Psalm 74 - Waiting on the Lord: Finding Hope Amidst Despair

I think it would be true to say that the vast majority of us

don't like waiting.

And this is demonstrated most in having to queue for things.

Last night I saw a lot of people standing, looking fed up in

a queue that didn't seem to be moving somewhere up that way in the

village.

Well, we get stuck in all kinds of queues.

We get stuck in traffic queues, particularly where there

are temporary traffic lights where people can't wait so much that

they drive through the red lights, thereby holding up everyone

else on the other side and not thinking about it.

There's queues at checkouts.

You always try and see which is the shortest one and I always

seem to get the wrong one.

It looks short and then there's a five minute conversation

going on while I stand and wait and look around me.

Or perhaps at the bank or the post office where you have to queue.

Whenever we were moving back home and coming to Anna Long, I thought

it was going to be great because I was sick and tired of having

to queue in banks and post offices for anything up to three

hours.

Or getting your MOT where you could be sitting all day just waiting

on someone to give you a piece of paper to say that you're passed,

only to come home and realize there were still queues at the post

office.

There were still queues when we had a bank, and there's even still

queues for an mot.

And of course that's when the anxiety gets up.

And by the way, my MOT is this week, so I'm already starting to

feel the pressure of it.

And you know, it's not even in the physical place because if you

want to buy tickets online for a concert, you have to be put into

a queue.

Or maybe worst of all is the queue that we probably have when

waiting on the telephone.

And the situation normally comes from a need to contact a service

provider about something and then you're told that you're placed

in a queue.

And the worst number I've ever had in a telephone queue was 25.

And they said it would take 190 minutes for my call to be answered.

That's just over three hours.

Needless to say, I thought my time was more precious than the matter

that I needed to have dealt with.

So I phoned back later.

Why?

Because none of us like to wait.

None of us like to queue.

And although none of us like waiting, it is in fact part of life

that we must endure.

We know what it feels like to simply stand there and wait.

And we're waiting for something to happen.

We're waiting for a situation to change.

And sometimes we can fill the time positively as we wait, and other

times we simply just have to stand there or sit there and endure

it.

Now, book three of the Psalms, which began with Psalm 73 last week

and goes through to Psalm 89, is a section of this great songbook

of God's people that is about waiting.

But it's about a particular type of waiting.

It's the agony of waiting.

It's the hard work of waiting.

It's the lessons learned in waiting.

But it's also about the faith that is built through waiting.

And here at the start, the psalmist weeps over the ruins of

the temple and the destruction of his people.

And he asks, he cries out a cry that maybe has come from our

own hearts.

How long?

And this is best summed up in verses nine and ten, right at the

heart of this psalm, because the heart of the agonizing weight,

where the psalm says, we are given no miraculous signs, no prophets

are left, and none of us knows how long this will be.

How long will the enemy mock you, O God?

Will the foe revile your name forever?

Now, picture it.

You're an exile returned from Babylon, and you've come back to

a city that you were hoping would be glorious and beautiful.

But it's not.

It's in desolation, probably the first of the exiles to return,

maybe with Ezra, possibly with Nehemiah.

And here you are looking around what was once and what you

were told was a beautiful city to be enjoyed, the place of God's

dwelling.

And it's in ruins.

And worse than that, your enemy is making known to you that

they're the ones that are in control.

And obviously from these verses, we're not talking about waiting

in a queue.

This isn't about the waiting of the long journey to get back to

Jerusalem.

It's about waiting on the Lord.

Will the Lord hear my cry?

Will the Lord answer my prayer?

Will he do it in the way I want, or is he going to do it some

other way?

See, waiting on the Lord is about waiting on him to answer prayer.

It's about waiting on him to fulfill his promises.

It's about waiting on him to send his salvation.

And it's about waiting for God to remember you.

And the last psalm of book 3 asks these same haunting questions.

So this is the theme that's going to be right up until Psalm

89 that asks, how long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever?

How long will your wrath burn like fire?

See how do you pray when it seems like God has forgotten you?

How do you pray when you don't know when this suffering will end,

quite literally, as the people are doing here.

How do you pray in the ruins?

And you can hear their despair in verse 1.

