Psalm 74:20

Psalm 74:20

Don't neglect the Covenant

This verse is similar so many others in the Psalms. The writers are not frightened to hold God to account, something we would rarely dare to do today. It’s a bit like you and I saying to God, “You’d better check the terms and conditions of our agreement, the wicked have taken up occupation in many places. What are you going to do about it?”

God’s Covenant with Israel was that they would be a treasured possession, a kingdom of priest and a holy nation. Exodus 19:5-6. He had promised to drive out the pagan tribes and to establish Israel’s borders. Exodus 23:27-31. God had told the people, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” 

Israel had suffered greatly because of their failure to keep to the Covenant that God had made with them. They were now enslaved by the Babylonians and held captive by a pagan empire. They looked longingly back to their treasured land, to their freedom and to the blessings that their predecessors had enjoyed and how they wished that these could be restored. Now the land had become a dark place and the dwelling place of cruel men. I can understand Asaph’s plea, can’t you? Perhaps we should be pleading for our own land? And perhaps we should dare to believe that when God says something He means it and when He makes covenant promises, He will keep them?

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