Word of Encouragement (05/11/2023)
"There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. 27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, 'Destroy.' 28 So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew. 29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs."
Having affirmed the peerless uniqueness of God, Moses goes on to praise Him for His help to Jeshurun (a moniker of affection for Israel).
Moses praises God for riding through the heavens to help His people. This is understandable since God dwells in heaven. Of course, God is omnipresent. So, we can call Him our ever-present Help (Ps. 46:1). Even so, heaven is God’s dwelling place, proper (though don’t know how exactly it works). It is no surprise to observe that, as much as the Old Testament affirmed God’s omnipresence (e.g., Ps. 139:7-12), it also recognized the varying degrees of God’s presence. So, while the whole earth was full of God’s glory (Isa. 6:3), the promised land was considered holy and set apart from the rest of the world. And even within the promised land, Jerusalem was considered more sacred than the rest of the land because the temple was there. Even in the structure of the temple, there were varying degrees of holiness, going from the Court to the Holy place and to the Most Holy Place. And even in the Most Holy Place, the Mercy Seat, which was above the Ark of the Covenant between the wings of the golden cherubim, was the most sacred location because it represented God’s heavenly throne.
It is encouraging to know God as our ever-present help. Also encouraging is to know that our help comes from heaven through the sky in divine majesty. There are times when troubles come from all directions. We look around for help but to no avail. But we need not fear. We can cry out to God, who rides through the heavens to our help when no earthly help is available to us!
The idea here is not so much that God’s help will come from above as that it will come from another world, the spiritual realm. We should not think that, when we are surrounded by troubles in all directions, God can come to our aid only from above because He can’t do anything about what is going on down here with us. No, God can wreak havoc on our enemies and troubles, just as He parted the Red Sea, stopped up the Jordan River, leveled the strong walls of Jericho, threw the Philistines into confusion with a thunderous sound, etc. God can use ordinary, providential ways to deliver us. God can even use miracles. But whether by providence or miracles, God is the Primary Agent of our deliverance. Therefore, we can say that our help from God comes from the spiritual, heavenly realm “through the heavens..., through the sky.”
Since this is the case, we need not be anxious or fearful that all we can see is trouble all around us. Our help is not coming from what we see; our help comes from God “through the heavens..., through the sky,” who can change everything instantly if He so desires: “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isa. 41:18). So then, let us not walk by sight but by faith (2 Cor. 5:7). Why don’t you take a minute to pray that the Lord would open your eyes of faith and give you courage amid your troubles?