::psalm 116::

Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed when I said, "I am greatly afflicted" ... O Lord, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds.
(Psalm 116.7-10, 16)

Rescue. What a beautiful concept, that of being rescued. The thing about rescue though, is that before you can be rescued, you have to need to be rescued. That is to say, you have to be in a position where rescue is your only option left. You have to already be in a position of neediness, affliction, captivity, suffering, etc. before rescue will make a difference.

For the psalmist, his soul was in death, his eyes were shedding ears, and his feet had already stumbled. It was there, in the dark place of affliction (and, possibly, the dark place of disobedience) that the Lord rescued him. But it's not that he never experienced the pain and sorrow of needing to be rescued, on the contrary; he could now appreciate more fully the rescue plan of the Lord because he actually needed to be rescued.

I avoid needing to be rescued. I don't like that feeling of utter helplessness, of knowing that unless God comes through in a big way I will be completely disheveled. But what if it's there that God's rescue is most glorious, what if I need to be in a position of needing rescue before I can experience and really appreciate the rescue?