The Faith That Perseveres
Psalms 44
August 4, 2019
Most of us have lived long enough in this world
That we understand the reality of suffering.
Most of us have walked through things that are very difficult and most of us even realize that this life promises that more difficulty is likely on the way.
• We know the truths about suffering.
• We know about the fall, we know about the curse.
• We know that God also uses suffering to produce sanctification in us.
• We’ve all swam in Hebrews 12 where we learned that “all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
We’ve learned that.
• We’ve listened as James told us to “count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
This life has a way of teaching us the realities of suffering.
And even in a place like America
Where we almost make an idol out of comfort suffering still reaches us.
• You can air condition your home…
• You can insure everything you own…
• You can faithfully get medical checkups and preventative treatments…
• You can eat right and exercise…
• You can plan for the future and save and build your retirement…
• You can live carefully and not take risks so as not to find yourself in pain…
You can be very committed to your own personal comfort
And still suffering will find you.
GOD HAS DETERMINED FOR IT TO BE SO.
And the longer you live the more aware of that truth you become.
But one truth I don’t think we are as familiar with in America
IS THE TRUTH REGARDING PERSECUTION.
We all understand suffering.
I’m not sure we all understand persecution.
And yet this is also a promise from our Lord.
Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Jesus told the disciples on the night before He died:
John 15:18-21 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘ A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
John 16:1-4 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
And of course a study of their lives clearly bears this out.
• James (the brother of John) was the first to go, having been beheaded by Herod.
• Andrew, Peter, Philip, Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot were all crucified. (Andrew on an X, Peter upside down)
• Matthew, Thomas, and Bartholomew were all stabbed
• The other James was clubbed to death
• John lived the longest, but was exiled in prison to Patmos
Point being, they were all heavily persecuted and even martyred.
Paul echoed this reality.
1 Corinthians 4:9-13 “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.”
And again:
2 Corinthians 4:8-11 “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
They were rejected men.
They were persecuted men.
Paul himself gave his own personal list of suffering when he wrote:
2 Corinthians 11:24-27 “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”
Tradition teaches that PAUL would eventually meet his death in Rome
Where he was BEHEADED.
PERSECUTION IS REAL.
And that is also the backdrop behind Psalms 44.
It is not a Psalm simply about suffering,
It is a Psalm about being persecuted.
(22) “But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
And while none of us greatly enjoys suffering,
Persecution holds an even greater anxiety for us.
(Namely because most of us have never experienced it on a physical level.)
Make no mistake all true believers are persecuted.
• The Bible promises that.
But most of the time our persecution comes in the form of gossip
Or slander or social exile or something like that.
But not many in America have suffered like the Psalmist indicates.
“killed all day long…considered as sheep to be slaughtered”
And because it is foreign to us,
It presents with it a certain type of anxiety.
Namely: COULD I HANDLE IT?
• If men started attacking me and physically beating me, could I endure?
• If I faced death for my faith, could I persevere?
• If I was forced to witness the murder of my family or friends, could I stand strong?
And the answer is that on your own…NO, YOU COULDN’T.
(Let’s not fall into the trap of Peter boldly promising to die with Jesus)
The human condition doesn’t have that kind of strength.
But we have routinely said that the faith which we have is supernatural.
It did not originate with us; it was a gift from God.
It is a faith from God that God promises will endure no matter the trial.
If you’ll let me first give you the theology
Then we’ll look next at the illustration which is Psalms 44.
Here’s the theology:
1 Peter 1:3-9 “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.”
Peter there reminds those he writes to that
Their salvation and their eternal hope are secure.
The inheritance is described
• By words like “imperishable”, “undefiled”, “reserved”
And we are spoken of
• By words like “protected”
And in that passage Peter reminds that all suffering will do to a believer
Is prove just how strong their faith actually is.
(Think of Job here)
And Peter says that this faith which God gives is so strong
That even though it is tested by fire it will “result in
Praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
THAT IS TO SAY, IT’S GOING TO LAST.
• The faith God gives will stand.
• The faith God gives will endure.
• The faith God gives will persevere.
That is the promise.
You will stand.
Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,”
And that is the truth that is reiterated in the 44th Psalm.
It is a picture of a man who should have defected,
But for some reason he did not.
That reason is because the faith God grants perseveres.
There are 6 points.
#1 HIS CONSIDERATION
Psalms 44:1-3
Here we simply see that this man is more than aware
Of God’s track record for having been a deliverance for His people.
That is to say, this man was well versed
In those famous Bible Stories of God’s deliverance.
He says, “O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old.”
That brings to our mind all of those Bible Stories we learned as children.
• We remember David and Goliath
• We remember those 3 Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace.
• We remember Daniel in the lion’s den.
• We remember Gideon
• We remember Samson
We’re familiar with the stories.
So is our writer.
But more than that, he has a specific story in mind,
And that story is the story of JOSHUA AND THE CONQUEST.
(2) “You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You spread them abroad.”
He is remembering the miraculous stories
Of how God gave the Promised Land to the children of Israel.
Do you remember those stories?
TURN TO: JOSHUA 6
Remember how the Children of Israel approached the great walled city of Jericho?
(READ 6:1-5)
• That’s not much of a battle plan, and yet God caused it to succeed.
Then of course they battled Ai and lost because Achan had taken some of the spoil from Jericho, but once he was dealt with listen to what God told Joshua:
(READ 8:1) – “I have given into your hand the king of Ai”
• And God did.
• The men approached, faked a retreat
• When the men of Ai pursued, those lying in wait went in and burned the city
Then came the city of Jerusalem
(READ 10:1-11) – “there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword”
• God was doing it.
Then came the Amorites
(READ 10:12-14) – “the sun stopped in the middle of the sky”
And we could go on and on about the miraculous work of God
As the children took the land.
