Psalm 40:9

"I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD."

Jesus has previously said, "I desire to do your will, O my God" (verse 8), and now we learn what that will of God is to tell "the glad news of deliverance." Before we got here we didn't know what exactly God's will was, what exactly was the mission of this one whose "ears are opened." What fearful things did he hear? What message was he entrusted with? Is it Jonah's message: "Yet forty days, and you shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3:4)?

No, praise God. The Son of Man appears not with judgment but with glad news. "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:17).

But what is this "deliverance"? What is this thing called being "saved"? I used to think of it in the narrowest terms, that he meant "delivered" and "saved" from hell, and of course that is a wonderful part of it. And it would be merciful enough if we were spared that future we deserve, even if in the meantime we received no hand up and hand out from our present pits.

But God is a God of present and continuous deliverance as well as of deliverance. Delivering is what He does! If Satan's tireless work is to "steal, kill, and destroy," then God's tireless work is to "give, enliven, and restore." I once heard a pastor say, "You should see the top of Satan's desk: It's covered with stacks of paper and overflowing ashtrays and half-drunk cups of coffee." Well, if the devil is that busy scheming our misery and demise, God is that busy scheming our deliverances.

"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles" (Psalm 34:17).

God is not sitting up in his heaven thinking up dirty tricks to play on us. We have had harsh thoughts about Him; we have not trusted Him and not believed that He had our best interest at heart. That's why we constantly take matters into our own hands. It was the original sin, and the archetypical sin---not trusting God's motives in our lives.

I must be very careful not to misconstrue this teaching of deliverance as a promise of a trouble-free life. If we didn't have trouble, there wouldn't be deliverances! The inevitability of troubles is just as much a part of this verse as the inevitability of deliverance.

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).

Nothing has gone wrong if I find myself in trouble. Nor must I set a time limit on God's deliverance. He is going to do it in His own way, and remember the way this psalm begins: "I waited patiently for the Lord."

My experience is that I am in trouble for quite a while before I get delivered. Sometimes I have been baffled about why God lets us stay in trouble so long before He pulls us out. Now I think it is because He is working something in us the whole time we are stuck. He wants to teach us something about ourselves in the middle of the mess that we wouldn't know otherwise. What kind of "tea" comes out of that "tea bag" when the hot water is applied? Is it the delightful tea of faith? Or is it unbelief?

By now God has a track record in my life, or many deliverances, after short ordeals and long. I hope that next time I'm in trouble I will remember that and not bail out of the story He is weaving.

To read Andrée Seu's series on Psalm 40, click here.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.