“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge.
My shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior, you save me from violence. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I was saved from my enemies” (2 Samuel 22:2–4).
“I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I was saved from my enemies” (Psalm 18:1–3).
David sang these poetic verses “to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the grasp of Saul” (2 Samuel 22:1). David repeatedly praised his “Deliverer!”
Standing on the eastern banks of the Red Sea, looking back toward Egypt, Moses and God’s chosen people watched as God defeated and destroyed the mighty Egyptian army. Thankfully, humbly, worshipfully, they sang to their Deliverer. “He is highly exalted; he has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name”(Exodus 15:1–3). For the emancipated Israelite slaves, God was the Deliverer.
In Babylon, when the three exiled Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were bound and cast into the super-charged death chamber, the Deliverer joined them in the flames. The executioners cried, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire? … Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods”(Daniel 3:24–25). Nothing is impossible for the Most High God, our Omnipotent Deliverer.
Even as Daniel, another exile in Babylon, was fed to hungry lions, the Deliverer was present. Responding with joyful testimony, Daniel declared, “My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths; and they haven’t harmed me” (Daniel 6:22). Jehovah is the Deliverer!
In the New Testament, when a man was clothed in leprosy, Jesus was present. The dead-man-walking begged, “ ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he told him. ‘Be made clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean” (Mark 1:40-42).
Jesus, the Deliverer is still making dead men… alive! “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!”(Ephesians 2:1–5).
Let’s sing with David… “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer!”
