After Restoration


Psalm 85
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah
3You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.
4Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us!
5Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
7Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.
8Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly.
9Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
10Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.
12Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
13Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.

The most probable time for the writing of this psalm was after God’s people were allowed to return to Israel after the Babylonian captivity. The 70 years of time spend in Babylon were over and God graciously brings the people back to Jerusalem. They are overjoyed at this reversal of their situation. But upon their return they find that the Temple has been destroyed and the wall of the city is decimated. Instead of digging in and immediately restoring the Temple they build homes for themselves and fall victim to the surrounding people groups who are not interested in the rebuilding of the Temple or in the return of the Israelites.

Through the prophet Haggai, God speaks with the people about their priorities. His Temple is left in ruins while they are living in paneled homes. This is unacceptable to God for they are once again on the path of neglect. God has already become a passing thought rather than the center of their lives.

Haggai 1:1–11
1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. 7“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

This Psalm serves as a beautiful warning for us as well. Even the writing of this blog comes later in the day than I would have liked because I allow the distraction of the immediate to hold my attention away from the pressure of the important. We are so easily pulled away from our focus on the Lord. (Well, maybe the word “we” should instead say “I”. That is my personal experience. I’ll let you decide about your own.) What are the “paneled walls” of my life? The list is too long to even contemplate. And I don’t believe that God is asking us not live our lives. Instead I think perhaps it is merely a matter of focus. Where do I concentrate my mental energy? Is God even a factor most of the time? Maybe this question needs to be at the center of my thinking, no matter what task I lay my hands to.

But – let’s go back to the fact that this is a beautiful reminder. The verbiage is filled with grace and healing, using words like “restored”, “forgave”, “steadfast love”, “salvation”, and my favorite – “righteousness and peace kiss each other.” This psalm bears hope for all who would return to the Lord – even if it is time and again.

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