Day 699: Victory - Psalm 78 vs 38 - 55

38 Yet God, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. 39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. 40-43 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed his signs in Egypt and his  marvels in the fields of Zoan.

44-51 He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave their crops to the destroying locust and the fruit of their labour to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost. He gave over their  cattle to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts. He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.

52-53 Then he led out his people like sheep  and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. 54-55 And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won. He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. Psalm 78:38-55 English Standard Bible

Today's reading is a further part of a Psalm telling us of all that God did for Israel of old. How do you think the people described in vs 54-55 must have felt when they were safely settled in the land God had brought them to?

Imagine their joy! The journey had been long and there had been many failures on the way, but God had given them victory over the Egyptians when they left, and over the nations of the land to which they had come. He had led them as tenderly as a Shepherd. So to what did they owe their victory and safe arrival? (vs 38)

It wasn't due to their goodness, but to God's grace. We use that word often and perhaps forget all it means. Verses 44-51 describe the terrible plagues God punished Egypt with for refusing to let His people go. But despite those amazing works, how had Israel so often responded? (vs 40-43)

They soon forgot His power and rebelled by putting Him to the test. Israel certainly didn't deserve the victory of the promised land! But God had mercy on them and provided Moses to pray for them so that they were spared. So those who finally reached Canaan ought to have been a people filled with much thanksgiving and praise. And is that not true for Christians too? We've also been given a tremendous victory which has already been accomplished - and which we will appreciate fully when Christ returns. Listen to how the apostle Paul put it.

“Let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who've died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?' For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-57)

Our hope isn't based on any merits of our own. Like Israel of old, we've probably let God down often. But our assurance of victory is based on God's grace and power. Apart from Christ's many miracles, God also raised Him from the grave. And we shall be raised too!