#724 What Gives?

O God, we have heard with our ears,

our fathers have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

in the days of old:

2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,

but them you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

but them you set free;

3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm save them,

but your right hand and your arm,

and the light of your face,

for you delighted in them.

4 You are my King, O God;

ordain salvation for Jacob!

5 Through you we push down our foes;

through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.

6 For not in my bow do I trust,

nor can my sword save me.

7 But you have saved us from our foes

and have put to shame those who hate us.

8 In God we have boasted continually,

and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us

and have not gone out with our armies.

10 You have made us turn back from the foe,

and those who hate us have gotten spoil.

11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter

and have scattered us among the nations.

12 You have sold your people for a trifle,

demanding no high price for them.

13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,

the derision and scorn of those around us.

14 You have made us a byword among the nations,

a laughingstock among the peoples.

15 All day long my disgrace is before me,

and shame has covered my face

16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,

at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

17 All this has come upon us,

though we have not forgotten you,

and we have not been false to your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned back,

nor have our steps departed from your way;

19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals

and covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God

or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

21 would not God discover this?

For he knows the secrets of the heart.

22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?

Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!

24 Why do you hide your face?

Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;

our belly clings to the ground.

26 Rise up; come to our help!

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! Psalm 44 ESV

Some today will say that history is of little value, as if the people that came before them were inferior to them. According to God's word there is a blessing in delighting in the law of the Lord, and we are also instructed to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, because they rightly divide the word of truth. So much of the Bible is historical recount of men, the fall and the resulting relationship to God. There is then the responsibility of each generation to teach their children the word of God and therefore It's history, knowing that God is before all things, eternal, and that all His great and marvelous attributes are eternal with Him. When there is a question regarding our present struggle or what God says, then we must look at the letter that He has left us. No great doctrine is held by any particular church as subject to them or through them. Your opinion does not matter, nor mine, nor any culture, but only what God said, and that may be read in His word. This song recounts Israel's relationship to God in the past, and is prayed upward by those trying to reconcile the present. It is still the same God, He is still sovereign, and so, Dear God, help us to understand.

We have heard - Their fathers have faithfully taught them how they came to be in the land, that this started with a promise given to Abram, who God called Abraham, as he would become the father of this great nation. 

What deeds You performed - Their inheritance, being freed from Egypt, coming into a hostile territory that was already inhabited, and taking possession of the land, was a result of God's unilateral covenant with Abraham, His plan, His work.

Your own hand drove - Israel was not a nation in Egypt, and when they left Egypt they were not a well trained force. We inherit the promise by faith, but this was also given to that remnant who believed, not in their own strength, for that was not there. It was not a blind faith either, for time and again God proved Himself above Pharaohs, kings, nature, hunger and thirst. He supplied their every need, even drove out their enemies from before them. They had good reason to trust that God was able to accomplish what He said, but seeing what He did to those nations, they also had good reason to obey His laws and come to hate what He abhorred. 

I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove out the two Amorite kings before you, but not by your own sword or bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities that you did not build, and now you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ Joshua 24: 12-13

But them You set free - 

5“Do you not know what they are?” replied the angel. “No, my lord,” I answered. 6So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,says the LORD of Hosts. 7What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”… Zechariah 4: 5-7

It was not by Israel's deeds, nor for their lack of sin, and they did not have the power or even the will to be set free. They whined and complained, even to the point of wishing to return to captivity. No one figures out a way for themselves; there is no way to be right with God that is found in ourselves. 

15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”… Romans 9: 15-17

The scriptures stand that whom the Son sets free shall be free indeed. Even the greatest warriors of those time did not make themselves, the beauty of the mind is not created by man, everything that we use and learn about in this life belongs to God. Where will you put your trust? Money becomes worthless, youth disappears, relationships fail, everyone dies. No man knows everything, everyone knows a very little bit about a part, and it is all combined to form one microscopic fragment for man to hold up against the cosmos. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and so we pause, Selah.

Selah: “A pause comes in fitly here, when we are about to descend from the highest to the lowest key. No longer are we to hear Miriam’s timbrel, but rather Rachel’s weeping.” (Spurgeon)

The transition, the case laid out, and if we take the first part of the Psalm it is a wonderful praise to our God, recognition of the relationship of God to their forefathers. If we credit these things to His hand going out before them, the rustling of the branches, God's blessing, then this next part is a very respectful, "what gives?"

But You have rejected us - If our success belongs to You, who we are, our being set apart among the nations is Your work, then surely our demise does not escape Your notice either. If I compare the present circumstances to past glories, then I feel abandoned. 

You have made us turn back from the foe - Again he says, You, and this theme will continue. The Psalmist has, I dare not say "tripped" upon, but in regard to his own wrestling and understanding, what seems a great secret to so many others, that God is in control, he is yet aware. So he wonders, where are You when we go out to battle?

Like sheep for the slaughter - I wonder in adversity, is this all You have for me, why do the wicked prosper? Those that look on hear from my own mouth that You are my God, and yet this is the glory of it that they see, that I am like fodder before the arrows of my enemies. I work only to have another take it away. I am a byword and they speak of You in no honorable fashion either, that this God hates His own people. What kind of a God would do this to His chosen?

6And in another passage God says: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” 7During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 8Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered.…Hebrews 5: 6-8

Not been false to Your covenant - We are all, even those of the covenant, in a fallen state. We are all transgressors of the law, practitioners of sin whether outwardly or hidden in our hearts. The Psalmist can look around and say of Israel, we have not forgotten You, Oh God, we have searched and there are no idols in the land, we are trying to live by Your law. It is a difficult place to be in, that those around us do not serve the living God, yet for them our names are a byword, our God is a curse word, they do well in this temporal, but we struggle. 

Yet for Your sake - This seems to imply that some of their present suffering is due to their loyalty to the only true God. This is the threshing floor, and it is easy for men to be pleased with religion when all is blowing their way, but when the winds change and the culture is not conducive, they are easily swept away. The song writer contends that they have remained faithful despite all this. Having everything go my way and without contention here may not so well prepare me for what cannot be measured. Those that stand fast upon God's word may find themselves at odds with all the world, but what is the world to gain since it is fading, but show me a greater loss than eternity, to what will you marry your soul, that which is made, or Him Who made all? 

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will fall down and worship me.” 10“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus declared. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”…Matthew 4: 8-10

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.…Romans 8: 35-37

Redeem us for the sake of Your steadfast love - We should pray, struggle, wrestle with God in our hearts, for there is no other way to be than honest with Him, He knows all things. Ask that He search our hearts, give us victory over the thing which keeps us so far away. Men are quick to perform in front of other men, to practice at their own definition of religion, but God knows the heart and end the end we must appeal to His steadfast love.