The New Geneva Study Bible entitles this psalm as "A Dirge and a Prayer for Israel, Destroyed by Enemies." Our poor psalmist is almost overwhelmed by the great tragedy in his day. Scarce can the work of faith go on in a ruined city where there is not even enough manpower to bury the many bodies scattered around the sacred precincts. It is hard for us to visualize the death and destruction involved since we have had no serious methodical destruction of cities in this country since the fall of Atlanta when General Sherman promised to make Georgia howl. I can say this somewhat detached from my rural home in Ohio where my ancestors turned out to defend their homes from the invasion of General Morgan. A Sheriff Forsythe in Guernsey County shared his evening meals with the general for several days before the trains arrived to take away the captured command.

Our friends in the south have shorter memories in this regard, as you may well know from experience with friends and family in that area. Nine years ago, those passions were still strong enough for thirty-some Southern pastors to protest the singing of The Battle Hymn of the Republic at a service to honor Desert Storm veterans at our own General Assembly.

Yet, it is still hard for us to fathom the death and destruction here described in this psalm. Now it is hard to reconcile the account here with a specific historic period. The noted scholar CH Spurgeon supposes that this passage is what a "Jeremiah" might have written amid the ruins of the beloved city. Derek Kidner considers the destruction of Nebuchadnezzar to be the occasion for this psalm. Kiel & Delizsch lean toward the Maccabaean period. However, Franz Delitzsch, the great evangelical commentator of Germany observes that "one receives the impression of the outrages, not of some war, but of some persecution: it is straightway the religion of Israel for the sake of which the sanctuaries are destroyed and the faithful are massacred."

Now there are several instances in Judean history which might well fit the devastation described here. I almost wonder if the Egyptian attack described in chapter twelve of 2 Chronicles might not fall into the end period of Asaph's lifetime. This possibility could strengthen Delitzsch's impression of purposeful slaughter by partisans and foreign allies. Our scene described by Asaph then takes on a more frightful description which we in our day may better understand. In Solomon's time and during the first few years of Rehoboam's reign, the spiritual prosperity of united Israel and Judah were negligible at best. There had grown up around the sacred precincts of the Temple, places of worship to please the multitude of Solomon's wives and children. The faith of Israel had become nominal. Vicious enemies of the faith were within the gates as well as outside. If our scenario is accurate, no wonder, the faithful were special objects of attack?

How very similar might this situation be to our own time and place. Providentially, there is no physical death and destruction in our sight or experience. However, the spiritual desert which has spread far and wide like the continuing expansion of the Sahara, is becoming more and more noticeable. Did you know that at up to the time of the Romans, the region of the Sahara in Northern Africa was grassland and home to many tribes, flocks and herds. Because of overgrazing and permanent weather changes, the desert has gradually spread over greater and greater latitudes, currently at the rate of five miles a year. In the same slow, gradual way has the spiritual health of Christ's Church in this century has decayed and declined. Strange nations and notions have invaded and defiled the New Testament Church just as assuredly as they did the Old Testament Congregation of Israel.

The bones of the New Testament Church have been picked as clean as the bodies of the Old Testament saints. So many are the spiritual dead in our centuries that there are scarce enough survivors to bury the liberally dead with sound arguments. The true faith which survives in scattered pockets across many denominations are becoming the special objects of reproach, scorn and derision to the modern secular humanists. The true faith is scarcely taken seriously at all.

An online virtual online curriculum that I have reviewed recently, says only of Christianity that it owed a great debt to a minor pagan mystery cult. The golden age of Pericles is missing as well as the Reformation. However, one full unit of study is given over to the flappers of the nineteen-twenties. I cannot for the life of me comprehend why girls behaving badly in imitation of prostitutes merits such a major consideration within the history of the world?

Well (for this and many other outrages), may we like Asaph wonder out loud: "How long, Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?" Martyn Lloyd-Jones wondered publicly in sermon after sermon after World War Two if revival might come again and build up the true churches of our God and our Christ.

In this fall of 2000, we too may wonder and pray for a national revival and reformation that will transform our own dear land. Yes, there is rubble and rabble in the streets, the churches have been defiled, the golden treasures have been exchanged for loud clanging brass. As our spiritually fouled land waits for an opportune season of revival, may we hold up our hands daily in prayer as Asaph does in this Psalm.

O Lord, instead of pouring out your wrath on your people, your Church, turn your attention to the ones who do not acknowledge you nor call on your name. The worldly have devoured denomination after denomination in our lifetime, and many of us became homeless until we found this little place where your Name is upheld. Oh God, Asaph encourages us to pray, "do not remember former iniquities against us! Let Your tender mercies come speedily to meet us." Now why, we may well ask, should the Lord of heaven help the small remnant of His elect who sincerely call upon His name? The reason that Asaph gives us is explained in the final portion of this psalm. See it in verse nine? "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; come speedily to meet us, for we have been brought very low."

For His Name's sake is the reason we must pray earnestly and daily for revival. Not for ourselves, but for His sake! By our own resources, faithfulness and dedication, we cannot cause revival however hard we might try. Instead, it is only in the Lord's providence that revival is possible. Oh that the coming Spirit might be used to transform lives and through lives: churches, institutions and organizations. If the Lord will allow this, then not only will His people described in verse thirteen give Him praise, but also that praise may be handed down to the next generation and from then onto our grandchildren who in turn may pass it on and into the twenty-second century if the Lord tarries that long. Will you pray as Asaph encourages us for the uplifting of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ? May the Spirit encourage and enable you to do so daily. Amen.