Devotion 5.15.26

Psalm 68

God Shall Scatter His Enemies

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.

1 God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;

  and those who hate him shall flee before him!

2 As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away;

  as wax melts before fire,

  so the wicked shall perish before God!

3 But the righteous shall be glad;

  they shall exult before God;

  they shall be jubilant with joy!

4 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!

5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows

  is God in his holy habitation.

6 God settles the solitary in a home;

  he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,

  but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

Today we observe the final Sunday in Easter, the seventh Sunday of Easter, and the psalm for the 7th Sunday of Easter is Psalm 68. In this psalm, David notes that God has ultimate victory over his enemies.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Who is an enemy of God?

Our confession during the opening of worship reads as follows:

“Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.”

Before we go off on a tangent and talk about the enemies of God, we should, in quiet reflection using our confession, ask, "When am I an enemy of God?" Well, daily when I sin, or when I take my eyes off God and place my eyes on myself and cast aspersions on others and their "sin," like the pharisee in Luke 18:

"9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ "

You remember this parable. The pharisee was puffed up in himself. The tax collector, by comparison, was meek and lowly, to the point he couldn't even lift his head when he prayed: "13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Thanks be to God, who has sent his Son to rise against the enemies of God - sin, Satan, and death - to give us hope. This hope does not come from us, but from God. Our sin is separated from us as far as the "east is from the west" (Psalm 103). Satan no longer holds dominion over us, and death has no sting.

We are no longer prisoners to sin, but instead are now servants to Christ! 

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Pray with me: Gracious God, Forgive me when I sin. Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me when I act in ways that are not in accordance to your Word and when I fail to act in accordance to your Word. Help keep me in humble estate, meek and not full of myself. Help me to remember to love my neighbor as myself. In Christ's name, who died and rose again to make this forgiveness possible, Amen.