Psalm 44
Now here we have an honest psalm which should resonate with most everyone. Boice compares it to Romans 8, but I kept thinking about Job as I read it. Here we have a time when it seems like God is sleeping, or not paying any attention. Of course we know that's not true, but we naturally wonder when all seems to be going wrong.
The psalm begins with a recounting of all that God has done for Israel. The first three verses detail the victories of long ago, followed by the recent victories. The psalmist gives God full credit for these victories. Israel knows that it wasn't their own power which allowed them to conquer everyone from the Egyptian captors to the native Canaanites.
But by verse 9, we see a problem. The battles are not going Israel's way. They are being defeated. They are retreating. Other nations are mocking them and their God. And at verse 17 we see that this isn't the typical Israelite defeat. We're so used to God giving them the victory if they are obedient and defeating them when they turn away (which happens quite often). But here the psalmist claims they haven't turned away. And at verse 21 he claims that if they had deserted God, that God would have discovered it -- not just that God would know, but that He would have informed the Israelites in no uncertain terms.
"Awake, O Lord!" is the psalmist's call of verse 23. It seems like God nodded off and in the meantime, Israel was being defeated. It wasn't making sense. It makes no more sense to us today when "bad things happen to good (or God's) people." It would be easy for us if the good always prospered and the evil always failed. But that's not God's way. He rewards the good in ways that we don't always see. Maybe that we don't often see -- especially when viewed from the outside.
The psalm doesn't really provide an answer for what is going on in Israel. That's probably because the psalmist doesn't know what is happening. The situation remains terribly confusing. But the final verse gives us our way through the pain and difficulties. "Redeem us because of Your unfailing love." God's love for us doesn't ever end. He has not forgotten. As Longfellow put it in I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep." His love goes on forever. And that is where our hope lies.
The psalm begins with a recounting of all that God has done for Israel. The first three verses detail the victories of long ago, followed by the recent victories. The psalmist gives God full credit for these victories. Israel knows that it wasn't their own power which allowed them to conquer everyone from the Egyptian captors to the native Canaanites.
But by verse 9, we see a problem. The battles are not going Israel's way. They are being defeated. They are retreating. Other nations are mocking them and their God. And at verse 17 we see that this isn't the typical Israelite defeat. We're so used to God giving them the victory if they are obedient and defeating them when they turn away (which happens quite often). But here the psalmist claims they haven't turned away. And at verse 21 he claims that if they had deserted God, that God would have discovered it -- not just that God would know, but that He would have informed the Israelites in no uncertain terms.
"Awake, O Lord!" is the psalmist's call of verse 23. It seems like God nodded off and in the meantime, Israel was being defeated. It wasn't making sense. It makes no more sense to us today when "bad things happen to good (or God's) people." It would be easy for us if the good always prospered and the evil always failed. But that's not God's way. He rewards the good in ways that we don't always see. Maybe that we don't often see -- especially when viewed from the outside.
The psalm doesn't really provide an answer for what is going on in Israel. That's probably because the psalmist doesn't know what is happening. The situation remains terribly confusing. But the final verse gives us our way through the pain and difficulties. "Redeem us because of Your unfailing love." God's love for us doesn't ever end. He has not forgotten. As Longfellow put it in I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep." His love goes on forever. And that is where our hope lies.
posted by rev-ed @ 10:26 AM
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