Episode Transcript
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And won't you stand with me once
more as I read from Psalm Sixty Eight,
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our passage, our text for this
morning? Psalm Sixty Eight, God
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shall arise, his enemies shall be
scattered and those who hate him shall flee
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before him. As smoke is driven
away, so you shall drive them away,
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as wax melts before fire. So
the wicked shall perish before God,
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but the righteous shall be glad,
they shall exult before God. They shall
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be jubilant with joy, sing to
God, sing praises to his name,
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lift up a song to him who
rides through the deserts. His name is
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the Lord. exult before him,
father of the fatherless, protector of widows,
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is God in His holy habitation.
God settles the Solitary in a home.
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He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a
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parched land. Oh God, when
you went out before your people, when
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you marched through the Wilderness, the
earthquaked, the heavens poured down rain before
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God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel,
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reign in abundance. Oh God,
you shed abroad, you restored your inheritance
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as it languished your flock found a
dwelling in it. In your goodness,
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Oh God, you provided for the
needy. The Lord gives the word.
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The women who announce the news are
a great host the kings of the armies.
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They flee. They flee. The
women at home divide the spoil,
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though you men lie among the sheepfolds, wings of a dove covered with silver,
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it's pinions with shimmering gold. When
the Almighty scatters kings, there lets
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snow fall on Zealman, oh mountain
of God, mountain of Bashan, Oh
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many peaked mountain, mountain of Bashawan, why do you look with hatred,
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Oh many peaked mountain, at the
mount that God desired for his abode?
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Yes, where the Lord will dwell
forever? The chariots of God or twice
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Tenzo, thousands upon thousands. The
Lord is among them. Sinai is now
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in the sanctuary. You ascended on
high, leading a host of captives in
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your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the
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Lord God may dwell there. Blessed
be the Lord who daily bears us up.
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God is our salvation. Our God
is a god of salvation, and
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to God, the Lord belonged deliverances
from death, but God will strike the
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heads of his enemies, the hairy
crown of him who walks in his guilty
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ways. The Lord said, I
will bring them back from Bashawn, I
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will bring them back from the depths
of the sea, that you may strike
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your feet in their blood, that
the tongues of your dogs may have their
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portion from the foe. Your procession
is seen, O God, the procession
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of my God, my king,
into the sanctuary, the singers in front,
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the musicians last, between them,
virgins playing tambourines. Bless God in
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the great congregation. The Lord,
Oh you who are of Israel's fountain,
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there is Benjamin, the least of
them, in the lead, the princes
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of Judah in their throng, the
princes of Zebulen, the princes of Naftali.
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Summon Your Power, O God,
the power, O God, by
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which you have worked for us.
Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings
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shall bear gifts to you. Rebuke
the beasts that dwell among the reeds,
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the herd of Bulls with the calves
of the peoples trample underfoot, those who
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lust after tribute scatter the peoples who
delight in war nobles shall come from Egypt.
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CUSH shall hasten to stretch out her
hands to God. O Kingdoms of
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the Earth Sing to God, sing
praises to the Lord, to Him who
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rides in the heavens, the ancient
heavens. Behold, he sends out his
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voice, his mighty voice, ascribe
power to God, whose majesty is over
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Israel and whose power is in the
skies. Awesome is God from his sanctuary,
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the god of Israel. He is
the one who gives power and strength
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to his people. Blessed be God. Amen, may the Lord bless the
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reading of this word. You may
be seated. I know this is a
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lengthy psalm. I notice there's two
pages for sermon notes. Is that for
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one for the morning and one for
the evening? Okay, I want it's
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a lengthy psalm right. So therefore
know that we're not going to be able
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to cover all of it in this
morning, but this is sort of part
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one and if you return in the
evening you'll you'll hear part two in that
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our passage this evening, Ephesians chapter
four, has Paul quoting from Psalm Sixty
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eight. So it's really not a
first half and a second half. They're
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they're they're complete, and then their
own passages. But there's this connection between
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them and that Paul will quote from
Psalm Sixty Eight. So that would be
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helpful this morning if we understood a
bit more of Psalm Sixty eight. And
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there's a lot of imagery in psalm
sixty eight as we read through this song.
