Psalm 74.
Honestly, it’s kinda gloomy, a predominance of brutally honest statements about the killing, stealing, and destroying Asaph the psalmist witnessed and was contemplating. Can you hear his despairing heartbreak in these verses?
3 …The enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary.
Your enemies roar in the midst of Your meeting place;
7 They have set fire to Your sanctuary;
they have defiled the dwelling place of Your name to the ground.
10 O God, how long will the adversary reproach?
Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?
20 …For the dark places of the earth are full of the haunts of cruelty.
23 Do not forget the voice of Your enemies;
the tumult of those who rise up against You increases continually.
Though he was lamenting the world’s condition thousands of years ago, it looks like today’s isn’t much different. We can see literal destruction of Christian meeting places and spiritual application within Christians themselves who are His “dwelling place”, His sanctuary.
Reading Psalm 74 is like reading history of the present. We are witnesses of the enemy’s damage in the sanctuary; the defiling of the name of God all the way to the dust. We’ve seen far too many dark places full of cruelty and heard the noise, opposition, and outcry of the ungodly increasing day by day. We can attest to the depth and breadth of these when looking at our own heart, our own homes, or the wholeness of humanity. We hardly need reminding by these words in the Word.
Yet midway through his pleading, Asaph gives us one of those “But God” interruptions we love so much:
12 For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
I like to call this The Answer…
He continues to praise and ascribe to the One he’s speaking to the divine qualifications of why he’s confident he’s crying out in the right direction:
13 You divided the sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters.
14 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces,
and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 You broke open the fountain and the flood;
You dried up mighty rivers.
16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;
You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have set all the borders of the earth;
You have made summer and winter.
You, God; You’re the One; supremely qualified, as is plainly stated and covertly suggested. Creator. Knower. Present. Strong. Breaker. Crusher. Feeder. Waterer. Boundary setter.
The God of every season.
The prophet Isaiah tells us similarly about this same Salvation Answer:
So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
~Isaiah 59:19
Jesus Christ is the victorious standard lifted up against the enemy!
John the Beloved confirms and sharpens the point:
…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
~1 John 3:8
All of them.
This was true for Asaph’s time, Isaiah’s time, John’s time, and now our time.
When the enemy comes in like a flood, God can just stack the overwhelming waters up like walls on either side, make a way where there is no way, and drown the enemy in the aftermath of victory. He’s done it before.
8 And with the blast of Your nostrils
the waters were gathered together;
the floods stood upright like a heap;
the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue,
I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
my desire shall be satisfied on them.
I will draw my sword,
my hand shall destroy them.’
10 You blew with Your wind,
the sea covered them;
they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
~Exodus 15:8-10
Even though things now look much as they did back then, God hasn’t changed; not His position, not His authority, not His promise or His answer; not His desire, His presence, His willingness, or His love. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
When the enemy comes in like a flood, to overtake, divide, or destroy? It’s not if, but when… When it feels chaotic and too much, layer after layer, weight after weight, in the surging overflow of problems, grief, lack, and sucking chest wounds, Jesus will lead us through the pounding surf, if we ask Him.
He is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. (notice the present tense)
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