you fall into? Those same sinful thought patterns that spiral you into the pit? Those self deceiving decisions that determine a wrong direction?

I pray that we would approach our days with the same vigilance that David did, that we would see our moment by moment need to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and that we would not turn to sugary substitutes or quick fix fillers to quiet those needs, but that we would surrender and submit to the will of God through worship and prayer and the study of His word. Amen!