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What kind of images came into your
mind if you were to put yourself
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in this scene of Psalm Sixty eight? What would it look like? What
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would it feel like? It's not
really easy to do, is it?
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We're not given many direct references to
two places or two people. We're not
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really told when or where or how
exactly these events are taking place. And
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yet, as we'll see, this
is a historical psalm. In this Psalm,
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David is looking back at the history
of Israel, at the history of
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the Lord. He's looking back at
this incredible journey from Egypt. It takes
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us from the Lord's descents down my
Mount Sinai to the Heights of Mount Zion
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in Jerusalem. For the first verse, Verse One, of this Psalm is
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actually taken from the lips of Moses
himself in numbers, chapter ten, verse
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Thirty Five. Whenever the ARCS set
out, Moses would say arise, Oh
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Lord, let your enemies be scattered, let those who hate you flee before
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you. And so here, calling
the Lord to arise, calling the Lord
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to scatter his enemies, is a
reference to the time when God did this
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for Israel, as he led Israel
out of Egypt, as he led Israel
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across the Wilderness and into the promised
land. The Lord is described here then,
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as a warrior, and his journey
is there for a terrible thing for
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those who would stand in his way. His enemies shall be scattered, as
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smoke is driven away. So you
shall drive them away, as wax melts
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before fire. So the wicked shall
perish before God. Smoke and fire here
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likely refer to the Lord's delivering Israel
through the Wilderness. How did he lead
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them in the Wilderness? It's a
pillar of cloud by day, a pillar
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of fire by night. And as
he let his people nothing stood in his
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way. No nation stood a challenge
to the Lord, none could deliver from
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his hand. And throughout this Psalmn
and all this warlike imagery is being used.
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And yet what battles are we reading
about? It's warlike imagery. And
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what battles are really being fought?
The Lord is traveling before his people as
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if on a traveling throne or a
royal chariot, as verse four says,
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he rides through the deserts. This
is a warrior's transportation. And yet where's
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the battle? There's no battles even
being described. It's as simple as the
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Lord going forth and the enemies flee. His word goes forth and the very
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kings of armies they flee. They
flee. This is a severe image of
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the Lord Facing Zero Opposition, a
frightening image of the Lord's Swift Conquest through
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the wilderness and into the promised land. And yet when we look back into
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our bibles, when we look back
into the history of this event described in
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exodus and in numbers and in Joshua, things don't look that swift. The
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Lord would certainly fight for his people, he would defend his people. There
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were also forty years where the people
were sent wandering in the Wilderness, waiting
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for that unfaithful generation to die before
their descendants could then enter into the promised
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land. And hear the Psalm depicts
not only a not simply a swift and
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and severe king, but also a
righteous king, a King Worthy of worship,
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for while the enemies are scattered,
the righteous are glad. They shall
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exult before God. Verse Three.
They shall be jubilant with joy. It's
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from the righteous that the call goes
up. Sing to God, sing praises
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to his name, lift up a
song to him who rides through the deserts.
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His name is the Lord. exult
before him. Verse Four, we
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see that he's a severe king,
he's a righteous king, and he's also
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a benevolent and carrying king. Verses
Five and six, father of the fatherless,
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protector of widows, as God in
His holy habitation, he leads the
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prisoners to prosperity. The layers here
are wonderful. Right to the enemy,
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God is swift in battle, but
to the broken God is patient. To
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the enemy, God is a conqueror
who takes away their possessions, but to
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his people God is a giver,
a father to the fatherless, protector of
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the widow, giving homes to the
solitary, are homeless, giving prosperity to
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prisoners. And you see these two
things taking place in verses seven through ten.
