Singing Psalm 74 deep roots are planted
Updated: Aug 27
Singing Psalm 74 deep roots are planted beyond sight
Singing Psalm 74, you go through disappointment with Israel as their enemies tear down the temple. You feel disappointed as they did when you don’t know why things happen as they do.
You also cry out for mercy. In the midst of trials, you might find your heart as rocky soil. Though the tree grew up rather quickly, unless deep roots are planted, it will wither and die in the hot sun of opposition or suffering.
Or you make choices that lead to suffering like Israel’s fashioning and looking to false gods.
They didn’t know that God was in the process of making each of his people a temple, that his kingdom would be within each one. They turn from looking at their loss and remember who God is. He answers their disloyalty with his faithfulness.
There is comfort when you don’t know the way through but you know who does. A friend going through a life threatening illness responded this way to that news: “It’s in the Lord’s hands.”
Though this friend has forgotten much he remembers the Lord. Deep roots are planted as he credits the Lord for knowing how to take care of him best. He is content, at peace, and loves greatly.
Deep roots are planted as weak faith becomes strong like muscles break down before they are built up. “Increase our faith!”
Over time, your arms get used to holding your shield and your sword with the Lord’s strength. You fight the enemy’s onslaught of doubt and discouragement as the Lord Jesus carries you.
Deep roots are planted as confidence develops that turns your priority from other loves who you can see, to love for God who you can’t see but who is with you. He is closer than your own thoughts.
Your desires change as your love for the triune God only becomes stronger. Deep roots are planted that solidify right thoughts of him in your mind and persuade you of his faithful presence as you sing.
You bloom where he has planted you. If he uproots you, you blossom where he replants you.
He carries you through each misunderstanding and each opposition even strengthening your love for those who misunderstand and oppose you.
And as he uses wrong to bring about right, your awe and your admiration for the Lord goes through the roof. Once you know him, you can never turn back from loving him.
He puts faithfulness into you. You are careful to credit him for it realizing it did not come from your goodness but his.
You ask along with many who came before, “How long, Lord?” Even still, you hold fast to his covenant promises. You remember that he keeps both ends of the covenant – his and yours.
Therefore you cling to those promises even when it looks and feels like he has forgotten you.
Friend, can you take in what good news this is? Do you perceive that even in the face of things that are frightening, you no longer have anything to fear neither within you nor outside of you, that you can rest in him at all times?
Though you can’t see it, he is working salvation in you. The process: he has saved you, he is saving you, and he will save you. You can’t see what’s around the corner but you know who can. “It’s in the Lord’s hands.” Deep roots are planted.
You who trust Jesus, because of his great mercy, get to take on his righteousness and are then considered righteous by God, righteous by faith in Jesus.
He helps the righteous transcend (not deny) their feelings, take every thought captive, and live by faith in Jesus even through the tears as he remembers, stores, and records each one.
Singing Psalm 74 deep roots are planted beyond circumstances
The triune God does many amazing things that are quite distinct, one from another. Singing Psalm 74 can be a jumping board for you to consider as Job did the spectrum of even just a few of his creative works:
The wind blows from mild to hurricane strength.
He brings heat and cold, rain and snow.
The moon waxes and wanes; the ocean tides ebb and flow.
Dark gives way to dawn, light recedes to dusk and then to dark again.
Felines range from small and cuddly to large and ferocious.
He makes mankind in various hues ranging from light beige to dark brown, none pure black or white.
The sky, animals, and plants display his use of unlimited size, shape, and color palettes.
He brings about health and sickness, riches and poverty, feast and famine, life and death.
He gives you friends and family, and he gets you alone.
He brings harmony and discord, order and chaos, peace and violence, joy and sorrow.
These things God does, we can see and ought to attribute to the work of his hand. The timing of his providential work, we can’t see except we might be able to perceive it in hindsight.
Friend, no matter what your outward circumstances look like, would you consider who he is from all he says and does? As you ponder his wonder, it is fitting to sing his praises every day, several times a day, every opportunity you get.
You whisper, “I am yours, save me” from your heart. It is your meaningful moment-by-moment meditation as you continually learn what it means to walk humbly with your God through the joys, tests, and sufferings he brings your way.
