Psalm 68:19-21: Our God is a God of Salvation

"God is our salvation. Selah. Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. But God will strike the heads of his enemies..." Psalm 68:19b-21a

Have you ever been in a trial? Are you in a trial right now? This life is rough, and within it there are many trials that often seem overbearing. Nevertheless, our God is a God of salvation, who delights in rescuing his children.

Psalm 68 is a psalm all about God's righteous, salvific acts towards those who love him. Since God is a just God, when he judges his enemies, he also saves those who are for him. Even the first few verses of the psalm shows us this: "God shall rise, and his enemies shall be scattered. . .but the righteous shall be glad." Thus, we find in entirety of this psalm that God's righteousness causes him to deliver his children from trial.

Let's zoom in really quickly on a few verses of this psalm, quoted above. Note how that author of this psalm quite literally affirms that God is his salvation. His salvation is not deliverance from circumstance (although that may be included), change of heart, or anything else. His salvation is God, straight and simple. The psalmist looks to God as his deliverance. Furthermore, he next notes that his God is a God of salvation. Our God is not a God who leaves his children out to dry, but rather, he delights in saving them. God's salvific works are so prevalent that they are part of who he is. Salvation is in God's nature. Just like a thief cannot help from stealing, our Savior God cannot help from saving. We serve a salvific God.

But let us take a moment here to consider the following question: is the psalmist here talking about a spiritual salvation or a physical salvation? Answer: yes. Although I certainly do not comprehend it fully, I believe that we often seperate these two categories to often. However, this psalm is very clearly talking about both of these realities. Is God a god who delivers us from our sin and his wrath? Absolutely, and he has proven it by putting his son on a cross. Ultimately, this is the foreshadowing of this psalm. However, for the psalmist, this psalm meant deliverance from a physical trial that was before him, and thus it means that for us as well. In other words, the same God who delivered us from spiritual death will continue to save us from this physical life. Although the world is tainted with sin and causes us great miseries, our God is not a god who has left us out to dry. When we call upon him, he will deliver, and even if he asks us to be patient until he does, he promises us to give us perfect peace in the waiting (see Phillipians 4:7 and the rest of the Bible).

So, have you realized that God has delivered you, and that he is continuing to deliver you? Have you sung to and ascribed power to him in response (see verses 32 and 34 of this psalm)? Have you hoped in the God who delivered you from the trials of this world as well as the very wrath that you deserve?