The Story of God
Opening Prayer
Lord of the Universe, You hold my destiny in Your hands. Help me now to glimpse Your glory in Your Word.
Read PSALM 78:40–72
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their river into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility—
a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
56 But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was furious;
he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among humans.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword;
he was furious with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
and their young women had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…” (John 10:14).
Last Sunday, in the first part of this psalm, we saw how the story of God’s people is intended to be read as our story, upon which we will meditate and thereby learn. It finished by saying of God’s people, “He remembered that they were but flesh” (39). This thread of God’s mercy towards weak and unfaithful people runs through the whole psalm. It is just as well, because the judgment of
God is stark and conclusive. As the Exodus story is reprised, along with the events that followed, God is described as “furious,” rejecting his people for turning away from him (59). He abandons the center of his worship (60,61) and brings death upon priest and people alike through their enemies (62–64). In the Old Testament, God’s judgment is usually interpreted as being experienced in the
present, unlike the New Testament, where judgment is often reserved for the day of the Lord. We see this in reading Mark’s Gospel, where Christ’s proclamation of God’s judgment is no less severe than in this psalm. Any attempt to remove divine justice from our picture of God’s character only takes us further away from the
knowledge of God.
However, the psalm also points to that aspect of God we should proclaim all the more: he is the one who shepherds his people, guiding us safely in the wilderness, so that we need not be afraid (52,53). This is always God’s intention (65) and it becomes embodied in King David, who is chosen to use his experience of literal shepherding to lead God’s own people, as his servant (70). This story, too, is our story. If we have eyes to see, we perceive another shepherd from the tribe of Judah (68), a Good Shepherd, a Servant whom God will send to lead his disciples to safety, giving his own life for the sheep.
Apply
Thinking back on your own story, in what ways do you see that God has been your Shepherd?
Closing prayer
Good Shepherd, I bless Your name today. You love me, watch over me, provide for me and one day will lead me home. Thank You that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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