The Under Resourced - God Heart

Psalm 68

Often, it’s history and other books in the Bible that give us an understanding of what the Psalms are telling us, and that is apparent in the first three verses, we see God as a warrior and his enemy as smoke, easily blown away.

In verse four we see God as riding on the clouds over all His creation, nations like the Canaanites believed in a god they could see, made of stone, they called Baal, and they called him the storm god.

Verse five should be a reminder to the Church that the heart of God is on the weakest and most needy in our communities.  Verse five makes this point; “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”  Many little gods of this world, like our government leaders, have made it clear they will provide for the fatherless and the widows, but it comes at a high price, and it was never God’s intent, for are we the Church not His hands and feet, why then are we sitting on them.

In verses 7 and 8, once more it’s recalling the people of Israel, after 400 years of being slaves in Egypt, was led by God in this way, a Cloud by day and a fire by night.  If one did not have any understanding of Scripture, they would wonder what is the Psalmist referring to?  Verses 7,8, “O God, when you went out before your people when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.”

Do you understand when 2 million people are on the move with sheep and livestock; they need pasture land and crops to feed the livestock.  We know that God had planned this exit from Egypt, and had prepared the ground to do just that by sending the rain.  You can read more about that in verse nine, but we also know that God provided manna each day from heaven to feed His people.

When they reached the land of promise there were crops, they did not plant and houses they did not build to live in, and God had made it clear they were to help the weak, often family that the husband was no longer alive or unable to feed his family.  Let us close today with verses 9-10, “You, God, showered abundant rain;
You revived Your inheritance when it languished.  Your people settled in it; God, you provided for the poor by Your goodness.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Notes: I referred to the HCSB to get more clarity.