Psalm 44 The Cry of the Remnant

Photo: Greg K Dueker

Psalm 44 is almost like a microcosm of the entire book of Psalms. It is filled with statements of praise and remembrance, personal testimony, and national salvation history, as well as bitter lament and honesty, giving voice to the painful questions in the people's hearts. In that sense, it is highly relatable for many readers down through history who have known both the blessing of victory and the disgrace of adverse circumstances.

If we know the history of Israel in the Old Testament, we know that the only time that Israel’s armies were defeated in battle was when there was "sin in the camp”. God’s covenant with Israel was clear that if their hearts turned away to follow other gods then discipline would come, at the hands of other nations, to drive them back to the Lord their Deliverer. We see this pattern played out over and over. Eventually, God kept his promise to justly remove them from the land as a consequence of their constant wickedness as a nation.

But what about the faithful individuals who trusted the Lord despite the pressures of an ungodly culture? How did the prophets feel as they had to call an unresponsive nation to repentance? Overwhelmed, exhausted, discouraged, and even confused. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah fled the very real death threats against him from Queen Jezebel and lamented to God that he was the last servant of the Lord in the Northern Kingdom of Israel (19:10,14), but the Lord corrected Elijah’s emotional math. He was not alone,

“Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal…” (19:18).

How encouraging that must have been for Elijah to hear. Many of those 7000 certainly would have been encouraged by the ministry of Elijah.

Psalm 44 powerfully captures the lament of the faithful remnant during a time of great suffering. As such, it is instructive for us when our circumstances don’t seem to line up with our understanding and expectations of the Lord’s steadfast love.

“A Nation Under God’s Delight”

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on Unsplash

The first two stanzas of Psalm 44 form what I call the “Nation Under God’s Delight” section that recounts how God had first established Israel in the land in the distant past and also how God had shown his goodness to the psalmist himself. This section contains two parts, stories they had heard about and stories they had lived themselves.

Back in the Day—Stories They Had Heard (v. 1-3)

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:
you with your own hand drove out the nations,
       but them you planted;
  you afflicted the peoples,
       but them you set free;
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.

This first stanza of the psalm warmly recalls the faith-building stories they had heard of how the Lord worked in previous generations to drive out the Canaanites and plant Israel in the land, as a gracious act of God’s delight for his people.

The psalmist humbly makes a point of giving all the credit to God and not keeping any for Israel. As I read this, I have to ask, how much credit are we giving to God today and how much are we keeping for ourselves? In an election cycle, all politicians take as much credit as they can and deny responsibility for anything negative. However, if we take credit for the good, we also need to take responsibility for the bad.

What is profound here is that he writes, "we heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days". The stories passed down were not the fathers bragging about their successes or regaling them with how great things were, instead their stories were focused on what God had done on their behalf. So, how are we doing with telling our own "God stories?” Is God the hero of the stories told, or are we? I confess that too often it is the latter.

We Experienced Your Deliverance—Stories They Had Lived (v. 4-8)

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The psalmist had not only heard stories of God’s works of deliverance in previous generations, he has experienced such moves of God himself. He had lived such stories and witnessed the God-wrought victories in his own lifetime and boldly testifies about them. He continues to recognize that anything which Israel had accomplished was through the work of the Lord himself. It is believed that this would have been the testimony of the godly king,

For not in my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me. (v.6)

As a result, their testimonies of the victory that they had received from the Lord amounted to a national bragging on the Lord, as verse 8 makes clear,

“In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to your name forever.”

When I read this stanza, I ask, how can we boast more fully in God our King and Savior today? Rehearsing the power and presence of God in the past will help us trust him more amid our present situations. This was how the psalmist prepared his heart to process his current shame.

As I have noted previously, the psalmist, the king, and the people had a rich heritage of powerful deliverances at the hand of God on behalf of their ancestors, and a testimony that had continued in this vein of victory and triumph of trust.

But then things changed…

Their “2020” Arrived

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The rest of the psalm is an aching lament expressing the feeling that God had abandoned them. Such feelings are a fairly normal reaction for us when things go from good to bad. However, it is usually not an accurate assessment of the situation. Just as the Israel of Psalm 44 had become a “byword” so too has the year 2020. In the future, we will likely use 2020 as a byword for “a really messed-up time.”

So far, in 2020, we have seen a global pandemic and the resulting economic and educational downturns associated with the mandated shutdowns. We have seen people awakened to stand together and peacefully protest racial injustice. We have seen anarchists prone to riot sacrificing the livelihoods of others on the altar of their demands. Our region in the Pacific NW has also been swept with wind-driven wildfires and blanketed in smoke so thick it blots out the sun. Yet as bad as it seems here there are many places where the social and personal pain is far greater. I have heard intense reports from many countries including Italy, India, Iran, and Indonesia.

