PSALM 68

The God of Sinai and of the Sanctuary.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.

1Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered,

And let those who hate Him flee before Him.

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

As wax melts before the fire,

So let the wicked perish before God.

3But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God;

Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.

4Sing to God, sing praises to His name;

Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts,

Whose name is the Lord, and exult before Him.

5A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows,

Is God in His holy habitation.

6God makes a home for the lonely;

He leads out the prisoners into prosperity,

Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

7O God, when You went forth before Your people,

When You marched through the wilderness, Selah.

8The earth quaked;

The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;

Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

9You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God;

You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched.

10Your creatures settled in it;

You provided in Your goodness for the poor, O God.

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 15For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 17For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

1) How does יהוה’s procession reveal victory?

2) What makes His people a living testimony among nations?

3) How is unity maintained while marching forward?

PSALM 28

A Prayer for Help, and Praise for Its Answer.

A Psalm of David.

1To You, O Lord, I call;

My rock, do not be deaf to me,

For if You are silent to me,

I will become like those who go down to the pit.

2Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help,

When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

3Do not drag me away with the wicked

And with those who work iniquity,

Who speak peace with their neighbors,

While evil is in their hearts.

4Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices;

Requite them according to the deeds of their hands;

Repay them their recompense.

5Because they do not regard the works of the Lord

Nor the deeds of His hands,

He will tear them down and not build them up.

6Blessed be the Lord,

Because He has heard the voice of my supplication.

7The Lord is my strength and my shield;

My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart exults,

And with my song I shall thank Him.

8The Lord is their strength,

And He is a saving defense to His anointed.

9Save Your people and bless Your inheritance;

Be their shepherd also, and carry them forever.

Prophecy against Babylon

1The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:

2“Declare and proclaim among the nations.

Proclaim it and lift up a standard.

Do not conceal it but say,

‘Babylon has been captured,

Bel has been put to shame, Marduk has been shattered;

Her images have been put to shame, her idols have been shattered.’

3For a nation has come up against her out of the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Both man and beast have wandered off, they have gone away!

4“In those days and at that time,” declares the Lord, “the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the Lord their God they will seek. 5They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction; they will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

6“My people have become lost sheep;

Their shepherds have led them astray.

They have made them turn aside on the mountains;

They have gone along from mountain to hill

And have forgotten their resting place.

7All who came upon them have devoured them;

And their adversaries have said, ‘We are not guilty,

Inasmuch as they have sinned against the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness,

Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’

8“Wander away from the midst of Babylon

And go forth from the land of the Chaldeans;

Be also like male goats at the head of the flock.

9For behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon

A horde of great nations from the land of the north,

And they will draw up their battle lines against her;

From there she will be taken captive.

Their arrows will be like an expert warrior

Who does not return empty-handed.

10Chaldea will become plunder;

All who plunder her will have enough,” declares the Lord.

11“Because you are glad, because you are jubilant,

O you who pillage My heritage,

Because you skip about like a threshing heifer

And neigh like stallions,

12Your mother will be greatly ashamed,

She who gave you birth will be humiliated.

Behold, she will be the least of the nations,

A wilderness, a parched land and a desert.

13Because of the indignation of the Lord she will not be inhabited,

But she will be completely desolate;

Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified

And will hiss because of all her wounds.

14Draw up your battle lines against Babylon on every side,

All you who bend the bow;

Shoot at her, do not be sparing with your arrows,

For she has sinned against the Lord.

15Raise your battle cry against her on every side!

She has given herself up, her pillars have fallen,

Her walls have been torn down.

For this is the vengeance of the Lord:

Take vengeance on her;

As she has done to others, so do to her.

16Cut off the sower from Babylon

And the one who wields the sickle at the time of harvest;

From before the sword of the oppressor

They will each turn back to his own people

And they will each flee to his own land.

17“Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven them away. The first one who devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last one who has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 18Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. 19And I will bring Israel back to his pasture and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan, and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead. 20In those days and at that time,’ declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’

21“Against the land of Merathaim, go up against it,

And against the inhabitants of Pekod.

Slay and utterly destroy them,” declares the Lord,

“And do according to all that I have commanded you.

22The noise of battle is in the land,

And great destruction.

23How the hammer of the whole earth

Has been cut off and broken!

How Babylon has become

An object of horror among the nations!

24I set a snare for you and you were also caught, O Babylon,

While you yourself were not aware;

You have been found and also seized

Because you have engaged in conflict with the Lord.”

25The Lord has opened His armory

And has brought forth the weapons of His indignation,

For it is a work of the Lord God of hosts

In the land of the Chaldeans.

26Come to her from the farthest border;

Open up her barns,

Pile her up like heaps

And utterly destroy her,

Let nothing be left to her.

27Put all her young bulls to the sword;

Let them go down to the slaughter!

Woe be upon them, for their day has come,

The time of their punishment.

28There is a sound of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon,

To declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,

Vengeance for His temple.

29“Summon many against Babylon,

All those who bend the bow:

Encamp against her on every side,

Let there be no escape.

Repay her according to her work;

According to all that she has done, so do to her;

For she has become arrogant against the Lord,

Against the Holy One of Israel.

30Therefore her young men will fall in her streets,

And all her men of war will be silenced in that day,” declares the Lord.

31“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,”

Declares the Lord God of hosts,

“For your day has come,

The time when I will punish you.

32The arrogant one will stumble and fall

With no one to raise him up;

And I will set fire to his cities

And it will devour all his environs.”

33Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“The sons of Israel are oppressed,

And the sons of Judah as well;

And all who took them captive have held them fast,

They have refused to let them go.

34Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is His name;

He will vigorously plead their case

So that He may bring rest to the earth,

But turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.

35A sword against the Chaldeans,” declares the Lord,

“And against the inhabitants of Babylon

And against her officials and her wise men!

36A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become fools!

A sword against her mighty men, and they will be shattered!

37A sword against their horses and against their chariots

And against all the foreigners who are in the midst of her,

And they will become women!

A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!

38A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up!

For it is a land of idols,

And they are mad over fearsome idols.

39“Therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals;

The ostriches also will live in it,

And it will never again be inhabited

Or dwelt in from generation to generation.

40As when God overthrew Sodom

And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord,

“No man will live there,

Nor will any son of man reside in it.

41“Behold, a people is coming from the north,

And a great nation and many kings

Will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.

42They seize their bow and javelin;

They are cruel and have no mercy.

Their voice roars like the sea;

And they ride on horses,

Marshalled like a man for the battle

Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,

And his hands hang limp;

Distress has gripped him,

Agony like a woman in childbirth.

44“Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand before Me?”

Their Ministry Commended

1And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— 2for He says,

“At the acceptable time I listened to you,

And on the day of salvation I helped you.”

Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”— 3giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, 4but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, 5in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, 6in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, 7in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, 8by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; 9as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, 10as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.

11Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. 12You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. 13Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also.