Seeking God’s salvation
Like ancient Israel, the Church today is up against great odds—attacked by the media, entertainment industry, and secular educators in a sex-saturated, materialistic society with no moral compass.
An Asaph psalm.
1 God, don’t remain mute on me!
Don’t sit there voiceless—
don’t hold back, silent, God!
2 See what an uproar your enemies are in
how those who hate you
rear their heads in revolt.
3 Making cunning plans against your people
conspiring against those you treasure
4 they say, “Come on!
Let’s obliterate them as a nation
until the very name of Israel is forgotten!”
5 With that one goal in mind
they’ve formed an alliance against you.
6 Edomites, Ishmaelites
Moabites, Hagrites
7 together with the people of Byblos
Ammon, Amalek, Philistia and Tyre.
8 Assyria has joined in too
as the powerhouse
behind Lot’s descendants.
9 Deal with them
as you did the Midianites—
Sisera and Jabin at the Wadi Kishon
10 destroyed at Endor
and left lying on the ground like dung.
11 Treat their generals like Oreb and Zeeb
all their leaders like Zebah and Zalmunna
12 who said, “Let’s take possession
of God’s pasturelands!”
13 My God, make them like tumbleweed
like stubble in the wind.
14 Like a wildfire devouring the forest
an inferno that sets mountains ablaze
15 pursue them with your hurricane
and terrify them with your tempest.
16 Cover their faces with shame
so they call on your name, YHWH.
17 May shame and panic be their constant lot
until they disband disgraced.
18 May they acknowledge that you alone
whose name is YHWH
reign supreme over all the earth.
The psalmist urges his silent God to speak and act against an international mob in uproar, God-haters engaged in a genocidal war against his people. The word “cunning” implies that these enemies are descendants of the serpent of old, in which case they’re asking to be crushed along with him. While the nations listed encircled Israel and often threatened its existence, this particular alliance matches nothing recorded anywhere else. The reference to Lot’s descendants—Moabites and Ammonites—makes the alliance more bitter since the Israelites had tried to honor these peoples, their relatives through Abraham, just as Abraham had honored his grasping nephew Lot. And Israel was not allowed to take land from the Edomites, Moabites, or Ammonites, suggesting that these nations’ attacks on the Israelites were unprovoked.
The psalm’s second half mentions events in which God gave the Israelites resounding victories over oppressive nations, despite Israel’s extreme vulnerability. The psalmist hyperbolically seeks a rout so complete that the vanquished army won’t even be able to bury their dead. Because like the enemies mentioned, this current alliance is treating God and his people with utter contempt.
Facing such an existential threat, the psalmist asks God to crush those hellbent on destroying Israel, to chase them so hard that they’re left panic-stricken and disgraced, their alliance destroyed. The surprising twist comes in the psalmist’s request not that these nations be obliterated, but rather that, acknowledging God’s supremacy, they seek the mercy he’s so well known for and serve him too. That is, that God’s judgment would bring the nations to know and serve him.
Prayer:
Lord, while we’re not fighting for our lives, we similarly find our faith attacked on every hand. Yet you reign supreme. Turn us back to you, O God our savior. And show your enemies that you’re sovereign over all so they humbly seek your grace. Amen.
In your free moments today, pray this prayer:
May the nations acknowledge that you alone
whose name is YHWH
reign supreme over all the earth.
