Tribute to Lord God Sabaoth, Triumphant Lord of Hosts, Who is Jesus, the Victorious Lion of Judah, A Personal Paraphrase of Psalm 18
For Those Under Severe Spiritual Attack by the Enemy of Our Souls, Truth to Anchor Your Faith,
by Eben
I love You, Lord, my God and Strength,
To save You go to any length.
Hell's cyclone turned its rage on me,
Its tempest, tidal pool, and sea
All whirl'd my soul 'midst clashing rock,
And in each wave I saw Death lock
Its grip on my own struggling life
To plunge me down upon a knife.
About me drowned both great and strong,
Whose boasted strength was crushed along
With foolish young and old who thought
Their years assured, their battle fought--
When they had not yet ev'n begun
To know Salvation is God's Son!
In my distress I called on Him,
And though my eye and voice were dim
And weakened beyond human ken,
My God heard me in high heaven,
Almighty God, my Shield, my Rock!
Then earth began to shake and knock,
Its roots were bared and shaken loose,
Entwining souls as in a noose.
The hills inland were seaward moved,
Behind them ground was torn and grooved.
Reports went forth to calm the land,
But further shakings preached God's hand.
The heavens too were struck in twain,
The cosmos stumbled, drunk, insane.
Smoke and fire poured forth a flood,
And war and hate dipped hands in blood
As red as coals, as hot as flame
That burns and writes God's holy name
Where cruel men feed their god with gore,
Their shame exposed, though they adore
A beast whose thirst is never slaked,
Between whose teeth men's blood is caked.
Against such evil God has flown,
His righteousness like wind has thrown
Its kingdoms down, disarming them--
Surprised, they yield each diadem.
For who can stand when God's cloud spreads
A thick confusion on their heads
Of state, whom every counsel failed,
Which all their so-called wise men hailed?
Such darkness from the Lord now flies
Against the seats where evil lies.
For mighty kings with blindness struck
Send Christ with armored tank and truck!
Afghanistan was the domain
Where no one knew the Lamb that's slain.
And now a thousand saints adore
Where red-starred flags no longer soar.*
See here enthroned, a secret place!
With hail, thunder, watered base,
Our God Most High sends forth His Word,
Such golden splendor seen, unheard--
Until His mighty acts are known
And men proclaim what He had sown.
In heaven's light He thunders too;
With arrows, lightnings, hailstorms,
He molds the clay of earth and forms
An instrument of dreadful face,
From which men flee as in a race--
THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH! they cry in fear,
As Grace poured out in Christ draws near.
It's Grace that turns the oceans out
And lets mankind there walk about!
When there is no security,
One Rock remains, most high, holy;
It is my Lord, Who sent His aid,
When all my hope began to fade;
The sea turned dry beneath my feet,
I walked on land where waves had beat.
My enemies fell back in awe--
Not me, a LION, they all saw.
***********
*The brutal and finally unsuccessful Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan (it was the sheer force of a superpower dictatorship attempting to subjugate a much weaker country) was the strange and unusual means for the spread of the Gospel by Christians in the Soviet Army--which shows that God has His instrument in what we would call the most unlikely spots! The red-starred flag was replaced by the Islamic flag of the cruel Taliban, but that Christianity-attacking regime has been forcibly overthrown recently by America and replaced with a democratic one where freedom has, in a measure,
appeared, so that individuals can more freely practice faith, whether Moslem or Christian.
