Psalm 44

Sermon Discussion Questions:

1. Read Psalm 44:1-8. How does the psalmist knowledge of God's acts in the past both help and frustrate him? (You can see his frustration starting in vs. 9)
2. Read Psalm 44:9-16. How does the psalmist refuse to "take the easy way out" here? How does maintaining his faith in God's existence and sovereignty make the psalmist's experience of tragedy more painful?
3. Read Psalm 44:17-22. Why are God's people suffering here? How does Paul use vs. 22 in Romans 8:36?
4. Read Psalm 44:23-26. Is it appropriate for Christians to talk to God like this? Where do you see the psalmist still exercising faith here?

 

Have any of you ever felt the embarrassment of being caught misusing a word? When I first

moved to the US from the Philippines back in 2011, I would sometimes use words or

expressions without realizing that American English is different from Filipino English. So,

for example, while I was on a road trip with some friends, I once made the mistake of asking

them if we could “pass by” a McDonalds. Now, in the Philippines, that would be a

completely normal thing to say because to “pass by” in the Philippines means to take a

quick stop on the way to someplace else. So, to “pass by” a McDonalds would mean to

either go through the drive-through or to quickly stop, pick up some food, and continue on

our way. But unfortunately for me, that is not what that expression means in America. My

friends later explained that to “pass by” in American English literally means to go past

something or to proceed past something. So, when I asked to “pass by” a McDonalds, I

inadvertently made myself sound like the world’s strangest tourist, just dying to catch a

glimpse of the golden arches as we drove down the highway! My use of the expression “pass

by” may have made sense within a Philippine context, but it certainly made no sense within

an American context.

Now, I bring this up because a similar thing takes place within the realm of the Christian

faith. What do I mean by this? What I mean is that people often use certain terms or

phrases that are a part of the Christian lexicon, but they use them in ways that are

completely foreign to the Christian understanding of those terms. And perhaps the most

prominent example of this is found in the way that people use the expression “the love of

God.”

The truth is, many people speak about “the love of God” in ways that might make sense in

an American context, but that make no sense within the context of a Christian worldview.

Many people, including some Christians, talk about the love of God in ways that are

completely foreign to the biblical description of that concept. For example, many today

claim that God’s love means that God does not and cannot find fault with a person’s sexual

preferences or a person’s self-identity. Others say that the love of God is universal, and so it

must lead to universalism, which is the idea that all people will ultimately be saved

irrespective of what they believe and how they have lived. And many people, even many

2evangelicals, believe that the love of God will, or, at the very least, should ensure that things

go well for us in this life, especially if we have been faithful to Him. Friends, while each of

these conceptions of God’s love is woefully incorrect, it is this last idea in particular that

runs afoul of the psalm we will be considering this morning.

In Psalm 44, the psalmist complains that God has caused him and his community to suffer

defeat under the hands of their enemies. He complains that God has so humiliated Israel

that their reputation has become a joke among the nations that surround them. And,

according to the psalmist, what was most painful of all was that these hardships had come

upon Israel despite their faithfulness to God. And yet, even as he feels abandoned and

unjustly treated by God, the psalmist continues to appeal to the love of God as his only

hope for deliverance.

Friends, I have one main point for us this morning, and it is this:

The love of God will not always keep us from suffering, but it will always give us

strength to overcome suffering.

Our psalm can be divided into four sections, and we will explore each section in turn. The

first section runs from vv. 1–8 and can be titled:

Hope Kindled: God’s Saving Works in Times Past [Ps 44:1-8]

The psalm opens in verses 1-3:

Psa. 44:1 ¶ Psa. 44:2 Psa. 44:3 O God, we have heard with our ears,

dour fathers have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

ein the days of old:

you with your own hand fdrove out the nations,

but gthem you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

but hthem you set free;

for not iby their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm save them,

but your right hand and your arm,

and jthe light of your face,

kfor you delighted in them.

