Redeemed

DEVOTION

PSALMS

REDEEMED

Ps 69:13-18

13 But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. 14 Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. 15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. 16 Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. 17 Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble. 18 Come near and rescue me; redeem me because of my foes.

NIV

This has a lot of the same verbiage as the beginning lines of this song, yet it is still a prayer to the Lord. He is in trouble and as we can see in the next stanza, this is prophetic as regarding Jesus as he hangs on the cross. Much of this prayer could be seen as all of the thoughts of Jesus he is going through the process of being beaten and the trial before the high priest, Pilate and the court of public opinion. But this also can be the thoughts of many humans during difficult times in life. Sometimes it seems everything is going in the wrong direction and the Lord appears to be far off. Those questions which are always asked about how can a loving God allow someone to have this happen. This question usually comes from a non-believer when they see a believer struggling with an issue either dealing with health, family, or finances. Sometimes the world just comes crashing down around our ears. Sometime the pain can be unbearable, but that is when the Lord is there to sustain us. We pray to you O LORD. His favor rests upon his people. It does seem difficult to understand why a believer would have to struggle at all. Could this hard times be caused by God to teach us a lesson? He sure used hard times to teach Israel they needed to look to him rather than all those other gods of the people they lived among. God placed Israel right dab in the middle of the trade routes between Persia and Egypt in hopes they would influence all the traveler passing through. But instead they adopted many of the gods or those who lived among them and traveled through them with the customs or traditions of paying homage to those gods forsaking Yahweh. Could that be the reason some believers today have so many struggles? Have we adopted any of the gods of this world? Oh we haven’t actually forsaken the Lord, but have we incorporated the customs, traditions, philosophies, of this world into our lives? Do believers have trouble because they live too much of the world rather than just being in the world? It’s just a thought, not a judgement, for who are we to judge another? But could our lives be free of difficulty if we just served the Lord and him alone? That would include serving self as one of the areas of live we would have to give up. We can even still be serving self while being so involved in church affairs or what would seem to be our spiritual life. It is difficult to separate selfishness from selflessness. Yet our prayer should always be, O lord save me from all that engulfs me. We look to you and you alone for all that is around us, our life, and our living in this world. May we be ever mindful of your love, grace, and your direction for our life.  May we always be walking in your light shining the path before us. Let us serve you, O Lord with all that is within us, all our heart, mind, soul and strength. You have already redeemed us, let us walk in your redemption.