Will Endure For Ever

Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-141 Sunday 19 Aug 2001

Reading: Psalm 74 – FATHER, YOUR NAME WILL ENDURE FOR EVER

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

The Temple lies in ruins, but God our Father has not forgotten his people. Read this psalm when God seems silent, and remember that he does indeed love us.

What a sad, despairing opening sentence to this psalm: ‘Why have you rejected us for ever, O God?’ God’s people had good reason to feel such despair, for everything had gone wrong. Enemies had attacked Jerusalem and had destroyed the Temple. The holy place, symbolic of God’s presence, had been burned and smashed in an act of defiance against God. The people were devastated.

How could God allow this to happen without doing anything about it? Why was God so angry with his people? Perhaps the hardest part was that God seemed to be silent. There were no prophets to explain God’s actions. Everything seemed hopeless, yet God did nothing. Could he have forgotten, or even rejected, his chosen people? It was unthinkable, but was it true?

Have you ever felt like this? Maybe you have been in a difficult situation where you felt confused and hurt, and even though you tried to pray, God was silent. You wondered if he was angry with you, and you felt unable to change the situation.

Sometimes it helps to look back at what God has done in the past. In this psalm the writer turns away from the current disaster, and remembers how God redeemed his people, overcame their enemies, and cared for them (vs 12-17). Then he goes back to the present crisis, but with a different attitude. He still pleads for God’s help, but ‘Why?’ is no longer such an urgent question. It doesn’t sound so hopeless. The situation has not changed, but his attitude has. God no longer seems absent or silent, and it feels as if trust is being restored.

Think back over your life, and thank God for the different ways he has helped you in difficult situations.

– Rosemary Linton

Copyright Scripture Union, 2001