You walked off and left us, and never looked back. God, how could you do that? We’re your very own sheep; how can you stomp off in anger? Psalm 74:1 (MSG)
Like most young people, I had a lot of emotion and a lot of angst growing through my teen years. Two things I regularly counted on in my most emotional times were my room and my music. My room was a place of refuge where I could shut out the world. It was my space. It was place where I was safe.
Music helped me to express the feelings and emotions that were so difficult for me to express myself. I could "shout" my frustration with Tears for Fears. I could "throw a brick through a window" with U2. I was encourged to keep "pressin’ on" with Bob Dylan. There was always a song to help me feel my feelings.
That’s what the psalms do for me, as well. They help me express the broad gamut of my human emotions to God. I can shout ecstatic praise from my emotional mountain top in Psalm 150. I can express my deep remorse in Psalm 51. I can express my feelings of abandonment in today’s Psalm 74. I know the same feeling Asaph is talking about. I know what it feels like to sense God has just walked away.
He hasn’t, of course. God doesn’t leave us or forsake us. Nevertheless, I feel that emotion inside of me and I need to let it out. That’s what Psalms are for!
Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and cambiodefractal
God is my King from the very start;
he works salvation in the womb of the earth.
This verse reminds me that God works salvation from the inside out. I remember learning that to change the world, we need to change one heart and mind at a time. God, while concerned with the outer workings of the world, starts in the womb…literally and figuratively.