Man, Psalm 44 is one of my favorite Psalms, and I hope that by the time I'm done tonight
you'll understand why I like this Psalm so much.
It's really a beautiful Psalm, and it's quoted in one of the most beautiful passages
of the New Testament in Romans chapter 8.
And the reason that I love this Psalm is the same reason that I love where Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel, where they talk to Nebuchadnezzar and they
tell him, look, we're not careful to answer you concerning this matter.
Our God is able to deliver us out of the fiery furnace, but then he said, but if not,
if not, be it known unto thee, we're not going to bow down to your image no matter
what.
Sort of like when Job says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
And that's a similar idea that we have in this Psalm.
Let me show you what I'm talking about.
It says in verse number 1, we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us
what work thou didst in their days in the times of old, how thou didst drive out the
heathen with thy hand and plant its them, how thou didst deflect the people and
cast them out.
For they got not the land of possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm
save them, but thy right hand and thine arm in the light of thy countenance, because
thou hadst a favor unto them.
So here's what we have to understand about the Psalm.
We're starting out hundreds and hundreds of years later.
So you know, you're thinking around David's time, and so this is centuries after the
children of Israel have come into the promised land, and they're talking about what they've
heard from the past.
They're saying, you know, our fathers have told us the work that you did in their days.
You know, we've heard about, obviously, the plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red
Sea, and how God drove out the inhabitants of Canaan, the Hittites, the Hivites, the
Perizzites, and he brought them into the promised land, not by the power of their
own arm, not because they had a great military leader in Joshua, not because they
were the greatest warriors or had the superior numbers, but rather it was because God favored
them.
It was at the end of verse 3, because thou hadst a favor unto them.
It was your arm that brought salvation.
It was your power.
It was your will that they enter the land, and so you are the one who conquered the
Canaanites and brought them into the promised land.
Now look, the person who's writing the Psalm here does not have direct experience
here with this, right?
He's talking about he's heard something from the past.
He's heard of those stories from the ancient times, how God did all these great things.
Now it says in verse number 4, thou art my king, O God.
Command deliverances for Jacob.
So in the first three verses, he's saying, look, I've heard about how it happened
in the past.
I've heard about God's power when we came into the promised land.
Here we are many centuries later and saying, do it again, right?
Command deliverance for Jacob.
Verse 5, through thee will we push down our enemies.
Through thy name will we tread them under the rise up against us, for I will not trust
in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
He's saying, look, you know, I've learned from the Bible stories.
I read the Bible stories, and it wasn't their hand.
It wasn't their power.
It was not by might or by power, but by God's Spirit.
And he's saying, now in the present day, I believe that, and so because I believe that,
I'm asking you, God, to do it again, and I'm telling you that I'm not going to trust
in my sword.
I'm not going to trust in my bow.
I'm going to rely on the power of God that brought us here in the first place.
He says in verse 7, but thou has saved us from our enemies and put them to shame
that hated us.
He's saying, it wasn't, we didn't do those things, you did those things.
God did those things, and therefore, verse 8, in God, we boast all the day long, and
praise thy name forever, Selah.
So the first eight verses, I just want to help you to understand the first eight
verses here, what's going on.
At the beginning, he talks about, look, we've heard what God did in the past.
We've heard how it was all by his might, his power, it wasn't by human strength
We've heard how it was all by his might, his power, it wasn't by human strength that
God's people achieved what they achieved, and he's saying, because of that lesson in
the past, I'm applying that to the present.
That's what I'm praying for now.
That's what I'm relying on now.
That's what I'm asking God to do now.
I'm not going to trust in the flesh.
I'm not going to trust in myself.
I'm going to trust in the God who did all those things, and I'm going to boast
of God all the day long.
I'm not going to brag about my own ability because it's not my ability.
It's God's power that accomplishes the victory.
So the first eight verses make sense, right?
You know, we've learned from the past.
We're applying it to the present.
