As you get about halfway into the psalms we meet a singer/songwriter called Asaph.
I think I would like Asaph if I met him today. He doesn’t hide his feelings. Both in Psalms 73 & 74 he goes on for 95% of the psalm about how bad the world is, how bad the people are, how bad their situation is is, blah… blah… blah… and then hits you with a banger of a “God is Good” and drops the mic.
Go read Psalm 73, every verse can literally be the questions for a game show “Name that Politician!”
“They are loudmouths with no fear of God, pretending to know it all— windbags full of hot air, impressing only themselves. Yet the people keep coming back to listen to more of their nonsense.”
(Psalms 73:9–10 TPT)
But it’s a setup, because all of a sudden Asaph comes through with “I was so stupid, senseless and ignorant” (v22)
“Yet, in spite of all this, you comfort me by your counsel;
You draw me closer to you…”
(Psalm 73:22)
“Every time I fall in disgrace” says Asaph, “Your glorious presence is protecting me” and “…forever You Are all I need!”
Verse 28:
“But I’ll keep coming closer and closer to you, Lord Yahweh, for your name is good to me. I’ll keep telling the world of your awesome works, my faithful and glorious God!”
(Psalms 73:28 TPT)
But it is actually in Psalm 74 where Asaph got my brain to focus…
Nothing good to say in 22 of 23 verses except verse 17 when he sneaks in:
“The four corners of the earth were formed by your hands, and every changing season owes its beauty to you.”
(Psalms 74:17 TPT)
Depending where you are in the world, there is at least one season that is definitely not your favourite, but God made the world and beauty in each of the seasons… amazing miracles appear in the worst of times (ask David Attenborough!)
Is it not so also in our lives? In the driest of droughts in our life… in the wettest of floods… when storms destroy, and locusts feast on our hard work… God is still there… even more so, God is especially there!
Building in us resilience, building in us kindness, building in us, compassion (and whatever God needs us to have ready for the next season)
This season may be really hard, but seasons end. Don’t be so focussed on the bad and the difficult, that you miss the beauty that is also hidden there.
