From this Psalm we learn several things that God wants us to do. God wants us to
know Him (vv. 1-3). God wants us to trust Him (vv. 4-6). God wants us to fear
Him (vv. 7-9). And God wants us to obey Him (vv. 10-12). We should first obey
the Lord because of His love for us, and because we respond in love to His
love. This is the theme of the whole book of 1 John. But another motivation to
obey the Lord is that we fear His judgements.
This is the theme of these last verses of Psalm 76 and the book of Jude
in the New Testament.
“Make vows to the LORD your God, and pay them; Let all who are around Him bring
presents to Him who ought to be feared” (v. 11). We tend to make vows to obey the Lord
and live for Him in the midst of a crisis in our lives. We promise Him we will
go to church, read our Bibles, change our ways, turn from our sins, forgive our
enemies, if He will deliver us from our present crisis! I’m sure that is what
the people of Jerusalem were doing when they were facing a terrible death at
the hands of the Assyrian soldiers.
Now Asaph is reminding them to keep the vows that they have made and so should we!
Over and over the judgments of God on evil and sin and upon the wicked are
repeated throughout the Bible. The judgment of the great flood in Noah’s day
that destroyed all the living creatures that had breath on earth. The judgment
of God on Sodom and Gomorrah with hailstones of fire. The judgment of God upon
Egypt with the 10 plagues and the drowning of Pharoah’s army in the Red Sea.
The judgments of God upon Israel when they refused to repent.
God’s judgments should get our attention and call us to repentance and love for His
mercy and forgiveness when He restores us. The book of Jude is the book just
before the book of Revelation where we see the full wrath of God’s judgments
poured out on the earth and its inhabitants in the seven-year tribulation period.
When you read Jude’s short letter you get the sense that he is calling everyone
to remember that God is a God of judgment, and we should repent and call others
to repentance.
Jude concludes his letter with these words that sound like the last verses of Psalm
76. “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith,
praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion,
making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep
you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His
glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and
majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:20-25)
Instead of resisting the Lord, which is a losing battle, we should be grateful to Him
for rescuing us (v. 9) and saving us from our sins. Asaph spoke to the Jewish
believers and told them to keep the promises they made to the Lord when
Jerusalem was in danger. How easy it is to make vows and not keep them! (Eccl.
5:1-6). The Lord's great victory should also have witnessed to the neighboring
nations and motivated them to go to Jerusalem with gifts to worship Him. (See 2
Chron. 32:23.)
Psalm
76 begins at Jerusalem and its environs (vv. 1-6), then moves to the entire
land of Israel (vv. 7-9), and now it reaches the whole earth (v. 12). There
will be a day when the rulers of the earth will bow to Jesus Christ and worship
Him as King of Kings (Isa. 2:1-4; 11:1; Rev. 19:11-16).
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and
obey”!
God bless!
