God's Word for You (Thursday, Jan 7, 2010)
A Daily Devotion by Pastor Tim Smith
Psalm 78:32-39
Psalms Of Faith And Doubt In Ancient Times
32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.
The Psalmist has taken us back in time to the days in the wilderness following the Exodus; days that were filled with amazing miracles from God and still more amazing apathy and shallow repentance from God’s people. They may have been “eagerly” turning back to him when he spanked them with a plague or a misfortune, but they didn’t mean it. Their hearts would rather have been slaves again than be free with the Lord for their God. But he kept his promises to them. He kept on loving them.
If we weren’t so sinful ourselves, we might wonder how God could ever have put up with them. What keeps this account in context for us is our humility before God about our own sin. If he can be as patient with me as he has been, I can understand how he could have been patient with them.
Keep being patient with your servants, O Lord.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return. (NIV)
I’d like to return to the words of St. Augustine:
“Pitying them through his grace, he called them back himself, because of themselves they could not return. For how doth flesh return, “a passing breeze that does not return,” while a weight of evil wildernesses weighs it down to the lowest and farthest places of evil, except through the election of grace?...For thus also is solved, this not unimportant question, how it is written in the Proverbs, when the Scripture was speaking of the way of sin, “None who go to her return or attain the paths of life” [Proverbs 2:19] For it hath been so spoken as if all ungodly men were to be despaired of: Scripture alone commends grace; for by himself man is able to walk in that [sinful] way, but is not able by himself to return, except when called back by [God’s] grace.”
We are saved by the grace of God alone. His forgiveness covers over all of our wretched sins and over our corrupt and sinful birthright, and his resurrection calls us out of the grave, away from death and hell and leaving the devil with nothing but dust in his mouth as we are called home to glory in heaven forever.
Keep being patient with your servants, O Lord.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul's Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn's father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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