Daily Devotional Thought-From the Psalms

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Psalm 68:4-10: ^{ESV 1} TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID. A SONG. God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! ² As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God! ³ But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy! ⁴ Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him! ⁵ Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. ⁶ God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. ⁷ O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah ⁸ the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. ⁹ Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad; you restored your inheritance as it languished; ¹⁰ your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

This psalm was sung as Israel marched through the wilderness, following the Ark of the Covenant. The massive processional line (all of Israel), with its set formation, sang with hopes of God’s deliverance. Scatter our enemies! “You restored your inheritance as it languished; your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.”

The church has sang this song n Holy Saturday, while we remember Jesus lying in the tomb, and we await his glorious resurrection.

We too may sing this song of hope and expectation of God’s deliverance. As we wander through the valleys of this life, we hope and pray that the Lord would scatter our enemies—the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. We pray that he restore the earth with rains from above. And most importantly, we pray that God would arise and be known in the land.

And we know that he will. He sends His Word through which he chases our enemies away and gives us the comfort of the Gospel. He promises to give us our daily bread, so that we don’t have to worry about what tomorrow might bring. But we also know that He has promised to come again. As the children of Israel followed God’s presence through 40 years of wondering and finally entered the promised land, so we too will enter the eternal promised land to enjoy the full communion with God on the last day.

So let us sing forth with the hope of deliverance, and pray: Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.