Self-righteousness, which is the ruin of many people today, is the largest idol ofthe human heart. Our text reveals God’s anger towards His people due to their disobedience. They allowed sin to overtake them, which made the king of Babylon to defeat and to take them into captivity, while Jerusalem was destroyed. Some years later, Cyrus, the king of Persia, defeated Babylon and sent the Jews back to Jerusalem. But shortly after the Jews returned to Jerusalem, things went bad again. There was not much rain, so their crops could not grow, which impacted negatively on their produce and subsequent shortage of food. Also, some enemies attacked them and they could not build the temple of God.

Even though the psalmist believed bod was still angry with them, he acknowledged Him with thankfulness for the great things He had done for them. They called to remembrance past experiences of His goodness. Particularly, God had rescued them out of the hands of their enemies and restored them to their liberty. If He had not continued to be favourable to them, they would have been ruined many a time. The bringing back of their captivity, which was accompanied with the pardon of their iniquity, was an instance of God's favour to them.

Some so-called Christians, with little challenge, easily forget the testimonies of God's favour upon their lives. They run from pillar to post to seek help from even ungodly sources. Some curse God through their behaviour and actions. Repentance and humility are inconsequential to them, while prayer is completely absent in their lives. 

The way out of every challenge is to carefully  wait upon the Lord and engage Him in effectual, fervent prayers.