Psalm 74 portrays the experiences of the people of Israel in the most graphic terms. Their enemies had roared against them, had smashed the carved panelling in the temple, burning it to the ground. Everything that gave the people a sense of meaning and place was gone. Perhaps worst of all, they believed this was permitted by God, that his anger smouldered against them as the sheep of his pasture.
Their lives had been severely disrupted. All around them is the rubble of dreams that once were cherished but now lie shattered in the dust. And from that place of suffering and loss they call out to the LORD,
“Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins…” (v.3)
The ruins of the temple; the ruins of their lives. The ruins of humanity under the power of sin - what has been termed ‘noble ruins’. Made for so much, in the image and likeness of God, but devastated, through and through, by sin.
Everlasting ruins. Does that mean there is no hope, that this is the ultimate and unending destiny of what was designed in goodness and with the dignity of nobility? Will the ruins persist as an endless memorial to the victory of sin? Is that what ‘everlasting’ means here?
No, it doesn’t - for which we can be so thankful. Everlasting refers instead to the value and destiny of what is now in ruins. In Israel’s day, the temple and the lives that were framed around it. More broadly, humanity as created by God and for life in him.
What was made to be everlasting lies broken and devastated - and so the prayer, the longing, for the Lord to turn his steps towards those ruins.
“Turn your steps”: come this way. Come and see; turn toward us with pity and compassion. Come and rebuild, come and honour what is in ruins - honour it with life and salvation.
And he did: in the incarnation of his Son. His steps turned towards humanity in sin, lying ruined in the rubble. He did not give a passing glance, observing from a safe distance. He came and shared our humanity - his steps turned towards the darkness, the haunts of shame where we cower in fear. He came that we might be brought into the light - his light, the light of his face - and be delivered from final ruin.
He turned his steps toward us in order to face the monsters of sin and death, of chaos and evil (Leviathan in the psalm). Turned not back from the track of sacrifice, of overwhelming sorrows and anguish, in order to restore the fallen.
The prayer was answered and it is answered still, as we ask him to draw near to, to turn his steps toward, the broken-hearted and those who are crushed in spirit, hopelessly lost and ruined in sin. To come by and to save. To walk alongside us, too, in all our frailties and in the failures that laden our souls with shame.
We cannot rebuild our lives; we cannot re-build our churches; we cannot re-build our national life. These are beyond us - but the one to whom we pray can lay a fresh foundation, can raise individuals and communities into new life, restoring what was ruined. Turn your steps - come to us, O Lord.
He is our King from long ago (v.12) and he will not pass us by.
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Come, O Thou Traveller unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.
I need not tell Thee who I am,
My misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called me by my name;
Look on Thy hands, and read it there:
But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.
In vain Thou strugglest to get free;
I never will unloose my hold!
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold:
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.
Yield to me now; for I am weak,
But confident in self-despair;
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
Be conquered by my instant prayer;
Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if Thy Name is Love.
’Tis Love! ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me!
I hear Thy whisper in my heart;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Pure, universal Love Thou art;
To me, to all, Thy mercies move:
Thy nature and Thy name is Love.
I know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art,
Jesus, the feeble sinner’s Friend;
Nor wilt Thou with the night depart,
But stay and love me to the end;
Thy mercies never shall remove:
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.
(Charles Wesley, 1707-88)