We believe that victory is going to come through the power of God, not through human
effort.
All right, now let's keep going.
Verse nine, it changes it, but, but thou has cast off and put us to shame.
But here's what he's saying, but it's not happening.
So here's the theory, you know, we've heard about it in the Bible.
We heard about what God did in the past, but we're not seeing it in the present.
In fact, he's seeing the reverse in the present because he says, thou has cast us off and
put us to shame and goest not forth with our armies.
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
Thou has given us like sheep appointed for meat and has scattered us among the heathen.
Thou sellest thy people for naught and does not increase thy wealth by their price.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are
round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
Now, it didn't seem like that was what was going to happen in those first eight
verses, did it?
I mean, the first eight verses, it's like, look, God did great things in the past.
God favored the people.
That's how they got it done.
Well, you know what, God, here I am.
Look at me, God.
Guess what?
I'm trusting in you.
I'm not trusting in myself.
I'm relying on that same power that you displayed back then to save me now, to help
me now.
But then he's basically saying from verse nine onward, you know what?
Here's the reality of the situation, though.
God's not going with our armies.
God is not defeating our enemies.
God is putting us to shame before our enemies.
Now look, there's nothing in here like in the Book of Lamentations, for example, that
would say, hey, we've sinned, we've done wrong, and that's why we're reaping what
we've sown.
That's not what's going on in Psalm 44.
This is not the Book of Lamentations.
The Book of Lamentations is about people reaping what they've sowed.
They were wicked, they sinned, they broke God's law, they refused to listen to Jeremiah,
and then God brought punishment.
That's not what's going on in this passage.
What's going on in this passage is we have a godly person who's looking at the example
of the past, not with first-hand experience, but rather from the Word of God.
I mean, he's reading it from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges.
At the time that this psalm was composed, those books were available, those books
were known unto them, and they'd read those books and understood those stories.
And he's reading that, but then in his actual life, it's not happening for him because
of the fact that he's facing all this opposition, you know, that the nation's not succeeding.
And there's no mention here that it's because the nation is sinful or anything like that.
That's not in here, that's not what's going on.
So keep going.
In the passage, it says in verse 15, my confusion is continually before me, and the shame of
my face hath covered me.
Yeah, you can see why he's confused, right?
And you know, he's ashamed here because of the fact that here he is boasting in God
all the day long, but God's not bringing deliverance, at least not yet.
So let's keep going.
It says in verse number 16, for the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemeth by
reason of the enemy and avenger.
He's saying, that's why my confusion is continually before my face.
That's why the shame of my face has covered me, because of these reproaches and blasphemies
and the reason of the enemy and avenger.
Verse 17, all this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have
we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
So again, this goes back to what I was just saying.
This isn't lamentations where we've done wrong, we've sinned, we deserve this, we're
reaping what we've sown.
He's saying look, even in spite of God seemingly not coming through for me right away, still
he's saying, our heart is not turned back, verse 18, neither have our steps declined
from thy way.
He's saying we've not forgotten you, we've not dealt falsely in thy covenant,
our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way.
He's saying we're still trusting you, we're still doing the right things, we're
still walking the walk.
Then he says in verse number 19, though thou has sore broken us in the place of dragons
and covered us with the shadow of death, if we have forgotten the name of our God
or stretched out our hands to a strange God, shall not God search this out?
For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Now let's back up a little bit, it says, because we want to make sure that we understand
the sentences here.
Verses 18 and 19 is one sentence, all right, so let's read that sentence, our heart is
not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way, though thou hast sore
broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death.
He's saying look, even though you have broken us, I mean you have covered us with
the shadow of death, in spite of that, our heart is not turned back from you.
Our steps have not declined from thy way in spite of that.
And he says in verse 20, look, if we've forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our
hands to a strange God, shall not God search this out?
He's saying, look, God would know that.
If we were worshiping another God, if we had broken the covenant, if we were out
living sinful lives and not having any fear of the Lord, wouldn't God know that?
