TWO SIDES OF LIFE MESSAGE PSALM 44 SONS OF KORAH
Ron Ferguson ronaldf@aapt.net.au
Psa. 44 For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
Psalm 44 v 1 O God, we have heard with our ears; our fathers have told us, the work that You did in their days, in the days of old. Psa. 44:2 You with Your own hand drove out the nations. Then You planted them. You afflicted the peoples, then You spread them abroad. (NASB throughout)
These Psalms with the title “The Sons of Korah” were written by a godly and talented group of singers who did the services in the Tabernacle in King David’s time and earlier. They bring out the loveliness of the Lord, and His goodness to Israel. There are 11 of these Psalms.
In verse 2, the 2nd person pronoun is used 5 times. I hope your version translates it that way as well. That is no literary device or just an accident of words. The Holy Spirit wants to focus in on what God does, and not just on what man does, or on what man receives. Verse 2 looks back at the settlement in Canaan and speaks of the way God prospered the nation of Israel. The short summary of that verse is that God drove out the godless heathen and planted Israel.
I might say that biblical critics reject these verses and point to a merciless God. They read of Joshua’s conquests and call the bible barbaric. They don’t call the heathen nations that attacked Israel, barbaric. Satan will always lead an attack on God’s own people while supporting God’s enemies. Has anything changed today? The bible study people know that a constant reign of rockets – about 225 a day - fall on Israeli territory, Iranian rockets fired by the PLO. As soon as Israel seeks to defend itself, the world press is in uproar and Israel is condemned. Yet nothing is said about Palestinian atrocities.
When we consider verse 1 we see the importance of factual accounts of the past. Never neglect history. Does this world ever learn by history? I think we can say that history teaches us that we never learn from history! For the Christian, all God’s doing in history in the past, is for our benefit. Israel never learned from its past. We see this over and over in Israel's history as we study the Prophets. The past must instruct us or we will fail in the future. The Old Testament is 4 000 years of instruction, (written over 1 500 years) telling of failure, victory and support. What is the importance of the Old Testament? That question is answered in the New Testament as it testifies to the Old Testament. 2Timothy 3 v 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 2Tim 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. In the church there is a woeful neglect of the Old Testament, and the churches fail because they do not learn from God’s past dealings with people and nations. In our Psalm the Psalmist testified to the instruction of the past.
Psalm 44 v 3 “By their own sword they did not possess the land, and their own arm did not save them, but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your presence, for You favoured them.” That verse is badly written in the NASB, the ESV, and not much better in the NIV. Here is the Berean Study Bible – “For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory; it was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face; for You delighted in them.” The verse is absolutely correct in its emphasis. Those heathen nations of the land could not be defeated by human endeavour or wisdom or by power. It was only God in His might that would accomplish anything. We call to mind the Old Testament verses confirming that - 1Sam 2 v 9 “He keeps the feet of His godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. And Zechariah 4 v 6 Then he answered and said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”
Joshua at Jericho obeyed the command of the Lord and marched around 7 times. Gideon obeyed the voice of the Lord and ended with only 300 men for a decisive battle. These men of faith knew what it was to trust the Lord, for it was only with God, that victory lay. On the other hand, King Saul trusted no one but himself, and took the sacred Ark of the Covenant to lead the battle against the Philistines, and that resulted in a overwhelming defeat with the Ark captured by the Philistines, and Saul and his son Jonathon being killed. Saul thought his own sword would gain victory. Please remember our victory is not through activity, but it is by faith. The words “By faith” are used 20 times in chapter 11 of Hebrews and the last verse of chapter 10. Here is the closing summary - Hebrews 11 v 32 "What more shall I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, Heb. 11:33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, Heb. 11:34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Heb. 11:35 Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection." We walk by faith and not by sight. We live by faith, not by the activity of the flesh. We at this fellowship must trust God for the future. There are things we must do but we must wait on the Lord for the increase.
We ought to note that God’s full blessing did not come on Israel after they settled in Canaan because they did not obey God. They did not drive out the enemies but left some of them in the land, and in time the Israelites began to worship the pagan gods of the nations like Moloch and Baal and fell into great sin.
