Psalm 118 "The Situation is Normal"

Psalm for Today = 118:10-13

All nations surrounded me;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

         They surrounded me, 

                  surrounded me on every side;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

         They surrounded me like bees;

          they went out like a fire among thorns;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,

                      but the Lord helped me.

Comments:

This passage in Psalm 118 reminded me of the airborne soldier's mentality in battle, as demonstrated by Capt. Dick Winters in the midst of Operation Market Garden in WWII, on seeing that German armor had cut the road behind them, informed his paratroopers, “Men, there’s nothing to get excited about. The situation is normal; we are surrounded.”[1]

The people of God are a little like paratroopers. We are surrounded in this world, outnumbered, harassed, and severely tested. Yet we are not called to escape, but to engage the world around us, though no longer in some kind of military campaign as the nation of Israel once did. We are called to a much more challenging mission--that of loving our enemies and blessing those who persecute us.

Jesus was also surrounded by sinners and thieves on Calvary... and spiritually, we were among them.

Today, the kingdom of God is to be fought for, and won, by spiritual means, for Jesus' kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). We are to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:20-21), hatred with love (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27-36), pride with self-sacrifice (John 15:13), and the devil by our testimony (Rev. 12:10-11) for it is by Christ’s blood that we have been helped!

Do we feel surrounded today? The situation is normal.

Does everything around us seem to be buzzing and burning? The situation is normal.

Do we feel like we have been pushed so far that we are falling? The situation is normal.

And with that let me also say that the last line of verse 13 is still normal, “but the Lord helped me.”

We will cut off the enemy’s supply, we will cut off the enemy’s attack, we will not be overcome by the enemy on all sides because God is our help and as verse 14 sings out,

“The Lord is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.”

Thank God today and forever!

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[1] Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506^th Regiment, 101^st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest (Touchstone, New York, 2001), 131.