|
The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the Name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” (Psalm 116:3-4)
The psalmist is in anguish. Death is closing in on him. He cries out to the Lord in distress, “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” Centuries later the prophet Jonah offered up a similar petition from the belly of a great fish as deep water surrounded him: “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2). Generations after those prayers, Jesus said to His disciples in Gethsemane, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38b). Earlier that evening Jesus may have sung these same psalm verses as part of the Passover celebration: “The snares of death encompassed Me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on Me.” Death and the grave pressed in on Him and, like the psalmist and Jonah before Him, the Lord Jesus cried out in anguish, pleading with His Heavenly Father to be delivered from the suffering and death that awaited Him. Yet in humble obedience Jesus also prayed, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42b).
At times our own prayers will echo the petitions of the psalmist, Jonah, and our Lord. Serious illness or death may threaten us or our loved ones. Lost in fear or sorrow, we suffer distress and anguish. We call out in desperate prayer, “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul.” God hears our prayers as surely as He heard the prayers of the psalmist, of Jonah, and of His own Son. Our loving Heavenly Father listens to our pleas for help. He is ready and willing to answer according to His gracious will.
God answered the prayer of the psalmist, who rejoiced in his deliverance: “For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:8-9). God delivered Jonah and sent him out again to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh, but during those final days of Holy Week our Lord was not delivered. Obedient to His Father’s will, Jesus took onto Himself the penalty of death that we deserved. His dead body was sealed in a tomb, but then, in the Father’s perfect timing, Jesus was delivered from death. Through faith in our crucified and risen Lord we know what the psalmist knew, that God will deliver us from death. He will wipe away the tears from our eyes and keep us from stumbling. We will walk with our Lord in the land of the living—now and forever!
WE PRAY: Lord, in every moment of distress and anguish, deliver my soul and strengthen me with the promises of Your holy Word. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler.
Reflection Questions:
- Do you go to God in prayer when things are really tough in your life? If not, what holds you back?
- How do you think God delivered David from his life-threatening situation above?
- How is the deliverance we have from our sins won by Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection a forever victory?
|
