Fw: War in the city of Peace

Psalm 79 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;

    they have defiled your holy temple;
    they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

-

The people of Israel had tasted of God's miracles.  He'd delivered them from slavery as an entire nation and provided food and water in the midst of a desert to sustain them for 40 years.  He'd driven out enemies and led them to a promised land and established a city of peace called Jerusalem.  But, as is the manner of people, they forgot God and went their own ways.  More than that, they angered God by following false gods and taking on evil ways from local cultures.

-

God wasn't silent.  He brought strong armies against Israel and led them into captivity for 70 years....and the city of peace was destroyed by war.

-

The psalmist, here, in the depths of despair, remembers God.  Sometimes it takes a great crisis to come back to our great God.

-

5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
    Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations
    that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
    that do not call upon your name!

-

Even when believers "forget" God in their actions...somewhere deep inside they know He is real.  When their lives are on the line they "remember" and cry out.  But they must come back to God through the door of repentance:

-8 Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.

-

Finally, they realize that even the deliverance that God provides is ultimately for His glory...to show His might to a world of unbelief!

-

9 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!

-

Amazingly, even our sins and rebellion can ultimately provide a stage for God to be magnified and known by others.  That is an encouragement we can take as believers in the midst of our current culture of rebellion and evil.  Just as Jerusalem was ultimately restored as the city of His peace.

-

13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    will give thanks to you forever;
    from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

-

blessings,

Rob Smith

-------------------------------------------

"Death is inevitable.  Life is a choice!"

John 11:25

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."