This feels like two Psalms. Verses 1- 8 make me want to shout glory and amen. Verses 9-26 make me want to yell, NO, shut up, liars. Haven’t you read the real history of your people? Can’t you see yourselves even now? How can you say those things when they are so offensive to my God, the only one who can rescue you? Get on your knees and confess, don’t throw God under the bus with lies and slander against the One who never slumbers.
But God included this in His book. God wants me to learn from this Psalm. God is revealing His merciful, loving self, Yahweh (Jehovah) even through these words and I can learn something of humility too and maybe even a bit of hope in my pride and self deception.
So the easy part first: we begin with a God of love in verse 3 and we end with a God of unfailing love in verse 26. So somewhere in between we are likely to discover evidence of a loving God. I admit to liking the search in verses 1-8 because there my work is easy and pleasant and full of courage and bravado. But I confess that I’m struggling to see the revelation as clearly in verses 9-26. Dialogue is good. These exiles (exiled from their land and living under a foreign king, temple singers with no temple) are writing this Psalm about 450 years later than David wrote his Psalms. And they have received their information from their ancestors.
v.1 O God, we have heard it with our own ears—
our ancestors have told us
of all you did in their day,
in days long ago:
Since true eye witnesses have been long dead, this must be referring to the sons of Korah reading and singing the scriptures. In the five books of Moses the mighty acts of God would have been recorded and shared from generation to generation, even though we know at times they were completely lost and had to be rediscovered. I’m quite sure it is the image of God’s shining face with Moses that is being referred to in v.3 “blinding light from your face”.
And we also read in this Psalm of the love God had for His people. And these faithful singers in exile far from the destroyed city and temple want to claim the same promises as Moses and David and so they say,
v.3…for you loved them.
4 You are my King and my God.
Main Point: No matter the complexity of your relationship with God or even your misconceptions about some of God’s works or your position, you can be confident that God is loving and you can appeal to His love when you call him King and God.
Since this is a christology of the Psalms, I am trying to teach my own heart. I want to start with the low hanging fruit. Christ is the King of kings and He is God. So what has “my King and my God” done that the ancestors of old have recorded?
My King and my God is making a place for me
v.2 “You drove out the pagan nations by your power and gave all the land to our ancestors.”
John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Three is so much more to be said about God making a place for those He loves.
My King and my God is crushing my enemies and setting me free.
vv.2-3 “You crushed their enemies and set our ancestors free. 3They did not conquer the land with their swords; it was not their own strong arm that gave them victory. It was your right hand and strong arm”
“3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Interesting how closely these theme is to that of Psalms 44, God is the one who wins the battle.
I’m sorry heart, I want to explore this Psalm more and untwist the revelation of your love that is hidden under the seemingly slanderous words but I’ve run out of time this morning and I’m a chicken and I am happy to stop with what I have. I’ll let a future me or someone else discover the riches of your love in the depths of Psalms 44:9-26.
Conclusion:
I’m a wimp. But I have a great loving King and God who is mine and who wins victories completely because of His gracious loving kindness. That’s enough for me today, and I think it was enough for the sons of Korah the day they cried out for help too.
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| Handwritten Psalm 44 |
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