Yet God…

I developed a habit many years back: when there’s a word God speaks to my heart I record it somewhere to reference back to from time to time. The I-Phone Reminders App has made that even easier. I can program a word to show up repeatedly on my screen daily, weekly or monthly at a given time.

One word that has been showing up regularly for the past year or two is Psalm 74:12:

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 

That passage still affects me today as when I first noticed it. I love this picture of God: 

• working – he is not asleep, dormant, or absent.
• from of old, working – there’s a process, a plan, with a goal and end clearly in mind.
• working salvation – he is rescuing, redeeming, restoring, making right, making new.
• in... the earth – his scope is worldwide, every nation and tongue, all mankind.
• in the midst of – he is working within and among the activities of man on earth; all events, even evil ones, he is using to accomplish a salvation that will amaze.

The Psalmist elaborates on this thought in verses 13-17 by calling to mind some of the grand activities of God—the flood and the creation—whose outworking we witness everyday when we step outside: stars, sun, winter, spring, rivers... 

Often when I am excessively troubled, I will go outdoors, stop, and look at the stars: “Yes, they are still there. God still reigns.” Or I appreciate the mountains that God established. Or I note the seasons: “Winter has come again... as promised:

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."– Genesis 8:22

God, my King is still in charge. My current fears, anxieties and pains question his activity - but he is still active.

Last night I was especially distraught with many cares, many concerns. As I was shutting down for the night I glanced at my iPhone screen and guess what was there?

"Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth."–Psalm 74:12

I had the thought: What kind of trouble was the psalmist facing when he wrote: “Yet God...” So I opened up Psalm 74. Verses 1-11 speak about the destruction of the temple, the subjugation of the people of God to their enemies, the rule of the wicked, and the silence of the prophets.

Did this psalmist see relief from his suffering in his lifetime? Surely he never lived to see, like Simeon did, the revealing of the Lord’s Christ into the world (Luke 2:25-32). Like many of the saints of old, he did not receive, at least fully, what God had promised (Hebrews 11:39-40).

And that spoke to my soul. Tonight as I walk outside, to see the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn amidst all the other stars, I’ll be carrying my burdens and prayers. Along with singing for the sake of the season and for the sake of the burdens of my heart, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” I will also remember:

"Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth."–Psalm 74:12