Can God Protect What Is His?

Reflections for this date are based on the following scripture passages:

Psalms 74

Psalms 74 provides a picture of God's work in the life of individual believers through His relationship with Israel. Israel was/is His covenant people. A covenant which He has promised to remember forever. But Israel had not been faithful to the covenant, turning from God to other gods. Finally God acted, bringing judgment on Israel.

This psalm tells of an enemy, possibly Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, invading Israel and destroying the temple. The questions and petitions of the psalmist to God are not what we might expect. Rather than questioning why God was doing this to Israel as if it were an affront to the people, he reminded God that they were His people who He had "redeemed as the tribe for Your own possession." (74:2) The affront was to God, said the psalmist, and his questions concerned whether or not God would allow His name to be mocked as if He could not protect His own people. He recalled God's might saying, "The day is Yours, also the night; You established the moon and the sun. You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made summer and winter." (74:16-17) Was the God who had established the moon and the sun going to allow this enemy to mock Him so?

Then the psalmist called on God to "Arise, God, defend Your cause! Remember the insults that fools bring against You all day long. Do not forget the clamor of Your adversaries, the tumult of Your opponents that goes up constantly." (74:22-23) In the end, the battle was not Israel's but God's, even though Israel had been unfaithful to the covenant. The covenant was still in affect, Israel was still God's people and so it was God's possession that was at stake along with His reputation.

Under Christ the question is often raised whether a person's salvation can be lost. This psalm, I believe, helps to provide an answer to this question, the answer being, "No, a person's salvation cannot be lost once gained." In Paul's letter to the Corinthian Christians he reminded them, "You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body." (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20) As Israel was purchased by God, so those who have received Christ have been bought with His blood. We are His possession which He will not allow to be lost. It is His cause and His reputation at stake. Can He not keep what He has purchased?

The real question is not whether a person's salvation can be lost, but whether it has been gained in the first place?