#DailyDevotion When God Rejects His Church Because Of Its Sin
Psalm 74 O God, why do You reject us forever; why does Your anger blaze against the sheep of Your pasture?
The inscription of this Psalm is a maskil of Asaph. Asaph was appointed by David to be the leader of song at the Temple. Yet, this Psalm seems to be written at the time of the destruction of the Temple. Perhaps by Asaph means by his descendants who were also therefore appointed to lead the singing of the Temple. However, during the reign of Rehoboam, David's grandson, he and all Israel abandoned the Law of the LORD. Because of this, the LORD sent the Egyptian pharaoh to plunder Jerusalem and the Temple. (2 Chr. 12). So perhaps it is this plundering Asaph is referring to.
Given that the LORD brought destruction upon the Temple when Israel or Judah sinned, makes you wonder how the Psalmist can say, “why does Your anger blaze against the sheep of Your pasture?” Perhaps we can understand his distress of, “why do You reject us forever?” It was the sins of the people though and their leaders which has brought this upon them. I think it is our own sinful flesh that Paul talks about in Romans 7 which blinds us to our own sins at times.
Nevertheless, God's people, the faithful, often suffer with those who call themselves by the name of the LORD, yet who sin against the LORD. We know God always preserves from Himself a remnant. They are carried away with the unbelievers as witnesses against them and as witnesses to the LORD of His Law and His Gospel. In the midst of it, we too cry out, “will you forget us forever?”
2Remember Your congregation that You bought, the tribe You redeemed long ago to be your own people, Mount Zion which You made Your home.
Asaph asks the LORD to remember His congregation which He bought and redeemed to be His own people. We too should call upon Jesus to remember His people which He bought and redeemed with His blood to be His people. The Church is now His Mt. Zion in which He has made His home. I think perhaps it is good for us to cry out to God and our LORD Jesus Christ to remember us in this day and age when it seems as if the Church is under attack. We might need to confess the sins of the Church as a whole in not condemning the sins of our own while condemning the sins of others.
3Direct your steps toward these permanent ruins — the enemy has wrecked everything in the sanctuary. 4Your foes have roared in the place where the assembly met and set up their own emblems as banners. 5From the entrance on they hacked like a woodsman in a forest; 6they smashed all its carved work with axes and crowbars. 7They set Your holy place on fire, polluted and tore down the sanctuary bearing Your name. 8They thought, "We will crush them altogether," and they burned every place in the land where God met with us.
Here it sounds more like the final destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians. Asaph is calling upon the LORD to visit the place of ruins in which the Babylonians destroyed. God's people, as a whole, misused the place where God promised to meet with them. It was He who directed its destruction. God removed the places where He promised to meet with His people because they rejected Him. As we look out upon the apostate Church of our land and our own not repenting of our own sins, can we not see why God is removing Himself and the places where He promised to meet with us. Let us examine ourselves rightly according to His word and repent of where we have fallen short.
Heavenly Father, give us Your Holy Spirit so Your Church may see its sins in the light of Your word, repent of them and see Your presence among us again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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