Judges 5 Devotional

A Song That Names the Victor

“So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD! But may those who love You shine like the sun at its brightest.” And the land had rest for forty years.”Judges 5:31 (BSB)

Deborah and Barak's song retells the victory of chapter 4 as worship. It begins by blessing the LORD for leaders who led and people who volunteered (5:2). Then it widens the picture. When the LORD marched out from Seir, the earth trembled and the mountains quaked (5:4-5), and even the stars fought against Sisera (5:20). The song is honest about why the trouble came: Israel had chosen new gods (5:8).

Not everyone joined in. Reuben wavered, Gilead and Dan stayed put, and Meroz is cursed for failing to come to the LORD's aid (5:15-17, 23). The song turns grimly ironic as Sisera's mother waits for plunder that will never arrive (5:28-30). Through it all, the singers keep naming the LORD as the one who acted, and they want his deeds retold where people draw water (5:11). Praise is how God's people remember rightly, with him at the center of the story. When you retell what God has done for you, you guard against forgetting and invite others to join the song.

To think about: What has God done for you that you could retell to someone this week as praise?