29. Rescuer

God in the Psalms No.29    

Psa 18:16-19   He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

In a previous meditation we considered the God who delivers, and the concept of the God who rescues is very similar, but worth considering again. Indeed, the concept of rescue is far more familiar to us than that of deliverance. People stuck down pot-holes  need rescuing. People stuck on  mountain sides need rescuing. People in boats wrecked on the rocks need rescuing. A company drifting towards insolvency needs rescuing. A great man turning to drink needs rescuing. Someone who’s car has broken down miles from anywhere needs rescuing. Oh yes, we’re very familiar with the concept of ‘rescue’.

In each case the person needs rescuing from something. For David in the verses above, he saw himself in ‘deep waters’.  We speak of ‘being out of our depth’ meaning being in a place where our feet can’t touch the bottom, where we’re not able to be in control, not secure and safe. Then he speaks about a ‘powerful enemy’. The comment before the psalm talk of him writing it after he has escaped Saul’s army. He was confronted by those more powerful than himself. It was a ‘day of disaster’ a day of potential destruction.

Do not these three descriptions fit the needs of mankind and show the reason Jesus came?  First, out of our depth. Most of the time people declare that they are ‘all right’, they are in control and feel they are masters of their destiny. Then, every now and then something happens that makes them realize that they are not, they are not in control, they are out of their depth in the situation. It may be circumstances going bad, it may simply be an illness or an infirmity. Aches and pains – back ache, tooth ache, arthritis or sprains – have the ability to cripple and weaken a person. One minute strong, the next minute vulnerable.

Second, confronted by an enemy.  The world today has taken to speaking about a person’s ‘demons’. What they mean by these are the things that we fear or the ‘nasty’ things in humanity that we battle against and which make us less than we could be.  Finally, the potential of destruction. When we are out of control and we are threatened by forces stronger than us, our very lives are at risk. There is one who seeks to destroy us. It is a very real threat.  Spiritually, morally and even physically, the threat is very real. So there we were – helpless – and then we cried out.

We’ve quoted it before but it fits most perfectly here, Paul’s description of what God has done: “he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Col 1:13).  There it is in its simplicity: we were doomed in the dominion of the devil, a prey to his suggestions and his activities, our very lives threatened and then, when in our desperation we cried out, God reached down and rescued us from the darkness of the pothole, from the cold of the mountainside, from the threat of drowning, from going utterly bankrupt, and from the loneliness of broken down isolation, and brought us into a safe and secure and warm place where the Son rules over our circumstances and provides everything we need. It’s a marvelous feat of transformation and we are rescued!