Called, Redeemed, Armed for Spiritual Battle! Psalm 68:12-17

Text: “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His Presence.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-29.

Good morning, once very foolish Christian!  You and I were ‘foolish’ to a fault, due to the fact that we were born that way, born of woman in Adam’s foolishly fallen image instead of the image he was CREATED in, that is, the perfect and Holy image of Almighty Lord God.

“And Adam lived (after his fall from grace) an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness (fallen), after his image (tarnished by sin); and called his name Seth.”  (Genesis 5:3)

“Behold (look, and fully understand), I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (Psalm 51:5)

However, praise the Lord God, He did not leave you and I in that fallen image! In the Person of God the Holy Ghost, He quickened our dead spirit; granted us His gifts of repentance and faith; permitted us to believe and receive Salvation in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ – and now we are once more living as regenerated Christian believers, cast and being conformed daily to the perfect image of Almighty Lord God Jehovah, through the full Atonement of God the Son, Christ Jesus.  What grace!  What love!  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Glory to His Holy Name!

“And you (born again believers) hath He quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins…Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;).”  (Ephesians 2:1;5)

However, the Lord God did not save you and I for to sit like a ‘…dry bone…’, fully dressed in our Sunday best, in a pew of a church-building!  No!  You and I were quickened, brought from Spiritual death to Spiritual life, to grow in God’s grace; to study to show ourselves approved unto God; to put on Spiritual muscle and faith by His Word; and to stand up for Jesus as an “…exceeding great army.”!

“So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them (the dry bones), and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”  (Read Ezekiel 37:1-10)

Verse 11.  “The Lord gave the Word: great was the company of those that published it.  You shall find, when the enemies of the church are destroyed, that God hath many preachers made that do teach His praises.  The word which you read company, in the Hebrew it is “army” – “…great was the army of preachers…”  An army of preachers is a great matter; nay it is a great matter to have seven or eight good preachers in a great army; but to have a whole army of preachers, that is glorious.  Now, my brethren, it is much to have a preaching army; but if this army will with heart and soul preach of God’s praise, oh, that is a blessed thing.”  (William Bridge 1600-1670, in “The True Soldier’s Convoy”)  

Verse 12.  “Kings of armies did flee apace.  Head demons, and demonic kings in Satan’s vile legions, would and do ‘flee apace…’, when confronted by not only an army of preachers of Christ’s Gospel, but when one called out, born again, soul cries out the war-cry of Christ’s true Church worldwide: “It is finished!”  Demon kings must flee when the child of God claims the precious, sinless redeeming Blood of King Jesus Christ, King of all kings, and Lord of all Lords.  Hallelujah!  Jesus Lives!  Victory is ours in Him!

Verse 13.  “Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.  It is a hard passage, a nut for the learned to crack.  If we knew all that was known when this ancient hymn was composed, the allusion would no doubt strike us as being beautifully appropriate, but as we do not, we will let it rest among the unriddled things.  Of making may conjectures there is no end, but the sense seems to be, that from the lowest condition the Lord would lift up His people into joy, liberty, wealth, and beauty.”  (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 292)

The author of this series on the Psalms, himself lay in a maximum-security prison cell as a vile, convicted terrorist, when the Lord God, through the reading of an old prison-issue KJV Bible, granted conviction of sin; full realisation of Christ’s pure righteousness; and the judgement that would surely come upon all who sin.  As I lay among the POTS (portable urinals) of that solitary confinement prison cell, the Lord God in His Sovereign grace, lifted up my soul, cleansed it in His own precious Blood; and made me soar as a born-again child of God on the majestic wings of the Dove.  That was 44 years ago, and He has kept me in His tender care and love ever since.  Give God the glory, dear Reader, I am FREE!

“And ye shall know the truth, and the TRUTH shall make you free.”  (John 8:32)

“Jesus saith unto him (Thomas), I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”  (John 14:6)

Verse 14. “When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Salmon.  A traveller informed the writer that on a raw and gusty day he saw the side of what he supposed to be Mount Salmon suddenly swept bare by a gust of wind, so that the snow was driven hither and thither into the air like the down of thistles or the spray of the sea: thus did the Omnipotent One scatter all the potentates that defied Israel.  Whatever the precise meaning, it was intended to portray the glory and completeness of the Divine triumph over the greatest foes.  In this let all believers rejoice.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 292-293)

When you and I, by God’s call to service, and by the enablement of His Spiritual gifting and strength, rise up and go forth to do Spiritual Battle, in the Name of King Jesus – no sinner, demon, or Devil can hinder us in declaring Christ’s Victory at Calvary’s Cross!  For we do not go out into Spiritual Battle alone, nor could be ever succeed in doing so, for our enemies are infinitely too powerful for our mere mortal flesh and minds.  No!  We go out to Battle covered in the precious and sinless Blood of Christ, and at all times, in the very Presence of our Sovereign Lord God.  Glory to His Holy Name! (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Verse 17.  “The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the Holy Place. The Presence of God is the strength of the church; all power is ours when God is ours.  Twenty thousand chariots shall bear the Gospel to the ends of the earth; and myriads of agencies shall work for its success.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 293)

Thought:  If you and I are called by God, we are redeemed by Christ’s Blood; and armed by God the Spirit for Spiritual Battle.  We don’t find many soldiers wallowing in ‘religion’, in the safety of perpetual pews – get out there and fight for King Jesus!