God’s power today

Psalm 68:28 Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have done in the past.

The psalmist, King David, writes a very strongly worded psalm about the power of God, especially when activated on behalf of His people. He proclaims the victory of God over His enemies. He celebrates and recalls the wonderful miracles of God in the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Then, in verse 28, King David calls out to God to summon His power and reveal all His strength as He had done in the past.

The events of the Red Sea occurred several hundred years before King David’s time. For him, it was an event in history – an event that was celebrated with the Passover and diligently recalled as a reminder of God’s goodness and favour towards Israel. But since the deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites had gone through tough times, including invasions and attacks from enemy tribes. Many times, it seemed God was silent or far away. King David himself was often in trouble and at death’s door. He had to call upon God many times and trusted Him for deliverance. David would remember what God had done in the past and believe that He could do the same thing again. David was not remembering what God had done in his own lifetime – he was recalling the wonderful, miraculous events that had been told to him and taking comfort in them. He was reminding God that he was confident in His power and that he wanted to see that same power displayed before his eyes.

In today’s terms, that would be like reminding God of everything we read of in the Book of Acts and saying, “Please, God, do it again!” If God could do great miracles in the past, then He can do it today. It is not good enough for us to know that God did those things in history. We want to see history repeated. We want to know His power firsthand.

Personally, I want to see God’s miraculous and healing power in my family and in my church today. That verse is my own personal prayer to God. I am crying out to God to summon His power and  show us His strength, like He did before. We need to hunger today for His presence and power to be manifested like we know it has been in the past.  If we don’t hunger for it, it won’t happen. God is not a Santa Claus that turns up automatically at a certain time. If we don’t honour Him as the wonderful, passionate, powerful, personal, holy and loving God, He doesn’t acknowledge us and just allows us to live in our misery. But if we cry out to Him in desperation, like the Israelites did for years and years in their oppression in Egypt, He hears us and moves on our behalf.

Dear God, let Your might be displayed today like it was before. Summon Your power, O God! I know that Your hands are not shortened – You are the same, yesterday, today and forever. What you did for the Israelites, You can do today. What you did for Peter, Paul and the early church, You can do today. Stir up my hunger and passion so that I will not settle for anything less than Your pure and holy presence in my life and in the life of my church. Grace my family with Your presence and Your power. Let the miraculous happen, not just to make life easier, but so that Your name may be made famous. In Jesus’ Name, Amen