Asaph knew what crisis can do to God’s people. Their particular crisis involved foreign invaders coming into the land, defiling God’s temple, ruining Jerusalem and slaughtering many people. Along with that they were “mocked & derided” by their neighbors (1-4). Crisis can make God’s people question God (5) and pray for his intervention by means of vengeance & retribution (6-7, 10, 12). Crisis can also bring God’s people “very low” (8) & cause them to “groan” and feel like prisoners “doomed to die” (11). There’s an appointment with death for all of us (Hebrews 9:27), so we pray for God to “preserve” us until that day. But there is something worse than death, and that is our iniquities (8) and sins (9), which require atonement. Where can we find atonement? Only with the “God of our salvation” (9). Only he can deliver us from our past and present sins, and he does so “for the glory of [his] name” & “for [his] name’s sake. Thank God that this has already been accomplished fully and freely and forever by Jesus Christ on the cross for everyone who believes in him & trusts him alone for saving grace & forgiveness. For that greatest of all atonements, “we [God’s] people, the sheep of [his] pasture will give thanks to [God] forever” and “will recount [his] praise” from generation to generation (13). In our time of “virus crisis,” we who wonder what God is doing in this world with the disruption of our places & times of worship, must remember our identity: we are GOD’S PEOPLE, his sheep. We KNOW where our God is: high and lifted up on his throne receiving adoration and praise from the angelic council (Isaiah 6:1; Revelation 4). And we KNOW that our greatest spiritual problem – the sin issue – has been completely & permanently dealt with by God our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, who also is worthy of all praise & honor & glory & blessing with thanksgiving (Revelation 5). Generational thanksgiving can continue regardless of the crisis. Amen!
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