2. The Glory of God’s Powerful Victories! Psalm 76:4-10

Text: “Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands.  At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep.”

Psalm 76:4-6.

Good morning, Christian resting in Christ’s Victories!  Christ’s Holy victories are what holds us, ‘His people’, up, amidst all that would seek, vehemently, to pull us down, and mar our public witness for Him.  Of ourselves, we are weak, and foolish, and too often found wanting in the midst of the daily Spiritual Battle – but, in Christ Jesus, we are always fully assured of the eventual and total victory.  All glory to the Name of all names, King Jesus Christ!  Hallelujah! 

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy…”  (Psalm 107:1-3)

Verse 4. “Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.  What are the honours of war but brags of murder?  What the fame of conquerors but the reek of manslaughter?  But the Lord is glorious in Holiness, and His terrible deeds are done in justice for the defence of the weak and the deliverance of the enslaved.  Mere power may be glorious, but it is not excellent: when we behold the mighty acts of the Lord, we see a perfect blending of the two qualities.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 325)

Because we that are redeemed by Christ’ sinless Blood have been permitted to see Christ Jesus with the eyes of God-given faith – we more fully understand the Lord’s motivations in every act of Spiritual war He engages daily.  All just, all merciful, all gracious, all loving, and all and impeccably Holy, is our Lord God Jehovah – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Knowing this by faith through His amazing grace, we see that everything that our Lord God does is done in perfect righteousness and grace.  Therefore, ALL that God Almighty is and does, we applaud and give thanks to Him for it.  What a privilege to belong to the Lord God and to be permitted to have a portion in all His most powerful victories.  Glory to the Lamb!

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”    (Romans 8:37)

When the Living Lord God subdues enemies, they immediately wither and fade into insignificance.  Tyrants and oppressors who show no mercy towards those less powerful than themselves, and especially towards Christian witnesses, are reduced to trembling cowards at the rebuke of the Lord God.

Verse 5. “The stout-hearted are spoiled. Daring men, who fear nothing, are turned into Magor-missabibs (definition: terror on every side), the name given by Jeremiah to Pashur the priest when he smote him and put him in the stocks for prophesying against the idolatry of Jerusalem. ( Jeremiah 20:3 ) – fear round about; their stout hearts are taken from them, and then they are so far from being a terror to other men, that they run from the shadow of a man; their courage is down; they cannot give a child a confident look, much less look dangers or enemies in the face.”  (Joseph Caryl, 1602-1673)

Check out what the Lord did to Pashur the priest, for playing the tyrant with His servant Jeremiah: “For thus saith the Lord, Behold (look, and fully understand), I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all they friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends to whom thou hast prophesied lies.” (Jeremiah 20:1-6)

It is wise to remember that the Lord God is a God of Holiness, wrath against all sin, and a strict upholder of justice – as well as a Lord God of grace, mercy, and matchless love.  He will not be mocked by infidels or Christ-rejecting reprobates.  Take heed!

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,

And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;

And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,

And their hearts but once heaved, and forever were still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride:

And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,

And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow and the rust on his mail;

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Verse 7. “Thou, even Thou, art to be feared. Not Sennacherib, nor Nisroch his god, but Jehovah alone, Who with a silent rebuke had withered all the monarch’s host. The fear of man is a snare, but the fear of God is a great virtue and has great power for good over the human mind. God is to be feared profoundly, continually, and alone.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, pages 325-236)

Verse 10. “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain. …The Devil blows the fire and melts the iron, and then the Lord fashions it for His own purposes.  Let men and devils rage as they may; they cannot do otherwise than subserve the Divine purposes.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 326)

Thought: Contemplate for a moment, all the powerful victories of our great Lord God! Give heart-felt thanks to Him, for His mercies endure forever for 'His people'.