Psalm 67
In Psalm
67 we are met with a really familiar passage – especially to those of us who
worship in a liturgical style. The
opening stanza of this psalm is a paraphrase from Numbers 6:24-26.
I love
coming upon scripture that I know inherently.
It’s like sitting before a warm fire and cuddling into a familiar
blanket. Okay, maybe that isn’t the best
analogy for July. Let me try a different
one. Coming upon familiar scripture is
like sitting down at a park bench and sipping your absolute favorite flavor of
milkshake. For me lately that has been
cherry.
There is a
warm fuzzy feeling that comes over me when I come upon scripture that I know
forward and backward. I feel like I
“fit” within scripture. I feel like an
old friend has come to greet me once again.
Perhaps the neatest part of this experience is that I can remember back
to the last time I heard the scripture and affirm that the Lord has been with
me since I last heard it. I can be
comforted by saying, “It was true then, and it is still true.” Meeting familiar scripture is part of the
process through which I know that God is unchanging in His agenda. He is true to His Word. His Word is the same yesterday, today, and
tomorrow.
So what
does this psalm tell us? What is so true
about this psalm?
- The Lord is gracious to us, blessing us in many ways.
- The ways of the Lord are known among the nations.
- We as human beings have been invited to praise God and to do the absolutely unthinkable – to be in a relationship with the perfect God.
- The Lord does guide us and judge over us.
As I read
this psalm, I am filled with an overall desire to go praise Him and thank Him
for all that He has done for us. I am
also filled with a desire to tell people that He is not done acting,
either! There is still more to see and
experience in God, so let’s keep praising His name!
Psalm 68
Let’s now
look at Psalm 68. This psalm starts us
off in a completely different direction than Psalm 67. It is a bit unfortunate, because the feeling
welling up inside of me from the prior psalm was a great feeling. So I’m going to have to be intentional about
recapturing that feeling once I am done reflecting on Psalm 68.
I say that
because I am troubled by the opening stanza of Psalm 68. I’m not troubled because the words are wrong
– I am troubled because the words are true.
God has enemies. God has people
who hate Him. God has people that are
driven from His presence. There are
people who will melt before Go like wax melts on a candle.
This line
of thinking saddens me because I know that it is true. There are plenty of people in this world who
are so wrapped up in their own existence that they do not desire to know the
love of God. They become His enemies because
they care more about themselves than anything else. Once more we see the self-monger rise again
and interfere with humanity’s relationship with God.
Blissfully,
after discussing the enemies of the Lord the psalm turns to giving praise to
Lord. God is praised because He can
deliver us from His enemies. He can
rescue us from those that would work against Him. He can trample the self-centered underfoot. He can bring us home from captivity. He can bring rain when we are parched {physically
or spiritually speaking…}.
There is
reason to praise God in spite of the sadness regarding the myriad of peoples
who make God their enemy. God is great
regardless of who rejects Him and who rejects us because of Him. Yes, we should weep for those who will never
come to His presence in humbleness. But
our mourning for the lost should never interfere with the praise that we
ascribe to His name. For He is indeed a
great and mighty God!
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