You know by faith that God will bring about mercy and justice at the right time. He makes you willing to endure whatever suffering he brings. Will your suffering always be? Deep roots are planted in knowing that it will end.
The suffering will not last forever but somehow readies you for the home that God is making with you that will last, and delight you, forever.
With your eyes fixed on Jesus and your arms holding tightly onto him, deep roots are planted, and everything changes. What felt like right side up was upside down. What felt like upside down is now correctly perceived as right side up.
You are undaunted and unmoved through the times when darkness seems to prevail. Deep roots are planted by the Lord Jesus that shore you up to patiently and eagerly wait for rescue from relying on anything or anyone else.
Your trust and hope in him are not disappointed. When the time is right, he will not delay.
“…with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus…” ~ Philippians 4
“O bring to mind the covenant;
See how the land grows dark,
Filled with the dens of violence.
Let not the meek be shamed,
But let them praise Your name.“ ~ Psalm 74:20-21
September 24-30, 2022
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Heart ♥️ reflection
March 15, 2025
“…See that you are not alarmed…” ~ Matthew 24:6
“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” ~ Luke 21:28
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” ~ Matthew 24:35
Question: Has the devil been hiding out in my emotions making them front and center and deafening the ears of my heart so as not to hear and trust Jesus who is the Word of God?
Heart reflection: Jesus has total trust in his Father. The Father knowing something that he doesn’t was no cause for alarm in Jesus and should be no cause for alarm in you. The love and unity among God who is the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, are unbreakable. Jesus tells you to be anxious for nothing because he is saving you who are broken by planting roots so deep to graft you into this unbreakable, unshakable, irresistible bond of friendship. You can stand firm with total confidence in every word of God. He has fulfilled, is fulfilling, and will fulfill every promise that he has ever spoken. Not one word will return to the Lord void. In the face of every spiritual force of evil that rises up to hijack your emotions, God will complete every good work that he began in you.
“O bring to mind the covenant;
See how the land grows dark,
Filled with the dens of violence.
Let not the meek be shamed,
But let them praise Your name.“ ~ Psalm 74:20-21
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The Psalms—Q&A
“How long, O God, will foes insult
And always scorn Your name?” ~ Psalm 74:10
How does the Lord Jesus leading me to sing Psalm 74 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
What does it look like to have deep roots with God?
An established uprooted transplant. The Lord plants good seeds while you are unaware or sleeping that overtake the weeds. You seek God until you find him. You desire nothing more than to know the depths of his heart on every issue. Once you know it, you are abundantly thankful, determined to honor God as your authority thus honoring his name. You relinquish control (uproot) as your life now belongs (transplant) to the one you forever follow, God the Son, the Lord Jesus (establishment). This looks like a restful transformation of growth in expert hands of the redeeming Gardner. Instead of a life of pride giving way to anger, Jesus gifts you with a life of humility that lends itself to joy.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” ~ Colossians 2:6-7
“Why do you hold back your hand?
Reach forward with your right hand
To end and and to destroy!” ~ Psalm 74:11
Jesus, who answered in mercy and now sits at the right hand of the Father, proves the Father did not hold back anything but destroyed our sins and put them to an end in the death of death with the death of his precious son.
But is a half transplant possible?
Did Jesus go halfway to the cross? Any attempt to do this halfway angers God because it will destroy us. We won’t be able to be in a covenant relationship with a whole heart if we are divided in our allegiance.
“God, why forever cast us off?
Why does your anger burn
Against the flock of your own field?
Recall your gathered ones
You purchased long ago.” ~ Psalm 74:1
God will only cast out forever those who already cast themselves out by refusing to come to Jesus as we are, without masks. Would that we would never hear Jesus say as he will to those who wouldn’t do the only necessary work of learning to believe in him, “Away from me, I never knew you,” but rather trust him that you will hear from his lips, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” How countercultural, and from a worldly perspective counterintuitive, to be eager to cut off the source of one’s own sin yet to be long suffering, willing to forgive the sins of others.* This is what transformation looks like when Jesus transplants and establishes you with deep roots in him.
“Yet God my King brings forth of old
Salvation in the earth.” ~ Psalm 74:12
Ask Mary Magdalene who clung to Jesus: How did having to wait for God’s deliverance teach you to trust him?
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
August 28, 2026
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