September 3

Photo by hessam nabavi on Unsplash

Psalm 44

Psalm 44 is the cry of someone who is suffering, but who cannot look back and see any reason for it. When you are in this situation, remember this most basic point; imitate this most basic action of the psalmist: he cries out to God.

He “reminds” God of how he and his people had remembered what God did before, in afflicting his people in Egypt, but then releasing them (1-3). Then he “reminds” God that all they had done was by faith in God (4-8), for God alone is their true King (4). Their only boast has been not in themselves, but in Him (8).

Then the Selah, which seems to mean a musical pause, with meaning. We might pause here too, and ask, Is anyone righteous like that? Yes, in the Old Testament sense that there were sins, and then “high-handed” sins. The psalmist and his people are not perfect, but they’re not guilty of high-handed rebellion against God.

Yet the psalmist feels rejected, as if God is treating them as though they are high-handed rebels (9). Once again, note that the psalmist tells God this. In this sense he is very much like Job. Bad things have been happening to blameless people, and it is confusing. We only know this was psalm of the “Sons of Korah” (see the heading), the line of men who served under David for worship after the ark came to Jerusalem (1 Chron. 6:31-33). Perhaps this was written after the Babylonian exile, by those who had remained faithful even while the rest of Judah declined into idolatry.

Regardless, this psalm should instruct our own expectations, here on the other side of the cross. Paul will later pick up v. 22 and apply it to all of God’s people (Romans 8:36). Psalm 44 is the normal experience of those who faithfully follow the King. We “fill up the afflictions of Christ” (Col. 1:24). We are “living sacrifices” (Rom. 12:1, 1 Peter 2:5).

The cross and the empty tomb answer the plea of Psalm 44:26: in all our suffering, Romans 8:37-39 remains true. He has risen up. He has redeemed us, is redeeming us, and will redeem us, in love, making us rise again with him.