Psalm 89

The author of Psalm 89 had a crisis of belief. Henry Blackby’s small group study, Experiencing God, teaches that whenever you face a crisis, what you do next reveals what you believe about God. In matters of faith, the crisis can be like an earthquake rupturing the foundations of your beliefs. In the time of Jesus’ life on earth, Israel faced such a crisis of belief. The people longed for the Messiah to come, but Jesus did not fit their expectations of the Messiah. Some of the people resolved their crisis by giving their life to Christ; others crucified Jesus.

This psalm was probably written after the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.) when the Jews were taken away to captivity in Babylon. (2 Kings 24) The psalmist, in remembering God’s covenant, includes God’s warning that if the descendants of King David forsake their covenant responsibility, God would punish their sins. (V. 30-37). The psalmist’s lament is not ‘why?’ --- It’s ‘how long?’

Because Jesus has already been punished for our sins (Isaiah 53:5), we need not fear God, but God will discipline His children. Sometimes our crisis is brought on by our own willful disobedience; sometimes our crisis is the result of the sins of others. Whatever the cause, our times of crisis are always an invitation to plumb the depths of our faith, to make sure we are resting our faith on the bedrock of God’s Word.

The psalmist ended the psalm at verse 51, while he was still in the depths of despair. At a later time an editor added verse 52 as a benediction to mark the end of Book Three of the Psalms. Nevertheless, it is an appropriate foundation for our faith,

“Praise the Lord forever!

    Amen and amen!”

Sē’lah

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What word or phrase in today’s reading of the Psalms

 attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

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Reading for July 30, 2012          Psalm 90