Wouldn't he search that out?
He knows the secrets of the heart, he knows that.
And what he's saying here, this is similar to the idea we had in Psalm 43, judge me.
He's basically saying look, God, here, you know, I don't even have to tell you the
fact that we've been following your word and trusting in you because you know that
if we had turned away from you, you'd know that, right?
God would instantly know that because God knows everything.
God can read our hearts.
And then in verse 22, we have this great verse that's taken and quoted in Romans chapter
8, one of the most famous passages in the whole New Testament.
Yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long.
And once you understand this Psalm, you can really understand Romans chapter 8 in
a deeper way.
But it says, yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long, we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter.
Awake!
Why sleepest thou, O Lord?
Arise!
Cast us not off forever.
Wherefore hideest thou thy face and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth under the earth.
Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake.
So what this passage is about, what this Psalm is about, is someone who's trusting in the
Word of God, they've got their faith in the promises of God, and even when those
things aren't happening right away in their life right now, there's a cognitive dissonance
where they're expecting one thing and then the opposite's happening.
Do you see this person giving up on God, throwing in the towel?
And you know, that's what I love about this Psalm, that's why it's such a beautiful
Psalm, because it's just like Shadrach, Mechech, and Abednego saying, you know what, we believe
that God's able to deliver us from the fiery furnace.
If God wants to, he can deliver us from the fiery furnace, but if not, they didn't
say if not, well then you know what, it turns out there's no benefit in serving God,
we might as well just become more Babylonian and just fit in and go along to get along
and bow down to this idol because our God isn't doing anything for us more than this
idol's doing for us.
No, no, no, they said look, nothing, nothing can shake our faith in God.
Nothing can shake our faith in the word of God.
Nothing will stop us from worshiping God.
Nothing will convince us to bow down to this stupid idol, you can burn us and kill
us, we will not do it, and God can deliver us, but you know what, even if God doesn't
deliver us, we're still not going to do it.
Nothing can shake our faith in God.
And you know what, that's the kind of faith that we ought to have as Christians.
The kind of faith like Job that says, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
Not the kind of faith that says, well let me just try things out with God, let's
see how it goes, and you know, well I tried serving God for six months, and my
life didn't get better, it got worse.
Well couldn't the author of Psalm 44 said that?
He could say, well you know, I read the book of Joshua, I tried to do it, and nothing's
happening.
Folks, our faith in the word of God shouldn't just be based on circumstances of our lives
going our way, okay?
We need to have a faith in God's word that goes beyond just, well, let's see
if it works out.
We need to just be all in till death, and we don't have to see anything.
You know, Thomas saw and believed, but the Bible says, blessed are those that have
not seen and yet have believed.
Now, now that we understand Psalm 44, go to Romans chapter 8, where this is quoted.
And a lot of times when you're reading the New Testament and you get an Old Testament
quote, sometimes, you know, the quote is just kind of taken out of context.
You know, the Bible just lifts something out of context and mentioned it in the New
Testament just to kind of make a different point or put a different spin on it.
And there are a lot of New Testament quotes that are like that.
But a lot of times, looking up the quote in the Old Testament and getting the context
actually is very relevant to the New Testament passage, and you can actually learn a lot
more.
So one good way to study the Bible is when you're reading the New Testament and
quote something from the Old Testament, go back and look it up and see what you
can learn from that.
And a lot of times, it'll open up a whole new understanding of the New Testament.
So look at Romans chapter and vice versa, of course.
Look at Romans chapter number eight, and this is a really famous passage.
It says in verse 31, what shall we say then to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall we not with him also freely give us all things?
He's saying, look, how can there be any doubt that God loves you when he gave his
only begotten son?
And whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
How can there be any doubt of the love of God when he gave that which was most precious?
He spared not his own son.
Spare is like to hold back something, right?
To spare something is, you know, well, I'm going to hold on to this.
