Psalm 97
History is filled with stories of conquest. Alexander the Great conquering Greece, Asia Minor, the Middle East and the Persian empire, even into India. His conquest was shockingly swift. He brought a hellenization to his conquered lands, seeking to unite the East and the West with a common, syncretistic culture.
A few centuries later, Rome conquered the Greeks and extended their conquest of Europe under Julius Ceasar. They brought a common law and roads to facilitate trade across the new empire.
There were the Islamic conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries that conquered the Arabian peninsula, North Africa, Persia, and Spain.
Then there were the Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries; perhaps the most brutal of all, creating the largest contiguous land empire in history from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan.
There are more: the Ottomon empire, the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the Brittish empire, Napolean, and Hitler.
Conquests turn the world upside down as they impose new cultures, customs, laws, and ways of life to the people. They sweep in like a tidal wave that threatens everything in its path, sweeping it up, turning it over and over, and settling it in a shifted landscape. Sometimes it works out well for people, other times it destroys. Sometimes the conqueror is viewed as a liberator, other times, as a destroyer. How he is viewed, depends upon the allegiences of the people.
One thing that a conquest does: it proves the power of the conquerer. Nothing can stand in his way.
This psalm was written to sing the praises of God as THE great conquerer. This isn’t a popular view of God in today’s culture. More often you hear about God as merciful, which he is; or holy, majestic and transcendent, which he is; or as savior, which he is. The idea of God as conquerer puts him in the same category as Hitler, and Napolean, Genghis Khan, Julius Ceasar, and Alexander the Great. These are not figures that history looks kindly upon because of their brutality and hardness. Nonetheless, their conquests are mere shadows compared to the great conquest that God will accomplish.
God is the ultimate conqueror. And that pushes away the darkness and ushers in joy. For those that belong to Him, it is the hope we cling to and drives us forward in faith. For those who bow before other gods, it is the ultimate terror.

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