August 3 – A Cry in Our Crisis (Psalm 74)

“Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.”
(Psalm 74:3)

IN WORD:
The scene is one of devastation. God’s temple has been destroyed by the enemies of His people. There seems to be no deliverance, no way around the catastrophe. It’s an utter disaster.
Such was the scene behind Psalm 74. But this psalm wasn’t only relevant those many centuries before Jesus; it is relevant to us. It offers us a picture of a soul desperate for God. No, the ruins are not physical, and the temple is not made of stone. The picture is relevant for us because we now know that the dwelling place of God in the Old Testament pointed to the hearts of His people in the New. And all of us, at some point or another in our lives, have probably felt the need to ask of God what Psalm 74:3 says. We want Him to visit the devastation that is us. We need Him to step into the ruins of our lives.
It is God’s mercy that brings us to that point, though it doesn’t feel like mercy at all. It feels cruel. God lets us run the way of our rebellion, and He lets our apathetic hearts lead us to pathetic consequences — conviction, despair, brokenness, and deep need. But it is all of grace. We cannot know Him unless we cry out for Him to visit our devastation. For that, we have to be brought to the point of crying out.

IN DEED:
Has your life ever looked like the scene of a disaster? If not your own, have you ever had to counsel a brother or sister whose life lay in ruins? We can know that the cry of Psalm 74 is a legitimate cry. It is a necessary point for us to get to, that painful point when the raw nerves of the soul are exposed and God’s comfort seems far away. Learn to see it as a necessary step of coming closer to Him. Do not let it discourage you. God will meet you there. He would not have let you fall if He’d had no plans to catch you.

“Our extremities are the Lord’s opportunities.”
-Charles Spurgeon-