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Oh God, when you went out
before your people, when you march
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through the Wilderness. The Earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain before God,
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the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel, rain
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in abundance. O God, you
shed abroad. You restored your inheritance as
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it languished, your flock found a
dwelling in it. In your goodness,
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O God, You provided for the
needy. So the Lord went forth shaking
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the very creation, and the same
thunder storms and showers that scattered enemies,
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the same water that drowned pharaohs are
me in the Red Sea. The same
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water is called a blessing to his
people because the Lord provided water from the
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very rocks in the wilderness. The
Lord brought reign to the promised inheritance,
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making it a fruitful and and lovely
inheritance. Lord is described then, in
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his goodness, giving a home to
his sheep, providing for his needy people.
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And I love how complete the victory
is. There's no battle because by
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the time David's writing this, with
the things David is describing, it's already
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over. The victory is already complete. Davis describing a battle that's finished.
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The Lord gives the word in verse. Eleven the women who announced the news
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are a great host the kings of
the armies. They flee. They flee.
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The women at home divide the spoil, though you men lie among the
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sheepfolds, the wings of a dove
covered with silver, it's pinions with shimmering
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gold. The women of Israel would
not go into battle. The women here
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at home are those at home waiting
for news of the battle, waiting for
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news from the war. And what
is the news? They're announcing that the
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enemies of God flee. Therefore,
the women at home are already dividing the
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spoil, the women who had no
part in this vict tree. And yet
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what are they receiving? Spoils,
the benefits of this victory? And what
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about the men? Does that mean
they were the ones in the battlefield?
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No, this is an interesting couple
of verses. The women are at home
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dividing the spoiled, though you men
lie among the sheepfolds. Husbands were not
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battling either, they were lying down
in green pastures. And yet the enemies
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of God flee, and neither man
nor woman had to raise a finger to
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help. The women are at home
dividing the spoil. And what is that
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spoil? What is that blessing of
this victory? The wings of a dove
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covered with silver, its pinions with
shimmering gold. Does that mean? I
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mean surely silver and gold? These
are these are spoils of war, right,
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this is what kings bring back from
battle, silver and gold by the
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CARTLOAD. It's a measure of one's
success on the battlefield, how much riches
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you take from the enemy. And
yet the silver is called doves wings,
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the gold refers to a DUB's pinions
or feet. Well, what's going on
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here? What is in the first
time? The Lord has used this kind
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of imagery? In deuteroni thirty two, at the end of Moses's life,
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at the beginning of Israel's life,
in the Promised Land, Moses sings a
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song, and in Deuteroni thirty two
Moses says in verse nine. But the
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Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. He found him
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in a desert land and in a
howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled
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him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his
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eye, like an eagle that stirs
up its nest, that flutters over its
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young, spreading out its wings,
catching them, bearing them on its pinions.
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The Lord alone guided him. No
Foreign God was with him there.
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Moses refers to the Lord's provision for
his people in the Wilderness, comparing it
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to this eagle who spreads his wings, who catches his young and his feet.
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And here David is talking about the
exact same event the Wilderness, God's
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protection, God's provision in the Wilderness. He's using that same imagery, but
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now it's being described as a spoil
of the of war. This is what
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the women at home are dividing and
sharing among themselves. Not Actual silver,
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not actual gold, but the protection, the provision of the Lord, and
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this is a treasured possession. It's
called silver and gold. And we see
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here at the heart of this psalm, then, is what is Israel's greatest
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possession, what is her greatest treasure? What is the Lord's greatest provision and
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gift for his people? It's himself. God himself won the war without requiring
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the aid of a single helper,
and God himself is the spoil that shared
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among the people for throughout Israel's history, from Egypt to the promised land to
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the very throne of David, which
is where the Psalm is written. Throughout
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this long history, this has been
the point of God's covenant with Israel,
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to dwell in her midst, to
say I will be your God and you
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will be my people. And finally, after how many years, the Ark
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has reached its goal. Finally that
journeys has reached its conclusion. The Ark
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of the Lord has been brought to
Zion, the city of David, and
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so that trip from Sinai to Zion
is complete. This is the reason God
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chose Israel to dwell with them.
