Delivered to Walk
In Psalm 56 David is writing about his physical deliverance from the Philistines. He had been captured and had been in danger of being put to death. He casts himself on the Lord and puts his faith in God. God gave David wisdom about how to conduct himself (He acted insane) to be allowed to live and eventually escape.
The Psalm was written after David’s deliverance. He is reflecting on how he responded to the crisis and how God saved him from it. The last two verses are David’s post-deliverance commitment to God:
I must perform my vows to you, O God;
I will render thank offerings to you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
Yes, my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of life.
David recognizes that God’s deliverance of his life was for a reason. Yes, it was because God loved and cared for him, but it was also because God had a reason to keep David around. You see that in the phrase, “that I may walk before God in the light of life.” The word “that” is expressing a purpose or reason for his deliverance. He was delivered to walk before God in the light of life.
David is primarily writing about a physical deliverance, but in verse 13 he says that God “delivered [his] soul from death, yes, [my] feet from falling.” While the deliverance was physical, there was a spiritual element to it as well. David was glad to be free from the Philistinian captivity, but he was also thankful that his trial didn’t turn his heart away from the Lord.
Every deliverance of God should be seen this way. Whether we are talking about our eternal salvation in Christ or a temporal deliverance from the trials of this life if our hearts are turned to and not away from the Lord it is reason to give thanks.
It is also a reason to remind ourselves that God saves and delivers us for His purposes. We are saved to serve. To use David’s words, we are saved and delivered so that we might “walk before God in the light of life.”
We are delivered to walk.
