Psalm 53:5

Psalm 53:5

Overwhelmed with dread!

It’s interesting to note that this verse is not just a form of words, it is actually a summary of a number of occasions when the Lord God filled the hearts of Israel’s enemies with fear and dread and there was nothing for them to fear and dread! For example, Gideon saw this literally happen when he took 300 men to fight the vast army of the Midianites and they fled in terror at the sound of breaking pitchers and the lights from 300 torches! Read Judges 7. 

Elisha saw God in action when the Arameans surrounded the city of Samaria; the Israelites were besieged by a vast army and without hope of relief until the Lord stepped in! Four lepers decided to take their chance one evening and see if they could beg food from the enemy army. When they arrived at the edge of the camp “No one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army … so they got up and fled in the dusk… they left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.” 2 Kings 7.

But it was not just the enemies of the Lord who would know fear and dread but also His people who disobeyed Him. In Leviticus 26 the Lord God sets out the rewards for obedience and the punishments for disobedience; the worst-case scenario is that the majority of the nation would be scattered, the land would be laid waste and the cities in ruins. Then God says, “As for those of you who are left. I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight!” Leviticus 26:36-37.

The Lord God acted in this way on a number of occasions, and He scattered the bones of those who had attacked His people. It is a terrible thing to read that God despised their enemies as they had despised Him. Hebrews 10:31 says that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Let us never forget that God is Holy, God is just and God hates wickedness. The wickedness in our world and in our culture today will not go unpunished and the Lord God will always protect and guard those who are true to Him. Hallelujah!

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