The psalmist begins on a seemingly positive note. He recalls the stories of God’s great acts

of salvation on behalf of Israel which have been handed down for generations. In particular,

he thinks about Israel’s conquest of the land of Canaan, when God gave Israel the victory

over seven nations more powerful and more numerous than them. The psalmist looks back

at these events and views them as evidence of God’s great power and grace.

3Now, it is important that we recognize that these events did not have to be interpreted that

way. It was not a given that Israel or the psalmist would have understood the conquest as

evidence of the greatness of God. Instead, one can easily imagine how the conquest could

have been viewed as evidence of the greatness of Israel. “We destroyed seven of the most

powerful nations in the region all at the same time?! Man, aren’t we awesome?!” I mean,

guys, imagine for a second that you found yourself in a fight with seven men, each one

bigger than yourself, and you somehow wiped the floor with all of them—how many of you

would leave that experience feeling pretty good about yourself? After all, isn’t it true that we

are all experts at misinterpreting our victories as signs of our superiority rather than as

evidence of God’s sovereignty and grace?

And yet, when the psalmist looks back at what should have been Israel’s most proud

achievement, he views it not as a sign of Israel’s greatness, but rather as a sign of God’s

greatness. He acknowledges as much in verses 2-3:

Psa. 44:2 Psa. 44:3 you with your own hand fdrove out the nations,

but gthem you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

but hthem you set free;

for not iby their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm save them,

but your right hand and your arm,

and jthe light of your face,

kfor you delighted in them.

Given the human propensity for self-aggrandizement, how was it that the psalmist came to

view the conquest the way that he did? Well, he tells us in verse 1:

Psa. 44:1 ¶ O God, we have heard with our ears,

dour fathers have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

ein the days of old:

In other words, the psalmist interpreted the conquest the way he did because he had been

taught the true meaning of these events. In particular, the psalmist he had been taught the

testimony of the Scriptures. His view of the conquest was likely shaped by texts like Deut 9,

which reads in part,

Deut. 9:4 ¶ c“Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before

you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’

whereas it is dbecause of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out

before you.

4Deut. 9:5 eNot because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in

to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is

driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm fthe word that the LORD swore

to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Deut. 9:6 ¶ “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to

possess because of your righteousness, for you are ga stubborn people.

Moreover, the psalmist knew by heart the stories recorded in the book of Joshua. He was

familiar with the fall of Jericho and he knew that it was God who made the walls of the great

city crumble before Israel; he knew the story of how God made the sun stand still in the sky

over Gibeon so that Israel’s armies could completely destroy the Amorites. He knew the

story of Israel’s defeat at Ai, when God humiliated Israel at the hands of a small, weak, and

contemptible army because his people had broken faith with him. In other words, the

psalmist had gained a biblical perspective of the conquest, and because of that, he knew that

the only appropriate response to Israel’s victory was to boast in God.

Friends, while this is certainly not the main point of the psalm, I do believe there are two

important lessons we can learn from these verses. First, as Paul so helpfully tells us in 2

Corinthians 10,

2Cor. 10:17 “Let kthe one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Our victories are never ultimately owing to our own strength or our own intellect or even

our own will. While we certainly should not diminish our own agency and responsibility, we

should always remember that there is nothing that we have that has not been given to us.

And if we have done anything that is truly worthwhile, we have done so only through the

strength that God has supplied.

Second, we need biblical teaching if we are to gain God’s perspective on things. We need

biblical teaching if we are to gain God’s perspective on things. Friends, everyone has a

perspective on pretty much everything. If you ask just any random person what they think

about God, Jesus, the universe, the meaning of life, they will likely have some perspective on

these things. But the only way to gain access to God’s perspective of things is through the

Scriptures. So, just as the psalmist learned God’s perspective of the conquest through being

taught the Scriptures, we too will need to be taught the Scriptures if we are to view the

world rightly. If we want to have God’s perspective on such matters as who God is, who

Jesus is, what the world is, what the meaning of our life ought to be, and so on and so forth,

we will only learn these through devoting ourselves to the teachings of the Scriptures.

