“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…”
Psalm 107:2
The obvious takeaway from this verse and the psalm itself is that we should not be ashamed to tell what God has done for us or to express our thanks to God. The psalm is one of God’s deliverance. There are a couple of interesting things about deliverance to be found there.
Deliverance is an act of being liberated or rescued, but the definition is not directionally defined. That is, one can be delivered from something, but one can also be delivered to something. The text of the psalm seems to indicate both directions are the case with God’s deliverance.
In the psalm people are delivered from homelessness, want, hunger, thirst, being bound and afflicted, being plagued by inequity, and storms by divine intervention. At the same time, they are delivered to the goodness, praise, and mercy found in the divine presence.
They are not rescued for naught. They are rescued for God—to be his people and live under his protection. God still works the same way. He will save you from all your distresses, but with the intent that you will be his. He is not looking for promises made under duress. He is seeking lives to be lived in a loving relationship with him. So, we can truly say we are delivered to God and, as the psalmist says, all his benefits.
Furthermore, we are saved not from things or situations per se, but from the hand of an enemy. While that is generally presumed to mean the devil or evil people. However, here the old line, “we have met the enemy and it is us” is particularly true. For the most part, we are our own worst enemy.
God will save us from our own foolish actions, from our sins, and from our own inconsistency. The scripture says in Ezra,
“And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this…”
There are people who spend a lot of time worrying about others getting what they deserve and little considering what their deeds have tallied up for themselves. What they fail to realize is while none is worthy of it, what everyone deserves is God. And God stands ready to deliver.
If you have experienced the deliverance of God, you should not be ashamed to say so. Relating your personal rescue is a threat to no one. We are not called to be theologians, prosecutors, or judges—only witnesses to our own experience.
Maranatha

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