the point of salvation--Psalm 9:13-14

Be gracious to me o Lord!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
That I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.
Psalm 9:13-14

Salvation itself is an interesting concept, and one that is often thought upon with disdain. The very nature of being saved is such that before the act of saving, one was unsaved. Most of the world doesn't want to accept the idea that there is such a thing as 'unsaved', and if our concept of things and the way the world is doesn't begin with the God of the Bible, then the idea of being 'unsaved' is one that can easily be looked upon with scoffing. "Saved from what?" one may ask, "Everything seems fine to me...what do I need to be saved from?"

But the interesting part of this conversation is that we are wont to ask the original question to see what response we get: "What is the chief end of man?" Since humanity knows that it's here to do something and to be something, this is invariably the question (in one form or another) that each and every person wrestles with eventually. Children grow up with the paradigm that a) mom and dad are in charge, b) I'm their child, and c) this is the world I know. It's not very complicated. But eventually those children become young men and women and they begin struggling with "what's the point of all of it?" and "what's my purpose?" or "what's OUR purpose?" Again, "What is the chief end of man?"

The Bible assumes that there is a God in Heaven who has created all things and gives life and breath to all things (Isaiah 40:28, 46:8-11; Acts 17:25-25). That's why the Bible's first words are "In the beginning, God." It wants the reader to know that before you read anything proceeding, know that everything starts with God.
We live in a day where everyone wants 'proof' if they are to believe in or invest in something. And this is a fair argument--"you want me to believe in something or invest in it, show me why and assure me it's real."
But the fact of the matter is that even if there isn't complete proof, if someone wants to believe in something, they'll take it on faith and continue on without absolute assurance. That's why people buy stocks (unsure the market will always be stable), buy houses when they get a new job (unsure they'll keep the job definitely), follow their sports team with championship aspirations (knowing that their team has roughly a 30:1 shot of winning it all), and cut the clock close in the morning getting ready "because I have plenty of time" (unaware of whether or not traffic will allow them to make it on time, sure that they'll curse the other drivers and the city planners for their poor job of building highways in the city if they're late). Truly, people will make all sorts of decisions and act on absolutes without there being any assurance that this is the best move. The reason they did it is because they wanted to. And this is good and acceptable. Everyone does it, and there isn't anything wrong with it.

The problem comes when the idea of faith in a God we can't literally see is scoffed at and dismissed because there isn't any proof. Again, who said there has to be proof of it in order for it to be acceptable? People accept things without proof all the time and don't give it a second thought, so why can't we accept God without giving it a second thought?
Let's be honest--it's because we truly don't want to. Interestingly, God's Bible even speaks to that: Romans 8:7--"the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God"; James 4:4--"friendship with the world is enmity with God."
"If God is real, why would He put us in a world like this knowing that most will become friends with it, if friendship with it is enmity with Him?" If you ask this question, you have to understand that these passages of Scripture were written 2000 years ago, and the initial problem that opened up "good and evil" and "right and wrong" is recorded as happening MUCH longer ago than that. Originally man was called to simply live in the world where God is sovereign and mans job is to enjoy perfect peace with Him and His creation. This was lost when man rebelled in sin. Now this world is in constant rebellion, and man's enmity with the idea of God unwittingly proves the Bible true in this regard. When James writes that friendship with the world is enmity with God, he writes this with full knowledge that the reason the world is LIKE this is that man is in rebellion from God--the world wasn't created with evil in it, but the world inherited evil when man rebelled.

So could we at least accept that man doesn't want to believe in God? Maybe we should take it further though--many people DO want to believe in God, but have problems believing in God the way the Bible depicts Him. They say, "I'd love to believe in Him, I just have problems with the God of the Bible. He seems angry, bitter, jealous, narcissistic, selfish, etc. I struggle with believing in a god like that." But friend, who do you know that isn't like that themself? Isn't everyone like this, at least to an extent? "Well yes, and that's the problem with the world." And when you say this, you're close to understanding the Bible, because the Bible asserts that the world is like this based on nothing but rebellion from God, whereas GOD is like this based on the fact that He's God and He can be. It's not unwarranted anger, bitterness, jealousy, narcissism, or selfishness if He has a reason to be angry (His whole creation hates Him), a reason to be bitter (He gives them reason all the time to turn to Him and listen to Him and they won't), a reason to be jealous (every human trusts in humanity's gifting to solve the world's problems, when God Himself GAVE them the ability to solve these problems), a reason to be narcissistic (there's nothing in creation BETTER than God Himself because, being created, it's all insignificant and futile compared to He), or a reason to be selfish (it's HIS creation and no one else's).

