Why Is God Angry?

Restore us,O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!

O Lord God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
  You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.

Psalm 80:3-6

 I have been reading through the Bible this year, and recently I have been reading about Moses and his visit with the God of hosts, who caused his face to shine with His glory.  It was so radiant that the Israelites did not even want to look at him.  I don't know for sure, but I suspect that their sinfulness was good enough reason not to look at God's glory in the face of one who had been with Him.

I wonder also if Asaph had forgotten at this point just why God was angry with the people's prayers, why He fed the with the bread of tears and made them an object of contention for their neighbors.  Why did their enemies laugh at them?  

God's promise to Israel was that if they obeyed Him, then He would deliver them from their enemies and give them as an everlasting possession the land flowing with milk and honey .  But what rotten people they were!  They couldn't even get out of the wilderness before they began to worship a golden calf.  No wonder God was angry!  Good thing we don't do those things.........hmmm.

Our nation is in dire need of prayer, but even more in need of repentance--from the unbelieving, unregenerate lost to the church itself.  The church is weak and sinful, and "Christians" are much like the rest of the world in their actions and their responses, just as Israel was.  Where do we draw the line; where do we take a stand?  It's time for true Christ-followers to live as though we have been redeemed from the world system, not to blend in so well that the rest of the world laughs at the word "Christian."  Perhaps we should call ourselves followers of Christ--unless we want to continue to act like the rest of the world.

I want to erase all of this and write something sweet, but this is where God has convicted me.  I want His face to shine on me, and on the rest of Christendom.  Until we repent, that isn't going to happen.

Praying for myself and all who call themselves Christian,

Gloria