A DIFFERENT IMAGE OF GOD
Psalms 68:5-6 NKJV
5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows,
Is God in His holy habitation.
6 God sets the solitary in families;
He brings out those who are bound into prosperity;
But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
All of us have an image of what we believe God to be. Hopefully, yours is positive. Too many have a negative image of God. But the more we come to know Him through our relationship with His word and His Holy Spirit, the more we begin to see God in a better light. I don’t believe we’ll ever exhaust our understanding of God. He is too big and too awesome and beyond our limited comprehension. However, we can acknowledge and get to know Him better and see Him in a greater light.
Our verses for today provide a glimpse as to the nature of our Heavenly Father. He is a father to the fatherless. That may not seem to be a big deal, but maybe it’s because the role of a father has been diminished in the last 50 years. Fathers are important. In the 50s and 60s in America, there were TV shows that actually gave honor to the role of the father. Father Knows Best and My Three Sons were shows that exalted instead of mocking fatherhood. God must believe that being fatherless is a detriment because He fills in that gap—a father to those without a father.
God is a defender of widows. Again, we see God stepping into the role of protecting those in a vulnerable state. During David’s time, a widow was often one of the most challenging positions for a woman to find herself. What a blessing to know that God sees, and cares, and steps in for the widows. And He still does today. God cares for those that society tends to forget.
God provides a home and a family for those who are alone. Loneliness is a major problem, not just in America but worldwide. As people, we were never meant to be alone. Again, God cares about the lonely and wants them to be a part of a family. Here is where the church of Jesus Christ can make a difference in our society. Church can be that family for those who are alone. The lonely will have to take advantage of what God provides, and it may mean moving out of their comfort zone, but God will help provide a home for His lonely children.
The last verse is both a promise and a warning. God will bring out those who are bound. This is speaking of those held captive, the prisoners. We can expand that definition to include those who are held captive by habits or addictions—those who are enslaved in any way. People can be captive to a bad relationship. Or held captive by fear. Or by some sin that constantly dominates them. The wonderful thing is that God can bring us out of any captive situation into prosperity. I know some people have a problem with the word prosperity, but it’s a scriptural word. Prosperity is taken from the root word, meaning to be advantageous to succeed. We shouldn’t have any problem with God bringing us into an advantageous position where we are able to be successful.
The warning in this verse is that the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Dry land is nonproductive land. And the rebellious implies stubbornness. So when we are stubbornly refusing to go God’s way and doing our own thing, dry times will be a coming. Dry times are not what God wants for His children, but if we go stubborn, we’ll not be positioned for God’s best.
Words like the ones in this psalm help generate a bigger, better image of our wonderful God.