Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Day 173: Psalm 73, 74, 75 and 76

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them! (Psalm 74:11)
This psalm was likely written in the confused time after the destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. They smashed all the carved paneling . . . they burned your sanctuary to the ground (vv. 6,7). The psalmist asks the question of God: What's it going to take to get your attention? If the destruction of your temple doesn't wake you from your slumber, what will?
There are times we get to the end of our rope, thinking, God has got to do something now! And we are met with silence. It feels like we're completely alone. Sometimes the rope breaks and we still don't hear from God. What's with that?
We just plod along, forcing ourselves to place one foot in front of the other, until finally we've reached a safe place. And then somehow we recognize that God has been with us all along. Even when it seemed we had been abandoned, God was doing his best work on our behalf.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).
One of the hardest things in the world is trusting God when we don't understand what he's up to.
Have you ever given up on God, only to find he was there all the time?

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