Psalm 32:4

Psalm 32:4  

Down Dagon!     

In 1 Samuel 5 we read a unique story. The Philistines had captured the sacred Ark of God (The Ark of the Covenant) and removed it from Israel; no doubt they thought that this piece of furniture was no more powerful than the useless objects that made up their own religious paraphernalia. They had taken this wonderful Ark into their temple at Ashdod and set it beside an image of Dagon. (Dagon was supposed to be the son of a god called El and the father of Baal.) The day afterwards they went to the temple and found Dagon fallen on his face before the Ark! They picked him up and left him safe in his temple. The following morning, he had fallen over again and this time his head and hands were broken off! “And the Lord’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation on them and afflicted them with tumours.” 1 Samuel 5:6. Give the Philistines some credit, they saw some deep magic going on here and decided that it was time to get rid of the Ark!

At the time of writing the plague of Corvid – 19 hangs like a dark cloud over the whole world. We might ask ourselves, “Is the Lord’s hand heavy upon us?” David sensed this was so as he wrote Psalm 32:4; something had happened to sap his strength and his energy, he felt like a man who was suffering under the heat of the Middle Eastern summer sun. Let us pray that if God’s hand is heavy upon our world, He will still show mercy and kindness so that all who will know Him will have the opportunity to repent and find forgiveness for their sins. 

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