14 Left Behind pt 3 Psalm 98
As we consider these last few Psalms of what is referred to as the “Apocalyptic Psalms”, we cannot help but notice the most incredible structure to them that lays out a chronological curiosity that would astound us when we consider them as a whole.
Psalm 91 opens the account and does so making several references to the preservation of Gods favoured people form the effects of a virus, a plague, a pestilence says the Psalm.
Psalm 92 builds up a recognition of the rise of the wicked in the world and distinguishes them dramatically from the righteous.
Psalm 93 looks forward to the return of the Lord and Psalm 94 reveals the judgment of God upon an evil world, but also reveals the Gospel to those to whom God is ‘the rock of their refuge’ (v22).
Psalm 95 rejoices in that salvation and reminds the people of his faithfulness even when they turned from him historically.
Psalm 96 commands the heathen of the earth to turn from their idolatry to the living God.
And Incredibly, Psalm 97 has, from what I can see, its Chronology in the midst of the Tribulation period. Why do I think that?
Verse 2 to 5 demonstrate a recognition of the judgment of God in its description of the Lord, 2 Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment arethe habitation of his throne.
But as mentioned last week, we also see 3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. 4 His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. 5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
These are represented in other Old Testament passages and the book of Revelation as the peak of the judgment period.
But what is the most incredible of all is that suddenly, Israel begin to be the focal point, ZION is the centre of Gods attention and her protection is his desire. We see this from Revelation 12 but we also see it in the middle of Psalm 97
Psalm 97:8-10
8 Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD. 9 For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. 10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
Our text for today is Psalm 98
Psalm 98
1 O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. 2 The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. 3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. 6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. 7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together 9 Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
To place a few things in context, of what should be seen at this time of the tribulation period;
Revelation 6
- Famine and pestilence is the dominating consideration within the world, so too wars and the removal of peace from the earth as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse go about there work.
- Violence, men killing one another, as in the days of Noah, are already evident and there is no doubt that fear is the overriding emotion within the world.
- One quarter of the population of the Earth are killed by “sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
- An innumerable company of people are killed for their faith.
- A great Earthquake has darkened the Sun and the Moon has turned to blood. And it is evident even to the rulers of the world that this is the Lords doing.
Revelation 7
- Begins with a great and eerily stillness on the Earth, there is no wind on the Earth, the sea or through any trees.
- 144,000 sealed
Revelation 8
- As the trumpets begin to sound there are voices, thunderings, lightening and an earthquake,
- great hail and fire mingled with blood is cast to the earth
- A third of all combustible material, trees, is burned up and so too is ALL the grass. There is no plantlife for the cattle, nor for the animals to eat. Perhaps this also explains men killed by the beasts of the Earth in Revelation 6.
- A great asteroid hit the Earth and contaminates the waters of the rivers of a third part of the planet and many died drinking of those waters. And a third part of the day was darkened, Sun, moon and Stars could not shine through to lighten the Earth.
Israel is now the focus of Psalm 98, he has “remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel” and his salvation is demonstrated to her and is a witness to the heathen of the earth.
This is the state of the earth as we continue our last narrative, this fictional account is taken from yet another perspective;
It was the first time David levy had ever been in Israel. He does not exactly know which of the twelve tribes he stems from, but he does know he is a Jew. Growing up in Belgium, as a boy, his school mates would continually remind him of his decent.
At first, it was only through jesting and tomfoolery, but by the time David was a teenager the jesting gave way to open mockery. When things turned violent against the family business his father had decided to move, not just to another city, but to another country.
But where?
France was right next door and was more antisemitic than Belgium, so too Spain; Poland and Germany reminded his father too much of the stories told by his grandparents and Italy became too much the centre of attention of the world for the Levy family to remain obscure and safe.
David could not understand why his father did not simply return to Israel, the pull of the homeland was so strong in the hearts of the entire family, but not on his father. His father was born in Israel and had fought for the nation as a Paratrooper in the IDF, but he had seen all that he had fought for go to waste when Yitzhak Rabin became the Prime minister of Israel.
It was the Oslo Accords that David’s father, Ron Levy, despised most. These accords limited the building of new settlements and also took away land for which Ron had fought to keep. It helped create the Gaza Strip as a completely separate state, together with breaking up the West Bank of Israel, granting the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, under Yasser Arafat, its own government.
Giving “Land for peace” was never going to work, but Rabin, the Prime Minister, simply did not see what Ron Levy could see, “he did not have the wisdom”, thought Ron, to see that Israel would endure some of the bloodiest times in its history with the so-called Palestinians.
