God shall arise, His enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate Him shall flee before Him! As smoke is driven away, so shall You drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God! But the righteous shall be glad. They shall exult before God. They shall be jubilant with joy!
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!
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. God settles the lonely in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. (Verses 1 -6)
David is quoting Moses in the first verse. As the children of Israel set out across the desert on their way to the land promised them by God, the presence of God led their way. The ark that held the covenant of the Lord with His people would be carried ahead of the Israelites. It departed three days before the nation moved forward under the cloud of God's presence. Whenever the ark set out ahead of them, Moses would say: "Arise, O Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee from before You." And when the ark rested in a place, Moses would say: "Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel."
"Rise up from Your throne to help us, O God. Lead us on, our Father. Show us the way. Clear the path before us as we walk in this world. Defeat the enemy who would have our souls, our lives, our destinies. Then, Lord, return to us because we can't live without You. Don't take Your Presence from us because our joy and our rightness and our peace are all wrapped up in You." My version.
The children of Israel followed a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to walk through the desert. Before them, the Lord God rode ahead, blistering along to the next place He had ordained them to land. Sing to the One Who leads the way! Who fights our battles and clears our paths. Sing with all your heart to the One Who gave us His righteousness in exchange for our filth and rebellion! Who makes right all our wrongs because He chooses to. A very uneven arrangement. His life for mine. But by that, and that alone, I am one of the righteous ones. As if I'd never sinned! A child of the Living God. I shall be glad - jubilant with joy!
If that were not enough, my Father takes care of me. Watches over me from His holy home. Fathering the fatherless and protecting the most vulnerable of us as He involves Himself in our lives. We are rich with intangibles like peace, joy, faith, hope, love and self control. Favor and purpose follow us and lead us. Living water pumps through us until we overflow. Or, at least that is the plan. That we have mouths open to the filling of our beings with His goodness.
The rebellious, however, are parched. Thirsty for other waters. Eschewing the rich flow of goodness that comes from only One Well. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of other places to get a drink from inferior fountains. The taste at first is sweet, but the body eventually rejects the quaff that can't quench real thirst. All along, mouth dry and soul withering, they look on the fountain of Life and growl at its promises to plump and feed the spirit. Laugh at the naivete of our clinking glasses while they languish in their desert. We must hand them a drink because we are no more worthy of the luxury of this water than they. The only difference is that we took the cup from His hand and drank and drank and drank.
Oh, come to the fountain where a Father awaits. Arms outstretched and available to all who are fatherless and lonely. All who need to know the way through the desert. Our God still moves through our Saharas sweeping them clean of traps and schemes of the enemy so that we can walk through it to claim His promises for us.
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!
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. God settles the lonely in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. (Verses 1 -6)
David is quoting Moses in the first verse. As the children of Israel set out across the desert on their way to the land promised them by God, the presence of God led their way. The ark that held the covenant of the Lord with His people would be carried ahead of the Israelites. It departed three days before the nation moved forward under the cloud of God's presence. Whenever the ark set out ahead of them, Moses would say: "Arise, O Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee from before You." And when the ark rested in a place, Moses would say: "Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel."
"Rise up from Your throne to help us, O God. Lead us on, our Father. Show us the way. Clear the path before us as we walk in this world. Defeat the enemy who would have our souls, our lives, our destinies. Then, Lord, return to us because we can't live without You. Don't take Your Presence from us because our joy and our rightness and our peace are all wrapped up in You." My version.
The children of Israel followed a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to walk through the desert. Before them, the Lord God rode ahead, blistering along to the next place He had ordained them to land. Sing to the One Who leads the way! Who fights our battles and clears our paths. Sing with all your heart to the One Who gave us His righteousness in exchange for our filth and rebellion! Who makes right all our wrongs because He chooses to. A very uneven arrangement. His life for mine. But by that, and that alone, I am one of the righteous ones. As if I'd never sinned! A child of the Living God. I shall be glad - jubilant with joy!
If that were not enough, my Father takes care of me. Watches over me from His holy home. Fathering the fatherless and protecting the most vulnerable of us as He involves Himself in our lives. We are rich with intangibles like peace, joy, faith, hope, love and self control. Favor and purpose follow us and lead us. Living water pumps through us until we overflow. Or, at least that is the plan. That we have mouths open to the filling of our beings with His goodness.
The rebellious, however, are parched. Thirsty for other waters. Eschewing the rich flow of goodness that comes from only One Well. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of other places to get a drink from inferior fountains. The taste at first is sweet, but the body eventually rejects the quaff that can't quench real thirst. All along, mouth dry and soul withering, they look on the fountain of Life and growl at its promises to plump and feed the spirit. Laugh at the naivete of our clinking glasses while they languish in their desert. We must hand them a drink because we are no more worthy of the luxury of this water than they. The only difference is that we took the cup from His hand and drank and drank and drank.
Oh, come to the fountain where a Father awaits. Arms outstretched and available to all who are fatherless and lonely. All who need to know the way through the desert. Our God still moves through our Saharas sweeping them clean of traps and schemes of the enemy so that we can walk through it to claim His promises for us.
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