Rejected and Forgotten

“Where are you God?” - A Series from the Psalms

Psalm 74

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2074&version=NIV;TPT

 

In the summer of 1978, my wife and I were expecting our first child. Many preparations were made in anticipation of the arrival including painting and wall papering the nursery; buying a rocking chair for those middle of the night feedings; and refinishing the high chair that I used as a baby.

 

The preparations were wonderful, but then, something awful happened. While my wife was at her weekly pre-natal checkup, they couldn’t find the baby’s heartbeat. At the hospital they eventually determined that the baby was still born.

 

When I went home that night, everything seemed wrong. The high chair, the nursery and the rocking chair were only painful reminders of the lost baby that we would never hold or feed or change her diapers.

 

We’ve all experienced loss. Something that was unexpectedly ripped away from you. Something that was foundational to your life. It might have been your career calling; a broken relationship; or the death of a loved one. When it happened, you knew that your life would never be the same.

 

For Asaph, who wrote Psalm 74, it was the destruction of the Temple. Here’s how he described it.

 

⁵ Now everything is in shambles! They’ve totally destroyed it. Like a forest chopped down to the ground, there’s nothing’s left. ⁶ All of the beauty of the craftsmanship of the inner place has been ruined, smashed, broken, and shattered. ⁷ They’ve burned it all to the ground. They’ve violated your sanctuary, the very dwelling place of your glory and your name. ⁸ They boasted, “Let’s completely crush them! Let’s wipe out every trace of this God. Let’s burn up every sacred place where they worship this God.”                 TPT

 

Where is God when it hurts? When you feel rejected and forgotten? He’s right there. And truthfully, He never left you.

 

¹² You have always been, and always will be, my King.
You are the mighty conqueror, working wonders all over the world.          TPT