April 3, 2014

Psalm 89:  ¹ I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
    with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
    through all generations.

Ethan is telling about the failure of the house of David to perpetuate.  God has promised David that his house will live forever, but David's sons were not faithful.  Now Ethan is living in a time when it seems like God has forsaken His people.  Ethan wonders if he will live his entire life with the hardships, or will the Lord remember His people and lift them up again?  Ethan starts with 29 verses of praise, then he has 23 verses of misery, and he ends with one more praise verse.

I am struck with the poetry of this beginning verse, but I am also empathetic with Ethan's misery.  The Bible covers so many years, and the action moves so fast at times, that it is hard to realize that one believer might spend all his life singing the praises of a God who seems to have forsaken His people.  How do we hang onto our faith when everything is so bad?  We turn to God for comfort, but the misery continues to grow.  We must follow Ethan and make God's word our beacon through ALL generations--times good and bad.

Prayer:  Lord, I am heartbroken over the illness, the death and destruction, the lack of a moral compass in so many of the people of my generation.  I am tempted to lay my faith aside and wail and moan.  I know You are the only true God, and I know You are always with me, but it hurts me to see Your people in pain.  Please comfort them and me.  You are a mighty God, and nothing is beyond Your control.
Amen