4 The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. (Psalms 18:4-5, 19, NIV)
In this Psalm King David had been attacked by powerful enemies and his reign was in jeopardy but God powerfully intervened and strengthened the king and gave him victory. How does this apply to Christians?
As we mentioned last week, under the new covenant believers have no geographic kingdom in this world (John 18:36) and “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world” (Eph. 6:12, NIV). We also have the enemies of general corruption around us that damage us, the enemy of our old self which tries to take us from Christ and the enemies of death, sickness, loneliness and lack of provision for daily living.
Sometimes these enemies coalesce into an overwhelming tidal wave of distress. We feel like our blessings are done and life feels pointless. Pain and fear become hurricanes that make us feel puny and defenseless. But God is still there. If we trust him and abide in Christ as best we can then he will deliver.
Remember God’s words in Romans 8:38-39 (NIV):
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the verse prior to this passage Paul promised that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37, NIV). He is saying that our victory is that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love (v. 35). If we have Christ’s love then we have his companionship and all the blessings he promises in the next age.
We don’t absolutely need to have the things that we are losing in our tribulations. If we focus on the temporal things we are losing then we lose focus on the superior things that we are gaining. God cares about our circumstances and often delivers us from suffering but even if he doesn’t we need to keep our focus on what we do have.
In some places Christians die for their faith and leave their children orphaned or lose their spouse to a martyr’s death. They lose what is most dear to them in this world but they haven’t lost what is most valuable in their lives. One day he will bring us to a spacious paradise because he delights in us.
