WHICH GOD DO YOU TRUST –

Heman the Ezrahite, who wrote the Psalm 88, had a fellow musician in the temple named Ethan the Ezrahite. He may have read Heman’s piece and decided to pen a psalm of his own in response to what was going on at the time. This same Ethan later became better known as Jeduthun, the chief music director in God’s house of worship. No doubt he was also confused as to why God would allow these heathen kings to threaten His people without retribution. So Ethan wanted to remind God of what everyone thought of Him, perhaps in hopes of getting God to have mercy on His people out of a sense of guilt or responsibility. It’s obvious he felt let down by his heavenly Father, but what Ethan didn’t realize was that it was his own lack of trust in God that he describes, that was letting him down. His psalm teaches us never to take our eyes off God and be blinded by our problem.

“O LORD Eternal, Your undying love will forever be my theme song. Whenever I speak to young people I constantly brag about what a friend I have in You. I’ve told everyone: Your undying love is what makes the world go around. It didn’t happen all at once, You had it planned from the very beginning; it’s part of a promise You made to our ancestors, that You would be available to our children and our grandchildren for ages to come. The stars in the sky sparkle in agreement with what You said, and Your saints below lift You up in praise because of Your faithfulness to Your word. There’s no other being in heaven that even comes close to You, O LORD Eternal; can any heavenly creature be found that is Your equal? There’s only one Sovereign Being for whom the saints have such holy reverence when they gather; and there is none other that the angels who stand around You, hold in such awe. O LORD Eternal and One True God whom millions worship, there is no one who has Your power; not one who embodies Your faithfulness. Yet You have rejected, spurned, and angrily pushed away those You anointed. Yes, You voided Your covenant with the one who serves You, and took what prestige Your anointed had and threw it to the ground. I’m sure You know how short my lifespan is, and You know the purpose for which You created all mankind. There is no one who can outlive death, and no one who can keep his soul from the clutches of the grave. So I ask You, O Divine Master, where is Your undying love?” Psalm 89:1-8, 38-39, 47-49a

Reflection: On a chilly Wednesday afternoon, December 14, 1825, a group of Russian patriots gathered to spark and motivate an uprising against Czar Nicholas I. However, their efforts were crushed, and the Czar’s supporters put out the word that this group had been defeated and over 80 of these misfits were killed. Nonetheless, one of those patriots, Russian poet Kondraty Ryleyev, went around bragging that by some miracle he and others had been spared, and accused the monarchy of exaggerating the numbers that were killed. One of Kondraty’s fellow patriots, Alexander Bestezhev, shook his head in amazement and wondered why people like Kondraty would proudly go around rejoicing over the fact they got away without giving their all for the cause they espoused. Alexander commented, “They are so twisted in their logic that they count their failure as a glorious success. What fools!” No wonder then that Kondraty was arrested two weeks later and charged with planning the Czar’s assassination. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang. A noose was tied around his neck and the executioner pulled the lever, but the rope broke and Kondraty fell to the ground. Such circumstances were often interpreted as divine intervention and the person was let go. But as Kondraty pulled himself bruised and battered off the ground he joked, “In Russia they can’t do anything right, they can’t even make a good rope!” A report of the incident was sent to Czar Nicholas at his winter palace for approval to let Kondraty go because the rope broke. But when the Czar heard what Kondraty said about Russians not knowing how to make a good rope, he decided to prove Kondraty wrong. He was executed on Tuesday, July 25, 1826. While Ethan the Ezrahite does not come across as brazen and lacking in gratitude as Kondraty, they both were complaining that things were not working out in their favor. Kondraty mocked the Czar, and Ethan suggested that God was not as good as He had promoted Himself to be. Sometimes it’s easy to let this type of spiritual blindness that keeps the truth of who God really is from gaining access to our hearts and minds, leading us into the trap of unbelief. We should not allow the illusion that God is not acting the way we think He should from clouding our thinking. In other words, don’t rely on the god of our own creation, but on the God who created us.