PRÉCIS ON ELVIS LEAVING THE BUILDING: A LAMENT FOR GOD’S ABANDONMENT OF A FAITHLESS AMERICA

SCRIPTURE. “You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the heads among the people. My dishonor is before me all day long, and shame has covered my face.” – PSALM 44:14-15, AMPC

KEY TERM: “BYWORD.” ‘Mashal’ [מָ֭שָׁל]: “From a primitive root meaning, ‘To rule, have dominion, reign, or cause to have power;’ implicates a sense of superiority in mental action; a pity [and well-known] maxim of a metaphorical nature; hence an adage, poem or parable, proverb; ‘a figurative discourse related to some ethical wisdom or principle [as with a popular saying].’”

QUOTATION. “‘A nation is turning away from God. Its hedge of protection has been removed. Why? To cause them to turn back, to wake up, to save them from a greater judgment.’ And what are they doing in light of it? Or rather, what are they not doing? ‘They’re not returning to God?’ Exactly. Instead of listening to the Alarm, instead of turning back, instead of even pausing for a moment to reexamine their ways, they boast their resolve. It wasn’t about rebuilding at all. It was about ignoring the Warning and rejecting the Call to Return. ‘So they missed their Warning. They did more than just miss it. The defied it!’” ― JONATHAN CAHN, Author of The Harbinger, 2012 [Before he fell under Trump’s thrall]; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Thou makest us a byword among heathen’ – The word rendered ‘by-word’ – משׁל mâshâl – ‘A similitude or parable; a proverb; apophthegm’ [concise saying or maxim]; most particularly, ‘a song or saying of derision.’ The idea here is, that they were made a proverb, or were referred to as a striking instance of the ‘Divine Abandonment,’ or as something marked to which the nations might and did refer as an example of d See Deuteronomy 28:37.

‘A shaking of the head among the people’ – An occasion for the shaking of the head, in derision and scorn. Compare the notes at Psalm 22:7.” – ALBERT BARNES, Notes on the Old and New Testament, 1834; edited

DK’S TAKE. All of this reminds of the classic STORY OF ICHABOD, as briefly recounted by WILLIAM MACDONALD:

“When a runner went back to Shiloh and informed ELI that the Ark had been captured, the old priest fell backward off his magistrate’s seat, broke his neck, and died. The bad news caused the wife of PHINEAS to go into labor, and she died in childbirth. Hearing of the death of her father-in-law and her husband did not seem to affect her as much as the news that the Ark had fallen into the hands of the Philistines. As soon as she died, she named her son ICHABOD, (‘Inglorious’), saying, ‘The glory [of the Lord] has departed!’” – Believer’s Bible Commentary, 1995, p. 300; edited

Beloved, do I really have to make the connection to the America of today and her rebelliously compromised and anemic Church? But I will, albeit briefly. I have sensed and written about the vacuousness of our Pulpits today, empty of any prophetic voice or call to repentance for our ocean of sins against our King.

Though I cannot attach a date to it, certainly in the last several years amid the Advent of Donald Trump, and in light of the toxic gushing over ourselves (America the Great!) at the Republican Convention, the Spirit of God could no more have been there than in the very bowels of deepest Hell.

Neither does the boasting of the Democrats’ Harris-Walz Mania during their Convention, leading with Ms. Harris’ brutal desire to let the blood of the infants run like rivers!

CODA. No, my friends, God is no longer covering America with grace and protection. We are now, to state it as chillingly as possible: ‘On our own.’ So much so that you may hereafter call the United States: “ICHABOD!”

Selah.