Some time ago I caught a small insect, a tiny beetle, and guarded it carefully on all sides while preparing to examine it closely. But it suddenly surprised me by unfolding a pair of tiny wings that had been concealed under the wing cases, and mounting up above my head, out of reach and sight in a second.
Many times since, I have thought of this incident, when apparently caught in one of the enemy's trap, and hedged about on all sides, unable to escape in any direction except upward. Then these beautiful words from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White, a writer well known to the readers of Present Truth, have come as an inspiration: "The soul may ascend nearer heaven on the wings of praise."--Ellen White, Steps to Christ, p. 104.
A vigorous use of these wings soon carries us out of the enemy's reach, above the mist and fog that veil the glory of the Lord, into the clear sunlight of His presence.
How many of the Psalms, beginning in a sorrowful strain, the utterance of one cast down and sorely beset with temptation and trial, break out into praise and thanksgiving to God as the soul ascends, like the sweet notes of the lark rising skyward, and end with a triumphant song of victory, like that of a bird escaped out of the snare of the fowler.
Take, for example, the 69th Psalm, beginning, "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2 I sink in deep mire where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me;" (Psalm 69:1) and continuing in this strain till at last the struggling soul finds a way out of the "deep mire" and the "deep waters": "I am poor and sorrowful: let your salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song. and magnify Him with thanksgiving. And it shall please the Lord. ... Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas, and everything thatmoves therein, For God will save Zion." (Psalm 69:29-21,34-35)
Here the spirit of heaviness is exchanged for the garment of praise, and through praise the soul finds the salvation of the Lord that sets him up on high. This is a demonstration of: "Whoso offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares a way that I may show him the salvation of God." (Psalm 50:23,margin)
Many stances of deliverance wrought through praise when no way of escape seemed possible are given in the Scriptures to teach us how we may break through the snares of Satan, and escape out of the snare of the fowler.
Paul and Silas "prayed and sang praises to God" at midnight, and the earthquake resulted, opening their prison doors and bringing their jailer in terror to their feet. (Acts 16:25-29)
When Jehoshaphat's army "began to sing and to praise, the Lord set liers in wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten; ... and there were none that escaped." (2 Chronicles 20:22,24)
Let us keep "the wings of praise" in constant exercise, ascending on them into the clear atmosphere of heaven. Then they will be ready for any emergency, and we can "fly away and be at rest" in God, even while walking in the midst of trouble.
When Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John from their fishing nets, it was not with the words, "Come to me, and I will save you," although they were sinners, and they needed the salvation which He had for them, and which He offers to all. But He said to them: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19)
They left all, and followed Him, and were prepared for service; and the preparation for service was the pruning off of their bad habits, the cleansing of them from sin, and the filling of them with the Holy Ghost.
The strongest incentive one can have to be cleansed and kept from sin is not the thought that the sin will result in the loss of the soul, but that it will cause the loss of some other soul.--Present Truth, May 8, 1902--Psalm 69:1-35.