Lily Of The Covenant Series

“So Joab and the soldiers who were with him attacked the Arameans in battle formation, and the Arameans retreated in front of him. When the Ammonites saw the Arameans retreating, they also retreated from Abishai back to the city. Then Joab broke off his attack against the Ammonites and went back to Jerusalem. After the Arameans realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they regrouped. Hadadezer sent for the Arameans who lived beyond the Euphrates River, and they set out for Helam, with Shobach leading them as commander of Hadadezer’s army.

“When David learned this, he mustered all of Israel, crossed the Jordan River, and approached Helam. The Arameans assembled in battle array to attack David, and started their assault. But the Arameans retreated from Israel, and David’s forces killed 700 of their charioteers, 40,000 soldiers, and mortally wounded Shobach, the commander of their army. As a result, Shobach died there. When all the kings who were allied with Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sought terms of peace with the Israelis and became subservient to them. Furthermore, the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore” [2 SAMUEL 10:1-19].

This is the background for this Psalm. The situation described sounds suspiciously like the ongoing account of “incident” after “incident” leading to continual attacks against Israel that we witness in any given morning news read. The world hates Israel and wants to see the people we know as Jews silenced, or even removed from the earth. If God did not protect His ancient people, the memory of Israel would have long ago been relegated to the dustbin of history.

Let me go a step farther for the purpose of this message to say that it is beginning to sound distressingly like the constant assaults against the Faith of Christ the Lord launched by the culture in which we exist. It is of scant moment whether we are speaking of Christians in Pakistan, of followers of Christ in Iran, of servants of the Living God living in Nigeria, of ardent defenders of the Faith in the Philippines, or whether we are speaking of committed worshippers of the Risen Saviour living in Canada, the culture in which we exist is hostile to Christ. Thus, His followers are forever under assault. Again, if the Lord Christ Himself did not protect His people, we would have been silenced and removed from the earth long before this time.

Recall that our Master has testified, “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” [MATTHEW 16:18]. It is for this reason that we are given the instructions delivered as the Apostle wrote the Christians living in Philippi, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” [PHILIPPIANS 2:14-16]. Amen; amen, indeed!