Let God Arise – Elizabeth Bacon and David

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.