December 16
Reading: Psalm 44
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 O God, we have heard with our ears,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old:
2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,
but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
but them you set free;
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face,
for you delighted in them.
4 You are my King, O God;
ordain salvation for Jacob!
5 Through you we push down our foes;
through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our foes
and have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to your name forever.
Selah
9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have made us turn back from the foe,
and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You have sold your people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face
16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
26 Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
Psalm 44 is another Maskil written by the Sons of Korah. A Maskil is a contemplative or a teaching poem. It is designed to make people think and then to learn lessons about God or about faith in God. This psalm certainly does that.
In the Old Testament prophets we learn a tight connection between disobedience and judgment and rejection from God. The people of Israel suffer because they disobey the Lord. But this psalm teaches something quite different and then concludes with a prayer, a request. It gives no answers.
The first eight verses are a declaration of faith and obedience to God. The psalmist looks back and sees the faithfulness of God and names the Lord as King, Savior, and our constant boast. The psalmist is faithfully trusting in Yahweh.
After a pause to think, verse 9 abruptly brings us to the force of the problem in the present, “But You have rejected and disgraced us.” Verses 9-16 make it plain just how painful it is when God seems to not be doing in the present what He has promised to do from the past. If somehow God, or us, has missed the point, verses 17-19 make it even more clear. It is as if the psalmist is saying, “Lord, we do not deserve Your rejection.”
Verses 20-21 insist that if we were sinning, wouldn’t God have showed us? Then verse 22 reiterates the complaint appropriately quoted in Romans 8:36. As if to answer the complaint in this psalm, Paul is pointing out that, even when the faithful followers of Jesus are killed, death is not the victor. Jesus is. “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37) The love of Jesus is the answer to the prayer of Psalm 44:23-26 where God, who seems to be asleep, is asked to get up, rise up, and help us; to “redeem us for the sake of Your steadfast love.”
Like the psalmist, do you ever wonder why you are suffering when you are following Jesus?
Sometimes we suffer when we are faithfully seeking and obeying God. We suffer because we live in a world at war with God. God is not punishing us. He is teaching us to trust Him. Our suffering becomes a badge of honor, evidence of God’s love, and God wants us to come to Him in desperate prayer.