Why, God? Go to the Zoo! - Psalms 72-74

Psalms 74:10-15 (ESV)

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?

Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!

Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

You divided the sea by your might;

you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.

You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

You split open springs and brooks;

you dried up ever-flowing streams.

Why, God?   That seems to be the question we ask when things are not going well for us.   We like to ask God, “why?”   Psalm 74 was written by Asaph.  He was put in charge of the choir during David’s reign as King of Israel.  He wrote twelve “psalms” total.  We assume they came from a book of songs that he composed for Temple worship.   This particular song is about the destruction of the Temple.  Since it was obviously written in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, it is difficult to understand how Asaph, from David’s day, wrote it.  

The song opens with a “why” question and continues here in verse ten.   The key is the answer to the “why.”   The writer wants to know “why” God would allow the Temple to be destroyed and proverbially sits by with His hands in His pockets and does nothing.   That is probably an image most of mankind uses today to reflect on a crisis asking the same “why” question.   The pivot that the writer is makes is truly eye opening, however.   He immediately turns to God’s majesty over creation.  The writer turns his eyes toward God’s power over creation, over one of the biggest creatures in creation, the Leviathan.   We know little about this animal but the interesting truth here is that we read about the creature in the book of Job, as well.  When Job was asking “why,” God turned Job’s eyes to the same creature for understanding.   To take Job’s eyes off his own situation, God asks him:

Job 41:1 (ESV)

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook

or press down his tongue with a cord?

What a theme we have here.  Both Job and the writer of this psalm were in a depressed and confused and chaotic situation.   God’s response to the both of them is to take them to the zoo to think about God and His largest created animal.   God wants us to understand that he DOES NOT stand around with His hands in HIs pockets.  He is actively working every day in creation.   He gives food to the “sea creatures.”  Does this sound familiar?  Have you heard this argument about how to handle life’s crisis by remember that God is in charge of creation and cares for it, before?  

Matthew 6:25-26 (ESV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

God’s answer to our “why” is “look how I care for the birds and the bees ... don’t you think I can care for you, as well?”  We are to rest in God’s sovereign power over creation when our created world begins to fall apart.