The Story of Haman

It may appear that wicked people are getting away with evil, while good people are getting trampled by hardships. We live in a time where injustice runs rampant. Romans 1:28-32 says it describes it best, “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

As frustrating as it can be for us to see this disconnect, we must remember that God’s mercy is greater than His wrath. In times of frustration, we can easily become tired and weary, and thus forget who our God is. This is why I turn to the Psalms. Worship is the way through this season of Purim. The book of Esther reminds us that we reap what we sow. The wicked will hang themselves upon their own gallows. And those who live right before the Lord will prosper.

God is not absent, but so close and present with us. He is setting up His people for an awakening that the earth has been longing for. There is a Haman spirit in the earth, an anti-Christ spirit, who has planned to wipe out God’s people. Even non-believers can see it because their plans are being revealed to all of us. And we can get obsessed with looking at Satan’s plans and going into a battle that God never ordained. We can get caught up in conspiracies, filled with fear, and miss what God is up to. But, friends, this is not for us. We are people of a different spirit! The Holy Spirit rests upon us, and He compels us to look God in the face and give Him all of our attention.

Psalm 90 is a song that draws us towards the throne room. It is known as a Psalm of Moses, and the title of it reads: God, the Eternal. We are going to take a journey through the last seven verses, and pray this Psalm over our homes, cities, states, and nations.

Verse 11

Lord, who fully knows the power of your passion and the intensity of your emotions?

We have been made in His image. Like us, God is filled with emotions. But God moves through His emotions and does not sin. We could learn a lot about how to manage our emotions by reading the Psalms. If you want information on how to better manage your emotions with God’s help, click this link.

In scripture, we see that God is compassionate towards humankind. It takes a lot for Him to pour out wrath. His mercy and love drive His actions, and He is slow to anger. However, just because He is slow to get angry does not mean that He never gets mad. And we must remember what He gets mad at. His anger is towards sin and disobedience. He loves people so much that He sent His own son to die in our place. Jesus Christ offered Himself on the altar of the cross, much like Isaac laid upon the altar his father Abraham had built. Jesus displayed the passion of God towards us, and we need to remember that in these times of darkness. God’s mercy triumphs over judgement. And judgement is reserved for those who reject God, those who partner with an anti-Christ spirit.

Verse 12

Help us to remember that our days are numbered, and help us to interpret our lives correctly. Set your wisdom deeply in our hearts so that we may accept your correction.

Time is fleeting, and nothing reminds us more of this fact than going to a funeral. For the believer, we have a hope of eternal life, and so death becomes just a door back to God. When we recognize that we are living on borrowed time, we act differently. Esther, for example, had limited time to act when Mordecai told her about the plot of Haman to kill all the Jews. She decided that she would spend her time seeking the Lord through prayer and fasting.

There is something that shifts within us when we say no to food, and yes to seeking God. Jesus told us that, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” This means that we cannot truly live in the fullness that Jesus provided unless we saturate ourselves in the Word. And for us, it isn’t just the scriptures, for we also need the spoken Word of God- the Holy Spirit.

The wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit is that He helps us discern between our will and God’s will. He guides us into truth, and He corrects us when we are going off the path of righteousness. The only way that we can accept His correction is if we humble ourselves before Him and invite Him to change our hearts and our minds. We need to do this daily, for this is a season to humble yourself before Him. A heart that surrenders to the Holy Spirit will be filled. We need a new wineskin before He can give us new wine.

Verse 13

Return to us again, O God! How much longer will it take until you show us your abundant compassion?

This verse is an example of moving through repentance. When we acknowledge the Lord and admit our shortcomings, asking Him to transform our hearts, we are returning to Him. We move into alignment when we decide to go His way instead of our own. This is such an important part of our relationship with Him and developing intimacy.

This Psalm is clearly demonstrating boldness before the throne of God. We need to have that sense of being a son or a daughter when we approach our Father God in prayer. It isn’t out of order for us to call upon Him in this way and ask when He will show us His compassion. This is honesty before God, or something we call vulnerability. You cannot become close with someone that you refuse to be vulnerable with. So, if this is an area of prayer that you are nervous about, I would encourage you to ask God to reveal to you who He is as your Abba Father. When you get a realization of Him as Abba Father, you can run boldly to the throne of grace in your time of need!

Verse 14

Let the sunrise of you love end our dark night. Break through our clouded dawn again! Only you can satisfy our hearts, filling us with songs of joy to the end of our days.

In verse 14, we see some symbols for the time we are living in. I think we can all agree that we are living in dark times on earth. And maybe for some of you, you are going through a dark time of the soul, a valley of the shadow of death. It is in these times that the enemy tries to confuse us, and make us believe that God has abandoned us, and that we should just give up.

As sons and daughters, we must remember that while there may be hardships, there is always hope. When you wait a long time for something to change, it can make your heart sick. It is in those times of waiting that we need to develop a strategy to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We do this by reminding our soul of who He is, and what He says. This verse is a wilderness verse, one that we can rehearse when we are in trouble of loosing our hope.

Verse 15

We’ve been overwhelmed with grief; come now and overwhelm us with gladness. Replace our years of trouble with decades of delight.

Jesus did not come to steal, kill, or destroy. Jesus came to give us life, and that is what we are crying out for! Only God can heal our sick hearts. Only God can exchange our grief for joy, and our heaviness for praise. We stir up the joy within us by rejoicing in our salvation. In this verse of Psalm 90, Moses is reminded himself of God’s goodness. We need to do this in our own lives, and remember that our God never changes!

Verse 16

Let us see your miracles again, and let the rising generation see the glorious wonders you’re famous for.

The word testimony means “do it again.” God taught Israel to remind themselves of the miracles He did for them by designing the appointed times/feasts. Passover was designed to remind Israel that God saved them from slavery and death. Pentecost was designed to remind the Israelites of when He made a covenant with them. Today, we need to remind ourselves of the salvation through Jesus and the new covenant we have with God because of the cross. If we neglect to remember, we will forget God’s ways, and forget His calling on our lives.

We must never forget to remember what God did for Israel, and what He has done for us personally. There is such strength built in us when we set aside time to remember the miracles of God. It causes us to believe that He can do it again. One of the best sermons I’ve ever heard on this subject came from Dutch Sheets. We owe the rising generation a life of pursuing the acknowledgement of God and His mighty power to save! He is still a God of miracles, and His power is limitless.

Verse 17

O Lord our God, let your sweet beauty rest upon us and give us favor. Come work with us, and then our works will endure, and give us success in all we do.

This Psalm comes to an end, but our prayers never finish. We must learn how to include the Lord in our daily life, continuing and building on the last conversation with Him. Moses closes this song with an outstanding conclusion. He invites the Lord to rest upon us and give us favor. It sounds similar to the prayer of Jabez and is a powerful appeal to the Lord. The last sentence summarizes our partnership with God, while also encapsulating the book of Esther. It was God who was working behind the scenes in that story, but it was humans that put their faith in action, to the point of endangering their own life. Can we say the same is true for us? Will we partner with God in this hour? Will we humble ourselves before Him and stand up to this anti-Christ spirit that is working behind people to destroy the next generation?

My prayer is that God would have your YES in this season! Would you join me in praying this beautiful Psalm this week? Our world desperately needs Mordecai’s and Esther’s to arise and shine in the darkness!