Psalm 74

“Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!” (v3).  Seeing the terrible destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple by the Babylonians (587 BC), the psalmist called on the Lord for mercy.  He begged God to “remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt” (v2).  The chosen city, home of God’s altar and the Holy of Holies, had been burnt down by Israel’s enemies, but God had not forgotten the covenant (v20).

God is always “working salvation in the midst of the earth” (v12).  Jesus came in the flesh to the “perpetual ruins” – our world broken by sin – fulfilling the covenant promises, building a new, living Temple, and proclaiming peace to us.