RESCUE ME!
by Trish Green
What’s the worst storm you’ve ever experienced?
I’ve been in a storm where clouds boiled out of the sky, sweeping light from the land and leaving inky shadows in its wake. The air turned black with rain and the lightning struck so close, the hair all over my body stood on end. The thunder shook my bones along with the very breath in my lungs. I watched the storm break branches and pound tall grass into pulp on the ground. Small rivers raged down the street, pulling at my legs as it tried to sweep me up in the torrent. Rain drops crashed into buildings and vehicles with the force of small hammers, each blow making me wince, waiting for everything to break and let the storm into the building where I’d taken refuge.
The images of that storm are forever burned into my memory. They come flooding back as I read Psalm 18. Read with me. Read out loud, with feeling; because it reads like an adventure story:
The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
What snare are you in? Caught in a secret addiction? Tangled in a bad habit? Is that “secret” sin still in the corner of your heart? Too proud to admit a mistake? Is it too much to bear by yourself any longer?
Read on, my friend...
In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies , great bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
Feel God’s anger at sin as he rushes to his servant. He parts the heavens. Smoke pours from his nostrils. He advances with hailstones and lightning bolts. His voice thunders.
What power! What an awesome display of his might! God comes to my aid, at my cry, with great rumblings of thunder, cloaked in the dark fury of a storm about to break with dreadful vengeance over the land. God comes to rescue me. He comes to rescue you.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:4 – 19 (NIV)
The Lord who set the foundations of the earth shakes those very pilings to get to your side when you call out to him in your distress. He reaches down with such tenderness to draw you close. God pulls us up from the deep water of sin, from the depths of despair and rescues us from those who are too strong for our puny defenses.
Why?
The answer is right there… “…He rescued me because he delighted in me.”
God loves you beyond your imagination. He loves you enough to rush to your aid whenever you call. Don’t wait any longer. Call on him. Let him carry you through the storm and rescue you from your snares. Let him deliver you from the tangled webs of death.
Come Lord… rescue me!