If It Had Not Been the Lord…

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
    let Israel now say—
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
    when people rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
    when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
    the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
    the raging waters.

Blessed be the Lord,
    who has not given us
    as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird
    from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
    and we have escaped!

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124

In the midst of near drowning, or the crush of grief, or the fire and horror of war, all faculties engage to do the next thing: react, recoil, survive, weep. Senses and function wired by neurons and chemicals in this marvelous human body keep us afloat whether we are aware or not in the raging waters. We operate on what is required for the next breath, continuity of life, even when death of all we cherished and hoped for weighs suffocatingly, or looms.

Only by the supernatural can such crippling entanglement be brought to full release. Looking back, through time, ashes, or healed scars, we sense God’s part and place. We see His footprints beside ours in the trenches, the knee dents where He bowed and prayed at our side, translating what we knew not how to articulate. We realize it was He who was whispering in our ear and infusing us with breath to go on. We recognize that the strength was not our own, that the Potentate of time had walked the eternity of pain and brought us through. Indeed, if He had not been on our side, we could no longer live. (1 Kings 19:11-12; Romans 8:26-27,31-39)

This same Jesus is the one who walked earth alongside man to take the rage of battle and suffering of our sin- past, present, and future- to Calvary. Today He lives and helps, His pierced side ever beside us. Can we trace His loving hand? How do we express thanksgiving for such full relief? (Isaiah 53:5)

“When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control:
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
my sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.” ~Horatio Gates Spafford (1873) 

Lord, for Your mercies, help, and rescue, with resounding praise, may I ever bless Your name.