Why have you rejected us forever, O God?

Why does your anger smoulder against the sheep of your pasture?

And the basic question they're asking here is, O God, why do you

cast us off?

And so the psalm begins for us by describing what the circumstances

feel like for the faithful.

They feel like the Lord has cut the them or cast them off, and

they don't understand why.

And the language is deeply emotional.

These are people who love him, who want to live for him.

And verse three tells us that the situation seems dire to them,

saying that the enemy has destroyed the sanctuary of the temple.

So the cries of the people are that God will remember them as his

people.

And verse one gives us the picture of God's anger as smoking.

And in Hebrew, the image of this is commonly given to us to describe

anger, both human and divine anger, as a kindling or a burning.

And this here is likely an extension of that imagery of looking

to, wondering why it feels like God.

You're punishing us rather than listening and blessing us.

And another common image that's given to us in Scriptures

of God's people as a sheep, which is there at the end of verse

one.

And so as the sheep of his pasture, the people would expect

God to protect them from their enemies.

So there's an expectation that the people should see God's blessing

upon them, but the reality from their perspective is that they

don't.

So they cry out to God in verse two to remember them.

And the reason why they're crying out to the Lord is because,

quite literally, the Gentiles have destroyed the sanctuary.

And we see this in verses 48.

The description presented here tells us how the enemy is in the

face of God's faithful people.

They're right there.

The Gentiles have placed a standard, or they've placed their

banner in the temple, the very place of the worship of God.

So the people are confronted with pagan worship.

They made light work of its destruction, they tore it down with

it being described in verse five as they behaved like men wielding

axes to cut through the thicket of trees.

And verse six tells us that they chopped up the wood and set

fire to the building as if it were simply matchsticks.

This is a complete desecration of the temple, the most revered site

in all of the Jewish faith, with verse seven telling us that

they defiled the dwelling place of your name.

So this is too much to bear for the people.

This is their agony, this is their shame.

They are at their most basic level, a sacred community called

together to worship the one true living God and to live out that

worship day to day.

So this desperation, this complete destruction, has deeply

wounded the very being of the people.

And they wonder why.

And it is from these ruins that they cry out to God.

And maybe this is where their real heart is, as we come to verses

9 and 11.

Because look at what they cry for.

What is the heart of this psalm?

They basically say to God, and you seem silent.

That's their cry.

They desperately want to hear from God, but there's deafening silence.

These verses tell us that they don't receive anything from him.

No message, no sign.

And they don't know how long it's going to last.

For they likewise don't know how long the enemy will rule over

them.

And so they frame it as a subjected people that their enemies

are actually mocking God because of their, their subjection.

But this is a people who still know who God is.

And look at what they say in verse 11.

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand, take it from

the folds of your garment and destroy them?

Now this verse is presenting to us the image that God is simply

standing back with his hands in his pockets.

One of our previous ministers in my home congregation, his little

daughter, was about two and a half or three at the time.

And as you walked into our meeting house, you would look to

the left and there'd be a row of men and they'd all be standing

there leaning against the wall with hands in their pockets.

And she asked her daddy one time, daddy, what happens if those

men move?

Will the wall fall down?

Because from her three year old perspective, that's what they

were doing.

Their hands had to be in their pockets to hold up the wall.

Of course we know the image of having your hands in your pockets

is actually not about doing any work at all, but about doing

nothing.

And that's the image that's given to us here.

God, why are your hands in your pockets?

Why are they in the folds of your garments?

Why are you inactive?

And that's what they're crying out.

They're crying out for him to act, to do something.

And it's at this point that the psalm changes.

They've opened their hearts, they've cried it out, they've cried

out who he truly is.

But now they remember what he's done.

And they say, but you have done wonders in the past.

And here they're recalling his mighty deeds of salvation from verses

12 to 17.

In these verses, you can see them recall the Exodus from Egypt

in verse 13 and their journey through the wilderness.

In verses 14 to 15.

We see.

See how they saw God at work in dividing the waters and slaying

the beasts so that they would have a safe passage, that it was

nothing to God, just as they've previously described the

destruction of the temple as nothing to the Gentiles, where they've

put their banner as that mark of territory, that this is ours now

and no one else's.

