Hebrew Highlights 47 - HAROCHEV

Shalom. This is Yuval Shomron, coming to you from Jerusalem.

Today I’d like to take a look at the first few verses of one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 68, verses 1-7. (For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.) “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; And let those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God. But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Sing 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. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. O God, when Thou didst go forth before Thy people, When Thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah.”

When we read, “Lift up a song for Him who rides through the deserts”, I guess we could say that these verses “cover a lot of ground”. I first fell in love with this passage when I lived in Ma’ale Adumim. On my way to work by bus I traveled through a few miles of wilderness, the very one in which Yeshua endured testing by Satan after the 40 day fast which began His period of ministry.

As I read my Bible on the journey, the phrase “Larochev b’aravot” or “to Him who rides through the deserts” suddenly jumped out at me. I looked out the window of the bus and could almost see God passing over the wind-swept hills and valleys in a chariot, keeping diligent watch over Israel. I immediately considered the fact that we too often think of God as being somewhere “up there”, and forget that He is ever present and attentive to this humble earth.

Let’s take a quick glance at each of these seven verses. The tone is already set in the tense used in verse 1: “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; And let those who hate Him flee before Him.” The Hebrew starts out “Yakum Elohim”. This use of “Yakum” is both a plea and a prophecy. It can mean “let arise” or “will arise”. As King David sings the song he is both proclaiming, and believing in the answer, at the same time.

When in verse 2 David says, “ As smoke is driven away, so drive them away” he is declaring that his enemies are extremely insignificant and powerless before God.

In verse 3, “But let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; Yes, let them rejoice with gladness”, the king’s faith in the Lord’s victory is again recounted, as he tells us to start rejoicing even as we ask for help.

I’ve already mentioned singing praises to “Him who rides through the wilderness” in verse 4. Let me just encourage you by saying that this could just as easily be a spiritual desert. If you are in such a place, God is riding along beside you, and the victory is imminent.

Verse 5-7 seem to switch gears, “A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land. O God, when Thou didst go forth before Thy people, When Thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah.”

When we have been talking about God the mighty warrior, imagine how much stronger our faith can be, knowing that our great general is also a righteous Father, and judge. Indeed, it is because He cares so much for us that He battles so fiercely against our enemies. Not only does He provide victory, but a home and prosperity as well. And, not only for someone mighty like King David, but also for the fatherless, the widows and the prisoners.

What a mighty God we serve. What a Father. Or, as we say in Israeli Yiddish slang, “What a mench!”

Shalom, Shalom, from Jerusalem.