"O LORD, God of my salvation..."
I stop, right there.
Pause.
Think and consider.
The Sons of Korah, knew that the Lord God was their salvation. They knew it at ground level from their own life experience. They knew they must credit You, oh Father God, with their salvation.
This Psalm 88 encapsulates the abject terror these sons must have witnessed, as the earth gaped open and swallowed up their parents and possessions. Their father's greed and disobedience to You being punished and serving as a lesson to all Israel. The people had turned and fled in horror and terror.
Day and night these sons cried out before You; their souls full of trouble and torment. They felt they too would "go down to the pit". Perhaps they had PTSD from this trauma and it took their strength away. They felt it was if they too had been slain and "set loose among the dead;" so dark was their life then.
They well knew by Whose hand their parents had been 'cut off" and why. God's wrath was venting. It was as if they too had committed 'the crime' and had beome "unclean," anathema even to their companions and beloved friends who'd once chummed around with them.
Many times, we feel this way too, Father. Major trauma, or the thousand "little things" which add up to "BIG," surround and flood us as 'dreadful assaults". We know it is by Your grace we are saved and have Your salvation through Jesus.
Father, that does not always take our trauma away and we often live in sustained affliction and it seems You hide Your face from us. We want out but You are giving a "faith stretching"- sometimes almost beyond our endurance - period of time.
Yet, the Sons of Korah knew to Whom to turn.
You!
They cried out for Your salvation. Our prayers are the same. Thank-You for inclining Your ear to us. You lean over and listen as we call day and night. We call upon Your steadfast love, faithfulness and compassion and righteousness, and upon You, Yourself as we commune with You. Be our Help. Be our Strength. We know You are and that of our salvation too.
Bring us to the place you want us to be so we can praise and glorify You and tell all the works You do in our lives. Be our Friend and Companion Who never leaves nor forsakes us. We are Yours forever, as we are called by Your Name through Jesus Christ's work on the cross for us: His death and His resurrection.
Indeed, the ground had swallowed up Your Son, NOT because of His own sins, but ours. His friends and companions had forsaken Him. They'd fled. They'd betrayed. They'd denied they'd known Him.
Hallelujah! The ground couldn't keep Jesus captured. "Up from the grave He arose" -- the crowned Victor! Victor over sin, death, hell and Satan! Jesus took the sting right out of it all. What a Savior; the Lord God of our salvation.
It is in the name of Jesus Christ we pray; in Whom we partake of the bread and drink of the wine in remembrance of Him on any given Lord's Day. It is with joy and thanksgiving we praise You Jesus and You our Abba Father. The traumas of our lives recede in Your presence. Where else could we go but to You, our God and Guide, Savior and Rescuer of our souls?!
~ERC March 2021~
Based on Psalm 88:1-18 ESV.
Sing, Where Could I Go But to the Lord along with Michael Lining Music
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