Psalm 74 (NIV)
Mark and remember, God, all the enemy taunts, each idiot desecration. Don't throw your lambs to the wolves, after all we've been through, don't forget us.
Remember your promises, the city is in darkness, the countryside violent. Don't leave the victims to rot in the street, make them a choir that sings your praises.
(vs 18-21, The Message)
This psalm is a lament after the temple has been smashed to pieces while God's people were worshipping Him in it. God's people were confused, offended that anyone would stand up to the God of all creation and desecrate His dwelling place, but even more offensive than that is that God doesn't seemed to be moved by it.
I don't know why God allows His name to be dragged through the mud and it seems so often in our generation. In the West it's not so much an attack on a church building, burning it to the ground, but it's more subtle, it's ridicule in the media, it's celebrities, humanists doing and speaking despicable things and the only come back is everyone laughing with them.
This psalm challenges me about my reaction to events and situations that belittle God. I often get angry at the TV and give some stupid outburst with the audience being my wife. Whereas Asaph goes to God and asked Him what's going on. He recalls God's past wonders, the deliverance from Egypt, sustaining His people through the wilderness and just the grandeur and power of God in creation.
God wants us to act, He wants us burning with a passion for His renown, His fame, His name to be lifted to the highest place and our first step is prayer, petition, questioning God, asking Him why. Instead of just shouting at a newspaper, or even shouting at the perpetrator, it's asking God what are you going to do Lord, and then Lord what do you want me to do, what's going to glorify You.
Lord, I can be so lazy, so passive, even when your name is dragged through the mud. Father I need your Holy Spirit to make me burn with a sustainable passion. I want to glorify you, I'm in it for the long run.
This psalm is a lament after the temple has been smashed to pieces while God's people were worshipping Him in it. God's people were confused, offended that anyone would stand up to the God of all creation and desecrate His dwelling place, but even more offensive than that is that God doesn't seemed to be moved by it.
I don't know why God allows His name to be dragged through the mud and it seems so often in our generation. In the West it's not so much an attack on a church building, burning it to the ground, but it's more subtle, it's ridicule in the media, it's celebrities, humanists doing and speaking despicable things and the only come back is everyone laughing with them.
This psalm challenges me about my reaction to events and situations that belittle God. I often get angry at the TV and give some stupid outburst with the audience being my wife. Whereas Asaph goes to God and asked Him what's going on. He recalls God's past wonders, the deliverance from Egypt, sustaining His people through the wilderness and just the grandeur and power of God in creation.
God wants us to act, He wants us burning with a passion for His renown, His fame, His name to be lifted to the highest place and our first step is prayer, petition, questioning God, asking Him why. Instead of just shouting at a newspaper, or even shouting at the perpetrator, it's asking God what are you going to do Lord, and then Lord what do you want me to do, what's going to glorify You.
Lord, I can be so lazy, so passive, even when your name is dragged through the mud. Father I need your Holy Spirit to make me burn with a sustainable passion. I want to glorify you, I'm in it for the long run.
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