Rescued by the Lord – Psalm 116:1-4,12-19

A text – Psalm 116

¹ I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
² Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
³ The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
⁴ Then I called on the name of the Lord, “O Lord, I pray, save my life!”

¹² What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?
¹³ I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord;
¹⁴ I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.
¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones.
¹⁶ O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.  You have loosed my bonds.
¹⁷ I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord.
¹⁸ I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,
¹⁹ in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

A reflection:

Here is a psalm from the lips of a person who has been to the brink of death, maybe even surrounded by death, and been rescued by the Lord. Have you ever been there and then been rescued? I myself have faced death or extreme danger a few times and escaped harm, and I have been pretty sure who my rescuers have been in each case. The Lord has certainly been watching over me or had some poor angel assigned to keep me from permanent consequences.

But once such an experience is over, our mental survival mechanisms kick in and repress it, I think. We even forget it happened, at least temporarily. We should all be psalmists, perhaps, and write our deep danger stories down and give gratitude to God for those times. Then maybe we wouldn’t forget so easily.

A couple of years ago I was visiting one of my best friends in Mexico City. We ate dinner out the night I arrived, and we planned a guided tour of the city for the following morning. I rose early and took a shower, and then I made some coffee and got my friend up to share in the coffee. Suddenly she toppled over in the kitchen, injuring her ankle. I tried to get her off the floor so we could look at her foot, but she could not rise. I too felt woozy. We both were nauseated. We both thought: food poisoning. She finally rose to get to a chair but fell back into bed, while I was rapidly losing consciousness. Suddenly I knew it was CO poisoning. We hear about it killing whole families every winter in North Dakota and Minnesota who live in well-sealed houses with malfunctioning CO detectors. I opened every window I could open and found out how to prop the apartment door open. The culprit was the water heater, improperly vented, and the door to its utility room open to the kitchen. In a short while friends came and took us to a hospital where we received oxygen for 24 hours and went from 25% CO saturation down to 0%. Go above 25% and you get brain damage and a short road to a death you never feel coming.

Yes, my orderly brain knew well about CO poisoning. But not while I was passing out. No, someone whispered in my little ear. “Open a window, NOW! You know what to do. Get up and do it!” The Lord sent me a message. I didn’t hear it per se, but I knew what to do and did it. “Precious (costly) in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones (my friend and me).” The Lord did not want our lives to be ended (spent) for no earthly good reason that morning. And as a result, out of gratitude, with my bonds loosed, I offer thanksgiving to the Lord, in your presence in this devotion today. Praise the Lord!

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us so many times from danger and even death. We are grateful that you watch over us and keep us alive to rejoice with our loved ones and to praise your name. Help us not to forget those times and your mercy. Amen.