All arguments against God's existence are stopped by God's sovereignty, because every argument is based on human understanding, and God has even said in the Bible that the things of God seem like foolishness to the world in its understanding(1 Corinthians 1:22, 2:14). When someone argues against God, they prove the Scripture true with their arguing against Him, because the Scripture said they would. Seems like God appears to be sovereign still, even if no one wants Him to be!
If this is the state of humanity, then we can see easily why there would be the need for "salvation". If man is created by God, uses the life God has given him to rebel from God and not believe in God, then dies without any clue of what will happen after he dies, then the only thing that would appear to be certain is that nothing is certain, other than that we might find out we were wrong in our thinking He wasn't real. And if we were, we'll fall into His hands and be judged as those who continually failed to accept His Lordship, followed by the appropriate punishment given by the Judge of all things who always judges rightly (Genesis 18:25, Deuteronomy 32:4). Thus what man needs is salvation.

So David in the Psalm 9 passage prays humbly, "Be gracious to me, O Lord!" He knows that IF this God is THE God, then David himself hasn't given Him the appropriate attention and acknowledgment in his own life up until this point. Thus his prayer to God starts with a plea for grace from God--grace is pardon and forgiveness based on simply goodness in the grace-giver. David humbly prays for this first and foremost. He doesn't assume that the problems in his life (which appear to be many looking at the rest of this Psalm) are God's fault for giving him a burdensome lot--rather he assumes that the problems are probably there because he himself has fallen into them by virtue of not watching his own step. So he asks for grace from the Ultimate Grace-giver.
He then asks for the Lord to "see (his) affliction from those who hate (him)" and then addresses this God as "you who lift me up from the gates of death." In much the same way as in the previous statement, David doesn't address God as "you who lowered me to the gates of death" before asking for God to lift him back up--rather, he seems to assume that God's role in David's predicament is that of being the One who is strong and able to lift him up from the gates of death. To David, it's not God's fault--but God can save him. And since he's bringing his concern to Him, he knows it.

Then from here David gives the incentive for WHY God should save him from his predicament: "that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation." David is surely not trying to sell God on helping him...or even buy God for that matter...by saying "I'll worship You if You help me!" David knows that God knows the deepest parts of all hearts (Psalm 139:2, Prov. 21:2, Ezek. 11:5) and bargaining with Him doesn't work because bargaining only works between equal sides who know the same amount about each other and would be pushed to a truce of equal faith in each other. Instead, David simply states the incentive as a proclamation and praise. Not "save me and I'll praise you..." but "save me SO THAT I'll praise you." "I'll recount all your praises...I'll rejoice in your salvation."

Notice the succession of what happens here-->David prays that God save him from his danger, and David will rejoice in the saving that God will perform.

This is the point of salvation anyways, according to the Bible. The point of God saving anyone is Him getting the glory. Ephesians 2:8-10--"For by grace you've been saved through faith...it is the gift of God...for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." The point of saving is to be realigned with the God that we've fallen out of alignment with. This is not burdensome (1 John 5:3)--it's freeing, liberating, and life-giving (Isaiah 12:3-6, John 10:10). This is because humanity only truly flourishes when humanity knows its proper place in correlation with God's proper place--when this is realigned and set right, flourishing is inevitable (Daniel 11:32).

"How could a loving God be so selfish and so concerned with His own glory?" many may ask. But the question is a simple one to answer--it's possible in and of the fact that He is in fact the Sovereign God of all things. According to the Bible, God will be glorified whether humanity worships Him or not (Luke 19:40, Romans 9:22-23). All things exist for His glory, and if this seems selfish, it's only because the beholder envisions selfishness in people who are selfish without merit. As we've seen already, it's impossible for God's selfishness to be without merit. He's either God who deserves glory, or He's not God. You should decide.

And the fruit of the salvation the Lord brings about through the work of His holy and glorious Son Jesus is such that He will get glory from those who trust in His holy and glorious Son Jesus. He is glorified by His creation already without saving anyone. But He's MORE glorified when He puts the song of His glory into His people's hearts.

I pray that this is the song that's on your heart. What are you going to trust in? Mankind's faulty and schizophrenic way of understanding and thinking about things? Or will you trust in the One the Scripture says all things are created from, to, and through (Romans 11:36)? I'd rather take my chances with a God who's never been proven faulty than with a human race that's proven faulty every second of every day. What about you?