Letting All Men See Jehovah’s Victory Processions

ACCORDING to a leading nineteenth-century Bible commentator, Psalm 68 is the most difficult of all the psalms to understand. How thankful the Christian witnesses of Jehovah can be that at their Disciple-making District Assemblies last year they received a detailed explanation of this psalm! And in particular do they have cause for rejoicing that all of Jehovah’s people today can have a share in letting all men see Jehovah’s victory processions. “They have seen your processions, O God, the processions of my God, my King, into the holy place.”—Ps. 68:24.*

Among the first of Jehovah’s victory processions recorded in the Word of God was that which took place at the time that Jehovah God gave his people Israel the victory over the pursuing Egyptians under Pharaoh by drowning them all in the Red Sea. There Moses and the sons of Israel sang a song of victory in which the women joined, dancing, playing tambourines and singing in response to the men. (Ex. 15:1-21) In later years, as Jehovah gave further victories to his people over their pagan foes, there were other victory processions.—1 Sam. 18:6, 7.

In modern times Jehovah won a great victory by means of the Greater David, Jesus Christ, when he and his angels cast Satan and his angels out of heaven between 1914 and 1918. (Rev. 12:1-12) Certainly that was a victory deserving a public procession, for it marked the birth of God’s heavenly kingdom as well as a victory over Satan and his demons. All the preaching that Jehovah’s people do even today is a part of this victory procession.—Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10.

Since then Jehovah God has also given other victories to his people. Bitterly opposed by religious and political foes, the Witnesses have won victories in the courts of the land and before other governmental bodies, particularly in the United States, but also in Canada, Great Britain, Germany and elsewhere. As a result bans have been lifted, their form of worship has been recognized and they have been given constitutional or other legal guarantees and protection in many lands.

Taking the lead in these victory processions are “the gifts in the form of men,” mentioned at Psalm 68:18. Who are these? The apostle Paul tells us: “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers, with a view to the training of the holy ones, for ministerial work, . . . until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man.”—Eph. 4:11-13.

While it is the men that have taken the lead in these victory processions, women have had no insignificant part therein, even as verse 11 of Psalm 68 tells: “Jehovah himself gives the saying; the women telling the good news are a large army.” How true it is that the women publishing the good news are a large army! By far the majority of the more than one million Kingdom proclaimers going from house to house, making return visits, conducting Bible studies in the homes of the people and standing on the street corners preaching the good news are womenfolk! And most of them do this while at the same time caring for their families.

Psalm 68 also tells “congregated throngs” to bless Jehovah. (Ps 68 Vs. 26) What congregated throngs have been doing this in modern times, as at the gathering of more than a quarter of a million persons at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York city in the summer of 1958! Beginning with July this year there will be still more congregated throngs blessing Jehovah throughout the northern hemisphere as the Christian witnesses of Jehovah meet at their four-day “Good News for All Nations” District Assemblies. Surely these assemblies will help many more persons to see Jehovah’s victory processions!

So let every dedicated Christian living in lands where these assemblies are to be held put forth every effort to attend an assembly. More than that, let all such attend fully conscious of their spiritual need, and so be present at all sessions, paying close attention and taking notes. At the same time let them resolve also to know the ‘greater happiness that comes from giving’ by contributing in various ways to the success of these assemblies, thus sharing in letting all men see Jehovah’s victory processions.—Matt. 5:3; Acts 20:35.

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