Psalm 79: Jealousy

In Othello, Shakespeare called jealousy “the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”. Jealousy ravages relationships, it ruins reputations and it destroys healthy pleasures by turning them into lustful desires. The book of Proverbs says that jealousy “makes a man furious” and envy (the same Hebrew word) “makes the bones rot”. Jealousy is something that we run from when we see it in others and that we attempt to cover up when we see it in ourselves. I’m not sure that anyone has ever seen jealousy as a positive or mature character trait. And yet, six times between Israel’s departure from Egypt to their entrance into the Promised Land, God referred to Himself or Moses referred to God as jealous. What could this mean? How is it that jealousy is from the worst part of us but the best part of God? Possibly the most important question of all, what does God’s jealousy look like?

Psalm 79 speaks of, and from one of if not, Israel’s darkest season, the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of Solomon’s temple and Judah’s captivity to Babylon in 587 B.C. The psalm begins with deep lament and honest but vivid language. “O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.” In destruction, disappointment and despair the author still believed, in some ways probably had to believe, that they were still God’s “inheritance”. While all was currently lost, and the future had nothing but uncertainty there was still the confidence that the God who had taken hold of them would not ever let go. It’s often overlooked, but it is beautiful to see this kind of faith in the middle of such an emotional lament and to see that one does not diminish the other. Faith is not when we pretend all is well, it’s when we embrace what we know even while we wrestle with what we don’t understand. Lament, sorrow, and grief are not the absence of faith, they are not when we are unsure of where we stand, they are simply the reality of experiencing loss. Judah had lost their home, their nation and God’s house, they did not know where they stood but they were still sure of they were. They may have been captive in Babylon, but they belonged to God.

The language only got worse, bodies given to the birds, flesh eaten by the beasts, blood poured out like water, bodies left in the streets. The psalmist held nothing back, he painted the picture for God even though God already knew. Why do we try to put on a brave face when God already knows the quivering of our fears? Why do we believe we have to sound positive at moments when all we can feel is the negative? There is no power in positive thinking, but there is freedom in honest words spoken in confident relationship. In Psalm 51 David wrote, “you delight in truth in the inward being”. God loves when we trust Him enough to speak the truth. We don’t change situations by saying what we believe to be the right thing, that’s not what the Proverb means when it says, “death and life are in the power of the tongue”. The truth exposes our hearts, the truth allows us to deal with our condition, the truth makes us vulnerable and it requires that we put our hope and our trust in God. Our hearts would change, our faith would grow, and our souls would find rest if we would stop trying to say what we think is right and instead tell God what He already knows is true. Wounds can’t be healed until they are revealed, disease can’t be cured until it’s diagnosed, and sin can’t be forgiven and removed until it’s exposed.

From his place of sorrow and loss, but also confidence in his relationship the psalmist asked, “How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?” He understood something, God was in this. In Judah’s case, God had warned them multiple times. They had fallen into sin, they had chosen to be like the nations around them, they had taken other gods and lived far outside of the covenant that God had called them to. God even sent the prophet Jeremiah to tell them specifically that if they did not repent and turn from their idolatry that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and they would be taken into captivity. They didn’t believe the prophet, they didn’t acknowledge God’s warnings, they didn’t confess their sin, they didn’t search their hearts, they didn’t tell the truth to God and they refused to hear the truth from God and so, they reaped what God had promised even though God had offered to save them from this punishment, now He would save them through this punishment.

God works according to the condition of our hearts. Judah was hard-hearted and stubborn and so punishment was required for them to repent and return to God. Joseph was righteous and willing and so God led him through difficulty, even suffering, to use him to lead others to see His glory and to know His heart. But God always works, and He always works for the same purpose, for His glory and for our good, that He would be known and that souls would be saved, that Jesus would be glorified and that men would be redeemed.   

He asked, “Will your jealousy burn like fire?” That’s an interesting question because it had long before been answered. Deuteronomy 4:24 says, “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” God’s jealousy is not the insecure emotion that fears it might not get what it wants, it is the holy zeal, the patient love that will do anything and everything to lead His people to the place of full devotion and pure worship. Let’s not miss this, God’s jealousy is not from His demand to have the relationship He desires, but from His knowledge that we are only whole and complete when we are in the relationship we were created for. God’s jealousy is not about Him, it’s for us. He is jealous for us to have unfailing love, exceeding joy, perfect peace. And so, He burns away everything that stands between who we are and who we were created to be. He lovingly takes away things that He gave to us, but we placed in front of Him. He makes us lie down in green pastures often when we don’t want to lie down. He restores our soul because often our soul gets cluttered with things that were meant to be temporary, but we tried to make permanent. The jealousy of God is not against us, it is for us. It’s not how He tears us down; it’s how He builds us up. Before He opens the doors that can’t be shut, He must shut the doors that should no longer be open.

We are all always in a place of God’s jealousy. He’s working in us and He’s working for us, the question is not what He’s doing but what will we allow Him to do? This might not be a season of life that you expected or hoped for, it might not be a season you enjoy or want to go through, but this I am confident in, God is in this season with you, but much more, God is in this season for you. Trust His love so much that you can embrace His jealousy. Let Him burn away whatever He wants so that He can give you not only what you need, but much more than you’ve ever asked or imagined. The jealousy of God never robs us, in fact, it’s His jealousy that burns away all the thieves that we thought were friends and all the dross that we thought was gold. His jealousy makes things right, His fire makes things pure, His love endures so that our hearts can be whole.