In Psalm 44, the psalmist’s context had experienced a complete reversal from good to terrible! Did this mean that God had left, or that his love had failed? This was an honest question from a burdened heart. That’s how they felt… and sometimes we might feel the same way. The lament section of the psalm contains three stanzas which we will examine in turn.

“But It Doesn’t Seem Like You Delight in Us” (v. 9-16)

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What do we do when everything that seemed to be going great isn’t anymore? Have we grown so used to prosperity and comfort that we expect it or that we feel entitled to it?

Ancient Israel saw a more direct and immediate correlation between outward circumstances and the condition of the person’s/nation’s heart and actions before God. However, this is often not the case. Sometimes circumstances don’t line up and are not a result of any kind of personal sin. That’s why we have the book of Job in the Bible! Speaking of Job, this psalm is reminiscent of both the story and lament of Job who also didn’t understand why it felt like God was punishing him though he was innocent.

What do we do to process our internal dissonance in this 2020 time?

The psalmist presents a poetic list of how God had not shown them the same level of blessing the “the fathers” had received. In a list of six, “you have” statements, the full scope of their reversal is seen. It concludes this way,

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. (v.14-16)

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on Unsplash

Instead of being delivered and given land, they have lost everything. They had been defeated, despoiled, deported, devalued, despised, derided, and daily disgraced. To say the least, there is a great deal of spiritual/emotional dissonance being expressed in this psalm.

It might seem pretty bold to pin all this on the Lord as though accusing him of dereliction of duty, but the psalms give us both the permission and vocabulary, to be honest with God. Among other things, lament psalms process our feelings of disappointment, loss, and shame through the character of God. That is what we see here. There is a tone of deep grief over intense loss and intense frustration over the continued indignities that they were suffering.

“Our Heart has not Turned Back” (v. 17-22)

The community of the faithful then lists several “we have not” statements defending their innocence in answer to the previous stanza’s “you have” indictments of God’s care and describing an apparently withdrawn divine blessing. Where was God in all this?

While it may be true that the psalmist was faithful, and accurately represented the position of other faithful people, over the years I have observed that we tend to overestimate our faithfulness while underestimating God’s present work on our behalf.

If we trust in our own efforts, it should come as no surprise that we can't see God working on our behalf. Just saying!

At the same time, we need to recognize this is the cry of the remnant throughout history, for the godly will be opposed. Their lament in verse 22...

Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

is quoted centuries later by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 in an extended discussion of how nothing can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”, certainly not “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword.” (See Romans 8:18-36)

In fact, it is this trust in the steadfast love of God that anchored the psalmist and the remnant community as they now ask the questions they can no longer refrain from asking.

Please Wake Up and Help! (v. 23-26)

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! 

They express their internal dissonance by asking three “why?” questions in rapid-fire style before concluding in prayer based on the faithful love of God that is working even when we can’t see it. We may never know the why behind what we face. But we can know the one who is with us in the midst, the one who promises that he will not leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

This psalm started by affirming trust in the Lord and God's faithfulness in the past. Then it expressed their confusion and even anger at their currently being defeated...but they processed their emotions and thoughts through trust in God. Finally, the psalm ends with the prayer of v. 26 which is still our prayer today!

Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

 His steadfast love is our only hope! And an amazing hope it is!

 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Rom. 8:18) 

Psalm 42-43: The Upside to Being Downcast

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[This article is also posted on my Cupbearers Initiative pastoral advocacy blog.]

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:5)

During this season of social distancing and even strict quarantine, there is considerable concern regarding the psychological impact of isolation in addition to the more widespread anxieties of the Covid-19 crisis. Many have lost their jobs; others can no longer visit family for fear of spreading exposure to the more vulnerable among us. 

Photo Credit: Greg Dueker

I work at a Christian University and Seminary and we are currently teaching remotely and doing our best to reach out and check in with our students regularly. But I miss seeing them in class, out on the campus lawn, or in the cafeteria. Even the library is quieter than normal (if you can imagine that). All this combined with the hoarder-induced shortages of TP, sanitizer, vegetables, and most carbs (rice, beans, pasta, bread), can produce turmoil in our souls. But will we look down or up for the hope our soul desperately needs?

In Psalm 42-43 (Theywhich are generally thought to make up one psalm), the writer uses a common refrain where he addresses his own soul and directs it to trust in God. This psalm might have been written during David’s exile during the rebellion of Absalom, or later during the Babylonian exile, or as Peter Craigie suggests, “it is equally possible that the background is to be found in sickness, which limited the poet’s possibility of going to Jerusalem and participating in the worship in the temple.”[1] 

Currently, this hits pretty close to home for most churches in the US.

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We live in just such a time filled with challenging circumstances and difficult directives as the various levels of our government pursue policies put in place to slow the insidious spread of Covid-19. Yet even as the virus captures our attention, nature’s other outbursts are not abated be it tornados, floods, or earthquakes.

