Psalm 74 - No signs from God

Read: Psalm 74 vs 1-23 

Psalm 74 is one of thirteen Psalms described in the Bible as being ‘A maskil’. We’re not completely sure what these titles mean but it seems that a maskil was a contemplative song. These songs have a style where the writer not only thinks things through but brings things together and lays them out before God asking for His help and understanding.

The thought processes at play in the early verses are familiar to those who have read through the Psalms thus far. The starting point for faith in this Psalm is a question ‘Why?’ In fact not just one question but many questions; Why have you rejected us? Why does your anger smoulder? (vs 1). ‘How long?’ (vs 10) ‘Why do you hold back your hand?’ (vs 11)

All of these questions are directed at God. The difference between believers and unbelievers is not that believers have no questions, but rather that they have someone to take those questions to.

Asaph is restless as he prays. He is living at a time when it seems that there is no word fro God, no prophets are left (vs 9), and the worst of it all is summed up in that same verse:

‘None of us knows how long this will be.’

It’s as if getting to this point, admitting that things are completely outside his or anyone else’s control actually opens the door for a game changing affirmation of faith. In vs 12 he pivots on these words:

‘But God is my King from long ago, He brings salvation on the earth.’

Questions give way to a listing of various ways in which God has intervened and provided in Israel’s past. One of the stories that many of the Psalms return to is how God ‘split open the sea’ (vs 13) when the children of Israel were cornered in the desert. It is as if this one miracle tells them so much about that brings hope in so many hopeless situations. God made a way and God will make a way again. Christian faith remembers the Red Sea, Christian faith is a resurrection faith. Questions are an important part of that faith but they never have the last word.

Prayer: Father thank that many many years ago you made a way for your people across the sea when they were cornered and in fear of their lives. Make a way today in my circumstances. Raise me up that I may praise your name. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.