... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us
from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm [or] Song of David.
Let God arise. Let His enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, drive [them] away. As wax melts before the fire, let the wicked
perish at the presence of God. Let the
righteous be glad. Let them rejoice
before God. Yes, let them exceedingly
rejoice.
Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Extol Him Who rides on the heavens[2] by His
name Jah. Rejoice before Him.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of
the widows, [is] God in His holy dwelling.
God sets the solitary in families. He brings out those who are bound with
chains. But the rebellious dwell in a desert.
O God, when You went forth before Your
people, when You marched through the wilderness. Consider.
The earth shook. The heavens also dropped[3]
at the presence of God. Sinai itself [moved]
at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
You, O God, sent a plentiful rain,[4]
whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, when it was weary. Your congregation has dwelled in them. You, O God, have prepared Your goodness for
the poor.
The Lord gave the word. Great [was] the company of those who published
[it].
Kings of armies fled apace. She who tarried at home divided the spoil. Though you have lain among the pots, [yet
shall you be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with
yellow gold.
When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it
was [white] as snow[5] in Salmon[6]. The hill of God [is as] the hill of Bashan[7]; a high
hill [as] the hill of Bashan. Why leap,
high hills? [This is] the hill [which]
God desires to dwell in. Yes, the Lord
will dwell [in it] forever.
The chariots of God [are] twenty thousand,
thousands of angels. The Lord [is] among
them, [at] Sinai, in the holy [place]. You
have ascended on high. You have led
captivity captive. You have received
gifts from men. Yes, [from] the
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell [among them].
Blessed [be] the Lord. [Who] daily loads us [with benefits], the God
of our salvation. Consider.
Our God [is] the God of salvation. To God the Lord [belong] the issues from
death. But God shall wound the head of His
enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as goes on still in his trespasses.
The Lord said, “I will bring again from
Bashan[8]. I will bring [My people]
again from the depths of the sea: so that your foot may be dipped in the blood
of [your] enemies, the tongue of your dogs in the same.”
They have seen Your goings, O God, the
goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.
The singers went before. The
players on instruments [followed] after, among the damsels playing with tambourines. Bless God in the congregations, the Lord,
from the fountain of Israel. There [is]
little Benjamin [with] their ruler, the princes of Judah [and] their council,
the princes of Zebulun, [and] the princes of Naphtali.
Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, O God, that which You have wrought
for us. Because of Your temple at
Jerusalem, kings shall bring presents to You.
Rebuke the company of spearmen, the herds of the bulls, with the calves
of the people, [until everyone] submits himself with pieces of silver. Scatter the people [who] delight in war. Princes shall come from Egypt. Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to
God. Sing to God, kingdoms of the earth.
Sing praises to the Lord. Consider.
To Him Who rides on the heavens of heavens,
of old. Lo, He sends out His voice, a
mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God. His Excellency [is] over Israel. His strength [is] in the clouds. O God, [You are] terrifying from Your holy
places. The God of Israel [is] He Who gives
strength and power to [His] people.
[1] The
body of the Psalm recounts major events in Israel’s early history. That would be expected in a Todah; however,
this is not a Todah. The invocation
shows that this is an invitation for the whole congregation to rejoice. This invocation credits God for all of the
Canaanite conquest, and every victory over evil that will ever take place. It is immediately followed by the
congregational song in roughly fourteen stanzas. These stanzas, appear to be antiphonal, but
we were unable to decipher their rhythm.
Here is the gist of the stanza content in order.
Whether in the desert or in the heavens, Yah’s (short for Yahweh) battle chariot,
the Ark of the Covenant leads the Israelites, and all believers, into war
against the forces of evil.
The fatherless may refer to the horrors of Egypt, where the
Egyptians are left to perish in a desert of their own making; or to the second
generation of Israelites, whose parents perished in the Sinai desert
wanderings. Even so, the point is made
universally and characteristically: God, by nature protects the unprotected,
but removes His protection from the rebellious, letting them struggle on their
own.
David wants us to pause and give special attention to the
events of the Sinai desert.
The giving of the Law at Mount Sinai was a spectacular and
horrific event. The heavens rained manna
and quail, but at Sinai, the heavens descended, to reside on the mountain as
well. Since thunder and lightning were
evident, it may have rained also, but there is no mention of it elsewhere (Exodus
19:16). It did rain words there, “And the
Lord said to Moses, ‘Lo, I come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may
hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever (Exodus 19:9).’ ” The appearance and voice of Yahweh at Sinai sets
aside every question of the reality of His existence, and the authority of His
Law, forever. We suspect that any translation
emphasizing raining water is merely a distraction from what actually happened. The point is that God came down, in cloud and
thunder, in words (the Law, the first books of the Bible), in manna and quail (pictures
of Jesus).