I'm going to keep this back.
I'm not going to give everything.
God gave everything.
You know, when he gave the son, he's giving that which is the most precious.
And so if he gave and spared not his own son, how can there be any doubt that he won't
also freely give us all things?
I mean, if he'll give his son, he'll give us so much more.
Verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.
So get the picture of what he's saying here.
If you're going through, at this time, tribulation, does that mean that God doesn't love you?
Does that mean that you're separated from the love of Christ?
Let's say I'm going through a time of trouble in my life, bad things are happening, things
are falling apart.
Should I come to the conclusion, you know what, God doesn't love me because I'm going
through tribulation.
No, because tribulation can't separate us from the love of God.
You know, what if I'm going through distress, if I'm in a time of distress?
What if I'm going through a period of persecution?
Does that mean that God has turned his back on me, that God doesn't love me, that
God doesn't care about me?
No.
What if I'm going through famine?
What if I don't have any food, and I'm hungry?
What if I am naked, I don't have proper clothing?
We might not really appreciate this much in Arizona, but what if we're in a really
cold place, and we don't have a garment, and we're just freezing and cold, and you
know what, throughout history, people have died like that, just from not being dressed
warm enough.
In fact, even just this last winter, there was a guy who died in Chicago, he was working
at FedEx, I think it was, at the loading dock, and he was just standing outside,
and he was loading packages and stuff, and he ended up just freezing, standing up, and
just died.
Who read that story?
Anybody?
My two sons?
Did I show it to you, or you just read it?
It was a big story, right?
The guy died, it wasn't a weird, it wasn't on some weird site, folks, all right?
This was a mainstream news article.
No, the people were, it was just so cold, the guy was just outside, he got too cold,
and he just froze, because it was just way below zero, and he's just out there.
You know, this guy didn't have proper clothing on, right?
Look, if we're going through these bad things, peril, danger, sword, is that going to separate
us from the love of Christ?
The Bible says no, okay.
And then here's the quote, it's the perfect quote.
Look what he says.
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as
sheep for the slaughter.
Now, what was the context of that statement?
What was the context of, we're killed all the day long, we're
counted as sheep for the slaughter?
It was the one that's, it was the context that said, you know what, I heard what God's
going to do in the Bible, but I'm not seeing it.
In fact, the opposite's true.
In fact, I'm getting my butt kicked before my enemies, even as I boast in God all the
day long, even as I have all my faith in the Lord, even as I walk with God and
follow the commandments, but you know what, I am still going to keep on trusting God.
I am not going to turn back.
I will not decline from falling after his way.
Nothing can stop me.
It's like the Apostle Paul said, none of these things move me.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
Now that's perfect for this passage, because in this passage, he's saying, look, can all
these bad things separate us from the love of Christ?
Do we look at that situation and say, you know what, Christ doesn't love me.
It's clear because I'm going through famine and nakedness and peril.
He's saying, no, it's written, for thy sake, we're killed all the day long.
Even if you're killed, even if you're killed, it doesn't mean that you're not right with
God.
It doesn't mean that God doesn't care.
Because we look at Stephen in the New Testament being killed in Acts chapter 7, and he was
a great man of God, filled with the Spirit, doing great works, nay.
And here's what, this is what's interesting, okay?
Keep your finger in Romans 8, I just want to show you something funny here.
Keep your finger in Romans 8, go back to Psalm 44.
And I like the contrast here between the yay and the nay, all right?
So look at Psalm 44, verse 22, it says, yay, for thy sake, we're killed all the
day long, we're counted as sheep for the slaughter.
And then the New Testament, he quotes it, but he leaves out the yay and replaces it
with a nay.
Do you see that?
Because he says, as it is written, no yay here, just as it is written, for thy sake
were killed all the day long, we're counted as sheep for the slaughter, nay.
And the nay there is that no, none of these things can separate us from the love
of God.
Because the question was asked, right?
The question was asked, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, shall these things separate us from the love of Christ?
