Deliver me

O Lord my God, in You I put my trust;

Save me from all those who persecute me;

And deliver me,

Lest they tear me like a lion,

Rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver – Psalm 7.1-2

In these tumultuous days people are looking to all kind of sources for protection and deliverance. As I think about world situations and some human reasoning going on it seems that an awful lot of people are making decisions as though their future depends on this or that politician or this or that political party.

We too often look for deliverance from this broken world by this broken world itself.

There is only one source of deliverance for God’s people.

In you, O Lord my God, I put my trust.

Save me from me persecutors

Deliver me

We are not going to leave this world until God’s perfect time. We may have to face enemies and oppression. God may allow us to endure persecution.

But he can still deliver us in the midst of our problems. He delivers us, possibly not by letting us escape the problems, but by allowing us to live above the problems no matter what is going on.

Habakkuk lived in a time of real distress. He talked to God about it and God told him that the trouble was coming, but that Habakkuk needed to trust Him. Eventually Habakkuk came to a wonderful conclusion that explains how God delivers even when the situation doesn’t change in our eyes.

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights.

Habakkuk chose to see God’s deliverance in the fact that God strengthened him even when there was no visible reason to rejoice. He chose joy because God allowed him to live above all the problems of the world.

We can walk each day with the assurance that we don’t have to live captive to the world, but that God can deliver us with a new attitude to the troubles we face.