Now, the psalmist recalls the conquest not simply to meditate upon God’s greatness.

Instead, he desired for God to do a similar work in his own time. So he says in verse 4,

Psa. 44:4 ¶ You are my King, O God;

5ordain salvation for Jacob!

Here, we see it intimated for the first time that the psalmist and his community are in need

of deliverance. Specifically, they need God’s help to defeat their enemies again just as Israel

once defeated the seven nations through God’s help. The psalmist confesses his fealty to

God and he petitions his king to ordain the salvation of his people. Moreover, the psalmist

understood both from Scripture and from experience that this was well within God’s ability.

So, he says,

Psa. 44:5 Psa. 44:6 Psa. 44:7 Psa. 44:8 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 forever. Selah

Here, we see that, in addition to being taught this perspective, the psalmist also knows from

experience that when the LORD of hosts comes to help his people, victory is guaranteed.

After all, God is all-powerful and he is sovereign over all things. As such, the psalmist

understood that no force on earth could overcome Israel if God was on their side.

All of this then seems to provide reason for hope. After all, since God has delivered Israel in

times past and since the nation was depending upon him in the present, we might assume

that deliverance would come in short order. In fact, if we hadn’t already read the rest of the

text, some of us would probably assume that Ps 44 was written as a hymn of praise. But as

we will quickly see, such is not the case. On the contrary, the psalmist’s reflections on God’s

past acts of deliverance only made the present devastation all the more disorienting. God’s

grace in times past only served to intensify the pain of God’s seeming indifference in the

present. This is the focus of our next section in vv. 9–16. Here, we see…

Hope Dashed: God’s Seeming Indifference in the Present (Ps 44:9–16)

The psalmist says,

Psa. 44:9 ¶ Psa. 44:10 Psa. 44:11 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.

6Psa. 44:12 Psa. 44:13 Psa. 44:14 Psa. 44:15 Psa. 44:16 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.

The contrast between these first two sections could not be more stark. The hope engendered

by God’s acts in the past has now been shattered by the experience of the present. Though

God saved his people before, Israel has now been subjected to a humiliating defeat. Their

armies have been massacred by their enemies. Their people have been sold as slaves to the

nations around them. Their reputation has been ruined so that they are viewed with disdain

by all those around them. The celebration of God’s past deliverance has been replaced by

the experience of utter humiliation in the present. You can almost hear the psalmist ask in

frustration: O God, if you were willing to deliver your people before, why not now? You

saved our fathers in the past, why not us? You acted on our behalf before, why not again?

But notice that, even in the midst of his pain and confusion, the psalmist refuses to take the

easy way out. What do I mean? Even in the midst of his anguish, he refuses to deny the

existence of God and he refuses to deny that God is in control. He refuses to deny the

existence of God and he refuses to deny that God is in control.

Notice what he says repeatedly: You have rejected and disgraced us, You have made us turn

back from the foe, You have made us like sheep to be slaughtered, You have made us a

laughingstock among the peoples. Who is the “You” in these verses? Clearly it is God. It is

the same God who acted on behalf of Israel in the past, the same God whom the psalmist

praised as King, the same God in whom Israel had boasted continually. The psalmist here

declares that this same God is alive and well, and that He is still at work in the world; only

now, inexplicably, he seems to be working against his people rather than for his people. And

it is this conviction that actually heightens the psalmist’s angst as he processes this national

catastrophe.

Now, I think there is something profound in these verses that we should reflect upon. In our

culture, faith in God is sometimes described as a crutch for weak-minded people. Faith is

derided as something that fragile people cling to in order to cope with the trials of life. As

Karl Marx once famously wrote, religion is the opium of the masses. In other words, faith is

like a hallucinogenic drug that helps us forget the pain of life and that gives us a fabricated

experience of joy and peace.

