Not My Poetry (but I still claim it!)

I’m thinking that by this time, this guy Asaph was old; he’d seen a lot.  As he pours out his heart to God, you can hear his pain and frustration and confusion.  I love his raw yet respectful honesty before God.  I also love how these verses so exquisitely illustrate what Satan tries to do in our lives today, and I mean the lives of Christians, dedicated believers in Jesus.  After all, our hearts are now the sanctuary of God, and His church is His tabernacle.  The enemy is not too pleased about that.  

Walk through the awful ruins of the city;
    see how the enemy has destroyed your sanctuary.                                       There your enemies shouted their victorious battle cries;
    there they set up their battle standards.
They swung their axes
    like woodcutters in a forest.
With axes and picks,
    they smashed the carved paneling.
They burned your sanctuary to the ground.
    They defiled the place that bears your name.
Then they thought, “Let’s destroy everything!”
    So they burned down all the places where God was worshiped.

 Then Asaph takes an abrupt turn:

 You, O God, are my king from ages past,
    bringing salvation to the earth.
You split the sea by your strength
    and smashed the heads of the sea monsters.
You crushed the heads of Leviathan
    and let the desert animals eat him.
You caused the springs and streams to gush forth,
    and you dried up rivers that never run dry.
Both day and night belong to you;
    you made the starlight and the sun.
You set the boundaries of the earth,
    and you made both summer and winter.

Kind of an “oh yeah” moment.  When things get tough, our God still reigns, and my oh my, how great He is:

Psalm 74 Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.