Psalm 44 – The Psalm with No Hope

—When God doesn’t even seem to be listening
(Part 44 of Seeing Jesus in the O.T.)

• Andrew Fountain – Feb 13, 2022

 
 
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Purpose

If you have ever felt that things are really bad
and God is not listening?
Then this is the Psalm for you!

Psalm 44 §1: The Old Stories

• To the Choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons Of Korah

1. 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.

§2: in his own lifetime

4. You are my King, O God;
         ordain salvation for Jacob!
5. Through you we push down our foes;
         through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6. For not in my bow do I trust,
         nor can my sword save me.
7. But you have saved us from our foes
         and have put to shame those who hate us.
8. In God we have boasted continually,
         and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

§3: You’ve turned against us!

9. But you have rejected us and disgraced us
         and have not gone out with our armies.
10. You have made us turn back from the foe,
          and those who hate us
            have gotten spoil.

§3: You’ve turned against us!

11. You have made us like sheep for slaughter
      and have scattered us among the nations.
12. You have sold your people for a trifle,
      demanding no high price for them.
13. You have made us the taunt of our neighbours,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
14. You have made us a byword among the nations,
      a laughingstock among the peoples.
15. All day long my disgrace is before me,
      and shame has covered my face
16. at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
      at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

Story so far...

1. The Old Stories
2. Stories in his own lifetime
3. You have turned against us!
4. But we are not to blame!

§4: But we are not to blame!

17. All this has come upon us,
          though we have not forgotten you,
    and we’ve not been false to your covenant.
18. Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way;
19. yet you’ve broken us in the place of jackals
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
20. If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21. would not God discover this?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we’re regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

§5: Desperate cry for help

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!

My fake ending

1. The Old Stories
2. Stories in his own lifetime
3. You have turned against us!
4. But we are not to blame!
5. Desperate cry for help
6. God answers and we praise him

Fake §6: (how we’d like it to end)

27. I called unto the LORD and he answered me
          I cried to him and he heard my voice
28. He brought my feet up out of the pit
          He set them on a high rock
29. The LORD is my strength and my high tower
          I will praise his name for evermore.

Romans 8:36,37

36. As it is written,
    “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” (quoted from Psalm 44)
37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Allusion to Psalm 45)

Romans 8:1–39

35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36. As it is written,
    “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38. For I am sure that neither death nor life,
    nor angels nor rulers,
    nor things present nor things to come,
    nor powers, ³⁹nor 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.

What should we do?

• First, it could be things are going wrong to lead you to God
• Sometimes things do not make sense to us: God does not have to explain!
• Don’t listen to the lie that God does not care
• Don’t miss out on what God has for you
• Ask for a revelation of the love of Jesus—it changed everything for Paul
• Maybe God is speaking to you today