Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth. Give victory along with your proper hand, and solution me, in order that those whom you love may be rescued.
~Psalm 108:five-6 (NRSV)
This Compilation Psalm is a bit of Psalm fifty seven and a bit of Psalm 60 neatly knitted together – the first five verses are the latter half of a fugitive’s faith and the remaining 8 verses communicate of David’s Syrian campaign in which there was the eventual victory over Edom. (In this Psalm’s subculture, of mixing two divisions, I have knitted these two sections collectively on the fifth and 6th verse, above.)
It is justly a Battle Psalm.
And it suits us well when we, too, are at verse of the day warfare. When, honestly, are not we? Life is however a chain of battles and even whilst we aren’t struggling with we may also mirror over one or be planning for the subsequent one – or thinking about different humans’s battles!
But a more pertinent difficulty reveals for well timed expression: the difficulty of repetition.
THE FORCE AND BENEFITS OF REPETITION
The Holy Spirit has no want of repeating himself, but the fact of the matter is a whole lot Scripture appears ‘copied and pasted’ all through the Old Book.
This leads us to surprise the factor of repetition – a loss of divine creativity or natural goal to call domestic essential biblical truths?
Has anyone ever loved a truely suitable sermon and no longer heard effective truths resounding like a gong in a repetitive way? Indeed, we may additionally criticise a sermon that did not ‘hit a factor’ or latch onto one declaration, or subject matter, that parishioners could remove.
This two-bit Psalm happens, possibly, in reverse with praise preceding the solemnity of prayer; a psalmist in dire want but convicted in their faith to recognise that human help in such crises is nugatory (verse 12).
And maybe the repetition works, additionally, within the liturgical feel – as history is referred to as forth inside the thoughts of the psalmist; those high-quality deeds of God of assist and deliverance when all appeared misplaced and of sanctuary while safety become sought.
THE EFFECTS OF FAITH IN BATTLE
There is a shimmering wish that flickers through this Psalm. For David to have praised the LORD first, earlier than doubting and, so consequently, wresting again his faith, has spoken for the King’s worry: there has been only God, and if no God, no wish.
But in fear become there present the faith to belong to God and no different. Faith does not exist without fear, as braveness, additionally, could be redundant in the absence of trepidation.
The identical stress and problems as David felt almost three,000 years ago are felt through us these days – even in our incredibly small lives. Our battles come and they swallow us or we be triumphant; however we stay to fight some other day. That is enough to repair our faith.