Psalm Meditation 824
Second Sunday of Easter
April 3, 2016

Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)

In the midst of devastation and conquest, in which the psalmist describes the overthrow of the government and the destruction of the Temple, there rises the reminder that God has a long history with the people that cannot be discounted. Crying out for God to step in and fix this problem, the psalmist is brought up short with the reminder that this is not the first time the people has been in trouble, the first time a battle or war has not gone their way. The psalmist continues to hope that God will fix this situation and that hope is given credence by remembering God’s history with the people.

Certainly the God who created the earth and all that is in it, who subdued the wild creatures of the chaotic seas, can deliver this chosen people safe from a human enemy. ‘And in the event another incentive is needed, this human enemy is also making fun of you, God. If you won’t stop them for our sakes, do it for your own.’ It is a human tendency to believe that our God has the same temperament as we; that God would be offended by the scoffing and reviling of those who have conquered God’s people.

When we begin to feel defeated by all that rises against us we too can remember that we have a long history with the God of all creation. That long history is made up of God acting in God’s good time, rather than according to our time schedule. Problems arise for us when we are more intent on God’s timing than on God’s acting. While we get impatient for God to take some action, God is waiting for the opportune time in which to act. The important part to remember is that God is with us, has been for a long time and is likely to be for a long time yet.

March 28, 2016
LCM