Monday 30th June
Read Nahum 1:1-3a
“A prophecy concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.” (NIVUK)
Nineveh and Nahum are mentioned in the first line but are quickly dwarfed by the opening verses of the message. For the opening of the book contains a psalm that mentions neither. The opening of the book is a majestic poem concerning Yahweh.
This is a psalm like no other. That it is a song is not doubted, it is an ode to Yahweh and is structured as an acrostic – a poetic form that begins each phrase with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This acrostic though is incomplete. It dissolves and collapses in the withering presence of Yahweh.
This is not a psalm many would comfortably sing from the pews. Vengeance and anger run through it. Wrath and devastation. Yet every line is true, if rarely emphasised. This is not the aspect of God’s character that flows through the choruses that saturate our worship today. This is the same God we worship though.
When Moses sought to know God and His glory more fully, God “passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ 8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshipped.” (Exodus 34:6-8) (NIVUK).
We do well to respond as Moses once did and bow and worship in the presence of Yahweh. Moses’ song (Exodus 15) captures many of the sentiments of Nahum’s psalm…
