#DailyDevotion Praying When You Feel God Has Rejected You
Psalm 60 O God, You have rejected us and broken us; You have been angry — restore us. 2You have made the land quake and split open heal its fractures because it is tottering. 3You have made Your people suffer cruel things and given us wine to drink that makes us stagger. 4Give those who fear You a banner to display because of the truth. 5Save us by Your right hand and answer us in order to free Your dear people.
Sometimes the inscriptions over Psalms are helpful to understand what is going on. Other times, they are not so helpful. This is one of those times. David writes this psalm. He is king at the time. From Second Samuel and 1 Chronicles that would make you think any of what is going on here has happened.
Well, not knowing the circumstances nevertheless doesn’t matter as we pray this psalm. We have had moments in our lives where we have felt rejected and broken by God. We feel God has been angry with us and we would like Him to restore us. It could be because of disease, death, financial situations or oppression from others. We may certainly feel at these times the LORD has made us suffer cruel things and given us wine to make us stagger. Many Christians and even people of other faiths often abandon any concept of God much less the true God at times like these. I’ve heard the accusations from their mouths and read many of them on the internet. They cannot conceive why the LORD would allow them to suffer all these things.
But David does not and we should not. David in the midst of this makes his appeal to God. He asks that those who fear God should be given a banner to display because of the truth. He seeks the LORD to save them by His right hand to free His dear people. Now at this point the inscription seems somewhat helpful. David is about to start his campaign to capture all the land the LORD had promised Israel, to Abraham and Isaac and their descendants. Perhaps he feels all the above because the LORD had not yet overcome all of Israel’s enemies. Well, now through David, He is about to complete the work of taking the land.
You and I may feel this way as well. We wonder when the LORD is going to come and set all things right in the world. When is He going to overcome sin, death, the devil and everything and everyone who is a subject to them. We are like the disciples before Pentecost asking Jesus, “Lord, are You now going to reestablish the kingdom of Israel?” We suffer so many things and undergo so many losses waiting for our LORD’s return. Some lose their fear of the LORD and become His enemy again. We are like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. We are like them suffering in Egypt. We are like the Israelites living in the land of promise but all our enemies seem to still be oppressing us.
Yet we must remember, Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God. Jesus has overcome sin, death and the power of the devil by His innocent suffering, death and resurrection. He has established His reign in our hearts. He is being patient with men, calling them to repentance and faith in Him, not wanting any to perish but that all would repent and receive eternal life. On the Last Day, a definite year, day, hour and moment planned by the Father, Christ will return and remove all wickedness and wicked persons from us and cast them into the Lake of Fire where they will suffer eternal death. On that day, we shall inherit the earth and God will manifest His glory to us. In the meantime we can pray with David this prayer with fear, love and trust in God.
Heavenly Father, at many times in our lives it may seem as if you have rejected us and are angry with us. Give us your Holy Spirit that we may continue in the faith, live repentant lives and patiently wait for the ushering of the kingdom of Your Son, Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.