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God is Setting All Things Right. So I am Blogging Through the Bible in a Year.

Friday, April 26, 2013

April 26 - Psalms 73, 77, and 78: Psalms of Asaph

Today’s Reading: Psalms 73, 77, and 78

The Message

English Standard Version


Thought to Guide Your Reading

Today is Asaph's turn to present to God his problems and to his people what God has done for him.

Psalm (P)Synopsis

Psalm 73

Asaph praises God for His Goodness. Asaph almost missed this goodness, instead focusing on how the wicked are blessed. Fortunately, God brought Asaph back from this ignorance and reminded him that God is all Asaph wants!

Psalm 77

Asaph yells at God to save him! He wonders if maybe God has left for good. Just in case, he will continue to do what God has asked because God's way is holy. He leads Israel like a shepherd.

Psalm 78

Asaph tells his people all about God's work with Jacob and Israel. God performed marvelous things right in front of Israel but they yawned and kept on sinning. So God punished them. God gave them food, water, and meat and they obeyed for a little while but returned to sin. God never destroyed them! Finally, God chose David to lead His Chosen People who guided the people well.

How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right

We can miss God's greatness if we only look at how the wicked are prospering.

This is an interesting psalm. I love how it begins,
No doubt about it! God is good—
   good to good people, good to the good-hearted.
But I nearly missed it,
   missed seeing his goodness.
I was looking the other way,
   looking up to the people
At the top,
   envying the wicked who have it made,
Who have nothing to worry about,
   not a care in the whole wide world. (73:1-5, The Message)
We can miss God's greatness if we focus on the injustice of the wicked prospering.

God is longsuffering—He will not destroy His Chosen People quickly.

Reading through Psalm 78 is like reading a suspenseful novel twice. You keep telling the characters, "Can't you see what's going on?" but they cannot. Israel continues to sin against God. Even when God takes them from their slavery and wipes out their slaveholders, they continue to sin. God gives them bread, meat, and water in a wilderness. They continue to complain and are punished.
And God? Compassionate!
   Forgave the sin! Didn’t destroy!
Over and over he reined in his anger,
   restrained his considerable wrath.
He knew what they were made of;
   he knew there wasn’t much to them. (78:38-40, The Message)
God is longsuffering because he knows what we are made of. I'm not sure that comforts or not.

Are you missing God's Goodness because you are fixated on the riches of the wicked?

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