Good morning. I hope your day is going well. Why don't we stand and sing to the Lord Psalm 44. We're going to have to cut it in half, cut the psalm in half. I wish we could sing all 12 verses, but we'll stop at verse 5 and then I'll try to unpack this a little bit this morning. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.
Amen. To the choir master, a mascal of the sons of Korah. This psalm can be, I think, conveniently broken down into three sections that are pretty explicit in the text itself. Confidence, complaint, and call.
and the light of your face, for you delighted in them. This is, first of all, past confidence, confidence in what God has done in the past, drawing on the stories that God's people had told from generation to generation. You know, the church is always created by the Word, and as we know, this was, it was essential to Israel that... the stories be passed down from generation to generation, the great and mighty acts of the Lord.
And that grounds Israel's confidence in the God who delivers in the past. He surely has in mind stories that we read in the book of Joshua, where God delivered his people without their help, without their aid. It's stressed. throughout the book of Joshua that God delivered Israel. God delivered the enemies of Israel into Israel's hands.
And Psalm 68 recounts that story, that march across the desert where the mighty men slept and the women divided the spoils as God was the warrior king for his people. Very clearly, that confidence is here in the psalmist. Not only is there a past faithfulness to celebrate, but also present faithfulness. You are my king, O God.
Ordain salvation for Jacob. Through you we push down our foes. Through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.
But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name. So God is presently faithful. The psalmist is going to turn a little bit darker here in a moment, but it's important to realize he's not only claiming God's faithfulness in the past, but he is assured of God's faithfulness in the present, even though he doesn't see it at present.
And that's why you have the pregnant Selah. There's a pause there, a pregnant pause, because to this point Psalm 44 would have been a Thanksgiving psalm, but there's a sharp turn to complaint, from confidence to complaint. The complaint also has sort of two parts to it.
The first is a complaint towards God of his inaction, and then a complaint of Israel's innocence. Very much a courtroom scene here. Verse 9, But you have rejected us and disgraced us, and have not gone out with our armies.
You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. You have made us like sheep for slaughter, and have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. Now, some have concluded, especially because he talks about being scattered to the nations, that this is exilic or post-exilic. But there were cases in the reign of the kings where Israelites were... taken into captivity by others.
We think of David in Psalm 60 saying, have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go forth with our armies. So this is very much in the same vein. Furthermore, not only does the psalmist protest God's inaction, but Israel's innocence.
All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way, yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with a shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? for he knows the secrets of the heart.
Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Now, as you know, under the terms of the old covenant, there is a clear relationship between act and consequence. If you do this, this will happen.
If you don't do this, that will happen. And so there is an understandable complaint here that we have not actually gone back on the covenant. Implied here is the question, have you?
And it reminds, I think, one of the things that I find so interesting about this psalm is the protest of innocence. This psalm underscores that God's people, even under the old covenant, could sometimes experience suffering at the hands of unbelievers for their crimes, not for Israel's. They are as sheep to be slaughtered for your namesake.
That's why they are suffering these things. Sometimes the act, consequence, order of things doesn't seem to be in play. And that's what we see here, as we see also in Psalm 73 with Asaph, wondering how it is that the act-consequence thing doesn't seem to be working. The ungodly seem to be getting richer, happier, fatter, while those who trust in the Lord get the short end of the stick.
What's that all about? I thought it was act-consequence. And so Psalm 44, I think, is...
is much like that. Wouldn't God know if we had spread out our arms to an idol? Wouldn't he know if we had turned our backs on the covenant?
He knows everything. He knows all hearts. And so the psalmist really thinks, really believes, that this is a case where God does not have a case against Israel.
For your sake we're being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. And so then thirdly, the call, awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? This is interesting to sing on a Sunday morning.
It's one thing about the psalms, you know, sometimes get a psalm that makes you kind of choke up a little bit as you're singing it. Can I really sing these words? Awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself.
Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly clings to the ground. Rise up, come to our help.
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. And that last line is very important, isn't it? Because the appeal is not to Israel's righteousness, but to God's covenant mercy.
Because as we see in the story of Job, it could be the case that someone is suffering because of their sins. It could be punishment. It could be.
But not always. And in the case of Job, there... He can't think of a particular sin that has the consequence, the grave consequence that he's facing in his life. Maybe he's not suffering for his personal sin. And yet, in this story, Job realizes God could condemn him for his sins anyway because he's unrighteous without a mediator.
And it's similar in this psalm, I think. They cry out to God for mercy. They rely on his covenant mercy rather than on their faithfulness to the covenant.
God redeems his people, but he also allows his people to suffer, not at his hands, always, but often at the hands of unbelievers. Jesus said, what, are you any better than I am? If this is how they treated me, look how they're going to treat you. Don't be surprised. And this is indeed how the Apostle Paul interpreted Psalm 44 directly.
in Romans 8. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not give us with him graciously all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God. indeed is interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors.
through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.