Psalm 35:5

Psalm 35:5

Blow them away!     

I spent my early years on a local farm in the village where I grew up. Harvest was an important time of the year, obviously. In one of our barns was a machine called a “dresser”, so named because it was used to dress the barley or wheat that came off the fields. Trailers dumped the corn from the combine harvester, working in the fields, into a pit where it could be taken by auger to large grain holders. However, if the corn was particularly dirty, i.e. full of grass seeds or other rubbish or if it was being sold for seed, it had to be “dressed.” The dresser was a machine driven by a motor with various sieves and shakers and it would take out impurities and chaff which would fall through to the ground. Modern combine harvesters do all of this in the fields and the chaff is blown away on the wind. Chaff is useless, it is just the empty husks around the grain, it has no purpose other than to be thrown away. This verse in Psalm 35 reminds me of those days many years ago and you can appreciate just how insulting David is being towards his enemies. They are nothing! They are rubbish! They are the leftovers that nobody wants, that serve no useful purpose. Blow them away!

My prayer for this New Years’ day is, “Come, angel of the Lord, and drive away all those foes who oppose God and who trouble us. May the precious seed of God’s Word be cleansed and made holy. May the pernicious words of the enemy be blown away on the wind.” Hallelujah!

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