God as a Rescuer

“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.” 

Psalms 18:18-19

We just finished reading the book of 1 Samuel in our Tirzah in the Word study for this month. I was blown away by a continual theme throughout this book. Let me give you a summary of this historical narrative (a book of the Bible telling part of the history of the earth and Jesus’ story), so you can see what I mean…

1 Samuel is the story of Saul and David. The people of Israel had no King and started demanding a king. God heard them and chose Saul to be Israel’s first King. Saul started well, but then started disobeying God’s directions. As he disobeyed, God warned him and then removed His presence while still leaving Saul in his position. God told Samuel there would be a new king and had Samuel go anoint a young boy named David.

The story continues and David shows up in Saul’s life. First, he kills a giant named Goliath and then everyone becomes a David fan. Saul starts to hate David and his fame. He plots a plan to take out David by offering David his daughter, Michal, as wife if he kills a bunch of Philistines. His hope was David would get killed, but he succeeds and becomes more famous. This game continues until it becomes clear that Saul is out to kill David. He has to run for his life and it becomes a game of cat and mouse.

There’s so much emphasis put on “watch for the Saul’s in your life” and David had a Saul. When I read 1 Samuel this time, I saw more of who God is. He is a God of justice. AND He will rescue His people. As I read through this time, I see David being rescued time and time again. He is even given the opportunity to kill Saul - but recognizes God did not give him permission to. This game continues until Saul’s death occurs.

Even upon Saul’s death, David still honors Saul’s position and mourns him. Why? David knew that God would rescue him. He knew that God would make His will happen in His time. Read the Psalms and you can read the journal of David’s weeping, prayer, and journaling of these seasons in his life. Psalms 18 is a great example of this.

In every season, we have different things going on. There may be someone wanting to take you out, but when you’re following God’s will and His commands - He will rescue you. If He has a specific purpose for your life, He will remove all of your foes. When you follow the heart of God, you will even honor your foes - despite the way they’ve treated you. God will rescue, restore, and redeem you. That is the will of God for His people.