Today as we begin to our study and meditate on Psalm 76, we are now beginning our
journey through the second half of the 150 Psalms. First let me say how
thankful I am that you are on this journey with us on a daily basis. I always
knew that as a pastor I really couldn’t retire, and I wondered exactly what the
Lord might have me doing during these “retirement” years. It was an awesome privilege
and responsibility to be a senior pastor of three great churches over those 47
plus years of ministry.
Now I have an “invisible” audience over the social media to you and many others
that allows me to continue to do what God called me to do and that is to “Make
Him Known”! The heartbeat of God is that the world of people, that He loved so
much that He sent His One and Only Son to die for, would know Him, love Him,
and live a life that glorifies Him! I have simply joined God as a “co-laborer”
in His harvest fields over these years to accomplish His mission! Thanks for
being a part of this ministry with me through this daily “Pastor’s Chat”.
Many Bible students believe that Psalm 76 is a continuation of Psalm 75. They go together
hand in hand. Most commentators agree that Psalm 76 also belongs to the time
when God overthrew Sennacherib's host before the gates of Jerusalem. There are
some that think that the Psalm was possibly a Davidic Psalm originally, though
it does not bear his name. It found its way into the choir collection, and
later King Hezekiah used it to express the sentiments of his own day and age. Hezekiah's
use of the Psalm so overshadowed David's that it is associated far more with
the Jerusalem of Hezekiah's day than it is with the Jerusalem of David's day.
Like the previous Psalm it is a hymn of praise. The Septuagint version of the Psalms
contains the additional note: "A song with reference to the
Assyrians." We see, then, that from earliest times that was the thought
that leaped to devout minds when this psalm was sung. The background of this Psalm
is probably God's judgment of the Assyrian army as recorded in Isaiah 37-38 and
2 Kings 18-19. Other "Zion" Psalms include Psalms 46, 48, 87, 126,
132, and 137.
In Psalm 75:1, Asaph was thanking God for the miracle that delivered Judah and
Israel from the Assyrians and described God's mighty works that revealed the
greatness of His character and His power. But the emphasis in Psalm 76 is on
the God who accomplished the victory and not on the miracle itself. Sennacherib's
officers boasted of their king and his conquests, but their dead idols were no
match for the true and living God (Psalm 115:1-18). In Psalm 76, Asaph shares
four basic truths about Jehovah God that we will look at over the next several
days. First, in verses 1-3, God wants us to know Him.
In verse 1, Asaph named both Israel and Judah, for though the kingdoms had been
divided politically, there was still only one covenant people in the sight of
the Lord. When the northern kingdom of Israel was taken by the Assyrians in 722
B.C. many godly people moved into Judah where a descendant of David was on the
throne and true priests ministered in God's appointed temple (2 Chron. 11:13-17;
15:9). God's name was great in Judah and Jerusalem (Psalms 47:1-2; 48:1, 10;
77:13), but it needed to be magnified among the neighboring nations, for that
was Israel's calling (v. 11; Gen. 12:1-3).
"Salvation is of the Jews"
(John 4:22), and if we are to know the true and living God, we must read the
Bible, a Jewish book, and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came
through the Jewish nation and died for the sins of the world. The true and
living God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:3; Eph. 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3).
God’s heart desire is that “We might know Him”, not just know about Him! Do
you know Him today?
God bless!