He doesn't answer, he gives the quote instead, as it is written, for thy sake, we are killed
all the day long, we're counted as sheep for the slaughter, that's, he's referencing
scripture and coming to the conclusion, no.
Shall these things separate us from the love of Christ?
Well let's consult scripture, let's consult Psalm 44, answer no.
Does everybody see that?
They, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
So we're not conquerors because we went out, and what did the guy in Psalm 44, what
does he want to see?
He wants to see them kick their enemies' butts, right?
Isn't that what he wants to see?
He wants to see the book of Joshua played out before his eyes, he wants to see them
defeating the Moabites, defeating the Edomites, defeating the Philistines, he wants
to see them defeating their enemies.
What does he want them to be?
He wants them to be conquerors.
He wants them to be conquerors, and you know what the Bible's saying?
Look, we're more than conquerors.
See the conqueror is the one who goes out and defeats the Hivites, defeats the Hittites,
defeats the Perizzites, through the power of God.
But you know the Bible says that in tribulation, in distress, in persecution, in famine,
in nakedness, in peril, in sword, we're conquerors!
Is that what it says?
No.
It says we're more than conquerors.
We're more than conquerors.
So who's greater in the kingdom of heaven?
Who's greater in the kingdom of heaven?
The conqueror who puts his trust in the Lord and goes out and achieves a great victory
for God through the power of God, that's great.
Amen.
But you know what, even greater than that is the one who goes out, trusts in the Lord,
has faith in the word of God, and just keeps on running into obstacle after obstacle
after obstacle, opposition after opposition, and doesn't see the miracles.
I mean look, Joshua saw the sun stand still, and obviously that was because he had the
great faith to even ask for that and believe that it would happen.
What about the people that were with Joshua?
They didn't necessarily have that faith, but they got to see that.
You know, Joshua had the faith, so he wasn't surprised.
He already had the faith that it was going to happen.
But the people around him probably wouldn't have believed him.
The average Joe Israelite that saw that was probably shocked by that, to see the
sun stand still at Gibeon.
So they saw that, you know, it's going to be easier for them to trust in the Lord
than the author of Psalm 44 where a miracle hasn't taken place in a long time.
He hasn't seen anything.
It's all what he's heard from the word of God.
But you know what, I submit to you that the author of Psalm 44, whoever that author
was, whether it be David or anyone else, whoever that author was that went through
those things and just continued with faith in God in spite of not seeing the results
in the here and now, you know, was exercising great faith and was more than
a conqueror by, you know, seeing, hey, we're killed all the day long,
but you know what, that doesn't change what I believe.
Nothing will change what I believe because my faith is founded on a rock.
Nothing can shake it.
Nothing can move it.
In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us,
through Jesus Christ.
Because remember, who can separate us from the love of Christ?
So the him that loved us is Christ.
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now, as we read the Bible, there are a lot of miracles mentioned in the Bible.
Lots of miracles mentioned in the Bible.
We see miracles in the life of Jesus frequently.
I mean, he's just constantly doing miracles where he's walking on water,
he feeds the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, he feeds the 4,000
with seven loaves, and he basically turns water into wine,
raises the dead back to life, heals the sick, heals the lame,
the blind, the deaf, lepers, he's casting out devils.
And so he does all these miraculous things.
He's able to have supernatural knowledge of things,
like where he tells Nathaniel,
hey, I saw you when you were sitting under the fig tree.
You know, what, how did you, you're the son of God,
how did you know that?
You know, he did all kinds of things.
He knew things about the woman at the well.
I mean, there are a lot of miracles there,
a lot of supernatural things that Jesus did.
And then when he sent out the apostles,
even in his earthly ministry,
he gave them power to do miracles.
They went out and did miracles.
And then when we read the book of Acts,
we see the apostles doing miracles.
A lot of miracles there in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
In the Old Testament, we could point to miracles,
especially in the book of 2 Kings.
