The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Psalm 144:1-2,
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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"Praise be to the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me."
David extols the Lord in this psalm for training him for battle, verse 1, for providing him protection from those he fights against, verses 2 and 10, and for being the one through whom he ultimately wins the military victory, verse 2. This is a military psalm, a psalm of combat and war with the focus on how wonderful the Lord's help has been for David in a military sense, together with his plea for the Lord's continued help. It is David's acknowledgment of the military capability, protection, strength, training and victory the Lord provided David and Israel at that time.
It is often thought God abhors all war and would never condone it under any circumstance. However, as we read in Ecclesiastes 3:8b, there is "a time for war and a time for peace." There are those times, given the sinful state of mankind and the depravity within which mankind sinks, God ordains war to accomplish his purposes. An example previous to David's day was the responsibility Joshua had to conquer the peoples that inhabited the land promised to Abraham.
On the other end of the age, we read of war in the book of Revelation, where we are told that Jesus Christ leads his own in war against the nations, "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God." Revelation 19:11-13.
While we "spiritualize" our understanding of passages where the Scriptures speak of God's involvement in war among the various factions of mankind (and at times appropriately so), there certainly are those times when it is clear that God uses real, physical military might to accomplish his purposes. This psalm is one that acknowledges such.
The Lord uses war at times to accomplish his purposes.
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me."
David extols the Lord in this psalm for training him for battle, verse 1, for providing him protection from those he fights against, verses 2 and 10, and for being the one through whom he ultimately wins the military victory, verse 2. This is a military psalm, a psalm of combat and war with the focus on how wonderful the Lord's help has been for David in a military sense, together with his plea for the Lord's continued help. It is David's acknowledgment of the military capability, protection, strength, training and victory the Lord provided David and Israel at that time.
It is often thought God abhors all war and would never condone it under any circumstance. However, as we read in Ecclesiastes 3:8b, there is "a time for war and a time for peace." There are those times, given the sinful state of mankind and the depravity within which mankind sinks, God ordains war to accomplish his purposes. An example previous to David's day was the responsibility Joshua had to conquer the peoples that inhabited the land promised to Abraham.
On the other end of the age, we read of war in the book of Revelation, where we are told that Jesus Christ leads his own in war against the nations, "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God." Revelation 19:11-13.
While we "spiritualize" our understanding of passages where the Scriptures speak of God's involvement in war among the various factions of mankind (and at times appropriately so), there certainly are those times when it is clear that God uses real, physical military might to accomplish his purposes. This psalm is one that acknowledges such.
The Lord uses war at times to accomplish his purposes.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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