by Rev. Aidan Moon
Rescued for Freedom in Jesus
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.
“He also brought me out into an open place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me..”
– Psalm 18:19, NASB
I grew up in open places. I grew up in places where it took a long time to get anywhere at all, where the sky opens up to a broad horizon with only the distant outline of the mountains to break it, or where long open roads stood between us and town. I grew up where hours on horseback were a matter of course, where any social activity involved a long time in the car. I grew up where “Go play outside” meant access to 88,000 acres of open Colorado prairie. As a child, it often seemed tiresome. Yet, when I left these spaces, I found myself longing for them again. I found myself longing for that dry open country full of nothing but pronghorn and cactus, space to walk and run and yell with no one to hear. I found myself homesick, not for one place exactly, but for that depth of space itself.
Open places are places of freedom, for me. And for the Psalmist here, open space is a gift from God. In the case of this Psalm praising God for his victory, open space is a place of freedom from enemies, of deliverance from death and fear. The open space stands opposed to “the waters” which drown out life, to encircling enemies, to that claustrophobic feeling of being closed in. God’s rescue means being brought out into an open place.
Not long from now, we will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Jesus was closed in by death and hell – yet, as my three-year-old often reminds me, the tomb is open. Jesus did not stay dead – he was brought out into an open place again. For you and me, that is the promise as well. That when death closes in, when we walk in the valley of shadow, when we are oppressed by our sin and shame – we are with Jesus. And he rescues us, his delight, and brings us into the open place of his grace and goodness. What a hope!
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