Finally, as the Ark Ascends Mount Zion,
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the Ark has found its home under
King David. The people possess the
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promised land. Finally, in this
Psalm, the Kingdom of God has come.
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David has provided a dwelling place for
the Lord to be with his people.
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Israel has a king, the people
have their land promised to their father
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Abraham. This is a song of
fullness, this is a psalm of fulfillment.
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David describes. Then the joyful celebrations. Your procession is seen O God,
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the procession of my God, my
king, into the sanctuary. Remember,
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when the ARC was brought into the
city of David, David himself was
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dancing before the Lord and singing for
joy. David sees that the Lord has
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kept his promises. Here is where
the Lord will dwell forever, Verse Sixteen
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says. The language, then,
of eternity is used to describe the greatness
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of this victory. And yet you
hear how this psalm also hints at a
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problem for Israel. As great as
it is to have the Lord fight your
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battles, to bless to provide for
you, there's also something very dangerous about
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dwelling with the Living God, as
Israel herself experienced in the wilderness. As
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verse six reminds us, He leads
out the prisoners to prosperity, but the
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rebellious dwell in a parched land.
Lest we just think this psalm is describing
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the Lord's enemies outside of Israel,
here reminded that the Lord's enemies are within
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Israel as well. Does the victorious
tune of this Psalm simply gloss over the
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the tragedy that happened in the Wilderness? For even though the Lord provided for
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Israel, rescued her from slavery in
Egypt, the people still grumbled and when
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they were shown the promised land for
the first time, when they were shown
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what the Lord would deliver into their
hands. The people outright rebelled. They
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made up their minds to return to
Egypt. When Moses attempted to dissuade them,
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they picked up stones to stone him. And in this grievous rebellion,
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Israel was sentenced to to forty years
of wandering. That generation would not enter
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the promised land. It was the
rebellious Israelites who dwelled in a parched land.
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And while the mountain of God stands
opposed to the mountain of Bashan,
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while Zion stands opposed to the false
mountains of her enemies, for sixteen tells
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us. Why do you look with
hatred, Oh many peaked mountain, at
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the mount that God desired for his
abode? Yes, where the Lord will
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dwell forever? The chariots of God
or twice, Tenzero, thousands upon thousands.
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The Lord is among them. Sinai
is now in the sanctuary. What
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an astonishing warning to any would who
would at any who would attempt to overthrow
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God's mountain. He's warning them right
that thousands upon thousands of chariots defend his
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dwelling place. The Lord is on
the throne of Israel. Forever. And
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yet there's a warning. But still
remains for the people of God. Who
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is it who is invited to praise
God? It's the righteous who praise his
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name, as we've seen, the
rebellious dwell in a parched land. And
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he tells us for now Sinai,
Sinai is now in the sanctuary. Well,
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what does that mean? Sinai is
in the sanctuary. Sign is a
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mountain. How can a mountain be
in the sanctuary? The Tabernacle wasn't that
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big. What does this imagery then
pointing us to see? Well, think
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back to that scene and exodus.
There before Mount Sinai, you have the
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people gathered at the foot of the
mountain, you had the presence of the
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Lord. And yet where is the
Lord's presence, manifested at the top?
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It's at the peak of Sinai.
And so it was Moses who had to
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ascend. It was Moses who had
to arise, he had to go up.
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And what did he go up to
receive? He received the law,
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he received the instructions for man to
dwell with God, the law, but
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he also received instructions for God to
dwell with man, instructions for the Tabernacle
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and so both the law and the
Tabernacle declare that God is holy, and
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they both declare that to dwell with
God you must be holy. To the
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Tabernacle housed the ARC. Inside the
arc where the tablets of the law two
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stones cut from the very rock of
Sinai. So it's Sinai is in the
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sanctuary. Is An important reminder and
it's a terrifying thing. Sin I was
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a mountain of dread and gloom.
