“Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers, may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.”
~ Psalm 79:8
Hi James and Ellen,
How bad do you really think that you have it? Do you think that you should be sleeping in your own rooms? Do you think that your dad and ma should be buying you more games? Do you think that you should be staying up later at night? If you were kids who were growing up in the Aceh Province in Sumatra, you could have been one of the thousands of kids who were drowned by last year’s Christmas Eve tsunami. If you were kids who were growing up in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, you could have been one of the thousands of kids who were crushed to death by their own house’s heavy walls that this month’s earthquake caused to topple over on them. If you were kids who were growing up in Panabaj, Guatemala, you could have been one of the hundreds of kids who were buried under a muck and rock landslide that Hurricane Stan’s incessant rains about three weeks ago caused to slide down the side of a nearby extinct volcano. If you were kids who were growing up in the city of Jerusalem 2591 years ago, you could have been a couple of the very few kids who somehow survived a horrific time when guys and gals did not have food to eat – that resulted in them eating their own kids, as they were hunkering down behind the walls of their city until Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army finally breached their city’s walls after which Nebuchadnezzar and his army exiled many of the guys and gals to Babylonia. Why do you think that God allows or causes catastrophic, life destroying occurrences to take place – such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and wars?
Psalm 79 is a prayer psalm song that an Asaph is attributed to having written. This prayer psalm song was scribed by an Asaph while God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group of guys and gals, were exiles in Babylonia. The Asaph who scribed this prayer psalm song was a descendent of the guy who was the leader of one of David’s Levitical choirs. David died about 400 years before Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army took many of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been living in the city of Jerusalem to their country as exiles. Asaph scribed psalm songs have a dominant theme which is that God – as God the Father, does not just rule over His own specially chosen guys and gals, He also rules over all the nations and people groups of guys and gals who are living on planet Earth. While they were exiles in Babylonia, God’s specially chosen guys and gals came to realize that their only hope for ever escaping their dismal, dire predicament was to talk to God – as God the Father. When you are talking to God – as God the Father, what do you usually tell God – as God the Father? It is easy to tell God – as God the Father, that you think that He is to give you something that you think that you need or that He is to help you with something that you think needs to be fixed. When you are talking to God – as God the Father, how often do you ask Him to forgive you for your bad attitude, for something that you did that defied or flouted one of His moral or ethical laws and for the immoral and unethical things that your dad and ma have done and what every generation before your dad and ma has done? When you are talking to God – as God the Father, how often do you ask Him to inflict violent judgments and mete out severe punishments on the nations and people groups of guys and gals who have shown utter contempt for His belief paradigm that has as its core beliefs goodness, righteousness, forgiveness, faith and love. When you are talking to God – as God the Father, how often do you ask Him to exact punishing verdicts and wreck merciless retributions on the nations and people groups and guys and gals who have shown an inbred hatred for His special chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people groups guys and gals? When you are talking to God – as God the Father, how often do you quote the words of verse 8 – that God – as God the Spirit, breathed on an Asaph extended family member to scribe, back to Him, “Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers, may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.”
Your grandpaa thinks that God – as God the Father, has begun to shake planet Earth more violently, begun to push planet Earth’s waters further out of their ocean beach limits and river embankments and begun to agitate the fickle winds into more vicious rampages than ever before. Kids who survived 2591 years ago what took place in the city of Jerusalem witnessed an atrocious attack by an enemy people group’s army of guys on God’s special chosen guys and gals and on the city that God – as God the Father, set apart to be worshipped in by His specially chosen guys and gals. Kids who survived 2591 years ago what took place in the city of Jerusalem, saw the temple of God being callously violated, a royal city ransacked, guys, gals and kids slaughtered, bodies of dads, mas and kids degraded and left as carrion or food for birds and beasts and the people group guys and gals who had been specially chosen by God – as God the Father, scorned by every other existing country and people group of guys and gals on planet Earth. God’s specially chosen guys and gals came to know – because of their experience of being oppressed exiles, that they were indebted to God – as God the Father – Who they as sheep needing a shepherd had come to accept as being their Shepherd. Do you really think that God – as God the Father, Who purposely chose a people group of guys and gals – the Israelite people group of guys and gals, for Himself, is going to passively stand by while an egotistical tyrant calls for ‘wiping Israel off the map’ which is what the newly elected Iranian President is verbalizing? Your grandpaa is convinced that the time is now for Christ-follower guys and gals in communities all around planet Earth to seriously begin to plead with God – as God that Father, for His divine help and intervention.
Psalm 79 (638)