7While I understand where this perspective comes from, I think it actually gets things

completely backwards. First off, with all due respect to any non-believers in the room, I

think atheism and agnosticism are the real easy ways out. Atheism and agnosticism are the

real opium of the masses. How so? Well, to be blunt, atheism and agnosticism are irrational

beliefs that people often use to numb the pain they experience in life. These are delusions

that people choose for themselves in order to escape the reality that there is someone out

there to whom we are all accountable, that our lives actually have a meaning that has been

defined by someone other than ourselves, and that, rather than being a meaningless feature

of living in an amoral world, human suffering is actually the product of sin and is what

happens in a world that is under the curse of a holy, just, and loving God.

Second, far from numbing the pain, faith in a personal, sovereign God can actually make

our experience of tragedy that much more painful. Just think of the experience of Job: did

his belief in God numb him to the pain of the various tragedies that befell him? I think not.

If anything, his faith seems to have greatly increased his suffering by adding disorientation

and confusion on top of his immense grief. His inability to understand why the God whom

he knew and loved would do this to him only deepened his sense of anguish. And the same

was true for the author of Ps 44 as well. You see, by the end of our psalm, we will be

provided clear evidence of the psalmist’s faith. That is, despite believing that God was

sovereign over his terrible circumstances, he refused to let go of God and he appealed to

God to fulfill his promises for the sake of his covenant love. But did his faith dull the pain of

his experience? It really doesn’t seem like it did.

You see, faith is not something we fabricate because it makes life easier. We do not choose to

believe in God because doing so is therapeutic or convenient. If that is all that faith is to us,

then we have not really understood the nature of true faith. No, true faith is a gift of God

granted through the gospel that produces in us a firm, enduring conviction that God is real,

that he is good, and that he will be faithful to fulfill all his promises. Again, true faith is a

gift of God granted through the gospel that produces in us a firm, enduring conviction that

God is real, that he is good, and that he will be faithful to fulfill all his promises. And the

value of true faith is found not in its therapeutic effects. In other words, faith is not

worthwhile simply because it eases our pains. It does sometimes do that, but as we have

seen with Job and the psalmist, faith does not always have that effect. Instead, while true

faith may or may not provide immediate relief from suffering, what it will always do is keep

us clinging to God even in the midst of the worst trials. True faith will always keep us

clinging to God even in the midst of the worst trials.

Friends, we need to recognize that, in the midst of our pain, the very worst thing we can do

is let go of God. The very worst thing we can do is let go of God. I’m reminded of a scene

that I saw in the trailer of the latest Mission Impossible movie where Tom Cruise is hanging

unto a metal bar on the bottom of a biplane that is in flight. Now, if you’ve ever tried

8gripping a bar and hanging on it for a long time, you will know that eventually, your

forearms will burn and hurt real bad. But, if you ever find yourself hanging on to the

bottom of a plane, guess what? No matter how painful your forearms get, clinging to the

plane is better than letting go. The same thing is true of clinging to God. Even when it hurts

to believe, clinging to God will always be infinitely better than letting go. For God has

promised that those who endure in the faith will experience joys and glories that will far

surpass every form of suffering that can possibly be endured in this life. And here is

precisely where the value of true faith is found. True faith keeps us clinging to God, even

when it hurts. True faith keeps us clinging to God, even when it hurts.

So, friends, if you find yourself in a difficult and painful situation right now, and you are

tempted to let go, I just want to exhort you: do not let go of the plane. Do not let go of the

plane. It might seem easier to do so, but I guarantee you, on the basis of God’s Word,

letting go will only make your situation infinitely worse. Moreover, if you do have genuine

faith in God, then God will give you strength to endure in the faith even when it hurts. So,

brother and sister, endure in the faith. You can do this by the grace of God and you will reap

the reward if you do not give up.

