“We always talk of his love and his kindness but the reality is that our sin will meet his anger and judgement. We never know if we are in God’s good books or his bad books. And we never know when he actually lets go of our hand as we walk through life. It frightens me to know that may happen to me.”
This comment came up during a discussion on 2025 Week 52 Psalm 74.
The Psalmist cries out, “O God, why have you rejected us forever?” because it seems like forever. In this case the context is the nation Israel although the actual situation is not spelled out. Looking at the most extreme situation, when the nation was finally destroyed by Babylon, we read in 2 Chronicles 36,
“The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.”
It is fair to say that God did not abandon his people but his people abandoned God.
Paul’s revelation in Romans 9-11 about God’s plans for Israel tells us that even after all that, God remains committed to Israel.
When we understand this, that even when Israel had sinned against God he still cared for them, we realise that God does not do abandon even when we have been guilty of abandoning him and what he stands for. He still seeks our redemption.
But then, is it so simple as to just return to him and all the bad will be swept away?
The Psalmist in Psalm 74 raised several causes for hope:
“But God is my King from long ago; he brings salvation on the earth.” God is my King. God is the champion of our salvation. This is who he is. I belong to him. He has made me his through his Son.
“It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever-flowing rivers. The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.” God is not weak and helpless. He is able to bend reality to his will.
In other words, my hope is on who God is and not on my ability to set things right. Why would he choose to save when I have been disloyal and have reneged on my promises? Because he chooses to save rather than destroy. This is what Jesus said in John 3: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
In the rest of Psalm 74, the Psalmist directly appeals to God on the basis of God’s interests:
- For the sake of your name, save us once again. Don’t give the enemy ammunition to mock.
- We are weak, rescue us from the wild beasts that surround us. (Can we see this in the context of our own battle against sin, that the evil in this world is not something that we can overcome by ourselves; God help us!)
- Remember your promises! Yes we have failed to uphold our end but still …
Defend your cause! Defend your name! Defend your people! Defend the weak and helpless!
God has sent his Son to save us. He knows that sin is not a small matter that we can easily overcome. We need him. And so he is not going to abandon us because we have failed to meet his standards. This is not a situation where in Jesus he is giving us one last chance to succeed. Rather, in Jesus we will find the resources to succeed and therefore we need to cling to him rather than abandon him because we think he has abandoned us. Our hope is in God and in his commitment to our victory.
In the meantime life continues to flow for us. All of this does not mean that life will be sunshine and roses. It means that even in the darkest night and the most violent storms, even in the shame of our own failure and sin, we can reach out and know that he has not abandoned us because this is who he is.
“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11-13)