Psalm 28

I can relate to the emotions of this psalm, but I must admit that I have a very difficult time with the message.

I have always struggled with a God who actively punishes. To me, being ignorant of God's love and living in our own messy sin is punishment...I've never understood why our faith needs to believe God actively punishes. (Yes, this means that I have a very difficult time with the concept of a traditional "Hell" - I could write you a treatise or two on my theology there...it has passed many seminary and church leader tests, but Marcus thinks I'm a complete heretic.)

So much of this Psalm is set up as a ME v. THEM situation....which seems to run contrary to God. We are all created by God and for God. I don't believe God would actively tear them down and refuse to build them up again (v. 5).

It's a human psalm, and I get the human cry behind it on a very visceral level. But it's the cry that I hear in our political life all the time that I try to shout out against. It is too easy to villify "THEM" - and pitting God against "THEM" as well seems a very dangerous thing to do.