Victory & Blessing with God

“Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him … let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice …

God setteth the solitary in families: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel …

Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain … thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the Word …

this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in … The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place …

Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them …

*Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. *

Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth; O sing praises unto the Lord; Selah.”
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This Psalm divides into 2 around the pivot of verses 18,19. First God is in the battlefield, then He is in His sanctuary. We will consider just the first part, but note the importance throughout of God’s presence.

When God arises to act, His enemies flee, His saints rejoice. Then we have a look back to God’s dealing with Israel in the wilderness. To the rebellious, it’s a dry place, nothing there, but to the saints, God’s family is there!

Then we have God acting in grace and mercy ‘plentiful rain’, preparing ‘thy goodness’, giving ‘the Word’ (Consider the incarnation – Heb 10:5, John 1:14) ‘for the poor’.

Next our thoughts turn to the battle. Verse 16 speaks of ‘the hill which God desires to dwell in’, Zion, but I want to think of another hill, not far off – Golgotha. What grace, that while on Zion, the Lord is among’ his angels, on Golgotha, He was alone, forsaken! (Matt 26:53, 27:46)

But victory was accomplished, Christ rose in triumph, exalted to the throne, verse 18 (Eph 4:8-12) in order to bless us, with salvation in all its fullness.

Let us, in return, enter into the sanctuary to bless ‘the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits’.