Pound On The Chest Of God

This is published on Super Tuesday. There is a call to prayer for our nation at 12:00 noon today. It is a call to repentance. It is time to pound on the chest of God!
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Tucked in the book of Psalms are words that we would not expect to find.
They are Psalms that have a language of hatred and retribution.
They are emotional words that seem out of place in the Bible.
However, I am so glad they are there.

I am so glad that God has left these passionate, angry responses enshrined in His Word.
God gave us a whole range of emotions.
What better place to find those emotions but in His Word?
What better place than the Psalms to vent those emotions appropriately?

Whenever I read the Psalms, I feel like I am eavesdropping on a saint having a personal conversation with God. (R.C. Sproul)

Dr. Sproul is right.
When you read the Psalms, you are reading a no holds barred conversation.
You are reading raw and uncensored human emotions.
You are reading the range of feelings that we all go through at one time or another.

There are Psalms that call out to God to take care of an enemy.
The Psalms are honest about what the person wants God to do to those enemies.
When you read these Psalms, you cannot fathom that they are contained in God’s Word.
But they are and they should be.

The raw, honest Psalms that deal with an enemy are called imprecatory Psalms.
A list, though not exhaustive: Psalms 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, and 140.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute you. (Luke 6:27)
How can we love our enemies if we never even admit that we have enemies?

The imprecatory Psalms call out a curse on the enemies of God.
They call out for judgment, since the enemy is not just hurting the person but hurting God.
The Psalms are what stands between the hatred and revenge that would have been taken.
That is why God has kept them in His Word.

Michael Card once said that we should “Pound on the chest of God. He can take it!”
The imprecatory Psalms do just that.
They pound on God’s chest!
They inform God of all the things He already knows but that we need to tell Him.

We must lament.
We have people and situations in our life that we do not understand.
It has been said that depression is a monologue.
The imprecatory Psalms are a dialogue between the one who laments and the Sovereign One.

The opposite of lament is denial.
We cannot bury our emotions and our hatred deep within ourselves.
We must release all of that to the One who assures us that we are heard.
God is the attentive One who responds perfectly to our plea.

We can offer up our hatred and confusion to God as an act of worship.
That raw honesty is a catharsis for us.
As we complain and lament, we must also remember.
We must remember all that God has done in the past and believe that He will act in the future.

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. (Psalm 35: 1)

The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. (Psalm 58:10)

But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down. He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their head in scorn. (Psalm 64:7,8)

How long will the enemy mock You, O God? Will the foe revile Your name forever? Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand? Take it from the folds of Your garment and destroy them! (Psalm 74:10,11)

Raw honesty before God!
Laments to the One who hears.
Complaints to the only One who can truly act with righteousness and perfect judgment.
God is our safe place; He is a strong chest on which we can pound!

We are a nation unhinged.
The predominant emotion is anger.
However, instead of taking our anger to God, our anger is being unleashed on each other.
We are in a moral free fall where everyday the headlines seem more and more absurd.

That is what happens when people forget God.
There is no chest to pound on so the punching bag becomes another person.
We do not understand the times.
We are frustrated.

There is one man running for the highest office in the land who seems to exude anger.
The angrier he gets, the more the people seem to be behind him.
That misplaced anger is a dangerous thing.
The chest of God waits for His people to come to Him but we pound each other instead.

As we read the imprecatory Psalms, we can easily insert a name or a situation.
We could easily see ourselves praying the same thing for our circumstances.
God knew that we would come up against godlessness.
God knew that our enemies are not only against us, but more importantly, they are against Him.

It is for His honor we lament.
It is for His name we cry out.
It is for His glory we want to see those enemies destroyed.
However, it is not our job!

It is Mine to avenge; I will repay. (Deuteronomy 32:35)

God alone can judge perfectly.
God alone can administer the correct justice.
God alone can raise up leaders and bring them down in an instant.
God alone.

We have forgotten.
We pound on everything else but the chest of God.
We are paying a great price for our foolishness.
It is not too late to repent.

However God’s people have to GET SERIOUS!
We have to stop pounding each other and come together under His banner.
We are a stiff-necked, prideful, arrogant, selfish, and sinful people.
We are loved by a God who sent His Son to atone for all the sins we so easily commit.

God could recite the imprecatory Psalms to us.
We are the ones who deserve a curse called down upon us.
But God in His grace and mercy sent a Redeemer.
But God, in His great love sent His Son to die the death that we deserve.

We can stop the free fall but not in our own strength.
No government leader will save us.
But there is One who saves.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved – you and your household. (Acts 17:31)

No politician can ever deliver on that promise!
Admit your anger and your hate.
Admit that you do indeed have enemies.
Take all of your anger, lament, and frustration to God and pound His chest.

He can take it!