Psalm 76
Today we move again from Proverbs back to the Psalms. And in so doing we move from John’s leading, back to my leading. I have thoroughly enjoyed John’s comments on Proverbs (and on Psalms beginning back on June 23 when I was first laid up) and we considered his staying with Psalms. But as I reflected I realized how much I missed the discipline in my life that leading RTB has given me. My goal is always to get comments out to the rest of you before 9:00 am – which makes RTB the first thing on my plate every morning. Actually, second to that cup of coffee sitting beside me…! But you get the point. So beginning tomorrow, early morning!
Today’s Psalm 76 tells of battles between the Lord and His enemies. It’s easy to read this Psalm with the end times in mind, that final battle between God and all the forces of evil. But we can also read Psalm 76 with another battle in mind, with Assyria besieging the Israelites and threatening Jerusalem. That incident is covered in II Kings 18:13-19:37. Assyria has just taken Israel, the Northern Kingdom into exile and King Sennacherib now has his eyes on Judah, the Southern Kingdom and its stronghold, Jerusalem. I would encourage you to read the full story, but the key verse for Psalm 76 is the victory at the Lord’s hand, as told in II Kings 19:35-36a: “Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of the 185,000 were dead. So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and returned home…” Now we read the Psalmist’s summation of the Lord’s deliverance: At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep. (v. 6) There’s more to these Psalms, the deeper we dig! Glory!