Psalms Book 4: Songs of Exile | Video DevotionalSample

Recap

Yesterday, we saw that God's compassion and love are boundless and eternal. Today, we will learn that God wants us to throw ourselves on his mercy.

What’s Happening?

God has sent Israel into exile as punishment for their chronic evil and wickedness. So, the psalmist reflects on the heights from which he and his people have fallen. He knows his people are guilty and admits that God is right to punish them. Nevertheless, the psalmist longs for God to be favorable towards them again. He also wonders if his people will survive God’s punishment.

At first, God created Israel as a people from practically nothing. He provided them with a homeland and protected them from harm (Psalm 90:1). But since that time, God has become their destroyer and is actively causing their extinction (Psalm 90:2-3). While God remains unweakened and undiminished by time or death, he watches his people’s lives wither like grass in the noonday sun (Psalm 90:4-6). The God who created Israel now seems unphased by the languishing of his exiles.

Despite his people’s suffering, the psalmist believes God’s punishment is fitting. He admits his people’s guilt and laments that their exile is deserved. The raiding armies that ransacked the nation and displaced its citizens are a just punishment for their evil (Psalm 90:7-8). But even so, he cannot bear to watch his people suffer their punishment any longer. God’s righteous anger is still burning against them, and it doesn’t look like it will end soon. Their exile has dragged on for seventy years, and the psalmist doubts his people can survive any longer (Psalm 90:9-11).

In light of their guilt, the psalmist knows their only hope is to throw themselves on God’s mercy (Psalm 90:12). He asks God to act according to his compassion and relent from his anger. He knows God’s compassion is greater than his anger, so he begs God to be compassionate to his undeserving people. Their only escape from God’s anger is God’s mercy (Psalm 90:13). He asks God to bring joy and singing after an era of death and suffering (Psalm 90:13-15). He wants future generations to see and celebrate that the days of God’s compassion and love will far outstrip the days of his anger and punishment (Psalm 90:16-17).

Where is the Gospel?

The psalmist’s prayer invites us all to consider ourselves as exiles whose guilt, evil, and wickedness separate us from God. But the psalmist also wants us to believe that while God’s righteous anger is great, his compassion towards undeserving people is even greater. The psalmist wants us to throw ourselves on God’s mercy to end our separation and exile and return to a relationship of protection and love with God.

But since humanity’s only escape from God is God himself, God mercifully became human to rescue his people from the consequences their guilt and evil deserved (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). God, in Jesus, left the heights of heaven and entered into exile on earth to rescue his people. And even though he did not deserve it, Jesus obediently accepted the most significant exile and separation from God possible: death (Philippians 2:5-8). In doing so, Jesus was punished in his people’s place and exhausted God’s righteous anger so that God can give compassion and mercy to those who don’t deserve it. Jesus proves that instead of receiving God’s righteous anger, in him, we can find and receive God’s undeserved compassion (Acts 4:12). So, like the psalmist told his readers, we must throw ourselves on the mercy of God revealed in Jesus.

A Time of Prayer

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open my eyes to see the God who is compassionate towards disobedient people. And may I see Jesus as the one who suffered death so that he could give life to all who ask him for mercy.