It was a sentiment that she appreciated and wanted to repeat
for herself and her generation. Maybe she admired its original writer’s
reputation, and his impact on his own generation and the many that followed
him, some 2,000 years before her life began. Can we also surmise that she was
managing a circumstance similar to what often plagued that ancient king, whose
words she called out in this echo? Elizabeth Bacon remains anonymous, with a
story that we do not know…yet. She used only a few words of her predecessor,
but they tell us the essentials. She believed, and she called on Him to
intervene. Searching one’s own life-experience, how often would you or I call
out to Him with these words…’Let God Arise’?(…with a result that scattered
enemies, perhaps not unlike what we might have seen Samson do in his era [see
picture].)
It was 1993, some two millennia after the poet-king David first
penned them, when Elizabeth Bacon dusted off these words and voiced them again,
though many generations had undoubtedly used them in the intervening centuries.
After all, David recorded them and they have stayed in our bibles as the
introductory words of Psalm 68 since their inception, so they invite us to reexamine
them and draw strength from His power. David wrote them, remembering how the
Almighty advanced by leading the Israelite nation out of the Sinai. And, he
certainly felt in his own walk -- or
should we say, escape – the assurance of His Lord’s presence and working in his
own rise to Israel’s throne. How many enemies did God scatter, as the people
made their hazardous journey toward the Promised Land? How many times did He
bail out David along his circuitous procession? So, they were words reminding
its hearers of royalty’s preeminent status, of its glorious history. Nevertheless,
the words do suggest that there are times when God is not exercising His full
capabilities, otherwise why would anyone need to exhort others to stir Him to
action – asking Him to arise? God’s not asleep, but maybe sometimes He does
observe longer than we’d like, before He arises. Was such an episode reminiscent of Elizabeth
Bacon’s life in 1993? David’s psalm indicates he knew that God helped the
fatherless, widows, lonely people, prisoners, and the poor (vv. 5-10). Walk in
Elizabeth’s shoes for a moment. Was she in any of these conditions that David
describes? These would indeed be intractable enemies, except for the provision of
God.
He provides. He’s a God who can deal with physical and
invisible enemies, who wield weapons intended to maim, discourage, and strike
me down. If Elizabeth reads this, clue us in. What was going on when you
remembered these words? Obviously, you must have been reading your bible for
encouragement and instruction. Did the words force the enemy to relinquish his
grip on you, as the Almighty’s power overwhelmed the situation? Did your experience coax others to look in His
direction? Thank you for doing something I should do more often. Learn from my
biblical progenitors, and then do what they did when an adversary threatens.
Remember His faithfulness toward His own people. What or who could stand in His
way when He’s standing?
The Biblical background used in the above is obtained in the
New International Version Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker, 1985,
copyright The Zondervan Corporation.
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