Yet There Is Hope

Faith says there is always more than meets the eye. This is easy to say, but it can be very hard to stick to when facts seem to run counter to our faith. For the psalmist, the situation was desperate. For so long, faith and the temple had seemed synonymous, but now the temple was gone, lost in the rubble that once was Jerusalem. The smell of death hung over the ruins. Their neighbors did not hesitate to come and mock, ramming home the apparent failure of their God. It hurt then, and it still hurts today.

One lesson the psalms are constantly teaching us is to be honest with God and not to dress up our words in his presence. The problem is clear, but what is the answer? First, the end of Jerusalem was not due to God’s failure, but to the people’s disobedience. God is not willing to point at the failure of the surrounding nations and ignore the shortcomings of his own people who, above all, should know better. However, those who laid waste the city were not guiltless themselves, and the clock was ticking against them, too. Though the people of God deserved their punishment, now they needed signs of God’s mercy, to give them hope and to restore the reputation of their God.

In passionate prayer the psalmist calls for God to act. The driving force behind his prayer is concern for the glory of God. If God will deliver his people from such a hopeless position, then the story will be recounted from generation to generation. Are we as quick to give God the credit, and then tell what he has done to the next generation? People need to be helped to see what is really happening, to see beyond the obvious.

Recall what you could and would tell others of God’s work in your life. How are you quick to give God credit for his wonderful works on your behalf?