Fight Or Follow

Psalm 78:56-72

56Yet though he did all this for them,

they continued to test his patience.

They rebelled against the Most High

and refused to follow his decrees.

57They turned back and were as faithless as their parents had been.

They were as useless as a crooked bow.

58They made God angry by building altars to other gods;

they made him jealous with their idols.

59When God heard them, he was very angry,

and he rejected Israel completely.

60Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh,

the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.

61He allowed the Ark of his might to be captured;

he surrendered his glory into enemy hands.

62He gave his people over to be butchered by the sword,

because he was so angry with his own people—his special possession.

63Their young men were killed by fire;

their young women died before singing their wedding songs.

64Their priests were slaughtered,

and their widows could not mourn their deaths.

65Then the Lord rose up as though waking from sleep,

like a mighty man aroused from a drunken stupor.

66He routed his enemies

and sent them to eternal shame.

67But he rejected Joseph’s descendants;

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

68He chose instead the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which he loved.

69There he built his towering sanctuary,

as solid and enduring as the earth itself.

70He chose his servant David,

calling him from the sheep pens.

71He took David from tending the ewes and lambs

and made him the shepherd of Jacob’s descendants—

God’s own people, Israel.

72He cared for them with a true heart

and led them with skillful hands.

Stephen was as good as dead. As an outspoken leader in the early church, he had been targeted by the authorities. Like his Lord, Stephen had been accused of blasphemy on trumped-up charges. And like Jesus, he would be executed.

But Stephen still had a chance to get a few words in, and he might as well say as much as possible in his final speech.

Stephen began with the story of Abraham responding to God, then Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. He talked about Moses and the opposition Moses got from his own people. Then he went on to talk about Joshua, David, and Solomon. He accused his accusers of resisting God’s plans for them. “Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute!” (Acts 7:52). Finally he had riled them enough, and they began stoning him to death.

This martyr’s last words were much like Psalm 78—long, yes, but also historical and challenging. God has plans for you. Are you going to fight them or follow them?

Down in the valley with my Savior I would go,

Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow;

With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear,

Danger cannot fright me if my Lord is near.

WILLIAM O. CUSHING

Bible Networking

Starting at verse 67 of this psalm we see God making choices. These choices are not based on what people deserve but on what God has planned. See 2 Timothy 1:9.

Notable Quotable

“The wonders of God yet excite men but temporarily; and God is too soon forgotten or forsaken in man’s fascination with himself.”

JOHN I. DURHAM