But we also see the memories of the people going back to creation.

It's not just about the Exodus, but going further back, how

God put everything in motion, how he put everything in place.

And it is because of these that as they remember their own history,

they can trust in God for the trouble that they're in.

This is the turning point for the people because they remember

God as the God of their salvation.

Look at what verse 12 says so beautifully.

Bring salvation upon the earth.

This is a Messianic cry.

This is not the cry of David or of Solomon in the glory and heydays

of the kingdom of Israel.

This is a people standing in the ruins coming back from exile.

And their cry is a Messianic one.

Send your Messiah to save us.

Tear down these banners that so intrude and invade so that we

can see your glory and none others.

They want the Lord's Messiah to come and to rescue them.

You see, in the midst of their heartache, in the midst of their

trouble and having to face the antagonism of their enemy, their

cry is one to the Lord to save them.

And this is the whole turning point for these people.

And it's no mistake that we can easily link that to how we know

salvation today as the turning point in our lives.

Because quite literally, salvation in Jesus Christ is a miracle

of a moment.

Because that's all it takes, just a moment to know the saving

power of Jesus Christ.

And it is truly a miracle that he would ever want to save a sinner

like me.

Yet he did.

And he continues to save sinners right around the world who

do not deserve his salvation.

But because of his steadfast love and because of his son Jesus,

he pours out his love.

And it is truly the turning point in our lives where one moment

we were condemned for our sin.

Now our sin is remembered no more, and we are promised a home

in heaven.

We're promised eternity, and that's how we are to set our minds,

to set our hope on Christ alone, that we will live his way

and no one else.

So although it is a miracle of a moment, it is both a lifetime and

an eternity of true worship of Him.

And that's what the people are looking to.

And so today the challenge from this psalm, even though we're

only halfway through, is to do likewise.

To know that our lives are a game of two halves, or can be.

Now, I know that's used mostly in the football sense.

And last night if you were watching, you went into the halftime

thinking, England have this.

It was a nail biting few moments in the second half when France

came back.

But then waking up this morning and told the score, there

should have been no question that England could have done.

Was quite literally a game of two halves in one sense, even though

England were in the lead and they won, but France came back strong

and there was doubt.

You see, we can't live with that same doubt.

We must know that one moment our lives were lost, and the next

minute our lives are found in Christ and Him alone, but only as

we trust in Him.

Because in the midst of our heartache, in the midst of our feeling

of where God is in the midst of the ruin, we're to remember God's

saving power and we're to remember his salvation towards us.

That's why Paul writes what he does in Colossians chapter one and

verses 15 to 20.

And here he links these aspects of Psalm 74 with Jesus, the

true Messiah of God's people, when he says he is before all things

and in him all things hold together.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and

through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things

on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood

shed on the cross.

You see, our cries for help in what seems to be an unfair world

are heard, and there's already an answer.

And that answer is Jesus.

He is before all things, and through him all things were made.

He has rescued his people in previous generations from their sin,

and he will do the same today.

And perhaps you are here this morning and you feel the weight and

you feel the burden of your sin.

It might be that you have never come to Christ for salvation,

but in these past weeks, these past months, you have been more aware

of what salvation in Jesus means, and you are very aware that

you need it.

Or it might be that you profess Christ, but the devil is

tempting you to sin.

And in Your honesty.

You know that you've fallen into ways that you shouldn't.

Psalm 74 invites you to remember who God is, the God of salvation.

And his salvation has been demonstrated to us in the giving

of his one and only Son, so that true belief and worship in his

name will lead you to eternal life.

And if this sounds familiar, then you will be recalling what Jesus

himself said in John chapter 3 and verse 16.

John 3 · chapter mention

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal

life.

This is the hope that we have.

It's the only hope we can have.

That whatever you face, be it the great weight of your sin, you

know there's an answer to that.

And it's salvation in Jesus and in him alone.

Or maybe it's the weight and burden of your circumstances, of

what life has thrown at you in this past week or two, in these past

months, in these past years, the answer remains the same.

It is Jesus to whom we look.

So that as we wait, and yes, as we cry our hearts out to God,

we turn to know him who he is, the God of our salvation.

