“The God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!” Psalm 68:35
In the summer of 1727, a small community of refugees on Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf’s estate in Saxony was falling apart. The Moravian settlers at Herrnhut had spent months quarreling over doctrine, governance, and worship practice. They were believers who had fled persecution in their homeland, and now they were tearing each other apart in the one place that was supposed to be safe. Zinzendorf drew up a covenant. The community confessed their divisions. They committed themselves to prayer and unity. And on August 13, 1727, during a communion service at the village church in Berthelsdorf, the Spirit of God fell on the congregation in a way that marked every person present. Within weeks, the Moravians had established a continuous prayer watch that would run, unbroken, for over a hundred years. Within a few years, they had sent missionaries to the Caribbean, to Greenland, to the slave populations of the West Indies. The community that had been fractured by its own arguments became one of the most sustained missionary movements in the history of the church.
What happened at Herrnhut followed a pattern that shows up across Scripture: a community prays, God acts, and the power that arrives reorders how they live. This week’s Scripture readings trace that pattern from the Psalms through the early church. The Psalm declares that God gives power to his people. Jesus prays for his disciples as he prepares to leave. The disciples wait in the upper room after the Ascension, devoting themselves to prayer. And Peter writes to believers who have discovered that the Spirit of glory rests on them even in suffering. Each passage answers the same question from a different position in the story: Where does the strength come from when the people of God face what lies ahead?
Psalm 68:1–10, 32–35
The God Who Goes Ahead
“God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity.” (v. 6)
Psalm 68 opens with the language of the ark’s march through the wilderness: “God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered” (v. 1; cf. Numbers 10:35). This is the God who went out before Israel, who shook the earth at Sinai, who poured rain on the parched inheritance. And this God has a particular concern for the exposed and the alone: he is father of the fatherless, protector of widows, the one who gives the solitary a home and leads prisoners into prosperity (vv. 5–6). The psalm closes with a summons to all kingdoms of the earth to sing to the God who rides in the ancient heavens and sends out his mighty voice. And the final declaration lands on a promise: “He is the one who gives power and strength to his people” (v. 35).
At this stage in the biblical story, God’s power is experienced as something that arrives from the outside. God marches. God scatters. God provides. The people receive and follow. The distance between God and his people is real, even when God is faithful. The psalmist knows where the power comes from, but the mode of delivery is external: God acts, and the people watch and worship.
John 17:1–11
The Son Prays Before He Leaves
“Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (v. 11)
Jesus lifts his eyes to heaven and prays. The hour has come. He has accomplished the work the Father gave him (v. 4). He has manifested the Father’s name to the disciples (v. 6). He has given them the Father’s words, and they have received them (v. 8). And now he is leaving the world, and they are staying in it (v. 11).
This prayer sits at the hinge of the gospel story. The God who marched ahead of Israel in Psalm 68 has walked among his people in the person of Jesus, and now Jesus is asking the Father to keep them after he goes. The prayer is specific: keep them in your name. Keep them unified. Keep them as one. Jesus has been doing this work himself (“while I was with them, I kept them in your name,” v. 12). Now he hands the responsibility to the Father. The disciples are about to enter a time where the visible, embodied presence of Jesus will be gone, and the promised Spirit will have yet to arrive. Jesus’ prayer blankets that gap. The power the psalmist celebrated as coming from outside is now being interceded for by the Son, who is preparing to depart. The disciples will carry his glory (v. 10) into a world that will oppose them, and the Son is praying for their survival before they realize what is coming.
Acts 1:6–14
The Wait Between Promise and Power
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (v. 8)
The disciples have one question: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (v. 6). Jesus answers by redirecting their attention from the timeline to the task. The Father holds the calendar. The disciples will receive power through the Holy Spirit, and that power will drive them outward as witnesses to the end of the earth.
Then a cloud takes Jesus from their sight. The God who rode the clouds in Psalm 68:33 now ascends into them as the glorified Christ. The disciples stand staring upward until two angels redirect them. And then Luke records the most significant transition in the New Testament: they returned to the upper room and devoted themselves to prayer, together, in one accord (v. 14).
