November 17: Covenant Families.
Psalms 68:1-12:
Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God; yes, let them rejoice exceedingly. Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His name Yah, and rejoice before Him. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness, Selah the earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, when it was weary. Your congregation dwelt in it; You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word; great was the company of those who proclaimed it: “Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who remains at home divides the spoil.
This is a psalm that expresses the greatness of God, praising all the qualities of God as Father, as protector, defender, provider and caregiver, always attentive to the needs of His children, protecting them and delivering them from dangers, injustices, giving them relief when the earth has needed water to produce food, defending the most defenseless from suffering such as the widows, the poor, the orphans, the homeless and the captives.
The verse that has caught my attention the most is the verse that says: "God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity”.
What a beautiful detail the psalmist wrote! This quality of God as the One who has compassion for all, who does not lose any detail of the need of each person, and in this case, of the one who is alone. Such a basic and essential need but that goes unnoticed because each one is involved with their own family, relatives and friends, but that at the end of the day, the loner spends the night alone. If he falls ill, he has no one to take care of him; if he suffers, no one notices, but God is so good that He has formed a large family to welcome the lonely!
When it was time to celebrate the greatest feast in Israel, the Passover, God established in law that to celebrate it everyone had to gather with their family to eat the lamb offered as an offering to the Lord. The lamb was to be shared by all and nothing was to be left over. But if that family calculated that they would have a lot left over, they should invite someone to their home. It could be another small family or, in this case, neighbors who lived alone. In this way the solitary was adopted that day to celebrate with a family and not feel isolated and alone in the great celebration.
Today we are going to worship God, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, in our meetings in the temple, and there we lovingly welcome the one who is spiritually and emotionally helpless and alone. Those who don't have a direction and have not understood the purpose of their lives, who come to the feet of God and the church adopts them as brother or sister in Christ, and we begin to walk together so that they grow and strengthen their spiritual lives.
In the great family of God many have found a spiritual father, a mother, a brother and a sister; they have filled that emptiness that they had in their hearts and they have filled that sense of belonging that they longed for so much in their hearts.
The church is the great family of God that has made a covenant with the Almighty, whom we call Savior and also Father. He who has adopted us and told us: “You are my son, today I have begotten...
