I was about to fall, but God . . . !

Many is the time when God’s people have been in a situation where only God could help them! And in this psalm, the psalmist recounts the times when he was beyond human help and, were it not for God’s intervention, he would have been overwhelmed and overcome, have fallen and been defeated.

There are times in all our lives when God allows us to get in a situation which is beyond our human capacity to fix. We have done everything we can, but there seems no way forward or out. The pressures are more than we can stand. The psalmist remembers how “all the nations surrounded” him. How they “swarmed like bees” around him; and how he was “pushed back and about to fall.”

Then he says, “But God . . . ! “ Time and again when he was in this sort of situation he had learned that there is only one thing to do – and that is trust God and discover yet again, “But the Lord helped me . . . The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!” There are many times in the history of Ellel Ministries when God has intervened in situations when there was absolutely nothing we could do.

May I encourage you to stop whatever else you are doing right now and read the whole of Psalm 118 out loud. Proclaim the blessings of the God who heard and answered the cries of His people. And then spend a few minutes recounting with thanksgiving the times in your own life when God intervened. Praise encourages the spirit and lifts the soul. And then, in the words that conclude the psalm, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever.”

Prayer: My heart is full of gratitude to You, Lord, for Your love and faithfulness. For the ways Your hand does mighty things for Your people. Help me, Lord, to trust You even more when all around seems to be falling apart, knowing that You are able to do over and above anything that we can think or dream of! Thank You, Lord. Amen.