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\u201cNot to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness\u201d (Psalm 115:1).

Today, we return to the Psalms. After our 28 Days of Prayer, we come back to Israel\u2019s prayer book (it should be our primary prayer book as well).

This psalm poses a question: How do we react when God doesn't do what we want Him to do?

Among the Israelites, the Lord's love and faithfulness seem in a land, \u201cFar, Far Away\u201d. Israel's existence is bleak. So, the nations are taunting her, "Where is your God?" (2). We might have a small sense of this in our culture, but for many of our Christian family in other parts of the world, this is very real.

What do we do when God doesn't do what we want Him to do? Now, let's analysis the question a little. The way I have phrased it, it is all about me: what do I want? God is under no obligation to do what I or you want.

When God doesn't do what we want Him to do, then we need only Psalm 115:1. When life is about what I want than I am most important, and I want the glory. This verse knocks us off our rotting pedestal and bluntly reminds that life is about God, not me.

However, Psalm 115 is about God's love and faithfulness. When these things are not in evidence than the problem is real because God is under full obligation to be true to Himself. That\u2019s when we need the rest of the psalm. It offers us two responses.

First, we can go find a different god. And this we have done. Our lives are filled with idols that are of our own making. But, as the psalmist points out, these idols have no voice, no vision, no hearing, no senses of smell or feeling. They cannot walk, and they cannot utter a single sound.

They are merely idols - the house, the boat, the car, the fine jewellery, the awards and recognition, the high-paying job, the self-help method. No matter what we offer them, they have nothing for us. They only stand in the corner collecting dust as we slowly kill ourselves sacrificing to them.

What ultimately matters, what lasts, is the God of the house of Israel, whose blessings extend beyond our own earthly existence to those who come after us. And thus, we may declare, along with all the generations of the faithful, that we will praise the Lord from now and for all time (18).

Thus, the second response this psalm offers us is this: to gather with God's people to declare the praise of God. To do so in the firm hope that God is our help and shield (9). We praise Him, convinced that we will experience God's love and faithfulness. In response to this psalm, God's people gather to worship Him. We worship to remember who is God! He is the God of love and faithfulness. He will be true to his promises.