You know, we see Elisha doing a lot of miracles.
We see Elijah doing some miracles in 1 Kings.
We could look at the book of Joshua and see miracles.
We could look at Exodus and see miracles.
But what you have to understand is that
there were long periods in the history of the Bible
where no miracle is happening, none.
So even though it seems like,
oh man, there are a ton of miracles in the Bible,
yeah, a ton of them during the lifetime
of Jesus and the apostles concentrated in that one period.
And then you have a ton of miracles concentrated
during the period of Elijah and Elisha.
They're doing a lot of miracles during that time.
Yeah, there are a ton of miracles in Exodus
when they're coming out of Egypt.
What about the 400 years leading up to the Exodus?
How many miracles do you think were happening
from the end of Genesis to the beginning of Exodus?
During that period of 400 years in Egypt,
I would guess that there were probably very few to none.
Possibly none, maybe very few miracles
happening during that time.
There are periods in the biblical history
where there aren't a lot of miracles going on, okay?
How many miracles were necessarily happening
from the time that God cast Adam and Eve
out of the Garden of Eden to the time of Noah's Ark?
How many miracles happened there?
Probably very few, who knows?
But what I'm saying is that,
yeah, there are a lot of miracles in the Bible,
but the Bible's covering a period of many thousands of years.
And let me just give you the strongest piece of evidence.
John did no miracle, the Bible says.
And yet the Bible says, what about John the Baptist?
Does it say, well, he was an okay preacher.
He was all right, he was all right.
He was all right.
No, actually, the Bible says,
among them that are born of women,
there is not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
But let that sink in.
John did no miracle.
But all things that John said concerning this man are true.
You know, that's what they said.
John wasn't out there performing miracles, okay?
John is out there preaching the Word of God.
And even when the apostles came back from doing miracles,
and they came back to Jesus,
they said, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us.
And he said, look, you know,
don't rejoice that the devil is subject unto you.
Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
Now, are the devils subject to us?
Are we walking on water and casting out devils
and getting up and screaming, you know, COVID-19!
You know, Kenneth Copeland,
like was destroying COVID-19 and everything.
Who saw that video of that?
Yeah, you know, he's calling COVID-19
and rebuking it in the name of the Lord
and all this stuff.
You know, here's the thing.
You know, we can be great men of God,
women of God, great children of God,
live powerful lives for the Lord's sake.
Preaching, winning souls to Christ,
having our faith and trust in him.
And you know what?
We might go our entire life
and never see a single miracle.
And you know what?
If I go through my whole life
and never see a true miracle happen before my eyes,
and I go through my whole life
having faith and trust in God,
then you know what?
I'm more than a conqueror.
I'm even better than Thomas at that point.
You know what I mean?
I've gone beyond Thomas's level of faith
because I remain faithful to God.
Because I remain faithful at the end
without having to see a miracle to prove it to me.
And you know what?
If I saw a miracle happen,
I wouldn't be like,
oh well, there really is a God.
Because I already know that.
I already believe that.
So you know, there are some people
who are compulsively out searching
and looking for proof that the Bible's true.
And sometimes when I see people
who are so into proving that the Bible's true,
sometimes I have to ask myself,
are they trying to prove it to themself?
You know, they have these ministries
to prove that the Bible's true.
We gotta prove to the atheists that it's true.
And I'm thinking to myself,
you know what?
I think you're probably trying to prove it to yourself
that it's true.
You know, that's why you feel that way
and have that need to be searching for proof
and searching for evidence.
Look, I'm not looking for proof.
I'm not looking for evidence.
I already have the evidence.
Because faith is the evidence.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
I don't need to go out and look for proof.
And you know what?
I've had God come through for me in my life
so many times.
I've had God answer so many prayers.
There have been so many times
where my enemies were defeated before my face
and God gave me the victory and God blessed me.
So look, I'm not saying that my life
has been a Psalm 44 kind of life.
But you know what?
