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!