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PSALM 44 (Amplified Version)
To the chief musician…. A Psalm
of the sons of Korah, or a didactic or reflective poem.
1.We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what
work You did in their days, in the days of old.
2.You drove out the nations with Your hand and it was Your power
that gave Israel a home by rooting out the (heathen) peoples, but
Israel, You spread out.
3.For they got not the land of Canaan in possession by their own
sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand and
Your arm and the light of Your countenance did it, because You were
favourable toward and did delight in them.
4.You are my King, O God; command victories and deliverance for Jacob
(Israel).
5.Through You shall we push down our enemies; through Your name shall
we tread them under who rise up against us.
6.For I will not trust in and lean on my bow, neither shall my sword
save me.
7.But You have saved us from our foes and have put them to shame
who hate us.
8.In God we have made our boast all the day long, and we will give
thanks to Your name forever. Selah (pause and calmly think on that)
9.But now You have cast us off and brought us to dishonour, and You
go not out with our armies.
10.You make us turn back from the enemy, and they who hate us take
spoil for themselves.
11.You have made us like sheep intended for mutton and have scattered
us in exile among the nations.
12.You sell Your people for nothing, and have not increased Your
wealth by their price.
13.You have made us the taunt of our neighbours, a scoffing and a
derision to those who are round about us.
14.You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the heads
among the people.
15.My dishonour is before me all day long, and shame has covered
my face
16.At the words of the taunter and reviler, by reason of the enemy
and the revengeful
17.All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten You, neither
have we been false to Your covenant (which You made with our Fathers)
18.Our hearts are not turned back, neither have our steps declined
from Your path,
19.Though You have distressingly broken us in the place of the jackals
and covered us with the deep darkness, even with the shadow of death
20.If we had forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands
to a strange god,
21.Would not God discover this? For He knows the secrets of the heart,
22.No, but for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter.
23.Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arouse Yourself, cast us not
off forever!
24.Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25.For our lives are bowed down to the dust; our bodies cleave to
the ground.
26.Rise up! Come to our help, and deliver us for Your mercy’s sake
and because of Your steadfast love!
Now I know that this is a HUGE Psalm to try
and cover in one week, but I really felt that because of the nature
of this particular Psalm, we need to see it in its entirety.The title
is similar to the 42nd Psalm… to the chief musician… the sons of
Korah… The Hebrew title is Maschil…meaning - instruction…
The beginning of this Psalm is so very wonderful… describing the
power of a rich spiritual heritage. That the sons of Korah were talking
of the wonder of God, as they’d been beautifully told from those
who had gone before them.
Ever describing the faithfulness and power of God… that God alone
drove out the ungodly, that His mighty arm was ever working in their
defence. Furthermore, and I LOVE this thought, that as we spoke about
a couple of weeks ago,the light of His countenance on the people
of God was also a major contributing factor to the deliverance for
Israel. The Word continues saying that the FAVOUR of God, and His
passion to delight in His people…were also significant, obvious factors
in these times of triumph. The forerunners of these times speak about
the splendour of God in quite an expressive way… My King… My God….’listen
to me sons… (and daughters)…. He won the victory again and again… He
delivered us again and again from our enemies… only through Him could
we tread on those who came against us’…. Can you hear it???
Only last night at Connect group were Macca and I talking about this
particular subject… handing on all we’ve seen and heard of the faithfulness
and character of the Lord WELL so that those coming behind us will
already be confident in their knowledge of the faithfulness of God.
All of you need to remember that your language needs to be filled
with stories of His faithful hand on your life… speak it to your
spouse, speak it to your children, nieces and nephews, those entrusted
into your circle of influence…. It is indeed a beautiful thing, to
look back, and even through the hardest times, to see the footprints
of God over your history… calling you into your future.
Verse 6 says that we will not trust in my ‘bow or my sword’… but
we WILL boast in the name of our God and trust in His power forever
and ever. When I was reading this… I was also thinking about gifts
and talents, natural ability etc… as we can all rely on natural gifting
WAY TOO MUCH when it comes to the things of God. You need to STEP
out of the natural…and get out on the water again, out of the boat
to the journey of Faith…for in this land of the unseen, you NEED
HIM to come through…I Love it!!!!
Verse 8 boasts in the Lord, and asks us to do this continually, AND
asks us to pause and take a moment to reflect on Gods hand on our
lives….. why don’t you do that right now.
At this point, the Psalm takes a serious dive…. and the Psalmist
starts to compare the past glories they had experienced as a nation,to
the present sadness and distress they were experiencing. It seemed
that God had withdrawn his support… and if the Lord is not with you… how
can you possibly go forward?As a nation, defeat leaves them in turmoil,
they became vulnerable to every evil… and as you hear from the Psalm,
the news is not good.
In our own spiritual journey, the very same fruit can be expected
when you are not walking under the covering of God… first doubt comes,
then you start to feed insecurities, you find your hope slipping,
suddenly the negative bent on life becomes your confession… the enemy
licks his lips as he watches you spiral downward into a serious funk
which at the time feels impossible to climb out of.
It appeared to the writer that God himself had given up the people
like sheep to be slaughtered…. in this day, many WERE carried off
into captivity, far from any place of worship where their hearts
longed to be. This was an extremely devastating place for a nation
to find itself in, and the Psalmist goes to God again and again….
Israel must look to her God alone, and not her own strength.
To be honest, my heart totally breaks for these writers… their anguish
too much to bear.If you look beyond the immediate writings however,
you will see the Psalmist HANGING on to what he knows to be the truth
of his Lord… and I pray you’ll all learn this lesson in life very
quickly… despite what we see…… despite how it feels… when the weight
of crisis is crushing all your breath from you -GOD HE REIGNS… and
may I add….. completely LOVES YOU.
To finish up, a bold appeal is then made to the sovereignty of God…He
is asked to search their hearts.. for He and He alone knows the secrets
of the heart. The heart of man needs such constant care .. it can
so easily start to forget the truth.. then embrace the false.
They cry out…’why have You forgotten us…where are you…??’Have you
ever prayed this????I remember praying it again and again when my
dad was dying… and on the day he did die, I was so overwhelmed that
my prayer, I thought at the time, was ignored in heaven. Such a journey
of faith…..
Verse 26 says.. Arise…help!!! a short, accurate, desperate plea….
Such a depth of misery, in fact, in these times, when great sorrow
overtook a man, he would lay prostrate and grovelling on the ground,
a posture of humbling himself before the Lord again.
It is at times like these that you need to know where your help comes
from, despite all you can see in the natural, and as you see in this
Psalm, easier said than done…. But I love the words of Shadrach,
Meshak and Abednigo…. God WILL deliver us… BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT…we
will not bow to any other God!!!!
Learn the lesson lovely people, Gods word is the ultimate TRUTH… whether
you feel it, see it, or not.
Love you so, we are going to have the most powerful weekend ever…..
Love the Lord with ALL you are… Darls |
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