2 Samuel 22:20 (NRSV)
20 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:18-19 (NRSV)
18 but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Listen to: TobyMac: “Beyond Me”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPq9p559II
Nowadays, a novel that is a success is often made into a movie. Back in the Biblical era, before cameras and film, a great story was turned into a song. King David, who was not only the greatest of Israelite rulers and warriors, he was a gifted story teller and musician. He was also a dedicated man of God, despite his profound flaws. He was a murderer, adulterer; he badly neglected his family he had so many foibles it would make reality TV drool. He bent the law to his favor; after all, he was king. He took actions that he was well advised against (i.e., the census of the country) that had disastrous consequences for his people –70,000 ended up dying by plague (2. Sam. 24). David, like most warrior-kings, spent inordinate amount of time in battle, to maintain, reclaim or expand boundaries. He negotiated with foreign dignitaries and managed his court, which both friends and foes. What a complicated life.
While we are not warrior-kings, we can appreciate the experience of a life that is complicated. Parts of our lives may very well call upon us to be fighters or overcomers, in the best sense of the word. We are complex people. On one hand we are flawed and this has produced suffering in ourselves and for others we love. Yet we are each gifted. We can each do amazing and caring acts. Like David, sometimes our lives feel a bit too crowed: too many demands, tasks, meetings to go to, appointments to keep, bills to pay, and errands to run. We feel hemmed in, like David did.
David’s true greatness did not lie in his political achievements. David’s genius is captured in his enduring spiritual sensibilities: he experienced in God “a broad place,” not that trapped-in-the-corner-place we find ourselves in when we are boxed into with all our demands. This experience of the “wideness of God’s mercy” as the hymn puts it, is deliverance, a healing. It is deliverance from turmoil to peace. It is a deliverance from a sense of entrapment to spiritual freedom. It is a deliverance from a false sense of security to a true sense belonging and groundedness.
Perhaps the most audacious statement David makes is this: God does all this for us because God delights in us. Yes, in us, even with our flaws. Yes, in us, even with our problems. Yes, in us: the ones who forget to pray, who don’t read enough of the Bible or other spiritual material. Yes, in us, the ones who should be giving more, caring more, doing more for others, but we fall short. Yes, us. Despite it all, God delights in us.
That is where it all starts. We just need to put the focus on God and off ourselves. God delights in us. God cares. God is inclined to our favor. If we can sit with that, then perhaps we can discover, like the great King David, some deliverance from whatever is hurting us this day. If we can let our hearts dwell on God’s delight instead of our faults, we will find the broad places, and there we will find peace that can restore our souls.
From what do you need deliverance today?
Prayer: “God of the Broad Places: May I experience today your delight, so I can be delivered from all that is weighing me down. May I experience your delight so that I can, in turn, take delight in you and your world.”
20 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:18-19 (NRSV)
18 but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Listen to: TobyMac: “Beyond Me”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFPq9p559II
Nowadays, a novel that is a success is often made into a movie. Back in the Biblical era, before cameras and film, a great story was turned into a song. King David, who was not only the greatest of Israelite rulers and warriors, he was a gifted story teller and musician. He was also a dedicated man of God, despite his profound flaws. He was a murderer, adulterer; he badly neglected his family he had so many foibles it would make reality TV drool. He bent the law to his favor; after all, he was king. He took actions that he was well advised against (i.e., the census of the country) that had disastrous consequences for his people –70,000 ended up dying by plague (2. Sam. 24). David, like most warrior-kings, spent inordinate amount of time in battle, to maintain, reclaim or expand boundaries. He negotiated with foreign dignitaries and managed his court, which both friends and foes. What a complicated life.
While we are not warrior-kings, we can appreciate the experience of a life that is complicated. Parts of our lives may very well call upon us to be fighters or overcomers, in the best sense of the word. We are complex people. On one hand we are flawed and this has produced suffering in ourselves and for others we love. Yet we are each gifted. We can each do amazing and caring acts. Like David, sometimes our lives feel a bit too crowed: too many demands, tasks, meetings to go to, appointments to keep, bills to pay, and errands to run. We feel hemmed in, like David did.
David’s true greatness did not lie in his political achievements. David’s genius is captured in his enduring spiritual sensibilities: he experienced in God “a broad place,” not that trapped-in-the-corner-place we find ourselves in when we are boxed into with all our demands. This experience of the “wideness of God’s mercy” as the hymn puts it, is deliverance, a healing. It is deliverance from turmoil to peace. It is a deliverance from a sense of entrapment to spiritual freedom. It is a deliverance from a false sense of security to a true sense belonging and groundedness.
Perhaps the most audacious statement David makes is this: God does all this for us because God delights in us. Yes, in us, even with our flaws. Yes, in us, even with our problems. Yes, in us: the ones who forget to pray, who don’t read enough of the Bible or other spiritual material. Yes, in us, the ones who should be giving more, caring more, doing more for others, but we fall short. Yes, us. Despite it all, God delights in us.
That is where it all starts. We just need to put the focus on God and off ourselves. God delights in us. God cares. God is inclined to our favor. If we can sit with that, then perhaps we can discover, like the great King David, some deliverance from whatever is hurting us this day. If we can let our hearts dwell on God’s delight instead of our faults, we will find the broad places, and there we will find peace that can restore our souls.
From what do you need deliverance today?
Prayer: “God of the Broad Places: May I experience today your delight, so I can be delivered from all that is weighing me down. May I experience your delight so that I can, in turn, take delight in you and your world.”
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