Strength in His NameSample

PALAT, MY DELIVER

During the violence-filled years of WWII, deliverance for many Jews came from an unlikely place – the personal physician of Hitler’s right-hand man, Heinrich Himmler. Conscripted against his will into the role, Dr. Felix Kersten practiced medical massage therapy for the most influential people in Europe. When war broke out, he was in Germany treating Himmler, who “invited” to stay on as his exclusive doctor as Kersten was the only physician who was able to give him relief from various serious ailments.

In no position to refuse the second most powerful man in the Third Reich, the good doctor used his considerable influence over Himmler to derail some of Hitler’s murderous plots. Hitler gave the orders, but Himmler was the man who carried them out – and Kersten had Himmler’s ear. Using varying tactics from warnings that the burden of carrying out certain plans could kill him, to simply using his own personal favor with the man to seek mercy for others, the doctor is credited with saving upwards of 60,000 Jews. He also saved thousands of Dutch from transport, plus Poles, Finns and Norwegians. It would be decades after the war before Kersten was credited as the rescuer that he was. Most of those delivered by his intervention never knew he was behind their liberation.

Through the scriptures, God’s unseen hand is at work bringing deliverance to His people. His methods were so varied, it was not always immediately evident that rescue came by the influence of His will. David was not one of those people. A man after God’s own heart, he was ever crying out to God in times of need and watching expectedly for God’s hand. He was not disappointed. During the season of Saul’s persecution, David is delivered over a dozen times from the king’s assassination plots.

In just the events of 1 Samuel chapters 18 and 19, it appears David’s rescues comes from his friend Jonathan, his wife Michal, Saul’s bad aim, and a prophet’s warning. David, though, recognizes in all those methods, the hand of his God. In the title of Psalm 18, praising God by his strong names, the note to the music director reads: “A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul.”

God may have used others people and circumstances, but David was in no doubt who was the true rescuer, and in his song, he notes the many ways God was at work.

“I love you, Lord, you are my strength. The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress and my Deliverer [Palat] my God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my Shield and the Horn of my Salvation. He is my Stronghold, my Refuge and my Savior—from violent people you save me.’” (Psalm 18:1-2)

In just a few lines, David acknowledged the many ways God worked deliverance. Sometimes as a Rock, sometimes as a Fortress. There were times God was a Shield and a Refuge. By whatever means David’s prayers for rescue were answered, he did not fail to see God’s hand behind those means and rightly called His name, My Deliverer [Palat]. How beautiful a word that means “to cause escape” and “to be saved.”

As our Palat, God does not always part the Red Sea. Sometimes, the deliverance we need is not as obvious to us as it is to God. Paul says, for instance, that what the Jews who reject Jesus need most is “The Deliverer [who] will come from Zion” (Romans 11:26) even though what they thought they needed most was deliverance from Roman oppression. For them and for us, the greatest deliverance we can experience comes when we embrace God’s Messiah, the Savior Jesus Christ and escape the penalty of our sin through the forgiveness He offers.

“For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." (Col. 1:13)

There can be no greater deliverance, yet He also delivers us from temptation (2 Timothy 2:9), from our enemies (Luke 11:4), from this body of death (Romans 7:24), from those who are disobedient to the faith (2 Cor. 1:10), from the wrath of God to come (1 Thes. 1:10), from troublesome people, persecutions, sufferings and every evil deed (2 Tim. 3:11, 4:17, 18).

We might not always recognize the hand of God at work, but we can have confidence that God is our able and willing Deliverer whose name is My Deliverer.

SO WE CALL ON HIS NAME

Lord, you know where I need rescue, and you know how to deliver me! Open my eyes to see the true deliverance I need, and how you are answering my cry for help. When you send others to work in my life, open my heart that I might not miss you at work. I praise You, Palat, my Deliverer!

REFLECT

Are you confident that you have been spiritually rescued from the penalty of your sin by trusting in Jesus who offers forgiveness and rescue?

Continue your discovery of the strong names of God on Day 6.