A Prayer for Your Nation


Psalm 74
A Maskil of Asaph.
1O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
3Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
4Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs.
5They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees.
6And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.
8They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.
10How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!
12Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
14You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.
18Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name.
19Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

What to make of this psalm? I confess that this is another one of those prayers that have me wondering how we can apply these words to our own lives. But God put this prayer here for our benefit and as such, it does have importance for our lives today.

The references throughout this prayer are focused on the history of Israel and the struggles that the Jewish people had with remaining faithful to God and the subsequent punishments they suffered because of their idolatry. Because the people were apostate, the Lord allowed stronger neighboring countries to sweep through the nation and carry the people off into slavery. This psalm refers to the time before, during, and after the Babylonian captivity. Those were terrible times for the nation of Israel because they lived as slaves and saw their Temple and homes burned to the ground. It took 70 years for God to return a remnant of His people to Israel to repair the damage and restore them to the land He had given them. This psalm encompasses that expanse of history.

As I read through the passage again and again I am struck by the fact that I could easily pray this prayer over my own nation on a daily basis and should probably do so with faithfulness. It doesn’t matter where you live. God is most certainly not the center of your nation anymore. But He is the One who establishes all nations and we would do well to bow down before Him and recognize that fact. Sadly, I don’t see that happening anywhere on a political level.

So - now go back and read Psalm 74 again and meditate on the verses that seem appropriate to your situation in the nation in which you reside. Personalize this passage and lift up your people to the Lord.  He loves the nations He’s created and is worthy of praise from each and every one of them. As I pray through the psalm with these ideas in mind it suddenly explodes with impact.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The...
Read more

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv...
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl...
Read more