This is the moment the Scripture texts land. This Sunday in the Christian calendar falls between Ascension and Pentecost, cloud and fire. The congregation reading these passages is occupying the same theological space as the disciples in the upper room: the departure has happened, the promise has been spoken, and the power has yet to arrive. The response of the earliest church was to pray, together, and to wait. The Moravians at Herrnhut did something similar two centuries ago. They stopped arguing. They prayed. And God started advancing.
1 Peter 4:12–14; 5:6–11
The Spirit of Glory Rests on the Suffering Church
“If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (4:14)
Peter writes to a church that has moved past the upper room and into the world Jesus described. The fiery trial has arrived. Believers are being insulted for the name of Christ. And Peter tells them to expect this, to rejoice in it, because it means they are sharing in Christ’s sufferings (4:13). The promise of glory at Christ’s return is tied directly to their participation in his suffering now.
The power the psalmist celebrated, the power Jesus prayed for, the power promised in Acts 1, has arrived. And it looks like the Spirit of glory resting on people who are being persecuted and tested. Peter tells them to humble themselves under God’s mighty hand (5:6), to throw their anxieties onto God because he cares for them (5:7), and to resist the devil with the knowledge that their brothers and sisters across the world are enduring the same things (5:9). The final promise completes the arc: “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (5:10).
The power of Psalm 68:35 has been relocated. It still comes from the same God, but it now rests on believers through the indwelling Spirit. The church that waited in the upper room has become the church that carries the Spirit of glory into situations of real cost.
Praying, Waiting, Receiving
The Moravians at Herrnhut remind us that the pattern of the Word of God still holds. A community in conflict became a community in prayer. A community in prayer became a community on mission. And a community on mission discovered the presence of God sustaining them across decades and continents.
The practical question put forth to each of us concerns what we do in the space between promise and fulfillment. The disciples could have scattered after the Ascension. They could have gone back to Galilee. Instead, they gathered and prayed and waited for what Jesus told them was coming. The Moravians could have split apart over their differences. Instead, they confessed, covenanted, and gave themselves to prayer.
If you are in a season of waiting, the Word speaks directly to you. The God who goes ahead of his people has already acted in Christ. The Son has already interceded for you by name. The Spirit of glory already rests on those who belong to him. Your part is to stay in the room, to keep praying with the people God has placed around you, and to trust that the God who gives power and strength to his people will do exactly that. When the power comes, it may look different from what you expected. It may arrive as strength for suffering rather than escape from it. But it will come from the God of all grace, and he will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Points to Ponder
1. Psalm 68 describes God as “father of the fatherless” and “protector of widows” alongside descriptions of his power scattering enemies. How do these two aspects of God’s character shape the way you pray for strength?
2. In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples’ unity and protection before they face the world’s opposition. How does knowing that Jesus intercedes for his people affect the way you approach a difficult week?
3. The disciples responded to the Ascension by gathering together and devoting themselves to prayer. What would it look like for your church community to respond to uncertainty with unified, sustained prayer?
4. Peter says the Spirit of glory rests on those who are insulted for the name of Christ. Have you experienced a moment where God’s presence was most tangible during a season of difficulty?
5. Peter instructs believers to cast their anxieties on God “because he cares for you” (5:7). What specific anxiety are you carrying this week that you could bring to God in prayer today?
A Prayer
Father, you are the God who marches ahead of your people and gives power and strength to the weak. We thank you that your Son Jesus intercedes for us at your right hand, and that his prayer for our protection and unity continues before your throne. We confess that we often try to generate our own strength instead of receiving yours. Teach us to wait as the disciples waited: together, in prayer, in one accord. Pour out your Spirit on us. Give us the courage to remain faithful when the cost is high, knowing that the Spirit of glory rests on those who carry the name of Christ. We cast our anxieties on you, because you care for us. Restore us. Confirm us. Strengthen us. Establish us. And to you be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Concluding Verse
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:10–11
Josh Cehulik 