Psalm 54

With a freewill-offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

This is an interesting psalm to assign for Good Friday.

As we recall the tortured death of Jesus, what should me make of "delivered me from every trouble."

The freewill-offering of Jesus was profound self-sacrifice.

Jesus was not protected from every trouble, rather he was made more vulnerable.

There are twenty-three Hebrew words that, given context, can be translated as deliver.

This is נָצַל or natsal. In most contexts, I read this as a synonym for protect.

There is, though, a verse from Isaiah that may suggest what is meant here:

"But this is a people plundered and despoiled; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become a prey with none to deliver them, And a spoil, with none to say, "Give them back !" (Isaiah 42:22)

There is none to deliver them -- and they are plundered and despoiled because, "You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears." (Verse 20)

Deliverance requires cooperation, even more: collaboration; our active engagement with God in co-creating. The means for transcending troubles is to make ourselves more vulnerable to troubles.

Psalm 54