I think all of us have had Psalm 44 moments.
I think all of us have had moments
where we felt like the author of Psalm 44
where we looked at things and said,
boy, I'm reading in the Bible about all the victories
and here I am and I'm not winning.
At least that's how it feels at the time
or that's the circumstance right now.
But I'll tell you what,
this is what makes Psalm 44 such a beautiful Psalm.
The attitude that says it doesn't matter.
I'm gonna trust in the Lord no matter what.
Let's go back to Psalm 44 and go through it again
and break it down just a little more
before we're done tonight.
It's a powerful passage.
It's a very beautiful Psalm.
It really just hit home with me
as I was studying for this sermon especially.
It was very moving to me.
Look at verse number one.
We've heard with our ears, oh God,
our fathers have told us what work thou didst
in their days in the times of old.
And notice the emphasis here.
When something's repeated over and over again,
it's to emphasize the fact
that this is not something that has been seen.
They said we've heard with our ears,
our fathers have told us.
So three different ways he's basically saying
this is not something that I directly experienced.
This is something that I heard.
This is hearsay.
What thou didst in their days in the times of old.
See how it's very far removed.
How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand
and plant its them.
So he's saying you drove out the heathen with your hand
and planted our fathers.
The them is not the heathen, the them is the fathers.
How thou didst afflict the people.
He's talking about how they afflicted the Hittites,
the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites.
You afflicted the people and cast them out
to make room for us.
You cast out the Canaanites,
you made room for the Israelites.
For they got not the land and possession by their own sword,
neither did their own arm save them,
but thy right hand and thine arm
and the light of thy countenance
because thou hadst a favor unto them.
Look, what is it that determines the victory?
It's not the strength of our right arm,
it's the light of God's countenance.
You know what it means?
His face shining on us, right?
That's what it means, the light of his countenance,
countenance of face.
God be merciful unto us and bless us
and cause his face to shine upon us, the Bible says
in Psalm 67, right?
Is that the one we sing, right?
God be merciful unto us and bless us
and cause his face to shine upon us.
He's saying the light of your countenance,
your face shining upon us,
that's what brings the victory
because you had a favor unto them.
And of course, grace in the Bible
is God's favor toward you.
It says in verse four, thou art my king, O God,
command deliverances for Jacob.
Do it now, do it in the present.
Through thee will we push down our enemies.
Through thy name will we tread them under
that rise up against us.
This is what he's believing.
He believes that that's what's gonna happen.
For I will not trust in my bow
because look, I know I'm not gonna trust in my bow,
therefore, God's gonna do this.
God's gonna cause us to push down our enemies
because thou has saved us from our enemies
and has put them to shame that hated us.
In God, we boast all the day long
and praise thy name forever.
But thou is cast off, here's the reality.
Thou is cast off
and put us to shame and goest not forth with our armies.
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy
and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
Thou has given us like sheep appointed for meat
and has scattered us among the heathen.
Thou sellest thy people for naught
and does not increase thy wealth by their price.
It's basically saying like, look, it's like
you're selling us and you're not even making a profit.
You don't even get anything out of it.
It's just like you're just selling us just to harm us.
Doesn't even benefit you at all.
Thou makest us to reproach to our neighbors
with scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen,
a shaking of the head among the people.
My confusion is continually before me.
What's going on?
And the shame of my face hath covered me.
For the voice of him that reproachth and blasphemeth
by reason of the enemy and avenger,
all this has come upon us,
yet have we not forgotten thee.
Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
Our heart is not turned back.
Neither of our steps declined from thy way.
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons
and covered us with the shadow of death.
What's the place of dragons?
Dragons are reptiles.
And this is basically referring to being out in the desert.
When the Bible talks about the wilderness or the desert,
talks about it being a dwelling place of dragons.
And basically it's the same thing
as being in Arizona in Phoenix, okay?
So basically they're out in the wilderness,
out in a desert place.
God has just broken them down.