Now, at this point, I think most readers would expect the psalm to bring some resolution to

the theological tension it has raised.

“Give us the happy ending!”—we might be thinking to

ourselves. However, what comes next is not the happy ending we are looking for. In fact, it

turns out that the psalmist was just getting started. The pinnacle of his complaint actually

comes in our next section, which describes…

The Pain of Innocence: Suffering for the Sake of God (Ps 44:17–22)

Here, the psalmist says,

Psa. 44:17 ¶ Psa. 44:18 Psa. 44:19 Psa. 44:20 Psa. 44:21 Psa. 44:22 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 the 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.

9Friends, there are passages in Scripture that are challenging because they are hard to

understand. And there are other passages in Scripture that are challenging because they are

crystal clear. Psalm 44 is an example of the latter rather than the former.

The psalmist here forcefully and repeatedly declares that this catastrophe was not the result

of Israel’s own lack of fidelity. This national tragedy did not come about because Israel broke

the covenant with God. On the contrary, the psalmist claims that Israel had been faithful.

They had not forgotten the Lord. They had not been guilty of worshipping idols. In their

hearts, they had not turned away from the living God. And yet, despite their covenant

faithfulness, they were being killed all the day long, they were being regarded as sheep to be

slaughtered. Moreover, the psalmist says that all this took place “for your sake,” or more

literally, on account of you . Here, the psalmist declares either that Israel was suffering

precisely because they had been loyal to God or that God was the cause of Israel’s suffering.

Either way, the psalmist is quite adamant that God was behind this and that Israel was

innocent.

Friends, do you have room in your theology for this kind of a statement? Do you have room

in your theology God-ordained suffering that is not a punishment for sins?

Now, of course, Christians know that, apart from Jesus, no descendant of Adam is innocent

in an absolute sense. Verses like Rom 3:23 clearly tell us that all have sinned and fall short

of the glory of God. We also know that every sin is deserving of death and eternal

punishment. As Rom 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death. And we know that the Bible

describes God as being absolutely just in all that he does. As Deut 32:4 states, “The Rock,

his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,

just and upright is he.”

These verses and others like them are good and are true. They important in helping us gain

a right perspective on the nature of human suffering. And yet, it is important for us to

understand that this does not exhaust what the Bible has to say about human suffering. The

biblical passages about human depravity, the wages of sin, and God’s absolute justice—

these are crucial pieces of the puzzle, but they are not the only pieces of the puzzle.

After all, these three pieces are not sufficient to explain the message of the book of Job,

whose entire point is to denounce the reductionistic idea that suffering is always a tit-for-tat

penalty for sins committed. These pieces are not sufficient to explain Paul’s claims that his

sufferings were a tool that God was using for the spread of the gospel (Col 1:24; 2 Cor 4:7-

12). These pieces are not sufficient to explain those NT passages that present suffering for

the sake of Christ as a gift of God’s grace (Phil 1:29; cf. Acts 5:41). These pieces are not

sufficient to explain why Jesus says that the blindness of the man born blind was not due to

his sin or the sin of his parents, but was for the display of God’s mighty works (John 9:3).

10And, by themselves, these pieces certainly do not explain the sufferings of the sinless,

righteous one, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Friends, all I mean to say is that suffering is complex. It defies simplistic explanations. And

when suffering comes to us or to others, remembering that all people are sinners, that

sinners deserve death, and that God is just will only get us so far. While these pieces of the

puzzle are essential, and while having some pieces of the puzzle is better than having none,

we would be much better served and would be much better servants if we had a more fully

biblical view of God’s designs for human suffering. And the time for us to develop that view

is right now.

Friends, do not wait until suffering comes to begin thinking about the nature of suffering.

That would be like waiting for the drought to come before you start building up your

reservoirs. No, we ought to build our reservoirs now so that we might be prepared for the

drought that is to come. And while I do not have the time in this sermon to do a deep dive

on a theology of human suffering, I do have some suggestions to help you get started.

