Psalm 53:6

Psalm 53:6

When God restores His people

As we have noted before, the seat of God’s throne on earth and the centre of His activities with mankind has always been Mount Zion. A lowly hill in earthly terms but a giant mountain in heavenly language. Thus, when David prays that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion, he is simply asking the Lord God to act, to save His people, to relieve the land of its trouble and to bring blessing and hope to a beleaguered nation. 

However, in the last verse of this Psalm it is not a question of if God will act but when He will act. “When God restores His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!” Jacob means, “He grasps the heel” and it is a Hebrew idiom for “he deceives.” In Genesis 32:28, after he had wrestled with God, Jacob was told, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Israel probably means “He struggles with God” OR “God will fight”. So, we have a man who struggled with God and a nation who has struggled with God and maybe a God who has struggled with men! None of them have been overcome. The nation, against all odds, remains to this day when many of its contemporaries have fallen by the wayside. Perhaps David is saying here, “May individual strugglers rejoice, and may your holy people rejoice when You, oh Lord, come to fight for them.” Hallelujah! 

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