Psalm 44:9-26 (NIV)
9 But now you have rejected and humbled us;
you no longer go out with our armies.
10 You made us retreat before the enemy,
and our adversaries have plundered us.
11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for a pittance,
gaining nothing from their sale.
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long,
and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
17 All this came upon us,
though we had not forgotten you;
we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back;
our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
you covered us over with deep darkness.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
25 We are brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us;
rescue us because of your unfailing love.
What a contrast to yesterday. After remembering God's provision in the past, the Psalmist is now burdened by the present. This passage is filled with words of suffering, persecution, and abandonment.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
"We had not forgotten you;
we had not been false to your covenant.
Our hearts had not turned back;
our feet had not strayed from your path."
How could this happen to God's chosen people? Where is God?
Can you relate?
Then a glimpse of an answer, "Yet for your sake we face death all day long."
Paul, the apostle, quotes this very passage in Romans. Like the Psalmist, Paul was obedient to God and didn't turn away from Him under duress. Unlike the Psalmist, Paul was able to rejoice in the midst of the suffering.
Read Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered 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 convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sisters, can you imagine being MORE than a conqueror? Conqueror to the third power. Conqueror super-sized. Conqueror and then some. How about being MORE than a conqueror in ALL circumstances?
That's the power of God's love through Jesus Christ from which we are NEVER separated.
Do I hear an Amen?!?!?!