God Sings Songs For The ForgottenSample

[The audio portion of this devotional is not available on your device. To hear this audio, visit your plan at www.bible.com] "God Sings Songs for Those Waiting" Once again we are brought in this study to a psalm of lament. This psalm is sung during the devastating time of the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. It is interesting to see how such a time of pain and national anguish led to such a vibrant time of singing and prayer for God’s people. I think this point in itself is instructive for God’s church today!  This song has two parts: the laments (v. 1-5) and the petitions (v. 6-13). In the first part God allows Israel to lament and express their sorrow over their circumstances, as this also encourages believers today to be open with our grief and pain. The looming question that permeates this Psalm is “How Long?” The people lament what is going on and it drives them in the second part of the psalm to waiting petition. The people come before the Lord as “groaning prisoners” awaiting freedom. Though their despair is real, the last verses are undying in hope as they exclaim; “but we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.” The Israelites embrace messianic language here and know that no matter how bleak things look, their Good Shepherd will save his sheep. This is New Testament imagery, as Jesus describes himself as this Messiah who indeed came to save his people. He is the one for which they waited. The encouragement for us as we pray through and sing through Psalm 79, is our Messiah has already come. We have our hope and our waiting for deliverance is over. Though the church is in exile and we await God’s second coming, we can rest in what our Savior has already done much more so than even the Israelites had the ability to do. Sing through Psalm 79 on our Songs of the Forgotten album and rest in the kingdom NOW and NOT YET. Though we wait, we hold fast to our Savior who has already taken his seat in heavenly places!