“The Bible is not our property deed”[1] were the infamous words of Yitzhak Rabin in a speech in1995, it was one that seemed to seal his fate, most evidently in the eyes of Ron Levy’s childhood friend, Yigal Amir.
On the 4th of November, 1995, Ron’s friend Yigal fired two rounds from his pistol which killed the Prime Minister of Israel. Yigal Amir was tried and sentenced to prison for life, and Ron Levy left Israel for Europe, with no intention of returning.
David’s father decided to resettle in Australia, and it was here, further away from the land of Israel that he had ever been, that David began to have an ever-greater longing for his homeland.
Australia was now one of a ten region jurisdiction of the World Government, and since the saviour came to power a tremendous effort was put in place to have government representatives in Jerusalem. David had watched the rebuilding of the Temple a number of years ago, and simply could not believe that sacrifice was attended there again after more than two thousand years.
Everything had been reconstructed, the true location for the temple was established, and all that was required was the Ark of the Covenant. Strangely, the long lost Ark of the Covenant was promised time and again to make its appearance. The priests and even the High priest had said some time ago that the Ark had been found, but no person had since revealed it to the world, and now, three years after the signing of the great covenant, it still remained in obscurity.
David represented the government in Australia, and was fortunate enough to relocate to Jerusalem as Secretary to the Ambassador. But he was not there for long.
Why is that so incredible?
Well it is incredible to see it because there is something that occurs in the midst of the tribulation period that has the People of Zion flee for their lives and run into the wilderness where the Lord will look after them for three and a half years.
Daniel 9:25
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Notice that a covenant is made with this “Prince”, who we recognise is AntiChrist from other passages in the Bible, and he makes this covenant for one week, or one week of years, a seven year period.
It is in the midst of that week that the covenant is broken and “the overspreading of abominations shall make it desolate”.
It is this very event, located in the midst of the tribulation period, that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:15-18
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
“Flee into the mountains” says the Lord, “Flee”.
It is here that the Lord reveals himself with the greatest of clarity to his people of Israel. It is through this event in the midst of the tribulation that God again deals very particularly with Israel.
He prepares a people to witness to them in Revelation 7 (144,000), but the first 3.5 years it is the wicked who are the focus of Gods attention as each of the seals are opened.
Revelation 12 is the next time we see Israel most clearly represented and focused upon, it too happens to be in the midst of the tribulation period.
Psalm 97 introduces Zion in the midst of this time and Psalm 98 reveals Gods salvation to Israel in the sight of the people and as a witness to the heathen.
Psalm 98
1 O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. 2 The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. 3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Is this a coincidence?
Is this body of Psalms not a wonderfully revealing portion of the bible that fits so perfectly with the Biblical timeline of the Apocalyptic period?
David Levy became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ after the disappearance of his sister. She had told him that she believed Jesus was the true Messiah that their people had rejected two thousand years ago, but she also told him of the Biblical Rapture of the Church. David was yet another person Left Behind.
On many street corners of the City of Melbourne, there was a passionate Messianic young Jew preaching the Gospel of Christ. What was most curious of all was that none of the World Police would remove them from their purpose. These Jews preached night and day somehow without interference.
David found a local Church not long after and met with a number of people who had been humbled by the reality that they too missed the Rapture of the Church. It was here that David met a woman that would soon become his wife.
She was very beautiful and filled with hope in the Lord, she told him of her extreme loneliness and sorrow after she discovered all those whom she loved the most in life had disappeared in what her brother referred to as the Rapture.
Her name was Sue.
Sue found others just like her, and together they began a small underground Church to gather and to comfort one another. It was one of these messianic Jews who led them in the knowledge of the scriptures.
When David relocated to Israel with his wife, he attended numerous church services in secret. He identified the world leader as Antichrist and learned enough of the Bible to understand what would come. He hid his identity as a believer for as long as he could, but he knew that, when the time came to receive the mark of the beast, he would be discovered.
Guillotines.
It was the strangest sight of all to behold such an ancient contraption during the most modern time in history. Guillotines were set up in many places around the City, but none more so than outside the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Christianity had become a Capital offence not long after this proclaimed this man began to rule the world, but now dramatic events began to take fold very quickly.
Antichrist was assassinated a month ago. So much division had built up around the world that many organisations began to form to put an end to this global rule, and incredibly, out of nowhere, Antichrist was struck a mortal blow to the head. The world was shocked and news of his death spread like wildfire through ever-present news broadcasting.
