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"Why have you rejected us forever, O God? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? Remember the people you purchased of old...Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary (Psalm 74:1-3).

Reading Psalm 74 reminds me of those news briefs coming periodically out of the Middle East a few years ago. Those reports depict a group, such as ISIS, appearing to systematically eradicate the Christian memory from their territory. The fear among Christians in the West was that all evidence of Christian existence and worship of God was being scoured away.

We know from scripture, especially the book of Deuteronomy, that when Israel found herself in this kind of national crisis, there was only one cause. She herself was to blame. God stated very clearly that if Israel abandoned Him, He would let her enemies destroy her.

These things happened to Israel because of God's judgement. St. Augustine, back in the 4^th century summed it all up with these pithy words, "If we reject God's mercy we are only left with His wrath."

But that is not the only story. From Scripture, we know that there are other reasons why tragedy strikes God's people. We must not be so arrogant as to imagine we understand the reasons behind adversity. Job never finds out why he experienced his calamity. When Jesus’ disciples want to know whose sin caused a man’s blindness, Jesus topples their theology, saying this was to display God’s work (John 9:3). Many of God's people have found themselves praying from the place of chaos with no knowledge of why!

How do we pray in this void? How do we give voice to God's seeming absence? Psalm 74 helps. It is always good to start with confession and repentance. These should always be in our spiritual arsenal. But this psalm has none of them. It gives absolutely no rational why Israel has been pillaged and burned.

Israel's worship leaders do not ask God to see how real or sincere their repentance is. Nor do they ask God to notice how holy their lives are now. No! There is nothing selfish about there requests for God to act.

They appeal to God's cause and the defaming of His name (22). These words give expression to our groaning when God seems absent. Why is God not doing anything? The distress caused by God's inactivity is heightened as the worshipper’s recount some of the great acts of God. He has always been the God of action and power for his people. He came to them as their Redeemer, rescuing them from Egypt.

So why is He so silent now?

We pray to the creating and saving God who has overcome every challenge to His kingship. Christ sits enthroned in heaven, having conquered death. Why does He tolerate the 'monsters' that are destroying his worshippers today?

This is a prayer of desperate faith. The issue for the worshippers is not that their lives are in ruins, but that God's fame and honour and name are in ruins. The redemptive project God began by liberating Israel from Egypt is in jeopardy. If doesn’t act soon, his followers will be wiped from the earth.

This certainly challenges how we pray. Such psalms invite us to consider what motivates our prayers. Often, our motives are selfish. The church has long encouraged us to use the psalms to shape the content of our prayers. On our own, we turn inward, self focused. With the scriptures as our guide, we can truly learn to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.”