Our spiritual enemies are of the serpent's brood, and they hunt us with cunning. This prayer admits a frightening possibility: that believers can be caught like birds in a trap. So skillfully does the fowler work that simple souls find themselves surrounded by the net before they even know it's there.

But notice what the text dares to ask—that even from Satan's meshes, the captive can be delivered! This is no vain request! From the lion's very jaws, from the belly of hell itself, eternal love can rescue the saint. Yes, it may take a sharp pull to save a soul from the net of temptation. It may take a mighty yank to extricate someone from the snares of malicious cunning. But the Lord is equal to every emergency. The most expertly laid traps will never hold his chosen ones.

Woe to those clever net-layers! Those who tempt others shall be destroyed themselves.

"For you are my strength." What inexpressible sweetness lives in these few words! How joyfully we can face our toils, how cheerfully we can endure our sufferings when we lay hold of heaven's strength! Divine power will tear apart every trap our enemies set. It will confound their schemes and frustrate their knavish tricks. Happy is the one who has such matchless might engaged on their side.

Our own strength? Little service when we're tangled in the nets of base cunning. But the Lord's strength is ever available. We have but to invoke it, and we shall find it near at hand. If by faith we are depending on the strength of the mighty God of Israel alone, then we can use that holy reliance as our plea in prayer.

"Lord, we seek your face forever. We are tempted, poor, and weak. Keep us humble, keep us meek. Let us not fall. Let us not fall."