Psalm 74:12 ¶ For God is
my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength:
thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in
pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the
wilderness. 15 Thou didst cleave the
fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. 16 The day is thine, the night also is
thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth:
thou hast made summer and winter.
This salvation is not, in context, referring to eternal salvation
as presented by Christ. This, like 95% of the times the word salvation is used
in the Bible refers to something temporal. God here provided salvation for the
Hebrews in the wilderness. This is a very interesting passage in what it
suggests regarding verse 14.
Exodus 16:13
¶ And it came to pass, that at even the
quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round
about the host. 14 And when the dew that
lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small
round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they
said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said
unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which the LORD hath
commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every
man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which
are in his tents. 17 And the children of
Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. 18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he
that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack;
they gathered every man according to his eating. 19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till
the morning. 20 Notwithstanding they
hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it
bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. 21 And they gathered it every morning, every man
according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
The small, round piece of food that is
left after the dew is called Manna, which Strong’s says means, “What is it?”
which is also evident from the passage.
It is later called angel’s food.
Psalm
78:24 And had rained down manna upon
them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. 25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat
to the full.
But it is also a reference to some event
in the realm of the invisible world that we can hardly understand here in verse
14.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in
pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Some
commentators say that dragons and leviathan are symbolic references to the Pharaoh, his army, and the Egyptian
gods. There is a veiled reference to God’s Red Sea miracle here as well or
perhaps the Jordan River crossing.
Finally, there
is the acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty over every process of our universe
from the sun to the seasons.
Notice how the Psalmist makes his complaint and plea and then
acknowledges what God has done as well as His sovereign power.
The important thing I want to impress is that these may be
references in this passage to spiritual events that accompany physical events.
This suggests to us that in everything we experience in our reality there is
something going on behind the scenes, so to speak, in the unseen spiritual
world.
Psalm 74:18 ¶ Remember
this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the
foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 19
O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the
wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. 20 Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark
places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. 21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let
the poor and needy praise thy name. 22
Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man
reproacheth thee daily. 23 Forget not the
voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee
increaseth continually.
The Psalmist now returns to the enemy’s wicked works. He continues His plea for God to deliver His
people. I am reminding of the Tribulation here, the Jews who flee to the
wilderness chased by Satan.
Revelation 12:15 And the
serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might
cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16
And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Wicked and profane men and women, scoffers of faith, blasphemers
of God, walk after their own ungodly lusts and oppress God’s people. The
Psalmist pleas for action by God.
The turtledove, from a prophetic viewpoint, can be the
church. See Song of Solomon 2:14.
We can see the persecution
that takes place around the world in countries where a cruel and hateful god
rules, in places where mankind is his own god, and even in places where a
church rules with the government. It was difficult for Jews in history to live
in countries where a state church dominated and since they had their own faith
distinct from that church they were considered not even as citizens but as
sojourners who could be run out of town for any reason or no reason at all.
Christians are treated that way, as well, now in many countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment