Daily Meditations

Psalm 74:11 Why no action? As we have commented before, the right hand of God symbolises power, authority and also salvation. It is the hand of action and leadership. The one who stands at the right hand is raised up in status, to “sit at the right hand” speaks of equal status! Thus, Jesus was raised up and sat down at the right hand of God.  When Asaph longs for God to act he asks,  “Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?” Our psalm writer then gets a bit cheeky! He doesn’t just ask for God to act in power, he accuses the Lord of hiding His hand in the folds of His garment! In other words, God is resting His hand, He’s not even ready for action.  There are those who believe that we have no right to ask anything of God, that we must simply trust and obey, and take the consequences. God works to a divinely appointed plan, therefore we must accept all that happens without complaint and believe that “ all things work together for good.”  There is certainly some mileage in such a

Psalm 74:10 God has a plan Well, we could consider our writer to be somewhat impatient!  “How long will the enemy mock you, God? Will the foe revile your name forever?”   The captivity in Babylon was spread over a period of 70 years, that’s up to three generations of people. Little children were now asking their grandparents what life had been like in the Promised Land! So, maybe it wasn’t impatience, maybe there was good reason to believe that the captivity was never going to end. We could read this verse another way and suppose it to be a kind of goad. You know, the moment when you slyly suggest to your friend in the playground that the mockery of the school bully has gone on long enough.  In other words, “Are you going to do something about it?” Is God going to stand up to those sneering Babylonians and if so, when? Or, this verse could simply be a tired and woeful admission that we can’t put up with it anymore. “You are God. We know You are patient and that You always have a plan.

Psalm 74:9 No signs from God This verse gives us three reasons for spiritual hope and encourages us to understand what it is like when these three things are withdrawn.  The first reason for hope is when we experience signs from God. These can be varied; obviously miracles are signs from God. Answers to prayer. Circumstances that suddenly remind us that someone bigger is in control. Chance encounters that we later realise were meant to be. Prophetic words of guidance and encouragement. Moments of joy and peace under the shadow of His wings. Israel had none of these. Their enslavement in Babylon was accompanied by silence from heaven. They cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?” The second cause of hope is the word of the prophets. This does not necessarily involve inspiring predictions about the future. Prophet here means anyone who is hearing what God is saying, anyone who is receiving a word from heaven – even a word of chastisement! But for Israel there is nothing, they g

Psalm 74:8 The price of unbelief The wholesale destruction of the holy things, mentioned in verses 6-7, was not just confined to Jerusalem. Wherever and at whatever place God was worshipped in the land of Israel, the Babylonians destroyed it. This was the Promised Land. There were places devoted to the worship of the one, true God, places that bore His name. But the wave of terror swept across the land until nothing remained, the soldiers of Babylon were intent on crushing the Israelites completely. And then they took the people captive and marched them off, en masse, to Babylon.  This must have been a time of dreadful suffering, terror and humiliation for the Jews. Where was the God who had brought them to the Land? Where was the One who had protected and guarded them? Why was He allowing this calamitous chapter in their history? Would they ever return to their land? Isaiah, the prophet describes the history of the people prior to captivity against the backdrop of the Assyrian Empire.

Psalm 74:6-7 The dwelling place of Your name So, Solomon built the temple and completed it. He lined its interior walls with cedar boards, panelling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper. He partitioned off twenty cubits at the rear of the temple with cedar boards from floor to ceiling to form within the temple an inner sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. The main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long. The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; no stone was to be seen.”   1 Kings 6:14-18. (A cubit was about 457mm or 18 inches and was meant to be the average distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger.)  Verses 6-7 of Psalm 74 describe the destruction of all that Solomon had made. In came the Babylonian hatchet men with their axes and all that the Lord God had designed was smashed to pieces.  The Temple was then set on fire until nothing, but rubb

Psalm 74:4-5 Babylonian brutality The next verses of the Psalm are painful indeed. They describe the Babylonian destruction of Temple in Jerusalem, and Asaph must have felt deep anger, and sorrow, as he recalled these events. The Babylonian soldiers did not enter the courts quietly, they roared with triumph as they smashed their way into the Holy Place, swinging their swords and spears like men who are cutting their way through a bramble thicket. This was no ordered destruction, it was furious, barbaric and brutal. The eyes of the destroyers glinted with elation as they smashed the holy objects and tore up the sacred coverings. They piled up those objects that had material value and salivated over the prospect of getting rich at Israel’s expense.  Where the altar of incense and the menorah had stood were empty spaces. Inside the Holy of Holies was an empty space too, for the Ark of the Covenant was removed and taken to Babylon, never to be seen again. Instead of the familiar objects of

Psalm 74:3 Israel has a future! The fate of the Jews, and the fate of their holy city and its temple are inter-linked. If ancient Israel loved and served her God, turning from idols and living in accordance with His commands, then blessing ensued. In this prayer, Asaph pleads with the Lord to hurry to restore the land and its everlasting ruins. In his thinking, if the land is restored, so its people will also be restored. The ruins are described as everlasting because the site will always exist so long as there are Jews on the earth. Despite men’s best efforts, Jerusalem has staggered onwards and today still occupies centre ground in the unfolding history of mankind. The ancient stones still lie at the foot of the temple walls and the past haunts you as you walk through the city.  Modern Israel is mainly secular, there are believers, the Messianic Jews, and there is an ever - growing population of orthodox Jews still avidly studying the teachings of the Rabbis and still pursuing the ri

Psalm 74:2 Remember us Lord God does not need to be told to remember an event from the past, He never forgets! Therefore, this verse is not an attempt to jog the memory of an ageing deity, it is a plea for the Lord to help His people to make sense of a dire situation. The events of previous ages do not add up if this is the final chapter of the story.  Why had the Lord God gone to such trouble to purchase His people out of Egypt, journey with them to the Promised Land and help them to secure that land from the indigenous peoples, if they were then to be taken away from it?  Why had He called them the people of His inheritance when it was now abundantly clear that they had been rejected by Him and become the slaves of a foreign empire?  Why had their God made such a fuss about dwelling on Mount Zion and then allowed the Temple to be destroyed and the worshippers to be carried away?  In truth, the Israelites should have known all of the answers to these profound questions, the Lord had m

Psalm 74:1 A Psalm written during Israel’s exile   This Psalm, like its predecessor, is attributed to Asaph or a member of his Levitical family. As we have seen, Psalm 73 bemoans the prosperity of the wicked and the writer feels let down and envious when he compares their fortunes with his own. There is a change of heart however and the Psalm turns into a joyous song of expectation. Psalm 74 is similar in design.  In this instance the complaints are set against the backdrop of Israel’s exile. The nation has been banished from the land and the temple in Jerusalem lies in ruins. Most of the people are slaves, probably in Babylon, and the security and provision of the Promised Land seems like a distant dream. It appears that this song was written at a similar time to the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and while Israel’s captors mock and scoff at their God, Asaph is trusting that God will ultimately bring deliverance to His people.    v1        Why, why, why? The first eleven verses of

Psalm 73:28c I will tell of all Your deeds It’s good to remind ourselves at times, of the only reason that the church of Jesus Christ has been left here on earth. It is not to debate and preserve theology. It is not to build elaborate temples and buildings and infrastructures that compete with the world’s other religions. It is not to provide a creative alternative to contemporary art and music. It is not to act as gurus to the wealthy, the wicked or even politicians and law makers. The commission of Jesus Christ was plain and simple, “ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And certainly, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20.  Mark 16:15 adds, “ Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  Preac

Psalm 73:28b “I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge.”  We have commented, on numerous occasions, on how the Psalms highlight the ways in which the Lord provides refuge for His people. He may be a cliff face or a rocky place of hiding. He may be a high headland or a cave. He might be a strong tower or a mighty fortress castle. Whatever the pressing need of the time, the psalmists were able to record that the Lord God had protected and guarded His people, regardless of the dangers surrounding them.  Here, Asaph records that he has learned enough from his own experience and from the witness of others, to deliberately make the Lord his refuge. He is almost saying, “I have built myself a castle and no matter what my enemies throw at me, I will run to my refuge and know that they cannot harm me. My castle is impregnable and within its walls I am safe.” May the Holy Spirit help us to educate our minds to see our God that way. When the enemy onslaught is intense and cracks are beginning to

Psalm 73:28 To compensate for the next week when we will be on holiday! v28a     “But as for me, it is good to be near God”  I’m repeating those words because they are a startling reminder of what our journey of faith is all about! Our Creator planted a garden and in it He placed two people who were the zenith of all His creative works. Adam and Eve lived in a paradise world where they were accepted by God, loved by God, given purpose by God, protected by God and at one with God. Daily, they communed with Him in the Garden and they knew no shame in His presence, nothing condemned them, and no evil had entered their world. They were near to Him, not just physically but spiritually too.  It is the essential “inner me” that God communes with, our souls and our spirits, not just our physical beings. As we know only too well, sin wrecked the relationship between God and Adam and Eve, and they were not only thrown out of the Garden but also out of God’s presence – they were no longer “near H

Psalm 73:27 Those who are far from You will perish This is a sombre verse. The Psalms are full of warnings for the wicked. We have seen them described in some detail in this Psalm and The New Testament does not hold back either! There are descriptions of the wicked in Mark 7:21-22, Romans 1:18-32, 1 Corinthians 5:10-11, 6:9-10; 2 Corinthians 12:20-21; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 4:31; 5:3-5; Colossians 3:5,8; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; 2 Timothy 3:2-5; and Revelation 21:8; 22:15!  It is so easy just to skim over these Bible passages, they do not make pleasant reading! Each passage describes in detail the behaviour and activities of the wicked and believers are urged to have nothing to do with their behaviour or them! We are urged to put them out of the church and to not defile ourselves with evil. The passages also mention, on more than one occasion, that the wrath of God will be revealed against these people. In other words, the unbelieving are storing up God’s judgement against themselves an

Psalm 73:26 My portion forever As human beings we usually think of ourselves in a physical sense. What we look like. What we do. Who we are in terms of who we know. The first questions a quiz host on the TV or radio asks are, “What is your name? What do you do?” Age, sex, and physical health are all important components of who we are and in this verse, these are described as our flesh. But God is not interested so much in our flesh as He is in our heart – the soul and spirit within. Jesus did not die to save our bodies or our flesh, He came to give life to our spirits. It is our inner person that He is joined to and that will live on with Him into eternity. Our flesh will fail. Our physical hearts will stop beating but the inner being is strengthened by the Lord and will live if we are born again.  Amazingly our inner beings are born again here and now, we are already new creations. Our fleshly bodies will be born again at the resurrection, and we will have new bodies in preparation fo

Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? The wicked love their gods and it’s always nice to have a reference point beyond the earth isn’t it? To be able to pay homage to something bigger and greater but not something that interferes too much with life here in this world. Sometimes you can even use that higher power as a justification for what you are doing on earth. It is so easy to appear to be able to manipulate the higher powers to support you when they don’t exist!  For those who acknowledge the one, true God, who trust in Elohim Adonai there can be no such deceits. He is real. He has revealed Himself to us. He is not an illusion or the figment of our imaginations. So, when we look heavenward, beyond the confines of earth, beyond the glory of the sun, moon and stars, who is there? The Lord God is there, crowned with glory and honour and at His right hand is His Son, Yeshua, the King of Kings and the Lamb of God. Who else matters? What else matters? There is nothing and no one mor

Psalm 73:24 You will take me in glory When he listened to the inner voice of his own soul, Asaph was misled. The tentacles of envy and self-pity began to entangle him, and he was dragged down into introspection and doubt. As we have seen, he entered the sanctuary of the Temple and was overwhelmed by the glory of the presence of the Lord God. Immediately the negative voices ceased, the doubts were swept away, and heavenly logic replaced the worldly reasoning in his soul. The counsel of the Lord became his guide. What a lesson for us. Modern psychology is all about discerning the inner voices and replacing the negative influences with positivity. It is about knowing yourself. The Lord God, through His word, offers an alternative. Instead of looking within and hoping to correct our own reasoning, we are invited to look up. To listen to a different voice. To be led by the wisdom of our Creator. Wow! What a privilege and what freedom this brings, One who knows us far better than we know our

Psalm 73:23 You hold me by my right hand Sometimes we have to stop and evaluate our journey of faith. There are many twists and turns and highs and lows. There are times too of anxiety and doubt, times when the Lord seems very distant and other occasions when His Holy Presence is so very real. All of us experience the emptiness of the wilderness and the daily plod where very little seems to change, contrast that with the mountain top moments when our hair stands on end and we are overwhelmed with joy and wonder. In all of this, one thing remains the same and Asaph sums it up,  “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.”  Notice that he does not say, “You hold me  with your   right hand.” The right hand is one of authority and strength and blessing, in other words the Lord God steps down to take our hand and to exalt, empower and honour us even when, like Asaph, we were close to doubting Him!  Wherever you and I go, today or tomorrow, whatever may happen in our lives, the

Psalm 73:21-22 Senseless and arrogant Our psalmist, Asaph the wise, has changed his tune considerably. He nearly slipped in his relationship with the Lord (v2). He envied the arrogant rich and pondered the pointlessness of his innocence (v3-14).  However, he shudders at the thought that he might have spoken out about his negativity because it completely disappeared when he entered the sanctuary of God (15-17). He now realises afresh the final end of the wicked and how violent their destruction will be (v18-20). And now he apologises to the Lord God for his foolishness,  “I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.”  In other words, my reasoning was no better than a stupid animal, I was not being rational, the only thing that makes sense, Oh God, is You. To follow any other philosophy and lifestyle is to walk in ignorance.  Aspah speaks for us all. We can look at those who are better off, let’s face it who doesn’t, and become very bitter. We can add up the rewards of a

Psalm 73:19-20 The fate of the wicked Have you noticed the complete change in emphasis in the Psalm since the writer visited the Sanctuary of God? (v17) Prior to that visit he was overwhelmed by self-pity and envy of the wicked and the wealthy. Now he understands their end, he sees the pointlessness of their greed and abuses, he realises that pitfalls and traps lie before them all and their destiny is the judgement of the Lord God. Their downfall is usually sudden and awful –  “swept away by terrors!”  The psalmist likens their end to a nightmare, when you awake the horrors very quickly pass and you realise that it was just a dream. So it is with the wicked, they are the characters in the nightmare who will soon be forgotten. Memory of them and their ways will so easily be left behind. The Lord never sleeps but should He do so, when He awakes the memory of the wicked will be dismissed as if they were just a fanciful hallucination! The Lord despises the wicked and we should be under no

Psalm 73:18 Walking on ice When the little green-eyed monster of envy surfaces, we have to be very careful. It can be quite vicious, and its deceits are very clever. This particular demon uses reason and rational argument. It’s quite obvious that the wealthy are doing well for themselves. It is abundantly clear that by casting aside moral restraints, they are able to enjoy themselves in ways that we cannot! It is also very evident that if men put themselves above others and use all of their ingenuity and abilities to serve themselves, they will prosper in every worldly sense.  However, what the wealthy, self-serving wicked do not realise is that they are travelling on very dangerous terrain. Their ascent to power and influence is like walking up a glacier. The surroundings can be breath-taking, the ascent is exhilarating, the sense of achievement is overwhelming but, there are deep crevasses ahead, the surface cannot be trusted, and it is possible to slip and fall at any moment.  The t