In Psalm 108:6-13, David cries out to God and asks Him to “Save us and help us with your right hand, that those You love may be delivered” (verse 6). In this verse, we see two soteriological words – “save” and “delivered.” God is in the business of salvation. He knows that we are fallen creatures, and He desires to save and deliver us from all of the effects of our fall, which include sin, the influences of Satan, the ways of the world, death, and hell. Historically, the “right hand” has always been understood as the hand of strength, of honor, and of victory – all of which play a significant role in our salvation. We notice also that David says, “With God we will gain the victory, and He will trample down our enemies” (verse 13). This verse emphasizes that victorious living over the enemies of sin, Satan, the world, death, and hell requires us to walk “with God;” without His Word, His presence, and His power in our lives, no victory is possible. Our willing submission to the effects of sin has rendered us completely powerless and ineffective to deal with the opposition of our enemies, which includes sin itself. One may accurately say that we are trapped, and as Paul puts it, “in slavery” (cf., Galatians 4:25). Our willing surrender to God is our only hope for victory in this life. I thank and praise God that His eternal plan provided for a solution to our dilemma.
Our passage today in Isaiah 44:24-46:13 clearly reveals God’s authority and sovereignty over all creation. As Maker of “all things” (44:24), God therefore holds authority over everything. Eight times in our reading today, God reminds us what we read twice yesterday in Isaiah 44:6 and 8 - that “He alone is the sovereign God; there is no other” (cf., Isaiah 45:5; 45:6; 45:14; 45:18; and 45:22). Nothing and no one is God’s equal, thus His sovereignty is complete, full, and absolute (45:5-7). As we mentioned yesterday, in His sovereign capacity, God will ordain and call out a “sovereign” king – Cyrus the Great – and use him to perform and “accomplish all that He pleases” (44:28). Like all previous human sovereigns before him, Cyrus may think he is calling the shots, but he will merely become pliable putty in the hands of God – doing what God wants done.
In Galatians 4:21-5:6, Paul pokes a little fun at the Galatian Christians when he says, “Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?” (verse 21). In our world today, many people take the Galatian approach to a lot of different issues – acting much like armchair experts who hold strong opinions but are actually unaware of the truth on which they think their opinions rest. Paul provides the Galatian believers an analogy about the two sons of Abraham - “one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman” (verse 22). Paul’s purpose here is to show the relationship of the two covenants – law and its subsequent slavery to it – and the freedom from the law that grace provides (verses 23-31). The law, which is binding, cannot help us. No slave, who has once experienced freedom, ever wants to return to a life of bondage. Paul insists that the grace of “Christ has set us free for freedom,” and for this reason, He tells us to “stand firm” in this reality (5:1). Jesus Christ is actually the only pathway to genuine freedom.
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