Friday 14th April
Read Psalm 90:7-11
“We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
10 Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
11 If only we knew the power of your anger!
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.” (NIVUK)
Michael Wilcock reflects on these lines in the psalm and suggests that the message is that God’s wrath is proportional to the reverence we fail to show Him (v11b). That is the very essence of sin. It certainly aligns with Paul’s understanding of the cause and source of God’s wrath…
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21) (NIVUK)
The issue with wrath is less that we think it unjust and unloving, but more that we simply don’t consider it at all. Sin has consequences that on our good days we remain oblivious too (v10b), we pass by our own sin so quickly – almost as quickly as we spot sin in others! The wise acknowledge and confess their sin and lean exclusively on the one way out from under God’s wrathful gaze – the way provided by God Himself.
“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished 26 – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26) (NIVUK)
