Sun 17 Jan

Psalm 73 raises a number of challenges as we read the psalm. Is God good if he allows the wicked to get away with their evil schemes. Why should we follow and serve God if the wicked keep getting away with what they are doing? 

 Such questions and thinking bothered the psalmist. It bothered him to the point that he, himself, nearly lost his foothold with what he thought God was doing.

And if we are honest, we are not immune from such thinking. We regularly attend church. We pray and read the Bible. And yet my work colleague does none of that and there appears to be no repercussions for him. Perhaps I should just sleep in next Sunday, or go out for coffee instead. 

However, it was a visit to the temple that Asaph, the psalm writer, realized that God was indeed active and would in time deal with those who thought that God did not care about what they were doing. The writer saw that the wicked were on slippery ground. God had placed them on such ground and that quite suddenly they would come to ruin.

Jesus warned the people of his time, that as it was in the days of Noah, people would be eating and drinking and marrying without a thought to the future and destruction would come upon them suddenly. Are we in danger of thinking as the psalmist did? Why doesn’t God act against the wicked? Is God in His grace giving them more time to repent? How much time do we need?