When Is It Enough?
Look to the pact, for the dark places of earth fill with groans of outrage. Psalm 74:20 (R. Alter translation)
Fill – Asaph’s psalm of despair reads like today’s newspaper for followers of YHWH. He cried out, “Why, O God, have You abandoned us forever?” He describes the insults to God’s own name perpetrated by the actions of those who reject Him. He complains that there is “no longer a prophet, nor any among us who knows until when.” Asaph’s desperation is the result of the apparent triumph of God’s enemies and the loss of God’s house of worship. It just doesn’t seem possible that God would allow these terrible things to continue.
Any reading of this poem is bound to create empathy for Asaph’s cause. Look around you. It’s been nearly 2000 years since we had a prophet who knew. The temple has been gone for nearly the same amount of time. The Church we know is falling into decay. Legalized murder (abortion) reigns throughout the world; a contemporary replacement for Molech. Violence escalates everywhere. Those acts that God calls abominations are even present among the ones who claim His name. And there is no one to tell us when it will all end. We often say that God’s hand moves invisibly among the lives of men, but this? Can this be what God wants? Is His hand so invisible that it allows such insults, such defamation and humiliation to His name? If Asaph thought it was too much to bear in the 6th Century BC, we must think this 100 times over. Just as in Asaph’s day, malu (mala’ – to be full) seemed the best way to describe apostasy, idolatry and wickedness. It seems even more so today.
Before we look at Asaph’s conclusion, we need to consider the historical record Asaph presents, and apply it to our own experience. Often I hear people say, “God superintends His Word so that even in translation we can be assured the message will be correct.” That’s a nice thought, but it is a Pollyanna approach to history. Asaph notes that God does not prevent men from choosing abominations, idolatry and wickedness. Yes, occasionally we have evidence that God brings judgment, but for the most part, history suggests that God restrains His direct hand from human life at least in terms of allowing men to choose and to suffer the consequences of those choices. When Luther chose to translate certain Greek words about physical evidence with words that led toward psychological convictions, God did not stop him. The result has been a radical shift in our understanding of faith. When Pagnino mistranslated teshuqah as “lust” and perpetrated the heresy of women as subordinate to men in the Church, God did not erase his mistake. When the contemporary ecclesiastical authorities decide that homosexuality is a legitimate lifestyle within the Kingdom by reinterpreting Paul and Deuteronomy, God does not strike them down. But the consequences arrive. The idea that God prevents human error just isn’t supported, in the society or in the text. There truly is no prophet to tell us when.
But those with eyes to see will recognize the consequences and perhaps be able to trace them back to the originating error. Pagnino didn’t believe he was making a tragic mistake in the 16th century, but we see the consequences today and realize that he was wrong. Some days we can see where it all started. Usually we cannot see where it will all end.
Asaph, however, provides a glimmer of hope in the midst of this barrage of defilement. “Yet God is my king of old.” You and I might not be able to see how this will all work for the good, but God is still King even if we can’t understand what’s happening and why He doesn’t strike out today. “God is my King” is our final hope in the face of the dark places. The bigger picture of history is closed on both ends. We just don’t know what is over the horizon, but we can trust that He knows. And that will have to be enough until “when.”
Topical Index: fill, mala’, history, insult, Asaph, Psalm 74:20
ISRAEL in 2013: Yes, I know that the politics of the region are crazy and dangerous now. But you can sign up for our trip in 2013 without worries. If things get really bad, the tour will cancel and you will get the money back. But I don’t think that will happen. What I do know is that if you haven’t been to Israel, you need to go – and soon. So please consider joining us in June of 2013.
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