May 16th
Psalm #76

Our God is an Awesome God

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,                                   

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;                                

And the sheen of their spears was like the stars on the sea,                    

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee….

The Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast….                                  

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,                               

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!  (Lord Byron]

[see full poem here:   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43827/the-destruction-of-sennacherib and you can read the full story in 2 Kings 18.13-19-37 and in Isaiah 36-37].

 

The key to Psalm 76 is found in verses 10-12 which are an exhortation to the community to praise God.  The psalmist can do so because she remembers how God has acted in the past, and she knows God’s concern is for the weak and the powerless. 

  • God’s abode and place of powerful activity is Zion or Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a symbol that testifies to God’s rule, will, and protecting presence (v.1-3).
  • God ‘wages peace’ by destroying weapons of war and rendering warriors powerless, a clear reference to the Exodus (v.4-6).
  • God’s victory is an act of divine judgment against oppressive rulers and of salvation for the weak and afflicted.
  • -the most common Hebrew word for ‘awe/fear/reverence’ is used four times in this psalm (7,8,11,12). Awe is proper reverence of the just community for God but the wicked rightly fear God’s judgment on their deeds. (v.7,8,11,12).

 

My friend, Victor, tells the following story which his father witnessed.  In the years following the Communist revolution in Russia, Nickolai Bukharin once came to the Ukraine to deliver a speech on the superiority of atheism to Christianity (it was just after Easter).  He ridiculed Christianity and derided the faith of priests and ordinary Christians.  After an hour of his contempt, he paused and asked if there were any questions.  There was deafening silence.

Then one man approached the podium.  Looking slowly left to right, he paused, and then proclaimed in a loud, confident voice, CHRIST IS RISEN.  As one the crowd rose to its feet and responded, CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED! 

 

*Here is a comedic take on the subject above.

https://youtu.be/xmwAD7nHqaY - Atheists don’t have no songs