The Tabernacle, then, serves not only
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to illustrate God's presence with his people, but it also served to show what
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a dangerous thing that is. The
Sanctuary of God was not designed to contain
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God, to house God, as
if it ever could, but more importantly,
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to keep people away from his unmediated
holiness. And therefore what I want
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you to see is how this psalm
of victory, this psalm of such fulfillment
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and praise, is still looking beyond
itself, because it's not just describing the
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Lord's prior provision for his people.
Even in this psalm, there's still a
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problem that needs to be resolved for
God to dwell with his people. This
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psalm shows us that Sinai has to
be satisfied that his people have to be
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made holy. And that's exactly what
this psalm is saying. While it looks
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back on the historical fact of God's
Protection of Israel in the Wilderness, we're
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also being called to anticipate, to
anticipate a far greater deliverance and a far
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greater salvation. Just look at how
David begins this very palm as he quotes
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from Moses in Verse One, He
also modifies Moses's words just a bit.
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He's not simply looking back, saying
God has arisen, remember when he used
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to do those things, or God
has scattered. Nor is he speaking as
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Moses speaks in the present tense,
saying arise God, scatter your enemies.
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It's not a direct quote. Rather
he makes it future. God shall arise,
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his enemies shall be scattered. But
is this a Salma fulfillment? Isn't
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this a psalm of God being faithful
to his promises? And yet David is
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already, at the very beginning of
this psalm, looking beyond, looking to
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a future deliverance. For David,
the purpose of Israel is not found in
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her past, the exodus from Egypt. It's not found in the present with
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his own battles, his own success, which Suc secured the promised land.
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Even for David, Israel's primary purpose
is still future, it's still to come.
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As he says in Verse Twenty,
our God is a god of salvation,
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and to God the Lord belonged deliverances
from death. But God will strike
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the heads of his enemies, the
hairy crown of him who walks in his
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guilty ways. Do you hear how
this divine warfare is pointing us to something
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far greater than just David and Jerusalem? This language is meant to draw our
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attention back to the pages of genesis
itself. That God crushes the heads of
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his enemies is a part of that
First Gospel announcement to Adam and Eve.
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When cursing the serpent, God says
to the seat of the woman, of
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the seat of the woman, he
will crush your head, you shall bruise
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his heel, because this is what
God's ultimate salvation looks like. This is
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why salvation and deliverance from death go
hand in Hand for David, because God
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is victorious over death, over sin, over Satan himself. Aren't these the
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true enemies that stand in the way
of God? Dwelling with mankind, as
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will become evident in the very life
of Israel, her biggest problem was not
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foreign invaders. The temple will be
destroyed, the people will be carried off
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into exile, not because the Lord
is not powerful, but because of sin.
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Therefore, even these events are pointing
US toward the one who is to
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come, the faithful son of David, the ultimate victory he would receive.
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This victory took the very descent of
Christ from the heavenly courts to Galgatha,
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from the upper room to the cross. It's Paul tells us. In Philippians
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too, though he was in the
form of God, did not count equality
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with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the
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form of a servant. Being born
in the likeness of men and being found
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in human form, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient and to the point of
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death, even death on a cross. And for what purpose, therefore,
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God has highly Exalted Him and bestowed
on him the name that is above every
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name, so that, at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow
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in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and every tongue confess that
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Jesus, Christ is Lord to the
glory of God, the Father. It's
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only in light of Christ's fulfillment here
that psalms sixty eight begins to make sense
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for us. Because Psalm Sixty eight
begins by calling out for the enemies of
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God to flee, right to be
scattered. And yet by the end of
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this very psalm, the nation's and
the Kings of nations are bringing tribute.
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Those who were God's enemies. At
the end of this psalm are called worshipers.
