Saturday’s Soldiers Devotional – “Best Defense” – 02/10/2024 – Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

The best defense is a good offense is an oft-heard quote in military circles that originated or at least is attributed to Jack Dempsey the prizefighter from the 1910s – 1920s. While this sounds good, the fact remains that sometimes offenses stall and other times there is a need for strong defensive fortifications.

In the boxing world, this was never more evident than in the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle between Mohamad Ali and George Foreman. Ali’s strategy was a defensive one called the Rope a Dope, he leaned against the ropes of the boxing ring and took on an almost nonstop barrage of offensive punches from Foreman. Eventually, Foreman tired himself out and Ali went on to victory.

One thing is for certain we can pat ourselves on the back and say job well done our fortifications held, or we can as the Psalmist says praise God for being our fortress our refuge in times of trouble.

Or is there?

PSALM 56

PSALM 56:19

CONTEXT:

PS 59: To the Chief Musician. Strange that the painful events in David’s life should end in enriching the repertoire of the national minstrelsy. Out of a sour, ungenerous soil spring up the honey-bearing flowers of psalmody. Had he never been cruelly hunted by Saul, Israel and the church of God in after ages would have missed this song. The music of the sanctuary is in no small degree indebted to the trials of the saints. Affliction is the tuner of the harps of sanctified songsters. Altaschith. Another “destroy not” Psalm. Whom God preserves Satan cannot destroy. The Lord can even preserve the lives of his prophets by the very ravens that would naturally pick out their eyes. David always found a friend to help him when his case was peculiarly dangerous, and that friend was in his enemy’s household; in this instance, it was Michal, Saul’s daughter, as on former occasions it had been Jonathan, Saul’s son. Michtam of David. This is the Fifth of the Golden Secrets of David: God’s chosen people have many such. When Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Great efforts were made to carry the Psalms away to other authors and seasons than those assigned in the headings, it being the fashion just now to prove one’s learning by disagreeing with all who have gone before. Perhaps in a few years the old titles will be as much reverenced as they are now rejected. There are spasms in these matters, and in many other things among the would be “intellectuals” of the schools. We are not anxious to show our readiness at conjecture, and therefore are content with reading this Psalm in the light of the circumstances here mentioned; it does not seem unsuitable to any verse, and in some the words are very appropriate to the specified occasion.

DIVISION. In Ps 59:1-2 he prays, in Ps 59:3-4 he complains of his woes, and again in Ps 59:5 he prays. Here he inserts a Selah, and ends one portion of his song. In Ps 59:6-7 he renews his complaint, in Ps 59:8-10 declares his confidence in God, and in Ps 59:11-13 lifts up his heart in prayer; closing another part of his Psalm with Selah. Then he prays again in Ps 59:14-15 and afterwards betakes himself to singing.

Verse 16. But I will sing of thy power. The wicked howl, but I sing and will sing. Their power is weakness, but thine is omnipotence; I see them vanquished and thy power victorious, and forever and ever will I sing of thee. Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning. When those lovers of darkness find their game is up, and their midnight howlings die away, then will I lift up my voice on high and praise the lovingkindness of God without fear of being disturbed. What a blessed morning will soon break for the righteous, and what a song will be theirs! Sons of the morning, ye may sigh tonight, but joy will come on the wings of the rising sun. Tune your harps even now, for the signal to commence the eternal music will soon be given; the morning cometh, and your sun shall go no more down forever. For thou hast been my defense. The song is for God alone, and it is one which none can sing but those who have experienced the lovingkindness of their God. Looking back upon a past all full of mercy, the saints will bless the Lord with their whole hearts, and triumph in him as the high place of their security. And refuge in the day of my trouble. The greater our present trials the louder will our future songs be, and the more intense our joyful gratitude. Had we no day of trouble, where were our season of retrospective thanksgiving? David’s besetment by Saul’s bloodhounds creates an opportunity for divine interposition and so for triumphant praise.

From: https://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps059.php

59:14–17 My Enemies’ Howls and My Hallelujahs

DOES DAVID CONTRADICT HIMSELF? JOHN CALVIN: David may seem to contradict himself in praying for the utter destruction of his enemies, when immediately before he had expressed his desire that they might not be exterminated at once. What else could he mean when he asks that God would consume them in wrath, but that he would cut them off suddenly, and not by a gradual and slower process of punishment? But he evidently refers in what he says here to a different point of time, and this removes any apparent inconsistency, for he prays that when they had been set up for a sufficient period as an example, they might eventually be devoted to destruction. It was customary with victorious Roman generals first to lead the captives which had been kept for the day of triumph through the city, and afterwards, on reaching the capital, to give them over to the lictors for execution. Now David prays that when God had, in a similar manner, reserved his enemies for an interval sufficient to illustrate his triumph, he would on this consign them to summary punishment. The two things are not at all inconsistent: first, that the divine judgments should be lengthened out through a considerable period, to secure their being remembered better, and that then, on sufficient evidence being given to the world of the certainty with which the wicked are subjected in the displeasure of God to the slower process of destruction, he should in due time bring them forth to final execution, the better to awake, by such a demonstration of his power, the minds of those who may be more secure than others, or less affected by witnessing moderate inflictions of punishment.

He adds, accordingly, that they may know, even to the ends of the earth, that God rules in Jacob. Some would insert the copulative particle, reading, that they may know that God rules in Jacob and in all the nations of the world, an interpretation which I do not approve and which does violence to the sense. The allusion is to the condign nature of the judgment, which would be such that the report of it would reach the remotest regions and strike salutary terror into the minds even of their benighted and godless inhabitants. He was more especially anxious that God should be recognized as ruling in the church, it being preposterous that the place where his throne was erected should present such an aspect of confusion as converted his temple into a den of thieves. COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.

THE MIGHT OF THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. NIKOLAUS SELNECKER: What a magnificent thanksgiving this is! In it the previous words are explained in the most beautiful way. “On account of your might I commend myself to you, for God is my shield. God reveals his goodness to me richly. Therefore I sing and jump; I boast in the might and power of God. Human beings have their might; I have God’s might. Whenever they are punished, they howl in the darkness of night. But I sing in the morning, at the rising of the dear Sun, my Lord Jesus Christ—about my merciful God.”

As Luther said:

Christ in eternity is my Protector and Redeemer
In death and life he is my lot and my salvation
Him I fear and adore, above all things I love him alone
For this reason I believe: he will be my only hope.

THE WHOLE PSALTER.

Herman J. Selderhuis et al., eds., Psalms 1–72: Old Testament, vol. VII, Reformation Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), 424–425.

DEVOTIONAL

Daily Devotion in Psalm 56

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Immerse yourself in the history of the Vietnam War through exhibits in our museum & displays throughout the campus. Remember the 58,281 men & women who never came home, by reading their names on the Vietnam Wall. Feel free to bring a token of remembrance to lay at the Wall. MNVM volunteers who are Vietnam Veterans will be stationed throughout the buildings & grounds to answer questions & share their personal experiences.