Today I swam in the 44th Psalm, and yet again I continue to be blown away by the sovereign God who works in us. Have you read this Psalm? It reads as an unsatisfied complaint against God from one of His faithful followers. I’ll refrain from including the entire Psalm here, but I can give you a brief outline which may help. (It would actually be best if you meditated on this Psalm for a moment first)
44:1-3 – THE PSALMIST’S CONSIDERATION – He simply recalls how faithful God was to deliver his ancestors, most significantly during the days of the conquest. He’s heard numerous stories of God’s faithful deliverance of His people.
44:4-8 – THE PSALMIST’S CONFESSION – Based on what he knows about God the Psalmist has decided to make God his hope as well. He is determined to trust, and he is confident God will deliver as He has always done.
44:9-16 – THE PSALMIST’S COMPLAINT – Despite what he has heard about God and his decision to trust God, it has not turned out as he had hoped. Far from a means of deliverance, God has actually proven to be a cause of defeat. The Psalmist speaks of God’s rejection and the fact that God has given His people over to their enemies. He even mentions that God doesn’t seem to profit at all by this, yet He continues to do it anyway.
44:17-19 – THE PSALMIST’S COMMITMENT – This actually a little remarkable. The Psalmist says, “All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant?” (17) Wow! Really? So let me get this straight; you heard about how God delivers, you then committed your way to Him, and then God failed to deliver, but you’re still going to honor your commitment to Him? It ought to make us want to ask “Why?”
44:20-22 – THE PSALMIST’S CONFUSION – The Psalmist does ask “why?” Not, “why am I staying with God?” But rather, he asks, “Why God would forsake them when they have remained faithful?” (20) “If we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange god…” Then God’s displeasure would make sense. The Psalmist is confused why God would allow all this.
44:23-26 – THE PSALMIST’S CRY – “Arouse Yourself…” “Awake…” “Rise up” are the cries of the Psalmist. He wants God to step up and be the deliverer he’s always heard about.
BUT THEN THE PSALM ENDS.
There are no more stanzas. There is no final paragraph of praise where God answered and delivered, there is no sense of overwhelming peace that seems to sweep over the Psalmist in the middle of his storm. The Psalm ends with the Psalmist committed to God but confused and crying out for help. And it’s really almost a disheartening Psalm to read.
Why didn’t God deliver? Why did God give His people over like sheep to be slaughtered? And more importantly, why did this Psalmist choose to stay committed to God when God seemed to have forgotten him?
AND THERE IS THE KEY TO THIS PSALM!
Look at that Psalmist’s statement one more time.
“All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way, Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.” (17-19)
Now ask the question again: Why are you staying so committed to a God who doesn’t seem committed to you? Why have you not forgotten God, why have you not dealt falsely with His covenant, why has your heart not turned back, why have you not deviated from His way? The answer to that question is actually given several hundred years later when the apostle Paul picks up his pen and finishes the Psalm.
Let’s add one more point to the outline.
THE PSALMIST’S CONVICTION (found in Romans 8:36-39)
“Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:36-39)
If you’ll notice, Paul just finished the Psalm. Yes God is allowing us to suffer and even be put to death, BUT…
“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” What does that mean? It does not mean that at last God has given the intervention that the Psalmist begged for. It does not mean that God has now decided to overthrow the enemy and set His people in the physical safety for which they long. That is not what Paul means by “overwhelmingly conquer”. What Paul does mean is that despite all the adversity, despite all the persecution, despite going through life like a sheep to be slaughtered (c.f. 1 Cor. 4:8-13; 2 Cor. 4:7-12), despite all the affliction and pain and suffering – HIS FAITH DOES NOT FAIL! None of those things have ever been able to make Paul stop loving God. None of those things has ever been able to make Paul turn away from God. None of those things has been able to “separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is to say, none of those things has been able to cause him to stop loving God because the love He has for God is a divine and supernatural love granted to Him through Christ (Romans 5:5). In the heart of every believer rests the same love that Jesus has for the Father, it is a love that Has been poured into us by the Holy Spirit, and it is a love that never fails even in the midst of the most confusing persecution.
Now do you understand Psalm 44? At first glance it sounds like a complaint from a faithful saint towards an unfaithful God, but that is not what it is at all. It is actually a tremendous testimony to the doctrine we call “The Perseverance of the Saints” or “The Preservation of the Saints”. Despite the hardship, despite the circumstances, despite the lack of deliverance this Psalmist’s faith never wavered. Why? Because the faith God had given him overwhelmingly conquers and cannot fail. This Psalmist didn’t turn away because He couldn’t turn away, the faith inside him was supernatural, it was a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8).
Now listen to Peter:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3-9)
Peter is reiterating the same truth that is on display in Psalm 44. Namely that God should be praised because He has granted us a faith which does not falter during trials, but is instead proven powerful in the midst of trials. This faith is indeed more precious than gold! To be certain it is precious because it does not fail, but it is also precious because it produces the salvation of our souls. That is why Peter said that we are actually “protected by the power of God” through this faith which He has given us. (a faith which we “received” 2 Peter 1:1)
Consider Job. Was not this the entire argument between God and Satan? That if God would remove favorable circumstances from Job and would replace them with unfavorable ones that Job would most certainly turn on God (Job 1:6-12). But Job didn’t. Instead Job worshiped (Job 1:20-22), and Job remained (Job 2:9-10). Did he question? Yes. Was he confused? Yes. So is the Psalmist. But Job did not turn against God and Satan was proven wrong. The verdict was solid. The faith which God grants to those whom He redeems is a faith which will overwhelmingly conquer in all manner of affliction. It will not fail no matter the circumstances. As Paul said it will not fail in the midst of “death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing.” (Romans 8:39).
Oh Christian rejoice in this! O Christian praise God for this! God has granted us a faith which will endure no matter the trial! Job’s did, Paul’s did, and the Psalmist’s did! “All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.” What a blessing!
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite statements from any confession or creed in all of the history of the church. It comes from the Westminster Confession and it is an excerpt from Chapter XVII entitled “Of The Perseverance of the Saints”. It eloquently expresses exactly what this Psalm is teaching.
I. They, whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.[1]
II. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father;[2] upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ,[3] the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them,[4] and the nature of the covenant of grace:[5] from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof.[6]
REJOICE!!!
Grace to You!
Bro. Rory