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Verse. Thirty one nobles shall come
from Egypt. CUSH shall hasten to
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stretch out her hands to God.
Oh Kingdoms of the earth, sing to
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God, sing praises to the Lord, to Him who rides in the heavens,
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the ancient heavens. Behold, he
sends out his voice, his mighty
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voice. The one who rode with
his people in the desert is now the
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one who rides in the heavens.
Do you see how Christ, who is
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tempted in the Wilderness, ascended to
heaven writing on a cloud, and so
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that only in Christ's defeat of sin
and death can enemies of God be reconciled
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to him? And as this psalm
describes God's dwelling with his people. We
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see that this has been the goal
from the beginning, for God to be
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present with his people, as you
and I are, these nations being summoned
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to worship the Lord. We've been
brought to a mountain that is far greater
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than Sinai, far greater than Jerusalem, where Paul could even look at the
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real Jerusalem and say, Heygar is
Mount Sinai in Arabia and glaciers, for
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she corresponds to the present Jerusalem,
for she is in slavery with her children,
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but the Jerusalem above is free and
she is our mother. And as
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Hebrews Twelve says that you have come
to Mount Zion, to the city of
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the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering into
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the assembly of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven. This is the eternal
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fulfillment of a of a journey that
began long before Sinai, this journey that
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began with creation itself, when God
rested on the seventh day. The Lord's
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Sabbath rest has been held out to
mant mankind ever since, ever since Adam
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failed to achieve it, Israel,
in the promised land, was but a
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picture of this eternal rest. But
Christ, in his faithful obedience as a
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son, in his suffering for the
sins of his people and his victorious resurrection
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over the grave, he has now
ascended into heaven, ascended to the right
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hand, ascended into an eternal Sabbath
Day. Don't you see? He has
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one and everlasting victory over Satan and
sin and death. But his victory isn't
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complete with his own ascension. His
victory will only be complete in your ascension.
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For notice who comes with the Lord
in his assent. In verse eighteen,
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you ascended on high, leading a
host of captives in your train and
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receiving gifts among men, even among
the rebellious, that the Lord God may
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dwell there. How have you been
brought into this eternal Sabbath? How have
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you been brought up into this heavenly
mountain, this heavenly city, as victors
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taking up your own throne? No, Christ has taken the throne and he
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leads you like a host of captives. See how Christ has won the victory.
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You are the reward. You are
Christ's riches, you are his spoils.
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He fought Satan, sin, death
and one so that he could call
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you beloved, so that he could
call you his own. And this is
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the victory we have right now.
Christ is right now sitting at God's right
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hand, and we await the fullness
of this victory. Know that your dwelling
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place with God is secure, because
a son of Adam, a son of
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David, is there enjoying God's eternal
rest, and he is the first fruits
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of the resurrection and revelation twenty one
gives us a picture of this dwelling place,
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a new heavens, a new earth, in the shape of a temple
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of God at the center. And
I heard a loud voice from the throne
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saying, behold, the dwelling place
of God is with man. He will
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dwell with them, they will be
his people, and God himself will be
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with them as their God. Before
Christ ascended to his father, he announced
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his victory to his disciples, saying
all authority on Heaven on earth has been
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given to me, and he says
go, therefore, go to the nation's
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proclaiming God's word, making disciples,
baptizing. I Love Verse Thirty Two of
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this Psalm. Oh Kingdoms of the
earth, sing to God, sing praises
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to the Lord, to Him who
rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens.
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Behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. God's word
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continues to go forth. God's Word
is still having a marvelous effect, for
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his Gospel is going into the nations
of this world. God's is raising up
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captives for Christ. God is at
work calling citizens into his eternal throne in
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heaven. Know that in Christ,
his home is your home as well.
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So how else could we respond?
But with faith, but with gratitude and
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with praise. Awesome is God,
from his sanctuary, the god of Israel.
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He is the one who gives power
and strength to his people. Blessed
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be God. Amen. Let's pray.
