Crouching Lion

I sat straight up in bed, gasping for air and fear shaking my body.  Discovering it was just a nightmare brought little change to my physical reaction.  Eventually my breathing regulated, but the fear lingered. Forty years later, I vividly recall that dream and the terror of it.

I have a fear of cats, any cats. I really think they sense my fear and love to slither through my legs and walk across the back of the chair I’m occupying.  Cats look directly at me and give what sounds like a soft “purr” to others, but is actually a lion’s growl. No matter how beautiful, soft, cuddly a cat might be I don’t see it. 

At the time of my nightmare, Wayne and I were living in a country where ten-foot walls surrounded the houses and courtyards.  Cats prowled along the top of those walls. I’d seen them often. One night they invaded my sleep. I walked along a city street while a cat stalked on the wall a few feet above me.  It stopped, lowering its body in readiness.  I was paralyzed with fear. The cat lunged toward me, landed on my back and imbedded its claws in my shoulders.

Whew! Even as I write this my heart races.  I’ve never fully obliterated that nightmare. The memory of it and those cats that I crossed the street to avoid everyday, jumped into my head when I read Psalm 17:12

They are like a lion hungry for prey, like a great lion crouching in cover.

You might think, “You can’t equate lions with alley cats!”  You don’t have my fear.

Earlier in Psalm 17 King David, probably “fugitive David” at the time, told us who the “they” were in his cry to the LORD:

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. (verses 8-9)

I’ll admit that as devious as I think cats are, they are not my mortal enemies. Most of my dangerous enemies are confined to my mind and attack my heart, mind and soul.

Psalm 17 is set during the account of David recorded in 1 Samuel 22-23.  David is

• adjusting to the life of a desperado
• leading 400 losers, vagrants and misfits down on their luck
• hiding his parents in a foreign country to insure their safety
• living in desert and caves
• hearing of the vicious slaughter of innocent civilians who tried to help him
• urging faint-hearted men into battle with their archenemy the Philistines
• dodging entrapment
• permanently separated from a trusted friend
• retreating from the hot pursuit of his enemy King Saul
• depending on God’s interventions to spare his life

Though I’m not currently a desperado, I can correlate the issues David faced to some of my own present-day “enemies.” 

My enemies are not really cats or lions or even people. My enemies are far more ferociously empowered by the Enemy of my soul.  They are the thoughts that show up in caves of sickness, persecution, injustice and hardships.  They are the accusations that taunt me in deserts, threatening boredom, insignificance and even death.   I’m certainly not talking alley cats here, but voracious lions crouching, waiting for their prey. 

These enemies hiss at me with condemnation, worry, bitterness, resentment, despondency, regret, self-loathing, comparison, competition, self-pity, depression, insecurity, low self-esteem, arrogance, pride, lust, idolatry and discouragement. Sometimes these temptations throw me to the ground hopeless, despairing and gasping.  All these enemies watch for my most vulnerable moment and pounce on me.

BUT THERE IS HOPE

Later when King David had been delivered by God from all his enemies, who were many and varied, he wrote Psalm 18[1]. It is a marvelous picture of the deliverance and victory God has for each of us from our own enemies. I’m including some of the graphic words here along with a bit of my personal commentary. (For dramatic effect, I suggest you read faster as you progress through the psalm.)

·       The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer

·       He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior

He is a safe and often refreshing place to go even in the middle of the day when my life is overrun with stress, worry, fatigue.

·       I call to the LORD…and I am saved from my enemies.

My enemies don’t always look mean and foreboding.  Sometimes they appear attractive, common and comforting. But they are enemies nonetheless.

·       The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.

I’m gasping for air, what about you?

·       In my distress I called to the LORD; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.

Regardless how faint my cry might be, he still hears it.

·       The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because he was angry.  Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. 

Great imagery!  I like to envision the Enemy of my soul crouching like a lion, trying to look confident while his mane is set aflame by the breath of the Lover of my soul!

·       He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.  He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

Visualizing his soaring makes my heart flip-flop.

·       He made darkness his canopy around him-- the dark rain clouds of the sky.  Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth.  The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

To think this dramatic lightening storm is for my sake!  It makes my enemies scurry, but there is no shelter for them because…

·       He shot arrows and scattered [the enemies], bolts of lightning and routed them

I relish the scene of my enemies in panic. Maybe it is like trying to herd cats!

·        The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of breath from his nostrils. 

·       He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.  He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.

This is the best rescue scene ever!

·        They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.

I start breathing steadily again.

·        He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

His presence turns the ferocious nature of my enemies back onto them.  They claw each other to death and I am standing free from them all.

This is a bit over-kill for alley cats[2], but not for the incessant Enemy of my soul.

And here is the outcome:

·       You, LORD, keep my light burning

·       You turn my darkness into light

·       I can advance against a troop

·       I can scale a wall

·       I can stand on the heights

·       My arms can bend a bow of bronze

·       A broad path keeps my ankles from turning

·       I crush my enemies

Scat you cats!

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[1] Psalm 18 is also recorded in 2 Samuel 22.

[2] I really don’t hate cats.  I’m just afraid of them.  It is a condition I inherited from my grandmother.