“We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the Name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” – Psalm 124:7-8

As a kid growing up in Nakaseke in Luwero, I learned how to make snares to hunt for Guinea fowls.

One time, the snare got a massive bird. I drew close to the beautiful black and white-spotted bird but I feared to touch it.

So I ran back home to get someone who could help me.

When we came back to the trap, we found a large flock of Guinea fowls around their friend. They all took off at the same time.

With all the energy it could muster, the ensnared bird also managed to fly away with the string still attached to its foot. It had escaped!  I cried.

In the original languages, the word for ‘escape’ has two meanings.

It means to ‘slip away secretly’ without being noticed or to go through danger by fleeing, fighting or prevailing through it.

Our meditation today comes from a section of the book of Psalms that celebrates the final triumph of the Israelites over all their troubles including captivity in Babylon.

“We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare,” the psalmist sings. “The snare has been broken and we have escaped.”

Sometimes, escaping a ‘snare’ may involve spotting or discerning the contraption or the enemy’s devices in good time and avoiding getting near them.

It is also possible to escape after being captured into its painful grasp by putting up a brave fight.

For example when King Saul tried to pin the youthful David to the wall with a spear, David eluded the deadly weapon and fled from the palace.

On another occasion, David secretly escaped from his besieged house when his wife let him down through a window in a basket.

“If the LORD had not been on our side— let Israel say— if the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away” (NIV).

PSALM 124:1-6

Whatever situation you face, our God specializes in providing “the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

God can cause you to escape even “only by the skin of your teeth” (Job 19:20).

Christ has provided the ultimate plan of escape from the enemy!

Psalm 68:20 says; “Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.”

Indeed, the entire Psalm 124 from which today’s meditation is taken is worth memorizing.

“If the LORD had not been on our side— let Israel say— if the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away” (NIV).

I am absolutely sure that everyone has a testimony of escape on his/her heart.

Throughout the Bible, God did use different methods to enable His people to escape from dangerous situations.

In the New Testament, the angel Gabriel warned Joseph to “take [baby Jesus] and His mother and escape to Egypt.”

Then in the early days of Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees tried to seize Him prematurely, but “He escaped their grasp” by slipping away (see John 10:39).

Additionally, God miraculously enabled the apostle Peter to escape from a heavily fortified prison, on the eve of his scheduled execution.

The escape was so dramatic and embarrassing at the same time that the king ordered the execution of the 16 guards who were on duty that night.

Like the ‘heroes of faith’ of Hebrews 11 who escaped the edge of the persecutor’s sword, God is enabling you to escape. Yes, He is. Hallelujah!

“You have escaped,” says the Father of Glory, who is on your side. Receive that word,  Amen!

Prayer:

Sovereign LORD, if You had not been on my side, the enemy would have destroyed me!

On numerous occasions I have escaped; the snares have been broken. This is my story and it will always be, in the Name of Jesus, Amen!