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Psalm 44 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Following God wholeheartedly is a practical act of cooperation (our response) and faith (assurance of God’s love). When we teeter too far to one side or the other, we fall short and end up burned out and frustrated.
Followers who minimize the practical act of cooperation fail to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling. They constantly fall back to the statement “God will forgive me” while continuing to walk in patterns of sin. They justify their behavior by assuring themselves that their “faith” in Jesus will save them. Don’t get me wrong, faith is most definitely what saves us. But if we are actually going to follow Scripture, we find many passages which urge us to prove our faith is genuine by our actions. Not as a means for Salvation but as a response to it.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
1 John 3:8-9 ESV
John is not writing about perfection. He uses the present tense to describe the act of habitually committing the same sins over and over with no attempt to repent and turn from them. Verse 8 offers the best translation from the original text with the phrase “makes a practice of sinning.”
On the other hand, we have those who minimize faith. Quite often, these followers over-spiritualize everything in their lives. When any little thing goes wrong, they immediately turn to their works-based rituals to try and overturn the current circumstances. Instead of exercising faith, patience, and the assurance that God is in control; they sit in their proverbial hammock waiting for the clouds to align and form a thought that will give insight and answers they are seeking. It’s a classic example of pagan mysticism meeting Christianity. Like the prophets of Baal, they cry out, “We need to cut our skin deeper and chant louder!”
The psalmist in chapter 44 balances faith and works beautifully. He begins by remembering God’s faithfulness over the years. This is the assurance that God is active and involved.
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: 2 you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; 3 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.
Psalms 44:1-3 ESV
Then the psalmist moves to the current situation at hand where he feels there is an inconsistency. Having recognized earlier in the psalm that it was only by the hand of God that they were delivered, the action for the psalmist is not to exercise some kind of sensational work in his own strength, but to cooperate in faith with the nature of God even if that means enduring suffering and persecution. The action is to pray and move forward in faith. Both are at work in full force.
Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! 24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. 26 Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!
Psalms 44:22-26 ESV
Faith gives us the confidence to trust in the Lord and call upon His Name no matter what the circumstances. The psalmist has an attitude ready for action. He has wholly placed himself before God with the assurance that there will be redemption and deliverance. This is what God desires from us; the humility to bow down with empty hands and confess we are completely His along with the faith of knowing that God will deliver on His promises.