Wednesday, June 19, 2019
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem. A psalm of David.
What if the Lord had not been on our side? Let all Israel repeat:
What if the Lord had not
been on our side when people attacked us? They would have swallowed us alive in
their burning anger. The
waters would have engulfed us; a torrent would have overwhelmed us. Yes, the raging waters of their fury would
have overwhelmed our very lives. Praise
the Lord, who did not let their teeth tear us
apart! We escaped like a bird
from a hunter’s trap. The trap is
broken, and we are free! Our
help is from the Lord, who made
heaven and earth. Psalm 124:1-8
Most of
the action and adventure movies ever made ought to have Psalm 124 as a footnote
on their scripts.
As entertaining
as escapism is, (pardon the pun), it works against living in reality. Super-powers aside, like the invincibility of
characters in a video game where you kill fifty attackers per minute, and if
they get you before you get to the next level, you just boot-up and go again –
well, pardon my cynicism, but where was Indiana Jones on September 11, 2001? Why are there untold millions of war-dead
lying in graves, along with millions more – victims of earthquakes, storms,
terrorists and other, deranged and deluded aggressors, prodded by evil to bring
pain, heartache, destruction and loss?
And yet,
there are those inscrutable rescues which do occur. I believe everyone gets at least a few in a
lifetime. There’s that familiar close
call on the Interstate, where you thought you weren’t going to make it. Or that time you lost control in the snow or
rain. That time you thought you were
going to get fired, and the reason the boss called you in was to tell you about
your new raise or promotion. And what
about that ominous message the doctor’s office left to please call back
the minute you get this message?
David knew
exactly how you felt at those times. King
Saul was once David’s friend and benefactor; now he was the pursuing enemy. King Saul, had hounded David out of
Jerusalem, chased him so ferociously he had to hide out with the wild animals
in caves. And by the skin of his teeth,
David was rescued, and wound-up on King Saul’s throne.
So, what’s
the connection with Indiana Jones here?
Drama…evil lurking in the background…certain destruction looming like Mt.
Everest dead ahead. But the difference
between a Harrison Ford movie and the chronicles of David, King of Israel, is
that which happened after the drama. For Indiana Jones the credits rolled on the
screen, and the movie faded to black; everyone left the theatre!
But David
didn’t just survive; David’s survival and the remainder of
his life were spent remembering God’s great preservation of life. It was spent exploring the truth of God’s way
as opposed to fairy tales. He spent his
days living his life in thanks to the God Who had saved him and granted him real
life in an eternal kingdom!
For You Today
There are
times when we all forget what God has done for us. And we also forget the untold numbers of
times God has preserved us when we didn’t even know it. The word today is don’t forget…continue to remember
and be thankful!
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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture
quotations are from The New Living Translation©
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