Psalm 44 v 4 You are my King, O God. Command victories for Jacob. Psa 44:5 Through You we will push back our adversaries. Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. Psa 44:6 I will not trust in my bow, nor will my sword save me, Psa 44:7 but You have saved us from our adversaries, and You have put to shame those who hate us. Psa 44:8 In God we have boasted all day long, and we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.
This passage is one of confident rest, and assurance. Let go, and let God. Rest in God and let Him give the victory. Verse 6 recognises that deliverance and victory are not in human efforts but lie with God who is faithful to His written word. I had to hand an issue over to God with no foreseeable way of coming through it. It was much too big to see any deliverance. As verse 7 says, “You have saved us from our adversaries.” God did that for me, so I know the truth of those verses applying to Israel.
We will look at this passage verse by verse.
Verse 4. Confidence can claim God as King because history and experience has proven it. King and God – the King is the Leader who fights the battles, and God is overall, the all-knowing, gracious One to His people. Because, then, we can have such confidence in God, we can request God’s victory over enemies.
Verse 5. Our English bibles say that through God our adversaries will be pushed back and in the Lord’s name, we will trample down the rebellious. "Push down or push back" - The image of the original is lost in English. It is that of a buffalo or other horned animal driving back and goring its enemies. Deuteronomy 33 v 17 - "A firstborn bull - he has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth". (ESV) It applies it as a special description of the tribe of Joseph. The figure is continued in the next clause; the infuriated animal tramples its victim under foot. The language is taken from the custom of treading on a prostrate foe.
Verse 6. Sword and bow are useless. Experience has taught that to resort to man’s defences is useless, for it is God that gives the victory. Matthew Henry says it very well – “Former experiences of God's power and goodness are strong supports to faith, and powerful pleas in prayer under present calamities. The many victories Israel obtained, were not by their own strength or merit, but by God's favour and free grace.” Psalm 20 v 7 - Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (NIV).
Some of us know of Judas Maccabeus from the bible study. Here is an incident that happened when the whole Syrian army was coming to destroy Israel - 1Maccabees 3 v 16-19 “And when he came near to the going up of Bethhoron, Judas went forth to meet him with a small company: Who, when they saw the host coming to meet them, said unto Judas, “How shall we be able, being so few, to fight against so great a multitude and so strong, seeing we are ready to faint with fasting all this day?” Unto whom Judas answered, “It is no hard matter for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: For the victory of battle stands not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven.”
Can I speak with you just one on one . . . It is getting harder in the world. Trust and faith easy to slide out of, but difficult to put into practice. Do you think Gideon was faithless or faithful when he demanded a sign from the fleece. Was once enough? He needed 2.
Trust, not in the arm of flesh. God rules overall and watches out for us. We are useless. He will help us in our weakness. Cast all your care on him.
Verse 7. This is in the past tense so then it testifies to what God had already done on behalf of His people in their victory. God always goes that extra mile for His own. Our adversaries are not enemies to be killed in battle like it was in the days the psalm was written. What are our enemies? Firstly Satan who prowls around like a roaring lion, and please remember this, Satan is a created being and does not have omnipresence or omnipotence like God has. His work is carried on by a host of demons, and by ungodly people who hate Christians, and governments, which enact ungodly laws in an ungodly fashion, and even false teachers throughout the so called Christian world who hate the true gospel. They are our adversaries. Read Ephesians 6.
Verse 8. Thanks and praise ought to follow any act of the Lord. One gospel story is that of the 10 lepers who were cleansed, but only one came back to give thanks. I like the way this verse mentions “all day long” and “forever”. So should we, but we know we don’t. May we be more conscious of praise to our God.
Psalm 44 v 9 “Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonour, and do not go out with our armies. Psa 44:10 You cause us to turn back from the adversary and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. Psa 44:11 You give us as sheep to be eaten, and have scattered us among the nations. Psa 44:12 You sell Your people cheaply, and have not profited by their sale. Psa 44:13 You make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoffing and a derision to those around us. Psa 44:14 You make us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. Psa 44:15 All day long my dishonour is before me and my humiliation has overwhelmed me Psa 44:16 because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles; because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.”
