{"id":12404,"date":"2024-03-03T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T06:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/when-god-is-unfaithful-the-bible-for-normal-people\/"},"modified":"2024-03-03T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T06:46:14","slug":"when-god-is-unfaithful-the-bible-for-normal-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/03\/when-god-is-unfaithful-the-bible-for-normal-people\/","title":{"rendered":"when God is unfaithful &#8211; The Bible For Normal People"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lament.jpeg?ssl=1\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4666\" title=\"lament\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lament.jpeg?resize=224%2C225&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"225\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/a>Last week I attended a lecture on Psalms by Walter Brueggemann at Wayne Presbyterian Church here in suburban Philadalphia. Part of his talk dealt with what he called \u201cGod\u2019s infidelity\u201d\u2013those times when God does not come through, or seem to come through, on what he promised, or otherwise acts in ways that are\u00a0inconsistent\u00a0with what we believe God should act like.<\/p>\n<p>The psalms that address this sort of scenario are often called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0834125935\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0834125935&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=inspirandinca-20\">lament psalms<\/a>\u201c<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=inspirandinca-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0834125935\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"\/>\u2013which\u00a0is a nice way of saying \u201cgive God an earful.\u201d About half the psalms have some sort of lament, and some more than others.<\/p>\n<p>Like Psalm 44. Israel is in some national crisis. The people expected God to show up and help, but he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>The psalmist\u00a0mentions\u00a0how they have always put their trust in God, but now God has,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201crejected us and abased us\u201d\u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201cyou have made us like sheep for slaughter\u201d\u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201csold your people for a trifle\u201d\u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201cmade us a taunt\u2026a byword\u2026a laughingstock\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thanks a lot. All this has happened, even though \u201cwe\u00a0have\u00a0not forgotten you, or been false to your covenant.\u201d So, God, here\u2019s an idea: \u201cRouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord. Awake, do not cast us off forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Translation: \u201cGod, \u00a0you\u2019re asleep at the switch, it\u2019s your fault, don\u2019t even try to blame this on us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s Psalm 89, which goes for the jugular. After reminding God of his promise to stick by his promise to David to maintain an unbroken legacy of kings in Israel, and that God would never violate that promise, for God does not lie, the psalmist accuses God of doing just that. The Israelites are now in exile in\u00a0Babylon: no king, no throne, no land.<\/p>\n<p>The psalmist doesn\u2019t ask or wonder out loud. He simply points out the obvious: \u201cYou\u00a0have\u00a0renounced your covenant\u2026defiled his [David\u2019s] crown\u2026. Lord, where is your steadfasat love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>OK, so what\u2019s my point?<\/p>\n<p>Is God actually at the end of the day unfaithful? No, I don\u2019t believe so.<\/p>\n<p>Did the Israelites sometimes feel that God was unfaithful to them and accuse God of such? You betcha.\u00a0They took their grief and anger and stuck it in God\u2019s face.<\/p>\n<p>Dod God strike them down with plagues, famine, or thunderbolts for daring to oppose his sovereign might? No.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>What can we learn from this? Here is what Brueggemann said: \u00a0<strong>\u201cChurches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maybe we have lost the \u201cart of lament,\u201d where complaining to God is part of the deal. Maybe, rather than playing church and make-believe, a vital dimension of the\u00a0spiritual\u00a0journey is giving God an\u00a0earful\u00a0now and then. Maybe God can handle it. Maybe God likes it,\u00a0because\u00a0it means we are being real and not fake.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe if you\u2019re angry with God now and then, you\u2019re normal. Maybe that\u2019s part of being the people of God.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/thebiblefornormalpeople.com\/when-god-is-unfaithful\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=when-god-is-unfaithful\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I attended a lecture on Psalms by Walter Brueggemann at Wayne Presbyterian Church here in suburban Philadalphia. Part of his talk dealt with what he called \u201cGod\u2019s infidelity\u201d\u2013those times when God does not come through, or seem to come through, on what he promised, or otherwise acts in ways that are\u00a0inconsistent\u00a0with what we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}