The Sons of Korah wrote this prayer for the nation to pray collectively. The occasion is an invasion. When ancient nations marched out toward their neighbors to invade them, it was not a fast-moving event. Rather, the army’s invasion was a slow-paced caravan. News of an invasion spread quickly. When people living and working in the country received the ill news they moved to and barricaded themselves in a nearby fortified city. The people in the city were given this prayer to recite together.
The first junction when united in peril is to remember how the Lord saved us in the past. As a nation can anyone recall the times the Lord saved us? Do parents teach their children to remember and not forget? “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.'” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10)
A nation that does not remember, celebrate, or teach its children past deliverance through the hand of the Lord Jesus will fall to fear and panic when invaded.
