Evening, August 19, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, for You are my strength.” — Psalm 31:4

Our spiritual foes are part of the serpent’s offspring, and seek to ensnare us by subtlety. The psalmist’s prayer infers the possibility of the believer being caught like a bird. So deftly does the fowler do his work, that simple ones are soon surrounded by the net. The text says that even out of Satan’s meshes the captive one may be delivered; this is a appropriate appeal, and one which can be granted: from between the jaws of the lion, and out of the belly of hell, can eternal love rescue the believer. It may need a sharp pull to save a soul from the net of temptations, and a mighty pull to extricate a man from the snares of malicious cunning, but the Lord is equal to every emergency, and the most skillfully placed nets of the hunter shall never be able to hold his chosen ones. Woe unto those who are so clever at net laying; they who tempt others shall be destroyed themselves.

“For you are my strength.” What an inexpressible delight is to be found in these few words! We may joyfully encounter traps, and cheerfully endure suffering, when we can lay hold upon celestial strength. Divine power will tear apart all the traps of our enemies, confound their politics, and frustrate their unscrupulous tricks; he is a happy man who has such matchless might employed on his side. Our own strength would be of little service when hampered in the nets of evil cunning, but the Lord’s strength is ever available; we only have to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by faith we are depending alone upon the strength of the mighty God of Israel, we may use our holy reliance as a plea in supplication.

“Lord, evermore thy face we seek:

Tempted we are, and poor, and weak;

Keep us with lowly hearts, and meek.

Let us not fall. Let us not fall.”