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Psalm 108 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Moab is My washbasin; I throw My sandal on Edom. I shout in triumph over Philistia.”
Psalms 108:9 HCSB
“Picture Edom in rebellion against Yahweh and his people. Picture them mustering thousands and thousands of warriors. Picture the iron chariots, the war horses snorting and stamping, the bulging muscles and bronze skin of the mighty men, the razor sharp swords, the awful pointed spears, the shields flashing in the sun, the unflinching countenance of seasoned solders. Picture a horde of fierce fighting men thundering through the valley of Seir. Fearful, dreadful, fierce and powerful.
When God sees them coming he sits down. He will wash his feet. With 18,000 fighting warriors approaching like a stampede of Texas longhorns, God sits down to wash his feet! And then, as one would flick a fly, he tosses his shoe on Edom. And 18,000 soldiers fall. God never even looked, he scarcely heard the noise. The world sits stunned at the victory; God sits with his feet in the water.”
John Piper
I love Piper’s quote in reference to Psalm 108:9.
Have we ever seriously considered the magnitude of God? The writer of this psalm paints a picture of God in comparison to the mightiest warriors of the ancient world. Casually, almost nonchalantly, God destroys entire nations. As Piper notes at the end, the world sits stunned while God sits with his feet in water. What can we learn from Moab and Edom’s destruction?
“This somewhat difficult expression may be thus explained. Moab and Edom were to be reduced to a state of lowest vassalage to the people of God. The one was to be like a pot or tub fit only for washing the feet in, while the other was to be like the domestic slave standing by to receive the sandals thrown to him by the person about to perform his ablutions, that he might first put them by in a safe place, and then come and wash his master’s feet.”
C.H. Spurgeon
They were to be reduced to the lowest vassalage. In other words, humility. Obadiah writes of Edom’s pride.
Your presumptuous heart has deceived you, you who live in clefts of the rock in your home on the heights, who say to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?” 4 Though you seem to soar like an eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down. This is the LORD’s declaration.
Obadiah 1:3-4 HCSB
Pride may be the mightiest of all sins. It creates deception, gossip, conflict, and division. The Lord hates pride and has no problem eliminating it with the flip of his sandal. On the other side, God loves humility. If pride is the worst of sins, humility may be the foundation for all virtue. The truth about humility is that it will come one way or another. Either we will change our heart, or God will flip His sandal. Either way, He gets the glory.