Why have you rejected us forever, God? Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture? Psalm 74:1 (Williams notes)

Why have you rejected us forever, God?
Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?
-Psalm 74:1

Notes from Don Williams:

-There is a moral order after all,
-And God is to be known in judgement as well as redemption.
-This means that life is no neutral zone where the will of God inoperative.
-Rather, life is a battle zone where the will of God and the will of human beings (and the devil himself) are in continual conflict.
-Thus Israel experiences not God's indifference or her own ambiguity,
-But she feels God's judgement when the roof falls in.
-As Augustine puts it, if we reject God's mercy we are only left with His wrath.
-Commentators identify this psalm as a corporate lament.
-When the roof falls in upon us, we are not to despair and indulge in the nihilism of the age.
-Rather, we are to pray.
-In Jesus we know that beyond God's judgement is His grace.
-Here is our covenant, sealed in the Savior's blood.
-And as God restores His church we too will praise Him.

Don Williams, TCC, 1989, Psalms 73-150.