Some celebrated his death and believed, at least momentarily, that the last few years of tyranny have come to a close. Yet, a few days later, on Hopeday Morning (Previously known as Sunday), the man who was declared dead a few days earlier, presented himself alive.
It was after this that everything that was bad in the world, became unimaginably worse.
David watched on his phone as Antichrist made his way to the Temple located in the ancient City of David, and, incredibly, he sat on what David knew was a replica of the Arch of the Covenant, and declared himself as God risen from the dead.
It was then that David took Sue’s hand and together they ran. They knew exactly what was going to come next and they fled the city as fast as they could, they brought nothing with them other than the clothes on their backs.
It seemed many Jews of the City had the same idea, vehicles were loaded and people picked up along the way. It was strange because no one really seemed to know where they were going and yet everyone in Jerusalem went in one direction, Hebron. This ancient city was known as one of the six Cities of Refuge in the Bible, incredibly, this is where David and Sue remained for more than three years.
Psalm 98:2-3
2 The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. 3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Israel, as this time, have come to corporately believe the Gospel of Christ, all Israel is now saved, she is represented as the woman of Revelation 12, take a look at verse 17;
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now, lets go back a few verses and consider what is occurring;
From Revelation 12:6-14
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
The Bible relates the years into 360 day periods. It’s an interesting historical consideration as that also seems to be how much of the world since the time of the Babylonian empire related to the year. 360 Degrees in a circle, 360 days to year etc.
There have been some interesting astronomical considerations of why it is now 365 ¼ days to a year, but that is digressing too far from our consideration this morning.
Nevertheless, dividing the 1260 days by 360 gives us exactly 3.5 years
The woman is understood to be Israel, Biblically speaking. We know this because she is the “great wonder” John had seen in heaven Rev 12:1-2.
The people of the land of Israel will flee into the wilderness, many believe it may be to the cities of refuge, but none know for certain. Nevertheless, she will be sustained there for 3.5 years.
Continuing, verse 7
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. 11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
This is an incredible event. Today the devil still has access to heaven, so too his angels.
You are now in Revelation 12, turn back with me to Daniel 12.
This writing speaks of the very same timeframe and we see the archangel Michael prophesied to stand.
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nationeven to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever
Consider what will occur at this time beloved. All that has gone before us in this time of tribulation is ONLY that which will occur in the first 3.5 years. We thought that was bad enough and yet what can we imagine it will be like when the Devil is kicked out of heaven and, together with his horde of fallen angels, have only the Earth to dwell in?
Turn back to Revelation 12, and consider from verse 12 with me.
12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
For the world at large, this is the representation of literal Hell on Earth.
Revelation chapter 9 speaks of an angel with the key to the bottomless pit, and that pit opened;
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
It goes on to tell of Locusts coming out of the pit, these devils have imence power, but the Bible also speaks of a king rising out of the same named Abaddon, or Apollyon in verse 11. Also the beast of Revelation 11, rises out of the pit.
Not to go into it too deeply, but it is 2 Peter 2:4-5 that gives to us an indication that this pit is the prison of Hell to which the angels that created the original hell on earth before the flood, were cast.
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and deliveredthem into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Beloved, lets understand what the world will look like for those who are left behind in the hope it might motivate you to share the Gospel of Christ today.
The bottomless pit is openened and the violent angels that created the mischief before the flood are let loose upon the earth.
Satan himself and the remnant of his devils are now cast out of heaven and having great wrath knowing he has only a short time (aprox 3.5 years), to perform all the evil upon the world that he can.
Interestingly, the last 3.5 years are the years in which the Devil has his day.
But ONLY to those who have not sought refuge in Christ.
Israel, have seen the salvation of the Lord.
Keep your finger here but turn back with me to Psalm 98
4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. 6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. 7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. 8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together 9 Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
Revelation 12:13
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. 14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
For David and Sue and all those who took refuge with them, many thousands of people, God had sustained them and nourished them.
Bread again fell from heaven and water sprang out of the rocks.
The nights that were usually cold in this clear sky region, were comfortable without any additional coverings. God had cared and nourished them while they watched the world before them be overrun.
There will be a few who will live through this tribulation period. There are the remnant of Israel and yes, it is possible that it will again be a mixed multitude.
But if you see and hear this message before this occurs, believe the Gospel now.
[1] Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel
By Glenn Frankel. P. 390
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