The Remnant
4 min read
8 Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.
9 Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.
— Psalm 79:8-9
The collective sins of a people lead them into a place of God’s wrath. Turning our backs to God and turning into ourselves and into idolatry becomes an ever-growing movement and then the norm. The movement is away from the blessings of God found in His presence and toward the place of God’s wrath—the place where God allows evil and chaos to roam freely, unhindered by His presence and His hand of grace.
Yet, even in the place of God’s wrath, God reserves a remnant, a beacon of hope for His people and for the world. If God did not reserve a holy remnant, what hope would there be for the world?
The remnant recognize the sins of past generations. The remnant own the sin of past generations for themselves. They do not deny their sin or justify themselves. We are the product of the sin, but we are also the producers of the sin.
Still, there is hope, because God has left a remnant. The remnant know where our only hope lies. Hope lies in God our Savior—in Christ alone.
And the remnant know what matters most to God our Savior—the glory of His name.
A corrupt generation does not get that. A corrupt generation thinks that what matters most to God is ME. To be sure, God loves ME and sent His Son to die for ME. But if ME loves only ME, what room is there for the glory of God in ME?
But is it right for the remnant to appeal to God our Savior on the basis of the glory of His name, when WE have so consistently and diligently and faithfully turned out backs to HIM?
It is right. Because that is where our only hope lies. To that—the glory of His name—the remnant must appeal. The remnant is the church.
Father, with Asaph I pray: “Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.” In Jesus’s name. Amen.
