PSALMS OF ASCENT!

PSALM 124:6

Torn
PRAISE BE TO THE LORD, WHO HAS NOT LET US BE TORN BY THEIR TEETH. (PSALMS 124:6 NIV)

The Psalmist speaks from

having experienced the worst of life. A more agonising death than being swept away or swallowed is anticipated here. This is no theoretical piece of poetry, but a recalling of experience. He would relate to the toughest things we have been through. Being in danger of being torn by their teeth is as frightening a prospect as can be imagined. But although the hazards are real, they are not the focus. Gods help is the focus. Where is our focus when we are afraid? Fear can give way to faith - and the faith of the Psalmist has been built by the tests. We all want greater faith, but the principle we must accept if this is to happen is that faith develops out of the most difcult experiences of life, not the easiest. Something overwhelming and beyond the power of the Psalmist has been broken. He

FAITH

no longer fears the attacks of others who would do him harm. A Christian is someone with a similar condence because we know that the things that we are unable to defeat have been defeated by God - sin and death. Sin is worse than any problem, pain, illness, disease, disaster, disappointment or tragedy because its effects are eternal. Death without a relationship with God is to be feared because the state we are in at that point will endure beyond the grave. So why do Christians not fear sin or death? Because their negative power has been broken!
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:5357 NIV)

How was their grip on us broken? Someone was broken,

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. Matt 26:3639 NIV

SOMEONE

Jesus was broken so that deaths grip could be broken,

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. (Romans 6:810 NIV)

And thus sins grip was broken too. Consider the words of this great hymn, In Christ Alone,
There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious Day, Up from the grave He rose again. And as He stands in victory, Sin's curse has lost its grip on me. For I am His and He is mine, Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

BROKEN

Malcolm Cox, email: malcolm.cox@iccmissions.org | ICC Missions on facebook | www.nwlcc.org