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The Battle Belongs to the Lord

If we are not engaging our whole selves while we sing, then the impact of a song’s words can often escape us.  In “The Battle Belongs to the Lord,” we sing that God will fight for us in our battle, but how much we believe those words and truly trust Him to do so may not be known until we are in the midst of a difficult struggle and choose to rely on Him or on our own limited resources for help.

I.  Psalm 18:1-5.  After witnessing God’s power in the 10 plagues that allowed them to leave Egypt, the Israelites left freed from slavery “equipped for battle” (Exodus 13:18), idealistically ready to walk straight up to the Promised Land.  As they got to the Red Sea, however, they saw Pharaoh’s army marching after them, and “they feared greatly” and “cried to the Lord” Exodus 14:10.  How like them we can be as Christians until we face adversity.  The first verse of the song says it like this:

In heavenly armor we’ll enter the land, The battle belongs to the Lord.  No weapon that’s fashioned against us will stand, The battle belongs to the Lord.

Though we call the Lord our strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn of my salvation, and stronghold, it is easier to say the words than to apply them.  The psalmist does have to apply them as he was encompassed, assailed, entangled, and confronted by struggles to the point of death.  Would he choose to have faith or to rely on himself?

II. Psalm 18:6-19.  After God had rescued them with such a mighty hand already, how could the Israelites not trust in God’s power to save?  But they complain and believe that they will die (Exodus 14:11-13), the very opposite of trust.  God would fight their battle, Moses told them, but their responsibility was different than the Lord’s; they had to “fear not,” “stand firm,” and “see” God’s salvation.  In other words faith is a lot of work, harder work than fighting an impossible battle for ourselves and the choice not often made.  Why? Probably because God can’t be made to do anything.  We must submit to His will, not He to ours.  The second verse says:

When the power of darkness comes in like a flood, The battle belongs to the Lord.  He’s raised up a standard, the pow’r of His blood, The battle belongs to the Lord.

We have the cross and often don’t believe in Jesus’ power to save us.  So, does God act on our behalf out of obligation or love?  In the Psalm, the Lord literally overturns heaven and earth because He was angry at the people or circumstances distressing His child.  Then we read that it is because He delights in him. Could He have the same love for us?

III.  Psalm 18:20-30.  How the Israelites took Moses’ words to “fear not,” “stand firm,” “see” God’s salvation, and to “be silent” is not clear (Exodus 14:13-14), but how do we wait in faith for the Lord to act in our lives when we are in distress?  Repeating that God is our refuge and that we should not fear, Psalm 46:10 tells us to “be still and know that I am God.”  While our backs are against the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army bears down on us in life, choosing faith and letting God fight our battle is the harder but better decision.  As the third stanza says:

When your enemy presses in hard, do not fear, The battle belongs to the Lord.  Take courage, my friend, your redemption is near, The battle belongs to the Lord.

According to the psalm, it is those who choose to have faith and trust in Him, being still in obedience that the Lord rescues.  The one who is “haughty” by trying to fix it himself by his own resources finds God “tortuous.”  It’s about the relationship the child has with his or her heavenly Father.

If God is truly your refuge, then you can truly sing the chorus when we are rescued:

And we sing glory, honor, Power and strength to the Lord.  We sing glory, honor, Power and strength to the Lord.

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Come and Reign Over Us

In a time so much like today, God’s people in the time of Judges struggled to live out His commands without compromising with the evil world around them.  Often, they failed, found themselves enslaved, and would cry out to God for deliverance.  When they did, God would send a judge who would save them, but the people only remained faithful until the judge died.

Abimelech was one of those judges, and his story teaches us several lessons.

I.  Judges 9:1-24.  Gideon’s illegitimate son, Abimelech, was a terrible guy who went to his terrible family and gathered around him terrible people to do a terrible thing: he killed the seventy sons of Gideon, his half-brothers, all except Jotham, the youngest.  As Jotham tells Abimelech and his family that they will destroy each other, he gives an extended metaphor that helps us today.  The trees (the family) was trusting in brambles (Abimelech) to rule over them, but they won’t like the refuge that brambles offer.  We must not put our trust in the things of this world but only God.

II.  1 Corinthians 9:24-27.  Also, just because you’re being used by God doesn’t mean He approves of what you’re doing.  Pharaoh teaches us this (Romans 9:17).  So do the wicked men who put Jesus to death and probably thought they were doing the right thing (Acts 2:22-24).  We must persevere in the face of discipline (Hebrews 12:11-17) and obey God’s commands so that we will not be disqualified for the prize.

III.  Psalm 46:1-3.  Thirdly, we must be careful in whose or what we’re taking refuge in.  Our situation being so similar to God’s people’s situation in the time of Judges, we must be careful not to compromise with the world.  The brambles are all around us, begging us to come rest in their shade: the economy, politicians, health, youth, friends, self-concept.  These are all temporary and will melt with the elements in the heat on Judgment Day (Psalm 20:1-9).  Christ and His work on the cross and at the tomb, however, are eternal.  Only in Him, the King of Kings, may we take refuge and live.

In who or what are you taking refuge?  Examine your life, the way you interact with others, your social media posts, how you spend your time.  While calling yourself a Christian, you may find that you’re spending a lot of time in the shade of brambles.