Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the heavens for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
mocked and derided by those around us.
How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out your anger on the nations
that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
that do not call upon your name!
For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his habitation.
Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
for your name’s sake!
Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes!
Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
(ESV)
—Psalm 79
by: Ashea West.
When in distress, we may ask: “How long, O Lord?” “Why Lord?” or “Why me?” When under attack from the enemy, we want quick relief. We cry out to God for mercy to come quickly to get us out of the situation. We try to reason with God, like the writer of this psalm while exiled in Babylon: “Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” However, we often forget the disobedience that got us in that predicament in the first place. Remember that God is a just God and there are consequences for our actions. Instead of looking for the easy way out, let us seek to get closer to God, so that we do not fall into the same old ways after we are delivered.
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