Image from Kol Simcha CD
1 Let God arise,
Let His enemies be scattered;
Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
2 As smoke is driven away,
So drive them away;
As wax melts before the fire,
So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad;
Let them rejoice before God;
Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.
It’s always a little problematic for me to interpret passages about the “enemies” of God.
I mean, we’re always taught that God loves everyone, right?
1st John 4:8 says “God is love,” and Romans 2:11 tells us, “There is no partiality with God.” 2nd Peter 3:9 says God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” This message is repeated several times in the New Testament.
Sounds to me like no one is God’s enemy.
However, I know that in the Old Testament, pretty much everyone except the Israelites were the enemies of God. But even then, there are instances in which He showed mercy on those who were not His chosen people.
For example, He sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh, possibly the worst of the idol-worshipping cities of the day. And then He accepted their sincere repentance!
And of course, God sent His Son Jesus to die for all the world, Gentiles included, ultimately showing that He does not consider any of us enemies, but wants to bring us into relationship with Him.
So what does this Psalm above mean for us in this post-New-Testament world?
Although I don’t believe any PERSON to be the enemy of God--not even Osama Bin Laden!--He does have enemies in this world.
Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The enemies of God are not people; they are the spiritual things that separate us from Him.
And according to this Psalm, God will arise, and these lesser things--His enemies--will be scattered! They will blow away and melt before Him! (Can I get an AMEN?)
The image in verse three reminded me of a sculpture class I once took, where we learned about a process called “lost-wax casting.”
Lost wax casting is pretty involved according to wikipedia. It’s used for metal sculptures, such as bronze or aluminum. I learned a simplified version--it was a beginning class.
The basic idea is: you begin with a wax model of the sculpture you intend to make, which you encase into a fire-proof mold. (We used tightly packed sand.)
Image from wikipedia
Then you pour the liquid metal (over a thousand degrees Centigrade!) onto the wax, which will melt away, leaving behind a metal image of the thing you originally made out of wax.
When I thought of this, the spiritual implications came to me immediately.
I mean, isn’t that what we ultimately want as Christians? To have the sinful and temporal (waxen) parts of us to be lost, while we are reformed in the perfect and eternal (metal) image of Christ?
Although that doesn’t sound particularly COMFORTABLE, I know this should be my goal. So my prayer today is that I will allow God to pour Himself into me, melting away all the useless wax inside.
Let God arise, and let all that is not of Him be scattered!
"Little Ballerina of Fourteen Years," bronze by Edgar Degas
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