17 But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
18 Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name! Ps80:17-18

I find this same concept in places in the Bible. Here, Asaphasks God to save them through the king or possibly the nation (vs 14-15). He couldbe talking about asking for the Messiah to come and that is certainly the waysome have looked at it. But I think he is talking about the king that iscurrently on the throne. In the psalm, he has asked for God to turn and restorethe nation probably just before Jerusalem was destroyed or the first timeBabylon took away captive, so I don’t think he had the Messiah in mind. What I seeis someone, or a people, who are in desperate need and ask for deliverance beforethey will repent. This is a foxhole prayer. Save me from the enemy then I willgo to church.

When I was in the Navy and flying over the ocean. I had beenworking in a back compartment and had returned to my seat as the radioman. I lookedout my window and it was covered with oil. The propeller on the one engine wasnot turning. I put on my headset and listened to the conversation between thepilot and another aircraft. The other plane identified itself as “Dumbo 73.” I thought,wait, Dumbo is a designation for a search and rescue plane. My plane was searchand rescue plane but the pilot was using standard designation. That’s when ithit me. While I was in the back, the engine on our plane sprung a leak and wasshut down. The other plane was coming to escort us back to Midway Island andrescue us if we went into the drink.

That’s when I, a non-believing catholic prayed. “Lord if youget us back safely, I’ll go to church every Sunday. Then I stopped and said, no,I probably won’t do that, but I’d still like to get back safely.” I wanted tobargain with God. And quite frankly, it is still a temptation and in some ways,I think I still do.

Lord, help me serve you without any hidden agenda ormotivation. You have already saved me so help me serve you without any “ifs.”

Copyright by Ray Ruppert