Out in the wilderness, out in the place of dragons
and covered us with the shadow of death.
If you ever go hiking at South Mountain,
one of the most common creatures that you'll see
is a horny toad.
Who's ever seen one of those out in the wild
when you're out hiking and their eyes are like blood?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Some of you haven't seen a horny toad in the wild.
What?
Have you seen one in a reptile house?
Maybe, but no, but I'm telling you,
I can't even count how many times
I've seen it at South Mountain.
If you go hiking up at South Mountain,
you'll run into these things.
And the horny toad is a fascinating animal
because its eyes look like blood
and it actually shoots blood out of its eyes.
It fires its blood out of its eyes as a weapon.
I know it sounds crazy, but look it up
and you'll see that I'm telling the truth.
Can you verify that?
Okay, and these things, if you see them in the wild,
their eyes are really a trip to look at.
They're just like this blood red eyes
and they can shoot blood out of their eyes.
I know it sounds wild.
That's what he's talking about
when he's talking about dragons, creatures like that.
Any kind of, you think of the Komodo dragon.
Another beast that you'll see out there a lot
is the Gila monster.
I've seen several of those at South Mountain.
Gila monsters, other just various lizards,
horny toads especially.
These are the kind of animals that live in the desert,
a lot of these dragons, quote unquote.
So this isn't like the fire breathing winged variety.
This is just talking about the animals
that live in the desert.
And so it uses that throughout the Bible.
And it says, if we have forgotten the name of our God,
verse 20, or stretched out our hands to a strange God.
Strange means foreign.
So if we're worshiping the God of the Philistines
or if we're worshiping the God of the Moabites,
the God of the Ammonites, these foreign gods,
as opposed to the God of Israel.
Should not God search this out?
For he knew it, the secrets of the heart.
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
Arise, cast us not off forever.
Wherefore hideest thou thy face
and forget us to our affliction and our oppression.
For our soul is bowed down to the dust.
Our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy.
Say, you know what he says, our soul is in the dust.
If you think about your physical body being in the dust
and bowed down to the earth,
your belly cleaving under the earth,
just imagine yourself laying in the desert,
face down with dirt in your mouth.
Right, you got the picture?
You're laying on your stomach,
out in the middle of the desert with dirt in your mouth.
Just your face in the dust.
Just that you're ground down.
Now look, he's not saying he's there physically,
but he's saying that's how my soul feels right now.
Right, our soul is bowed down to the dust.
Our belly cleaveth under the earth.
Basically, inside, this is what I feel like.
Inside, I feel like I'm just laying on my face
out in the desert with my mouth in the dirt.
That's how I feel right now.
That's what he's saying.
So he's begging God to help him.
Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake.
Of course he wants help.
Of course he wants God to step in.
Of course he wants God to give him the victory.
He wants to live those glory days
like they did in Joshua.
Hey, that's what we all want.
You know, we wanna go through life winning
and we wanna see our church grow and thrive and victory.
We wanna go on mission trips that are big successes
and we want our soul-winning marathons
and campaigns to be big successes.
We wanna go to work and succeed.
We wanna do well.
We wanna be blessed.
So does the author of Psalm 44.
But you know what?
He's saying, you know what though?
Even though God's not doing it for me, not yet,
so far, the opposite's happening.
It's not gonna change what I believe
and it's not gonna change my actions.
Though he slay me yet, will I trust him?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for this beautiful Psalm, Lord.
I pray that this Psalm would sink into our ears
and become a part of who we are, Lord.
I pray that we'd meditate on this Psalm
and think about the importance of having faith
even when things are not going our way
and realizing that even when things are at their worst,
you still love us and we need to still trust
and hope in you no matter what.
Help us to have the faith of Job and the Apostle Paul
and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Lord.
Help us not to be out searching for evidence
before we believe, but help us to ask in faith
nothing wavering and to not doubt you
but rather to be steadfast in our faith in you.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.