When I was a kid, our rabbit-trapping pursuits never bore fruit. We set a box upside down in the backyard over a carrot. (After all, Bugs Bunny liked carrots, didn’t he?) We tied a string to a stick and propped one end of the box. Then we’d stretch the line out for the enormous length of about 20 feet and lie down while holding the other end of the cord. We waited in whispers and giggles for an unsuspecting rabbit to come under the box. With lightning reflexes, we would pull the string, trapping the rabbit. But alas, a rabbit never entered the trap we fancied so cleverly concealed and enticing to the furry creatures.
Snares Laid For Us
The trap in Psalm 91:3, however, is cleverly concealed and most enticing to an unsuspecting victim.
“Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.”
This snare is laid with craftiness we never imagined as kids – that of deceit and malice, with bait specifically targeting our unique vulnerabilities. Our adversary has had thousands of years to hone his skills at spotting a person’s Achilles’ heel. He’s learned to precisely hand-pick alluring enticements tailored to our weaknesses.
Deliverance From Snares
The believer of Psalm 91:1 is close to God, abiding in His shadow. God is his refuge and fortress from danger and deceit (Psalm 91:2). But here in verse 3, he needs to be delivered (rescued, snatched away, recovered) from the trap of the fowler.
Our walk with God isn’t a perfect life. So cleverly hidden are the deceitful traps of the adversary that sometimes we fall prey to the trapper. But praise God, He knows our frame and remembers we are dust. When we are caught in the snare of the trapper, God delivers us, rescues us, snatches us away, and recovers us wholly.
God has called us to be faithful, not perfect. Who is faithful – the person who walks in the light for days on end, then sins and falls into the trap of self-condemnation, denying the righteous, cleansing blood of Jesus? Or the person who sins several times in a day but confesses his sins and is cleansed from all unrighteousness?
The faithful believer keeps running back to God – to His shelter and shadow, his refuge and fortress. And when he is snared by the deceitful cleverness of the adversary, God rescues him.
Deliverance From Plagues
God not only delivers the believer from the snare of the fowler but from the perilous pestilence – the engulfing ruin and destruction of plagues. This promise of God speaks to us now, and He is faithful to His promises.
Do we want to listen to the ten-spies network, believing every dismal word of circumstance spoken over our loved ones and us? Or will we trust the spiritual reality of God’s Word, that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed?
Jesus spoke spiritual truth and crushed physical realities – speaking wholeness to diseased and broken bodies and raising the dead to life. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”
My Recent Deliverance
One week before our son’s wedding, I recently fell off a tree stump in our backyard. My arm got banged up, and the following day I was in tremendous pain, unable to move my arm. I thought, “Oh no, I need to go get an x-ray. I got into the shower, picturing myself wearing a cast with my mother-of-the-groom gown. My imaginations grew worse until I remembered who I really am – a daughter of the Most High God. I shouted, “NO! By Jesus’ stripes I am healed. He is the Lord who heals me. I call those things which be not as though they are! Pain, you are illegal in my body. Begone! I am healed!” I kept carrying on like that and looked out the window to see my husband working in the yard. I went out to help as best I could, picking up branches and pulling weeds. Pretty soon, I got out the loppers to do some trimming. Then I realized, “Hey, I’m using both arms! Hallelujah, I am healed! Thank you, Lord!”
God is so good. When we claim His faithful promises and speak them into being, He backs up His Word. I don’t always receive instantaneous results, as with my arm. Still, I’m learning to persist in confessing the reality of God’s Word, which is more valid than any circumstance.
Our Authority To Speak In Jesus’ Name
We have the God-given authority to speak the name of Jesus over every plague that is named. In the name of Jesus Christ, we declare his life-giving words as his ambassadors. We can proclaim the spiritual reality of deliverance from plagues in his name. But too often, we surrender our God-given authority and ask God to do what He commissioned us to do – lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
Our heavenly Father loves His kids passionately and will surely deliver us from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. That’s what He promised, and that’s what He will do!
