Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.
Psalm 68:20
Tomorrow marks the anniversary of my diving accident – decades have passed since that fateful day I crunched my neck, then floated helplessly paralyzed, face-down in shallow water. Someone once asked, “Didn’t you panic when you were in the water? You were running out of breath… weren’t you frightened?”
Strange as it may seem, I wasn’t frightened. Although I knew that in the next few seconds water would flood my lungs, a deep and powerful peace held fear at bay. Today’s verse explains why. Our sovereign Lord is an “escape artist” when it comes to death. “All that pertains to deliverance from death, all that prepares for it, all that makes it easy to be borne, all that constitutes a rescue from its pains and horrors, all that follows death in a higher and more blessed world, all that makes death ‘final,’ and places us in a condition where death is no more to be dreaded – all this belongs to God. All this is under His control. He only can enable us to bear death; He only can conduct us from a bed of death to a world where we shall never die.”1
As it turned out, my sister Kathy rescued me seconds before I began to drown. Psalm 18:4-6 says, “The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.”
Only heaven will reveal the countless times we escape death every day. Thank Him for His sovereign protection over your life – whether broken necks, broken arms, or broken fingernails, God blankets you with His protection. When your time comes to leave this earth for the next, he will provide the same ‘escape!’
Sovereign God, thank you for keeping death at bay until it’s your time to call me home. Until then, give me grace to serve you wholeheartedly.
1Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blessings,
