Re:Verse passage – Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 (day three)
“How long will you be angry with the prayer of your people?”
The Psalms brim with praise, joy, gratitude, exhilaration – and sorrow, lament, suffering, anger. The former would ring inattentive at best and smug at worst if not for the latter. (Of course, the latter would ring pessimistic at best and nihilistic at worst if not for the former.) Here, the psalmist utters one of those audacious questions that smolders with discontent. It’s as if the subtitle of the book of Psalms is Putting It All On the Table When There’s Nothing Left to Lose. Questions such as “how long” arise from lives that have no time for niceties or etiquette in prayer. There’s just too much at stake. The audience with God is now, and if God won’t rescue, rescue won’t happen. The Psalms teach tough prayer.