1. Devote yourself to the study of the Bible

As I already noted, we need the teachings of Scripture in order to gain God’s perspective on

things. This includes gaining insight into God’s perspective on human suffering, not just so

that we might get our theology straight, but so that we might learn how to respond in God-

honoring ways.

As Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16,

2Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for

correction, and for training in righteousness,

2Tim. 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Friends, when it comes to building our theological reservoirs, there is no substitute for

simply reading the Bible over and over again. If you are not regularly in the Scriptures, you

will not be adequately prepared to respond well in times of suffering. So, please, devote

yourself to the study of the Bible.

2. Learn from faithful Christians who have reflected deeply on the subject

Paul says in Ephesians 4,

Eph. 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Eph. 4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Friends, if we are to be fully equipped to suffer well and to minister to those who are

suffering in our midst, we need to take advantage of the teachers that God has raised up as a

gift to the church. And while I hope you view your elders as teachers who have been gifted

11to this congregation for its edification, God has also raised up teachers throughout church

history who have had an edifying influence on generations of Christians. Of course, not

everyone is called to be an expert on theology. Nevertheless, I think we would all do well to

grow in the discipline of reading good books so that we might be equipped by those

teachers who have had a sanctifying influence on the church at large. If you want some

recommendations, please come talk to Marc or Aaron or any other elders. I am sure they

would have a number of recommendations that they think would serve you well.

3. Be fully committed to living in community with the saints

As part of his encouragement to a community that had suffered persecution for their faith,

the author of Hebrews says,

Heb. 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Heb. 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one

another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Friends, while our theological reservoirs are important, our relational reservoirs are just as

significant for helping us endure the various trials that may come our way. To endure

suffering well, we need faith-filled people who know us and who love us. Yes, we need them

to remind us of the truth, but just as importantly, we also need them to be reminders of the

truth. That is, through their love for us in the most difficult of times, they serve as

demonstrations of that fact that God still loves us and has not abandoned us. But you will

rob yourselves of these relational reservoirs if you do not invest deeply in your fellowship

with one another.

Moreover, in the book of Proverbs, we are told that,

Prov. 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,

but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Friends, there is a kind of wisdom that is better caught than taught. So, we would all do

well to share life and rub elbows with saints who have drunk deeply of the wells of Scripture

and who have learned to navigate suffering with grace.

Finally,

4. Reflect deeply on the cross of Christ

Paul says in Rom 5,

Rom. 5:6 ¶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Rom. 5:7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person

one would dare even to die—

Rom. 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

12Friends, to come to a proper understanding of suffering, we need to reflect deeply on the

cross of Christ because it is here that God demonstrates most fully his ability to work good

through suffering, and because it is here that that God has displayed most clearly his love

for us in Christ Jesus. And, as we are about to see, it is ultimately our confidence in God’s

love that enables us to endure suffering well even when we cannot understand it. This then

leads us to the final section of the psalm.

Wake up! An Appeal for God’s Covenant Love (Ps 44:23–26)

The psalmist closes his psalm in vv. 23-26, which read,

Psa. 44:23 ¶ Psa. 44:24 Psa. 44:25 Psa. 44:26 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!

Now, I think many of us might read these verses and feel uncomfortable with this kind of

prayer. After all, doesn’t it feel disrespectful to address God in this way? Aren’t we taught

that our prayers should express a reverence for God as our heavenly father whose name is

always to be hallowed? I think at this point, it might be helpful to make two comments.

First, it’s important to remember the occasion of the psalm. The psalmist wasn’t praying

this way because he stubbed his toe or because he couldn’t find a parking spot. No, the

psalmist had just seen many of his people butchered in war and he saw many others made

prisoners of war. He had just seen foreign enemies destroy his people’s armies and put the

future of his nation in jeopardy. And all this had come upon them despite their fidelity to

God. It is in this situation, while he is still reeling from the pain and shock of these events,

that the psalmist pens this prayer to the Lord, a prayer that reflects the actual state of his

heart.

