Psalm 78: Yet (Part 2)

In God’s presence we get a clear view of two things, His character and our condition. Yesterday we talked about the reality of our condition. We are forgetful. We forget the things that we should remember, and we tend to remember the things we should forget. We are fearful. We worry and fret about things that are out of our control and things that are familiar create responses in us that push us back to old places. But the reality that Psalm 78 speaks about most when it comes to our condition is that we are rebellious. We let our cravings drive our actions and our feelings determine our decisions. We stay in cycles that are comfortable rather than breaking free by being faithful through discomfort and enduring what is difficult. Our condition is that we can be easily tossed, but God’s character never changes.

In our first look at Psalm 78 we saw the negative side of “yet”. God provided, He protected, He lovingly led and miraculously delivered, “Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.” The Psalmist tells us about how Israel, after coming out of Egypt, walking through the Red Sea, while being led by God’s constant visible presence and drinking water that flowed out of a rock, questioned whether or not God could provide them with food. They chose, and this is a choice, to question God’s goodness rather than to declare it, to wonder if He would provide what they needed next rather than to rejoice in what He had currently provided. God provided, yet they doubted. The beauty is this, they doubted, yet God continued to provide.

Verse 22 closes with this statement about Israel, they “did not trust his saving power.” The psalm then turns us from our condition, because if we look too long at ourselves, we may become hopeless, to God’s character. “Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven.” Our calamity, our circumstances, our tribulation and even our rebellion do not change God’s character. He is who He is at all times and for all people. Israel questioned His goodness and He continued to be good. They forgot His love and He kept loving. They complained that they would die, and He poured out more life. He doesn’t react to us, He remains Himself.

This is the good news that fuels the gospel. If God’s character wasn’t secure then forgiveness, salvation and redemption could have never been hoped for much less trusted in. These great and precious promises are not God’s response to our effort, they are God’s unwillingness to change His character even in the midst of our rebellion. When Adam and Eve sinned, rejecting the only command God had given them, He came and sought them out. When Cain offered an unworthy sacrifice, God came to him to try to persuade him from destruction. When David was content to live in hidden sin, God came through the prophet Nathan to offer healing. When we were the enemies of God, condemned already and enslaved by sin, the Father sent His only Son so that none would have to perish, but all would be given the opportunity for repentance and redemption.

Salvation is the essence of who God is, He doesn’t need it, but He loves to give it, that’s why He has provided it. Most of us know intellectually that salvation is not of our works but is God’s gift of grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). But the question is, what does salvation say about who God is? What does the provision of salvation say about His character? To me this is the essence of saying “God is good”. He created us knowing that we would rebel, it’s not that He created us anyway, but that He planned for our redemption even before we had chosen our rebellion. When God said, “Let us make man in our image” it was with the full knowledge that the Father would send the Son, the Son, knowing no sin would become sin and the Spirit would dwell within God’s redeemed and adopted children. God’s goodness is not that He did it anyway, but that He knew what He was doing. Forgiveness, redemption and salvation are not because we sinned, they are because God is good.

Going further into the psalm, Asaph wrote, “in spite of all this, they still sinned; despite his wonders, they did not believe.” I am that verse, it’s not just Israel it’s describing, it’s me. “In spite of all this” I too often choose selfishness, let stress invite in worry and sit down in apathy. “Despite his wonders” I quickly wonder if He’s with me, if He hears me and even if He loves me. My condition is that I rejoice in ease but complain in difficulty, like Israel I dance during the miracle, but I’m convinced I’m going to die at the next detail that takes me by surprise. Verse 39 says, “He remembered that they were but flesh . . .” While we forget God’s goodness, He remembers our weakness. While we forget what He’s done, He remembers what He’s promised. While we forget to believe, He remembers that we need to be reminded. He remembers who we are, He remembers what we need, but best of all, He remains who He is.

“Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them”. When we deserve destruction, God leans on His compassion. His emotion never overtakes His character, which is why James could tell us so confidently that “mercy triumphs over judgment.” Who God is will always be greater than what we do, what God has planned will always be greater than what we deserve, what God says will always be truer than what we see. We are weak, yet God is strong. We are forgetful, yet God always remembers. We are sometimes lazy, yet God endures. We are rebellious, yet God is faithful. In God’s presence it is important that we see both His character and our condition, but we must also see that His character is always greater than our condition and if we will confess and repent of our condition, we will be forgiven, redeemed and changed by His character. He is good, yet we forget. We forget, yet He is faithful. Maybe the most important thing for us to know and to believe is simply that God is not done loving or working in us yet.