Psalm 68:4-10
“Sing to God, sing praises to His name, cast up a highway for Him who rides through deserts—His name is the Lord—be in high spirits and glory before Him!
A father to the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widow is God in His holy habitation.
God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
O God, when You went forth before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness, the earth trembled, the heavens also poured down rain at the presence of God; yonder Sinai quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.”
My youngest sister and I worked for three hours building a path around the cucumbers and beans of my mother’s garden. I hoed out the surface weeds and laid a base layer of newspaper, and she followed with a wheelbarrow full of wood chips. We made progress at the rate of 12 feet per hour, about the same as summer roadwork crews. My mother, the master gardener, envisioned loops and spirals of this whimsical “road” purposed to connect produce with people—primarily her and my father. My mother’s optimism at 81 years of age still leads her to build a path through new territory.
Knowing my mother is to know she does not attempt new territory alone. She walks with the same God described in the words of Psalm 68. A God whose presence compels praise and honor.
Who is this candidate who allows us to choose His leadership?
From these verses, we learn……
He is a father to the fatherless, and a judge, and protector of widows.
A visionary who knows His creation well enough to strategize against their isolation and desolation.
An economic policy maker who leads those who are captive into prosperity while drying up the resources of the rebellious.
Finally, He is a military commander who marches ahead of His platoon with such presence through untamed territory that the very earth touched by His feet trembles and the heavens pour down rain.
Just as you might research a political candidate by reading about his life, so will you learn a whole lot about God if read all the verses of this Psalm and other writings in the Bible.
Then you might see as my mother does. She knows God is her best path. He and His ways carry her best to her destination. She would join the Psalmist in these words….
“Blessed be the Lord, who bears our burdens and carries us day by day, even the God who is our salvation. God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation; and to God the Lord belongs escape from death (setting us free).” Psalm 68:19-20
Amen. Let this be true for all of us!