Psalm 44

One of the greatest obstacles facing the 21^st Century church was spoken by the prophet Pogo, “"We have met the enemy... and he is us." The Apostle Paul refers to this enemy as our flesh, or our secular human nature. Our flesh, within the life of the church, is buying in to the secular notion of success. The tendency in the church is to look at the number of people worshipping in their sanctuary on Sunday morning. If the sanctuary is less than half full, many people will think they are not successful as a church. They may be right, or they may well be wrong in their assessment. God’s will for individuals, and the church, is to be faithful, not successful in secular terms.

There are three distinct characteristics of life revealed in the Bible. There is the life of tangible blessings brought through faithfulness and obedience to God; there is the life of faith where we are called to remain true to God in the face of distress (i.e., the life of Job); and there is the life of hope, where even though evil seems to have the upper hand, we trust in God’s ultimate victory. (The Book of Revelation is an example of a call to hope in the face of persecution.)

Psalm 44 is our model when we encounter times of great distress in our lives. We do not know for sure the exact circumstances that led the King of Israel to write this poem. What we can see within the psalm is that the King believed Israel was faithful, and as God’s favor had been with Israel in the past, he expected God’s favor when he led Israel into battle. The King was wrong and Israel suffered a humiliating defeat. Even so, as was Job’s, so also was the King’s hope in God: “Rise up! Help us! Ransom us because of your unfailing love.”

Why didn’t Israel receive God’s favor? The most likely reason is that the King had ventured off on his own initiative and not through the Lord’s leading. Or, perhaps, Israel was not as faithful as the King presumed. Our lives, and the life of our churches, are impacted by the sins of others. Or, perhaps this was an occasion when evil appears to be winning.

Psalm 44 teaches us that when we face adversity in our life, we can honestly express our emotions to God. God can handle our grief. And, we will face such times as the Apostle Paul, in quoting Psalm 44, assured us. Even so, Paul points us to our enduring hope in Christ.

“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

Romans 8:35-36

Sē’lah

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Reflect on that word or phrase.

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Reading for June 15, 2012                   Psalm 45