And so, as we trust in God's salvation, we hear the people cry

out that they will know it, as they say that he will have regard

for the covenant and deliver us.

You see, it's this cry that takes us to the end of the psalm.

It's this cry that allows the people to finish with great hope,

because the psalm finishes pleading with God to remember how

the enemy mocks.

And here in verse 18, and repeated again in verse 22, and not

to ignore the clamor of the adversaries of God and his people.

And as throughout the psalm, the prayerful worshippers may feel

as if God were tempted to do just that, to forget them, to ignore

them, and to let evil have its course.

And the psalm gives them words to pray in response.

And in verse 19, it gives us a deep cry to the Lord for salvation.

As the people sing, do not hand over the life of your dove to

wild beasts.

Do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.

It's unthinkable for God to hand over the life of your dove.

A dove was a clean bird.

But it's also an image for Israel to hand this pure white dove,

this image of Israel, over to the beast, over to the one who would

devour it, that is, the foreign powers that the people were

seeing before them to be torn and devoured.

The destructive invaders are a foolish people, as the singers Say,

and this is seen by the way in which they scoff and mock, thinking

they'll never be torn down, but yet they are.

See, these people are not merely just Gentiles who have rebelled

and rejected God.

They've done evil to his people and so they will face punishment.

As the psalm concludes, the worshipping community make no appeal

to to the people's own merits and the things that they have done

in their faithful worship of God because they know they can't

make an appeal on themselves.

Rather, they appeal to God's promises, His covenant, and for God

to defend the people.

He chose for his own purposes that purpose to bring light to the

Gentiles, the very people who are rubbing it in their faces that

they are now in charge.

See, even in the midst of the influx of the enemy, the people remember

their calling to be a light to the nations so that those nations

would know the salvation of God.

And verse 22 gives the rallying cry of hope as it says,

rise up O God, and defend your cause.

Remember how fools mock you all day long.

And this is the hope that we have.

As we conclude this psalm, we can easily look around the world

today and wonder where God is, from the large scale wars and conflicts

to the turmoil and sadness of our own hearts.

Well, this psalm tells us that there is hope today and it is only

in the God of salvation.

And we can know peace in the waiting.

And we can know that it is okay to trust these things to the

Lord to so that we do not get burdened by them.

Just like the people of old.

We still have a covenant today given to us by God and sealed by

the blood of Christ, that all who trust in him today find healing

in his sacrifice.

So today we are to set our hope on Jesus to look to him alone.

We're to look back to Christ and we're to look forward in hope

so that we can endure the agonizing weight as we go through

trouble.

Because God has given us His Son, our only way of salvation, the

only way to know that it will be okay that God does indeed hear

and that one day he will answer.

And ultimately on that day he will wipe every tear from every eye.

He will heal and soothe every burdened heart.

For the former things will pass away and we will be new in Christ.

This is the confidence that Paul has when he writes in Romans

Romans 8:38

8:38,39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither

angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any pars,

neither height nor nor depth, nor anything else in all creation

will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ

Jesus our Lord.

This is the forward looking hope that Psalm 74 presents us as

we look to the God of salvation who indeed will keep us.

And that as we place our trust in Jesus, he will not let anything

separate us from Him.

And we will have this wonderful assurance.

None of us like waiting.

We don't.

But sometimes we must.

But what we must do is wait on the Lord to know that he has all

things in his control.

This is the only confidence that we can have today.

And so turn to Jesus, know Him and his steadfast love, so that indeed

you will know no separation from him, both now and forevermore.

Let us pray.

Our Father God, we thank you for your word that encourages us,

it speaks to us and it gives us something for today to help us

in the days that are ahead.

So may we truly take it to heart.

May we believe you to be the God who is ever present with us,

that as we look back we will have seen you as the God who has

been there and have confidence that you will be the God who will

take us into the future.

That even if we have to wait, and even if we don't like the waiting,

Lord, we will know that you hear and you answer, for you are

the God of salvation.

And what a turning point it is when we know Christ as the only way

of salvation and trust only in Him.

So keep us close to you, we pray, and may we know your continued

goodness and faithfulness in Jesus name.

Amen.