Prayer For Deliverance

Psalm 116

Today’s Psalm selection from Sunday’s lectionary is one of what some people call an “orphan” Psalm.  Several Psalms have been called “orphans” because we do not know the author.  This unknown author seems to have had a very close call with death.  Perhaps he was quite sick, or maybe in some dire predicament where death was staring him in the face.

Have you ever been in circumstances where the spectre of death is lurking in the corner, just waiting to strike?  What do we do when faced with circumstances like this, when life has backed you into a corner, and the end result is looking like it could be death?  It is so easy for fear to wrap its tentacles around us, and then to break down our confidence in God’s goodness.  Our thoughts might drift to thinking whether God still loves us.  Why doesn’t He do something?  Why doesn’t He heal or fix the situation?  The intense stress we feel when death has backed us into a corner can cause us to lash out at everyone, including our loved ones.

So what does a Christian do at a time like this?  Our Psalmist friend here cried out to the Lord in prayer.  We can always reach God with our prayers.  He is near, listening to us (vs. 1-2).  He will answer us with His best.  God answered the Psalmist’s prayers, and that renewed his faith and trust in the Lord, and in His ability to deliver Him (vs. 10).

What can we give to the Lord for all He’s done for us?  This was the question our Psalmist asked in verse 12.  There is nothing we can do to pay for God’s mercy and grace which is shown when He hears and answers our prayers.  Salvation cost God the Blood of His Son, but is free to us, and there is nothing we can do to pay Him back for the love He so freely bestows on us.  The only thing we can give to Him is our obedience and thanksgiving.

One might ask, what about those Christians who do die, either from an illness or accident?  Why didn’t God answer their prayers?  Doesn’t He care about them or love them?  I don’t have any good answer, but one thing I can say for sure is what we see in verse 15 - “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”  We are saddened when a loved one dies.  Gd hurts when we are in sorrow.  Believers are precious to God.  Each life is valuable to Him.  If the one who died is a believer, God rejoices that another one of His children has entered His kingdom.  He, alone, determines when they will be called home to Him.  Death is not an end.  It is the beginning of eternity for them.

As we look back over the Psalm, we need to make sure that we don’t get “spiritual amnesia”, where we forget all the times that God has helped us, coming to our aid and answering our prayers.  Remember back to the times where you cried out to God for help and He answered, whether with healing, or providing finances, restoring a family, or whatever your need was.  When we are facing a dire crisis, rather than panicking and losing all hope, we need to remember how God answered us in the past, and that will give us hope for what we face now.  Then we can rejoice, like our Psalmist here, with a song of thanksgiving to the Lord for saving our life.