“Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” Psalm 144:7-8
August 31, 2022
They just keep being thrown at us every day. Lies from the enemies of God, that is. It’s really wearing and highly offensive. What must God think? David was a warrior. That is why “there is a warrior’s energy in this psalm, worthy of David at the height of his powers” (Derek Kidner). True, David’s battles were intensely physical, bloody hand to hand combat. But there were cosmic issues at stake. The Canaanite nations against whom he fought represented a Satanic worldview filled with lies about life now and the hereafter. David’s and Israel’s wars were unique. They were a “divine enterprise, in which human instruments are employed, but so as to be entirely subordinate to the Divine will. Jehovah is not for Israel, nor for Israel’s foes, He fights for His own right hand, and Israel is but a fragment of His army” (Alva McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom). We, too, must see ourselves in mortal combat with God’s enemies, but with different weapons (Ephesians 6:12). The alien worldview and lies of which we are up against require a robust view of the Lord as our Warrior. He is the one who parted the Red Sea, the Jordan River, who sent down hail and lightning. God stood with His people in His mighty presence and power. He, too, is our God with the arsenal of the truth of the gospel. However, we must not forget it is God’s quarrel with our enemies, not ours. Bible truth is to be spread in the power of the Spirit targeted into the battle by the deadly aim of prayer. H
A time for prayer: “O Lord of hosts, may the energy of courage flow through my veins keeping me strong against the missiles of the evil one.”