Mensa Otabil - The Lord Ordains Strength
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We look at verse two of Psalm 8. «Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants, you have ordained strength because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.»
Putting it into context as to when the psalm was written, David now sees himself as a baby or a nursing infant. Babies are not mature enough to speak. They are not mature enough to take care of themselves, and they have to be fed. They are weak, and they are unable to walk by themselves, much less fight an accomplished warrior. David juxtaposes the babes and the infants with an enemy and the avenger. An avenger is somebody who goes out to do damage. And here are babies fighting an avenger. He says two important things that I want you to pay attention to as you look at verse two of Psalm 8. He says that God ordains strength out of babies.
God is so strong and powerful that he can use powerless people to demonstrate his power. God does not need powerful people to show how powerful he is, but he can take the weak things to confound the things that are strong. From babies, he’s able to deal with avengers. He uses those who are surrendered to him, the weak things surrendered to him, to showcase his power. He’s so perfect in himself that he doesn’t need anything to help him be any better than he is. God, out of the mouth of babes. David recognized himself as that nursing infant, that immature person, somebody who was not ready for battle, somebody who was incompetent to even be enlisted yet in the Israelite army because of age. And yet God used him to bring down a boastful giant. Out of the mouth of babes, God ordained strength.
If you think you are a baby, you think you are an infant, you don’t have what it takes, God can still use you to do great things for his glory because out of the mouth of babes, he ordains strength. The second thing that David says is that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. God silences those who speak boastfully.
Now, if you know the battle between Goliath and David, Goliath starts by presenting himself before Israel. For 40 days, he speaks bombastically, boastfully, defying God and the armies of Israel. This guy is full of himself. Of course, he’s a huge guy and he’s well-armed. He spoke arrogantly to defy God. Then, at the height of all this boast, at the height of all this hubris, God raises a shepherd boy who comes in the name of the Lord. This shepherd boy shuts the mouth of the boastful giant.
That’s what David is talking аbout: that God uses babes to shut the mouths of giants. People who speak loud and big and think they are all that, and God picks a nobody to shut them up. That’s the God we worship. That’s the God who created us, and that is the God we love because he is able to take babes and silence the avengers. I don’t know what you’re dealing with. Maybe you are also like David, and you see yourself as a babe, as a nursing infant. You don’t have it all, and you look at all the things you have to do, and it seems that people have it figured out. But if you trust in Jehovah, if you trust in this creator God, then he can take you as a baby and silence the mouth of the avenger. May the Lord silence every avenger that has risen against you.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, you do mighty things through feeble vessels. Take my life and use it for your glory in Jesus' name.» Amen.