Friends, while it is always right for us to address God with humility and reverence, I think

we need to be patient with words spoken directly from a place of suffering. When we are in

the heat of suffering, we can sometimes speak in ways that we normally would not. And I

think we need to be patient with others and with ourselves when this happens. I’m

reminded of what Job tells his so-called friends when they confronted him over the lack of

theological precision in his laments.

Job 6:26 Do you think that you can reprove words,

when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

13I think that this is what is happening in this psalm. The psalmist is crying out to God with

the words of a despairing man. And by virtue of its very inclusion in the book of Psalms, it

would seem that God accepts this prayer. God does not reprove the prayers of despairing

men and women, and so neither should we.

Second, we should recognize the faith that the psalmist actually demonstrates in the midst

of this prayer. Look again at the last verse:

Psa. 44:26 Rise up; come to our help!

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Here is where the psalmist’s faith shines through most clearly. Here is where we see that the

psalmist has not let go of the plane. As painful as his experience has been, the psalmist is

still firmly holding on to what he knows to be true about God. He refuses to concede that

God is not real. He refuses to concede that God is not in control. And most importantly, He

refuses to concede that God is not love. His experience has not led him to conclude that

God’s love has failed. Instead, the psalmist appeals to God for deliverance precisely because

he continues to believe that God is a God of steadfast love.

This then leads me back to my main point:

The love of God will not always keep us from suffering, but it will always give us

strength to overcome suffering.

Saints, in this life, we will face sufferings of many kinds. Our health and our bodies will fail

us. We will experience the deaths of people we love. Some of us will experience

mistreatment at the hands of those who should have loved us most. Some of us will be

betrayed by people we thought were our friends. Some of us will lose our jobs even though

we did nothing to deserve it. All of us will continue to struggle against the flesh, the world,

and the devil. All of us will be reviled by others because of our commitment to Christ. All

sorts of hardships will befall us at one time or another in this life. But are any of these

hardships evidence that God does not love us? Is there any kind of suffering that is proof

that God’s love for his people has run dry? Here what Paul has to say in Rom 8:31-39,

quoting in the process Ps 44:22:

Rom. 8:31 ¶ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also

with him graciously give us all things?

Rom. 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Rom. 8:34 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, who indeed is interceding for us.

Rom. 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or

persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

14Rom. 8:36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Rom. 8:37 ¶ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Rom. 8:38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor

things to come, nor powers,

Rom. 8:39 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.

In these verses, Paul makes at least three things absolutely clear: first, he makes clear that

God loves his people. Second, he makes clear that God’s love will ensure the ultimate

salvation and final victory of his people. And third, he makes clear that God’s people will

suffer in this life. And as he is making these points, he quotes v. 22 of our psalm, which

says,

Psa. 44:22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

Now, why does he do this? Why does he quote Ps 44 in particular? I believe it is because he

knows how the psalm ends: it ends with an appeal for deliverance based on an expression of

faith in God’s covenant love. In other words, Paul quotes Ps 44 because it proves his point

that the love of God does not keep God’s people from suffering, but it does guarantee our

final vindication and it will provide us with the strength we need to suffer well.

Friends, we do not always know why we are suffering or what our suffering means. But if we

are in Christ, the one thing it can never mean is that God does not love us. No, God already

demonstrated his love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God

already demonstrated his love for us in this: that he did not spare his own Son but gave him

up for us all. And if God loved us to such an extent that he would purchase us by the blood

of his own Son, then surely, his love will not fail to keep us, to preserve us, and to vindicate

us, after we have suffered much for his name’s sake.

Remember, God’s love may not keep you from suffering, but it will give you strength to

overcome suffering.

The love of God will not always keep us from suffering,