Good questions are very important, for finding their answers reveals to us important truths. And in Psalm 76:4-7 Asaph, having made two powerful statements, asks a very important question. He writes,''Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. Thou, even Thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in Thy sight when once Thou art angered?' Or as our versification expresses it:
Excellent and glorious art Thou,
With Thy trophies from the fray;
Thou hast slain the valiant hearted,
Wrapt in sleep of death are they;
When Thy anger once is risen,
Who can stand in that dread day?
He had written in verses 1, 2 that God is known in Judah, and that His name is great in Israel. Here, then, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ finds a tremendous comfort. For she is the Judah and Israel of today. No enemies of that church can stand before her Lord. Let them try to touch her, and He will be angry and come to punish in a way that they cannot withstand. They will be cast into the sleep of death.
Although the believers know God in all His covenant blessings of salvation, the enemies of His church will know Him in His awful wrath, and in everlasting punishment, which they will taste fully.
What a comfort for us today, in these days when the enemies of the church and of the truth are becoming bolder and bolder, and Satan tries through them to snatch our children away by craftiness, but also by bodily persecution. It may look at times as though the church cannot stand, and as though God has lost control.
Do not for one minute think that! He is using the wicked even as He used them to realize the cross of Christ, for our salvation. It looked then as though things had slipped out of His hands, but Christ's resurrection and ascension to God's right hand reveal His glory and exaltation. And He will in due time break the bow and shield and sword of the enemy. Not one of His children will be snatched away. No enemy can stand before him. All will fall into the lake of fire, when their work here below is finished.
Read: Exodus 15:20-26
Psalter versification: #207:2
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter #217
Why not sing along??
Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
II Kings 9:14-37
II Kings 10:1-31
Acts 17
Psalm 144:1-15
Proverbs 17:27-28
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Quote for Reflection:
The old nature, with its carnal lusts, remains until we breathe our last. And it is exactly those Christians that are spiritually most sensitive and that have advanced farthest on the way of sanctification that will most deeply bemoan their imperfect state , and confess that they have but a small beginning of new obedience. It is they that feel the need of the constant prayer, ‘Deliver us from evil.’. –The Triple Knowledge by Herman Hoeksema (pg. 632)
Additional Info
- Date: 26-June
