Psalm 79

“How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, and on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your Name; and deliver us, and provide atonement for our sins, for Your name’s sake!” Psalm 79:5-9 (NKJV)

Did you hear the story about the deacon’s wife who saw a church member walk into the cigar store?  Her husband said, “You should tell the pastor!”  “I can’t!” she cried, “I was in the cigar store when she walked in!”  That is how today’s psalm feels, with Asaph asking God to pour out His wrath on the unbelieving nations who have devoured Israel while, in the same breath, asking for deliverance and atonement for Israel’s sin!  It sounds somewhat hypocritical.  The truth is that Israel and Judah were punished for their idolatry, and God used Assyria and Babylon as the instruments of His wrath toward His own people.  While Nebuchadnezzar was not a believer at that time, God still called him His “servant” because, after all, God is Lord of all!

“And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him. So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son’s son, until the time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them. And it shall be, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish,” says the Lord, “with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.” Jeremiah 27:6-8 (NKJV).    

While the Bible says that love is not jealous (1 Corinthians 13:4), the type of jealousy it is describing is not righteous jealousy.  It is more akin to a man who gets jealous whenever he sees another man talking to his wife.  That is an unfounded, accusatory jealousy.  Show me a man who sees his wife in the arms of another man and does not get jealous; that is a man who does not love his wife.  In that sense, he would have a righteous reason for jealousy.  This is the case with God’s jealousy when His people prefer the enemy’s embrace over His steadfast love.  Yes, God must rebuke our sin, yet He makes a way of return for those who are truly repentant.

“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her?  Wouldn’t such a land become totally defiled?  But you!  You have played the prostitute with many partners—can you return to Me?  This is the Lord’s declaration.”  Jeremiah 3:1 (HCSB)

“Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say: ‘Return, unfaithful Israel. This is the Lord’s declaration.  I will not look on you with anger, for I am unfailing in My love.  This is the Lord’s declaration.  I will not be angry forever.  Only acknowledge your guilt—you have rebelled against the Lord your God.’”  Jeremiah 3:12-13a (HCSB)