Protected Until Delivered
I’ve come to fully understand the concept of deliverance. I guess in my head, I’ve always thought it to be synonymous to protection, but it’s not. Both concepts speak of God divinely intervening in one’s life, but the intervention is at different times. Protection is before, it is being kept from experiencing something. Deliverance is during, it is being taken out of something that one was already experiencing.
For a long time I’ve enjoyed God’s protection, and I still do. Hedged in like Job, disaster not coming near my tent like in Psalm 91. But I’ve also come to learn the need to experience God’s deliverance. Truth is, I can’t learn all there is to God’s power, and all there is to the faith He has given me if I’m safely hidden in the nest all the time. Threats will need to come, they’ll push me out of my comfort zone, and there, on the water, I will learn about the greatness of my God.
I’ve been meditating on Psalm 34. I spent a long time on each section, reading, listening, and repeating before moving on to the next. I’m near the end now.
“A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” Psalm 34:19-20
I’m sure you’ve heard multiple sermons based on these two verses, so I’ll try not to preach them. Firstly, it is established that the righteous are not exempt from trouble. We talked about this previously when dealing with James 1 (see blog post ‘Dealing with the bad’). So gone are the days where facing trouble was a sign that you were no longer in right standing with God. Secondly, the troubles may be many, so it’s important not to lose heart. In fact, James will say they are of many kinds.
Then comes my favourite part, God delivers from all those troubles. My pastor calls Him the ‘God of deliverances’ for this reason, because though the troubles may be many, He delivers from all. This means He won’t fail to deliver today because He delivered yesterday, He won’t run out of deliverances just because I’ve got too much trouble. It also means that He has deliverance for all kinds of trouble. Be it family trouble, health trouble, money trouble, personal trouble, emotional trouble, heck, even car trouble (trust me), God’s got deliverance for it. He can get you out of it. And it matters not how long you’ve been in it, He will get you out.
I wish I was around to interview the Israelites the night God got them out. After 430 year in slavery, living and breathing poverty, oppression and pain, God took notice, heard their cries and came to the rescue. I’m sure some of them were pinching themselves, 430 years for 1 night, because God just can. For generations to come, Israel never forgot God’s power that delivered them, and nothing could convince them that God’s power was limited to rescue because he didn’t protect them from slavery but let them go into it and He came to get them out.
But what really fascinates me with this text, is how protection is incorporated within deliverance. Within the trouble, God is watching, protecting certain elements, even before deliverance is experienced. This verse is evidently prophetic, speaking of how no bone would be broken in Jesus’ body at his death, but that shouldn’t overshadow us seeing the verses’ meaning in context. Coming out of trouble, I come out ‘unharmed’; affected, but not destroyed. This is the truth Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 when he says “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
We go through things, but they can’t be through with us. Those three courageous young men of Daniel 3 went through their fiery trouble, felt the heat but weren’t burnt. Job went through his number of troubles, yet he made it to the other side because God wasn’t out of control while he suffered, but was at work, preserving something important in Job that shouldn’t be lost (see Job 2:6). God protected him until deliverance came.
So, God is a God who protects and a God who delivers, a God who can do both simultaneously. So take courage and comfort as you walk in your fire, remember, you’re fireproof, you’re surrounded, barricaded with songs of deliverance, you’re going to make it out in one piece, God’s going to get you out of it.
For a long time I’ve enjoyed God’s protection, and I still do. Hedged in like Job, disaster not coming near my tent like in Psalm 91. But I’ve also come to learn the need to experience God’s deliverance. Truth is, I can’t learn all there is to God’s power, and all there is to the faith He has given me if I’m safely hidden in the nest all the time. Threats will need to come, they’ll push me out of my comfort zone, and there, on the water, I will learn about the greatness of my God.
I’ve been meditating on Psalm 34. I spent a long time on each section, reading, listening, and repeating before moving on to the next. I’m near the end now.
“A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” Psalm 34:19-20
I’m sure you’ve heard multiple sermons based on these two verses, so I’ll try not to preach them. Firstly, it is established that the righteous are not exempt from trouble. We talked about this previously when dealing with James 1 (see blog post ‘Dealing with the bad’). So gone are the days where facing trouble was a sign that you were no longer in right standing with God. Secondly, the troubles may be many, so it’s important not to lose heart. In fact, James will say they are of many kinds.
Then comes my favourite part, God delivers from all those troubles. My pastor calls Him the ‘God of deliverances’ for this reason, because though the troubles may be many, He delivers from all. This means He won’t fail to deliver today because He delivered yesterday, He won’t run out of deliverances just because I’ve got too much trouble. It also means that He has deliverance for all kinds of trouble. Be it family trouble, health trouble, money trouble, personal trouble, emotional trouble, heck, even car trouble (trust me), God’s got deliverance for it. He can get you out of it. And it matters not how long you’ve been in it, He will get you out.
I wish I was around to interview the Israelites the night God got them out. After 430 year in slavery, living and breathing poverty, oppression and pain, God took notice, heard their cries and came to the rescue. I’m sure some of them were pinching themselves, 430 years for 1 night, because God just can. For generations to come, Israel never forgot God’s power that delivered them, and nothing could convince them that God’s power was limited to rescue because he didn’t protect them from slavery but let them go into it and He came to get them out.
But what really fascinates me with this text, is how protection is incorporated within deliverance. Within the trouble, God is watching, protecting certain elements, even before deliverance is experienced. This verse is evidently prophetic, speaking of how no bone would be broken in Jesus’ body at his death, but that shouldn’t overshadow us seeing the verses’ meaning in context. Coming out of trouble, I come out ‘unharmed’; affected, but not destroyed. This is the truth Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 when he says “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
We go through things, but they can’t be through with us. Those three courageous young men of Daniel 3 went through their fiery trouble, felt the heat but weren’t burnt. Job went through his number of troubles, yet he made it to the other side because God wasn’t out of control while he suffered, but was at work, preserving something important in Job that shouldn’t be lost (see Job 2:6). God protected him until deliverance came.
So, God is a God who protects and a God who delivers, a God who can do both simultaneously. So take courage and comfort as you walk in your fire, remember, you’re fireproof, you’re surrounded, barricaded with songs of deliverance, you’re going to make it out in one piece, God’s going to get you out of it.
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