Prayer for the Preservation of the Church
For God is my King of old, in spite of the gloominess of the present outlook the poet clings to this trust, working salvation in the midst of the earth, that is, throughout the habitable world He makes known and works His redemption.
V. 13. Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength, cleaving the Red Sea asunder for the passage of Israel; Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters, the expression referring to the Egyptian tyrants.
V. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan, the crocodile, the most powerful animal of Egypt, in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness, food for the wilderness dwellers, the wild beasts of the desert consuming the carcasses of the Egyptians after their overthrow in the Red Sea. Thus the monsters mentioned here are emblems of Egypt, whose power was overthrown by the might of Yahweh.
V. 15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood, in giving the Israelites water out of the rock, Ex. 17, 5; Num. 20, 11; Thou driedst up mighty rivers, the reference being chiefly to the passage of Jordan, Josh. 3, 13.
V. 16. The day is Thine, the night also is Thine, He, as the great Sovereign, has fixed the laws governing their course; Thou hast prepared the light and the sun, the light-bodies being His creatures and subject to Him.
V. 17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth, not only by dividing it from the sea, but also by fixing the natural boundaries of nations; Thou hast made summer and winter, the seasons also being His creatures and therefore subject to His command. Thus the absolute, limitless power of God is described, this description serving as a basis of the supplication following.
V. 18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people, the enemies gone mad with their rejection of Yahweh, have blasphemed Thy name, v. 10.
V. 19. O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove, the individual believer and the entire Church being included in this designation on account of the manner in which the dove seeks refuge when danger is near, unto the multitude of the wicked, the band which is so active in planning its destruction. Forget not the congregation of Thy poor, the meek sufferers for the sake of His name, forever.
V. 20. Have respect unto the covenant, regarding His promise to uphold the fellowship between Himself and His people; for the dark places of the earth, the eaves and hiding-places of the persecuted believers, are full of the habitations of cruelty, since it happened repeatedly in the history of the Church that the enemies searched out and killed the faithful even in the mountain fastnesses (period of the Maccabees, the Huguenot persecution, etc.).
V. 21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed, on account of the Lord’s refusal to give him the assistance he craved; let the poor and needy, the afflicted members of His Church, praise Thy name, thanking Him for the deliverance which He was requested to provide.
V. 22. Arise, O God, plead Thine own cause, for it was, after all, Yahweh’s cause which was in danger on account of the action of the enemies; remember how the foolish man reproacheth Thee daily, Jehovah’s own honor thereby being assailed.
V. 23. Forget not the voice of Thine enemies, their sneering blasphemies; the tumult of those that rise up against Thee, in open rebellion against His sovereign rule, increaseth continually, rising up threateningly against the throne of the Most High.
That is a prayer which is bound to have its effect, when the believers boldly point out to the Lord that it is His own interests in the world which are endangered on account of the attitude of the enemies.