Theological Commentary: Click Here
In the two
psalms for today, we get another perspective on the relationship dynamics
between God and humanity. So often when
we think about our relationship with God, we think about happy things. We think about things like harmony, joy,
forgiveness, peace, glory, and greatness.
That’s the ideal. When we who are
human are able to let go of our own humanity and instead follow God and His
ways, we do meet the ideal.
However,
honesty will tell us that there is an issue with the prior paragraph. Humans have a hard time completely letting go
of their humanity. We act
selfishly. We think of ourselves before
others. We also tend to not listen all
that well. We can be obedient, but we’d
really rather do our own thing. Life is good
when we are following God, but we have a tendency to stray off the path. Sometimes we stray a long way off.
That’s what
psalm 60 is all about. David knows that the
people have strayed. They have walked
away from God, and God has decided to let them go. God is willing to allow the people to suffer
the consequences of their own actions.
Yet, God has
not abandoned them. When the people have
walked away, God did not walk away. God
set up a banner to which the people could return. Those who run to the banner and re-embrace God’s
ways are welcomed back under His protection.
That’s the greatest thing about God.
He always leaves the porchlight on.
We may turn prodigal, but He is always there to welcome us back if we simply
have the humility to acknowledge our error and return.
This leads
us to Psalm 61. This is a psalm of
praise and joy. While it is not
necessarily connected in context to Psalm 60, it is certainly an extension of
the theme. God is the rock that is
higher than us. That is why we end up
walking away from Him instead of Him turning away from us. He is the superior. He is the greater. He has true wisdom.
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