Month: June 2022

This is an interesting compillation of Psalms.  We begin with a Psalm of lament that gives us the words that Jesus uses when he is on the cross and his cry of desperation as he cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  There is then a listing of grievances that this person crying out has suffered including in vs.16 – “they have pierced my hands and my feet.”  This is a very clear reference to what Jesus underwent when he was on the cross.

From this very clear lament that raises up points of contact, many of them, with Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion we have one of the most well known Psalms, if not the most well known, in Psalm 23 where we find images of docile and pascal scenes that puts a mind to ease.  What a difference it is from Psalm 22.  We really go from persecution to almost a scene of resurrection.  Certainly a scene of comfort and care which is a direct contradiction to the previous psalm.

Then Psalm 24 gives us insight into a triumpant victory that will take place at the hands of the Lord.  All who come to God will receive a blessing and that blessing is a result of the Lord being the king of glory.  From there we go to Proverbs 9 that shows us a battle between wisdom and folly.  That battle rages in our own lifetime.  I love the line in vs.7 “whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse…rebuke a wise man and he will love you.”

We finish the prophet Hosea who describes now less his relationship with his wife, as an object lesson, and more the relationship between God and Israel, or the Northern kingdom.  God has made Israel prosperous, but the more prosperous they become the more they are interested in the other gods attributing to the other gods their success.  In spite of their unfaithfulness, we read in chapter 11 of God’s love for Israel and that one day there will be restoration.  Look at vs.9: “I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim (the would be Israel or the northern kingdom).  For I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you.  I will not come in wrath.”

In the midst of unfaithfulness, in the midst of obvious disrespect, God shows his love for us which is never ending.  This should not be an incentive for us to sin more, but rather humble us to put sin behind us in our lives.

The story is quite simple and tragic and yet it is meant to be a metaphor.  God commands the prophet Hosea to marry a person that we know is going to be unfaithful, what we would call and adulteress.  There is no chance that she will keep her wedding vows, but God calls the prophet to marry her anyway.  God then uses this marriage, this union, between Hosea and the unfaithful wife, to show what it is like to commit yourself to someone for eternity and that person constitently turns their back on their vows and your love.  Unrequited love reveals itself in this story as it does in our relationship with God.  For the New Testament this is a verse that speaks to this same point, you can find it in Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”