Today’s Psalm (no.68) is a declaration of God in action for those who serve him, “God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered and those who hate him shall flee before him!  As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away, as wax melts before the fire, so shall the wicked perish before God” [v.1-2]   

That is a very graphic illustration!  Visualize a fire causing wax to melt!  We know what happens to plastic when it is too close to heat!   We call to mind the prediction of Paul that Christ with his mighty angels would come “in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel …” [2 Thess.1 v.8]  

In our Exodus reading today there was the dramatic account of the Egyptian armies being  utterly destroyed as they tried to go through the parted waters of the Red Sea after the Israelites [Exodus 14 v27-31].  Maybe David had this in mind as he penned the words of this Psalm; but of course he also played the major role in the defeat of the Philistines after he killed Goliath – and later triumphs. 

Who are God’s enemies?  They are those who persecute his people, that is, those who areserving him.  Yet God does it in his way, in his time. This was illustrated in our Exodus reading, the people, having escaped from Egypt thought they were trapped and the Egyptians would destroy them.  

However look at Moses, who, after being so timid when God first told him that he was chosen to lead the people out of Egypt (Exod.4 v.10-13), now has total confidence in God and in what he will do.  The same is the experience of many believers and it will be our experience today if we are really aiming to let God guide our lives – and surely, given the situations the world is facing and our knowledge of what the Bible says of the end our age – we need total faith in God’s guiding care over our path, the path that lies ahead of us.

Look at today’s Psalm again, “Blessed be the Lord who daily bears us up: God is our salvation.” [v.19]