The first Psalm of Lament we looked at, Psalm 6, came from fear of God’s permanent rejection after the psalmist had sinned grievously. Then last week’s Psalm was a national lament after a military defeat. Despite their fidelity to YHWH, He had still allowed them to suffer a great loss.
Tonight’s Psalm of Lament is of a still different type: it is a lament after the destruction of the Temple….
Read MoreA strange piety the Psalms give us, because they invite us to complain to God, even to accuse God. He is not acting in the way we expected. And the only hope, the only reliable thing, is to return to the foundational character of God, expressed in the final line of the Psalm: “Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.”
The people of God don’t expect God to act because of something they are offering Him; in fact, they don’t even try. There is no bargaining.
And they don’t expect Him to act because of their accusations of His not being fair, as though He could be shamed into acting.
They simply appeal to God to be who He is….
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