When my attitude about the church gets really bad here is what I do.

Psalm 106 (read the Psalm before reading this devotional)

Of late I have been in an ill temper, sort of a faith frustration that is the result of working with many churches across denominational lines in American Christianity.  The bottom line is the news from the American church is not very good.  If you read about the situation of the American church you know the news of which I speak.  Almost all the measurables of the Christian faith are down, declining and have every indication of continuing to do so.  I have been looking for the bright spot in American Christianity, but other than a few glimmers here and there, haven’t found much about which to be positive.  Then I found the hopeful picture, that glimmer that said, “Maybe the church in American will not go the way of the church in northern and western Europe.”  That moment of hopefulness wasn’t here and now, but in the distant past and in the wilderness.

Psalm 106 retells the history of the Exodus, but from a specific perspective and to make a specific point.  The Exodus seems the very symbol or icon of Israel’s life.  It also gives us a picture too often of ourselves.  The history of Israel is a repeating cycle of God’s grace and intervention, Israel’s deliverance and rebellion, Israel’s falling and God’s rescue.  The cycle is summed up in the description of vs. 13-15.  Six phases or stages are clear in each of the lines of those three verses. 

What is truly wonderful in this Psalm is the determination and persistence of God’s mercy and grace.  Time and again Israel in its rebellion rushes head long toward destruction only to have God, for reasons that seem so small, bring about rescue.  Here is the point, God is looking for any reason, any excuse (if you will) to rescue His people.  Rather than a picture of an angry, wrathful God the picture is of the judge who wants to find a technicality to release or forgive.  Sometimes that reason is nothing more than, “We made ourselves miserable.” 

As disciples we need to recall that if God was so gracious to a people bound to Him by the covenant of circumcision, how much more is He bound to us by the covenant of the blood of His son.  The church is deeply flawed (always has been) and is in many cases rushing head long away from God.  She seems to be bent on prostituting herself for trifles.  It would be easy to imagine that God is readying His wrath and He may be.  But His history proves something more.  God is eager to forgive and bless; all He is waiting for is perhaps the smallest sign that we realize this whole thing is not about us, but about Him.