Some people are overwhelmed by the darkness they see. Others recognize that darkness is the necessary precursor to the coming of the light. If we never experience the dark how then will we long for the light? Psalm 43:3-4 contains the prayer of one who was downcast in the darkness. Do these ancient words of prayer resonate with our heart’s cries today?

Send out your light and your truth;
    let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
    and to your dwelling!
Then I will go to the altar of God,
    to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
    O God, my God.   (Psalm 43:3-4)

These psalms were written by, or for, the sons of Korah who served as doorkeepers and worship leaders in the Temple of the Lord. Their cry to the Lord was that he would bring them back to the place where they were called to serve. They realized that for whatever reason, they were no longer in that spot. I would argue that their season of difficulty, whether sourced in an attack of an enemy or their own sin was being shaped into a gift in the hands of the Lord who loves steadfastly! My pastor used to say, “Don’t despise that which drives you to your knees.” Whatever causes us to lean into the Lord’s love, and extend that love to others, is ultimately a cause for gratitude.

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on Unsplash

In the history of Israel and the history of the Christian church, there have been great feasts celebrated regularly, but the problem in modern times is that we too often cast off the fasts that precede them. Wisdom, and experience, teach that we appreciate and celebrate the light better after we have experienced the darkness. We need the longing season of Advent before the celebration of Christmas. We need the confessional season of Lent before the victorious joy of Easter. Even in the progression of the natural seasons, after a long hot summer, we need the cold and dark of winter before we will enjoy a sunny and warm spring day to its fullest! Isaiah 42:16 declares the Lord’s promised plan for his people on the other side of the darkness…

And I will lead the blind
    in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
    and I do not forsake them. (See also: Isaiah 42:6-7; 9:1-2; Matt. 4:14-16)

But those who will not trust in the Lord will see their idols destroyed (Isaiah 42:17).

As we read through Psalm 42-43, we find that it is chock-full of lessons applicable to our lives as we walk through the current circumstances we face. Despite being ordered to responsibly practice “social distancing” we can still digitally join our hearts together, around the Lord and his word. I hope we will take time each day to reflect on God’s written word, the Bible, and share his love displayed there with others.

To do just that, allow me to share nine truths that can be found especially in times of hardship and our downcast seasons of darkness…

1. Hardship often reveals our deepest thirst and gives opportunity to admit it (42:1-2). Have we seen enough of the world to know that it doesn’t, and can’t satisfy our deepest longings?
2. Hardship may open us up to criticism from others; those who love “piling on” when someone else is suffering, adding insult to injury (v. 3,10). I am reminded of Jesus’ words to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Times like this will give us opportunities to grow in this regard.
3. Hardship reminds us how much we miss celebrating the goodness of God with our spiritual family (v. 4). Thankfully, we have the technology to reach across the distance and join in spiritual worship and acts of service.
4. Hardship often increases our sense of isolation (v. 4) but the more we think of others, and check in on them (phone, text, email, social media) the less isolated we will be, even when confined to our home.
5. Hardship provides the opportunity to do some soul searching and some soul instructing. (42:5, 11; 43:5)
6. Dark times move us past our powerless pride to put our hope in the Lord (v.5-6). In 2 Cor. 1:8-10, the Apostle Paul described this experience clearly. "For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again." 
7. Amid dark and tumultuous times, we may become more sensitive to the presence of God and his steadfast love (v.7-8). The more distractions are removed, the more quiet we encounter, the more we dwell in His Word, and the less we can lean on our own strength the more we see him at work. Pro tip: Don’t watch more news than you can cover in prayer!
8. In dark and tumultuous times, we can ask God honest questions about where he is in all that which we are facing. We feel he is far away, but what encouragement can we offer our own souls? (v.11) “Put your hope in God!” He is our covenant-keeping Savior!
9. In times of hardship, we can confess our weakness and choose to trust God to deliver us from the oppressor (43:1-3).

Sabbath in Modern Tiberius

One other comment before I close. Even good things need fallow seasons of pruning and rest in preparation for new seasons of fruitfulness. It makes me wonder since this current crisis is in effect imposing a sabbath rest on the land. While the imposition of a required sabbatical season is not the cause of this shutdown, perhaps that is how the Lord may use this terrible pandemic for good, if we will hope in him.

We are a nation that refuses to stop whatever it is that we are doing. Yet, being forced to stop, to pause, to trust it will work out, will we continue to be downcast, angry, fearful, and divided, or will our souls be counseled by this psalm to hope in God? Will we trust that we will once again join our voices together to praise Jesus for the salvation he brings to share? I hope so!

How we live and engage those we live with, will reveal both our heart and our source of hope… for better or worse!

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[1] Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50, Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 19, (Waco, TX: Word Inc., 1983) 325.