Born Thy People to Deliver Day 26

By Canaan Chapman

Don’t you love getting mail? Especially the good kind like a postcard from a friend in an exotic place, a letter from a loved one, or the package you’ve been dying to get since…yesterday. Or who can ignore the feeling of hearing the doorbell knowing it’s the pizza you ordered? Deliveries can be as precious as life, too. I fondly remember each moment my kids entered the world and the admiration I have for my wife in bringing them into the world.

There are many ways we think of “delivery,” but in today’s reading, David says a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s deliverance, a very special kind. The kind of deliverance we read about is a special gift given to the world—it’s something that both David (in the Old Testament) and Mary (in the New Testament) recognized. Though they received different things, gratitude wasn’t lost on either. 

David’s composition resulted from the Israelites returning from foreign captivity. God took people from “their trouble” and “rescued them from their distress“ (Psalm 107:6). In a way, Gabriel’s message to Mary promised a similar revelation. Hundreds of years after David wrote this psalm, God was still working. The world was in trouble, seeking rescue from the distress of the ultimate problem: sin was still rampant, and people were still being led astray. 

The Magnificat, Mary’s song, is both convicting and encouraging; it is a model of praise for God’s works in our life and the world. Learning what God’s plan was and how she’d be used in it, Mary could do nothing but worship. God, always a deliverer, would deliver His people yet again and in a completely new sense. The angel Gabriel spelled it out for her: a descendant of David, the Son of God, would be given to her to carry and deliver to the world so He can deliver the world. Mary’s words remind us of the mercy He shows us through all generations and the mightiness of His hand––Jesus truly is the joy of every longing heart.

This Advent season, as we anticipate our coming Savior, how are we acknowledging what He’s done in our lives? Do we get as excited for His coming and His promise to come again as we do other things in our life? This season is rife with distractions, so as an exercise, let’s consider how we can show God the gratefulness of our hearts…and if we’re not there yet, ask God to use us for His glory, and then share. The joy He brings is worth looking for a way to be a part of it.