Now we have a sudden change of tone. All was going well until we met a “yet” to start verse 9. The problem is, what had caused this sudden about shift? The psalmist takes on God, questioning Him as to why He had rejected them? Not only that, but he accuses God of turning them back from the enemy (fleeing, powerless), allowing defeat, and giving them as sheep to be eaten and scattered, and the people are sold out, and God has made them a byword and a laughingstock to all the nations. Nations deride them. Nations scoff at them. The psalmist is eaten up with dishonour and humiliation (v 15) because he feels the God he trusted let him down. All he can comprehend is the voice of the one who reproaches him, and reviles him and because the enemy is present there. In verse 9 the word “rejected” or “cast off/away” is the Hebrew word implying disgust and abhorrence, as the casting away of that which is loathsome. Wow, that is a lot to deal with.
Why is there a sudden shift in emphasis? There is not one word of repentance in the passage, not one word of acknowledging sin. In the Old Testament God never departed from His people when they walked in His ways and honoured Him. Their own sin is reaping the results. Do you recall the time when Saul was overwhelmed by the Philistines, and he and son Jonathon were killed and the ark captured? It was because the sin of rebellion controlled Israel. God gives defeat when His people go astray. It is never good for us when we forget God and walk outside His leading, for left to our own whims and devices, we will fail. I am reminded of that hymn “Just a closer walk with Thee”. It is what each of us needs today. Never think you have made it in the Christian life, because once you think that way, then you fail and fall.
In verse 16 it is the voice of the enemy they hear with reproach and condemnation, and that only happens when the voice of God is shut out of their hearing. Sin reaps its own reward. God is not a sugar baby who rewards misbehaviour or inconsistency. As the Great Shepherd of Israel, the rod of correction had to be used on wayward sheep. We must learn that too. Our nation must learn it or it will continue to its doom.
There are those who think that God allowed these times of difficulty to come on the people, not because of sin, but is according to what God permits. Matthew Henry says, “At such times the people of God will be ready to fear that he has cast them off, and that his name and truth will be dishonoured. But they should look above the instruments of their trouble and look to God, well knowing that their worst enemies have no power against them, but what is permitted from above.”
Psalm 44 v 17 All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant. Psa 44:18 Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way, Psa 44:19 yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
God never brought distress to Israel when they followed him. These things happen because of sin and rebellion. The remnant have not forgotten God like the others have. The remnant suffers along with the sinners. The sons of Korah were faithful to God and they see this in perspective for themselves. Verse 17 is faithful endurance and reminds us of Job who said, Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.” Again these verses represent a lament for the condition they find themselves in. The words are quite emotive such as “crushed” and one thing jackals have is extremely strong jaws where they crush they victims. In his defence, the writer was true to God as were his fellows, but what about the nation?
Psalm 44 v 20 “If we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange god, Psa 44:21 would not God find this out for He knows the secrets of the heart? Psa 44:22 But for Your sake we are killed all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
I wonder if the psalmist is not understanding the bigger picture. He was true to the Lord but the nation had forgotten god. The Old Testament gives the principle of what happens when they follow, and what happens when they rebel. Verse 22 is quoted in the New Testament - Romans 8 v 35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Rom 8:36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered,”
Psalm 44 v 23 “Arouse Yourself; why do You sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever. Psa 44:24 Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? Psa 44:25 Our soul has sunk down into the dust. Our body cleaves to the earth. Psa 44:26 Rise up, be our help and redeem us for the sake of Your loving-kindness.”
They were undone. It is depression and misery. These things also happen in the lives of Christians. They travel that path as well. Depression is a sad state and it can afflict us all. When in that state it does seem like God has forgotten or has sidelined you, but that is not true. Depression (spiritual depression) is a big subject and can’t be covered today. Draw near to God and then keep close.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