When Moses received the Law, the Holy Ghost was given to
seventy of the elders, so that they could preach and teach the Law to the
people. This is the prototypical
Sanhedrin (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29). In
those days, only a handful of people received the gift of the Holy Ghost:
Moses, the seventy elders, Samuel, David, and other prophets. There were periods when Yahweh stopped
talking to His people because of their sin (1 Samuel 3:1; Psalms 74:9; Nehemiah
7:65). Today we take the gift of the
Holy Ghost for granted. We forget that
He may be grieved (Ephesians 4:30, in context, by disunity) or quenched (1
Thessalonians 5:19, in context, as a defense against evil before the end).
David jumps to the conquest of Canaan under Joshua. We are not surprised to learn that God
Himself led the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 5:13-15); or that the mere report of
Joshua’s advancing army was sufficient to make kings flee and hide. In many battles, the women picked up the
spoils of war. Whether the correct translation
is “pots” or “sheepfolds” it speaks of humble beginnings, being prospered by
Yahweh.
The overthrow and scattering of kings at the hand of God, as
Joshua and the Israelite army follow His leadership, is so overwhelming that it
is likened to a mountain covering snowfall.
David jumps again, from one mountain to another as he directs our
attention to the miraculous capture of Jerusalem, and Zion.
Credit for these Divinely led conquests, is given to the extraordinary
participation of angels. Yahweh has also
abolished slavery (captivity is captive), so that He may dwell in the midst of
His free people, even the rebellious ones.
These historic observations culminate in a first blessing of
God, who has done such wonderful things for His people.
The point of the blessing is more than earthly and physical;
it is spiritual and heavenly. The
salvation of God is from the slavery of Egypt and to the rest of God in
Canaan. There is no place in the rest of
God for those who persist in deliberate trespasses.
Yahweh calls his people from Bashan, from the farthest corner
of the kingdom. He even calls the dead,
like Jonah, from the depths of the sea.
Today, He calls His people from all over the earth, so that they may
witness and participate in the downfall of the wicked. Vengeance is not a human privilege or right
(Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19), we ourselves are forbidden to take
vengeance, because the right belongs to Yahweh alone. Yet, we will live to see the sentence
executed against Satan and all his minions, angelic or human.
A second blessing of God takes place in the gathering of God’s
people in worship. The scene is reminiscent
of Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15:1-21).
David skips ahead to the glory of the temple. The Queen of Sheba brought 120 talents of
gold to Solomon (1 Kings 10). If the
Egyptian talent is in mind, that would amount to 3.6 tons of gold. If the Septuagint updates that measure to the
heavy Greek talent of the New Testament, that would be the equivalent of 7.8
tons. That would be in the neighborhood
of 140 to 302 million dollars-worth of gold in the today’s market. There can be little doubt that this amount of
gold allies Ethiopia to Israel as an Israelite kingdom.
The source of all power and strength is God alone. There is no other compelling reason for
Israel to exist as a nation. Yahweh’s
visible Glory lived there and that was enough to ensure Israel’s existence for
eight hundred sixty years. Neither is there
any compelling reason for The Church to exist as a nation (Daniel 2:34-35,
44-45), except for the invisible Glory of God living within us.
The Psalm closes with a third blessing of God.
[2] MT:
deserts. Doubtless, both are
correct. In the Exodus Yahweh rode on
the desert, but He also rode in the pillar of fire and cloud, all of which are
icons of His heavenly reality.
[3] This
could refer to manna or foul or even rain.
See the next verse.
[4] We
are not aware of any other reference to rain during the Exodus. It rained down manna and quail, but not
water. Water came from the Rock, Who
followed them.
[5] The
play on words between rain and snow is remarkable. It rained manna and quail in the Sinai desert;
in Zalmon it snowed kings. Snow is a
picture of purification in death. The
Canaanites had ripened in sin, until they were so enslaved to Satan that many
of them were beyond God’s forgiveness.
Snow covers over and blots out everything that is filthy.
[6] Ancient
Zalmon, not yet located by archaeologists, nor to be confused with modern
locations of that name, is either an alternative name for Mt. Ebal or it refers
to a forested slope on or near Mt. Ebal (Joshua 10-12; Judges 8:48). It is a key location for Joshua’s central
campaign, and the possible place of judgment after the Canaanite conquest.
[7] The
reference is to Zion, which, like Bashan, is elevated and overlooks the surrounding
territory. Bashan overlooks the sea of Galilee
and far to the west.
[8] Here
the reference is to Bashan’s distance from Zion. The Israelites who are farthest away will
come for worship.
[9] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations,
please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish. No rights are reserved. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
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