And that is what the writer of Psalms 44 reveals in verse 3.
(3) “For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.”
Very simply put the Psalmist knows God’s track record
To deliver those whom He favors.
He remembers all those stories of God’s providence
And miraculous intervention on behalf of His people.
That is on his mind.
• See that first.
• He knows what God is capable of.
That leads to the 2nd point.
#2 HIS CONFESSION
Psalms 44:4-8
Well based upon who God has proven himself to be,
You can see our Psalmist filled with faith and confidence.
It is both a request and an expectation.
It is a boast in the greatness and power of God.
(5) “Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us”
(8) “In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah”
You can feel his confidence can’t you?
You can feel his faith.
And it’s NOT that our Psalmist is proud or boastful.
His humility is right on.
(6) “For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me.”
His theology is right on.
(8) “In God we have boasted all day long”
This is simply a man who heard who God was
And is now trusting God to be that for him.
And then we even get that infamous “Selah”
Which can be a pause or a musical interlude or even a crescendo.
I think the crescendo fits here really well.
• The song writer just sang a bold claim about the power and goodness of God.
• The song writer just boasted of the great victory.
• You can hear the music build in power.
And for the sake of our Psalm I simply want you to see this:
• He knows God is a God who delivers His people.
• He fully expects God to deliver Him.
You can see that.
#3 HIS COMPLAINT
Psalms 44:9-16
Well, almost out of nowhere the song comes back down to earth.
The height of confidence
Is met with disappointment and confusion.
WE EXPECTED DELIVERANCE…
(9) “Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor, And do not go out with our armies.”
Remember in verse 3 he reminded that God delivered their fathers
Because he “favored them.”
And now we find the Psalmist laments that God “rejected us”
You’re seeing his dilemma.
• You favored them and thus their enemies were scattered.
• Our enemies have prevailed so You must have rejected us.
The Psalmist continues:
(10-16) “You cause us to turn back from the adversary; And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You give us as sheep to be eaten And have scattered us among the nations. You sell Your people cheaply, And have not profited by their sale. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those around us. You make us a byword among the nations, A laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my dishonor is before me And my humiliation has overwhelmed me, Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.”
And notice the emphasis here on the fact that God is the One who did it.
He doesn’t speak of what the enemy has done,
He speaks of what God has done.
• (10) “You cause…”
• (11) “You give us…”
• (12) “You sell…”
• (13) “You make…”
• (14) “You make…”
He sees that God has sovereignly ordained that
When they go out into battle, not only do they lose,
But they are mocked when they lose.
And the UTTER COMPLAINT in this is that
IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE THERE IS ANY BENEFIT IN IT AT ALL.
(12) “You sell Your people cheaply, and have not profited by their sale.”
Wow, what a statement.
• It would be one thing if our death was for a great purpose.
• It would be one thing if our suffering meant something.
But this Psalmist can’t see that any benefit is coming
From the sale of God’s people.
All that is coming out of this is scoffing and derision and laughing
And dishonor and reproaches and reviling.
There is no benefit coming out of this at all.
In short, to the Psalmist, this suffering doesn’t make sense.
It reminds a little of JOSHUA’S COMPLAINT after the children of Israel lost to Ai.
TURN TO: JOSHUA 7:1-15
We see Joshua’s confusion.
Well at least in that story God answered the reason behind it.
Achan had sinned.
But here the Psalmist is given no such explanation.
It doesn’t make sense to him.
• There is no explanation…
• There is no benefit…
• THIS FEELS LIKE WASTED SUFFERING
• THIS FEELS LIKE POINTLESS PERSECUTION
DO YOU SEE THAT?
From a human standpoint and by human logic
This is unexplainable suffering and defeat.
Our Psalmist cannot find a silver lining.
Our Psalmist cannot find a reason.
AND THAT IS HIS COMPLAINT.
Our suffering can be justified when we see the benefit of it,
But when we can’t see the benefit
Is when we are most prone to complain.
So follow the flow of the song.
• The Psalmist knows that God is more than capable of delivering.
• And because of that he is confident that God will deliver him.
• But then we find that for no apparent reason, God has not delivered.
And here is where our faith gets tested.
Here is where we have a decision to make.
What are you going to do?
• Are you going to defect?
• Are you going to renounce God?
• Are you going to leave because you didn’t see what you were hoping for?
Well let me show you what the Psalmist did:
#4 HIS COMMITMENT
Psalms 44:17-19
The Psalmist determined that
Even though he did not understand the outcome
He was not going to stop trusting God.
(17-18) “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.”
The Psalmist said – WE STAYED
We had absolutely nothing of sight to validate our faith,
But we kept it anyway.
IN FACT, in the midst of our faith all we received was more rejection.
(19) “Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals And covered us with the shadow of death.”
And that is remarkable.
• The Psalmist knows God can deliver.
• He even expected God to deliver.
But God didn’t.
• God gave them over to their enemies.
Regardless of this, the Psalmist decided to remain committed to God.
• And God rewarded that commitment with more suffering; with more persecution.
It’s the old adage,
“Cheer up, it could be worse. So I cheered up and it got worse.”
BUT DO YOU SEE THE FAITH OF THE PSALMIST?
Regardless of the outcome, his faith is not failing.
At camp this past week Austin Duncan shared a story
About a missionary named William Borden.
I had never heard of him before, but apparently he is quite famous.
• William Borden was born to a rich family and at his family’s request he studied
and graduated from Yale.
• But after graduation he left his fortune behind to sale to China on the mission
field.
• He stopped on his way there in Egypt so that he might learn Arabic and be
better equipped to witness to Muslims.
• But 1 month after landing in Egypt he contracted meningitis and died at the
age of 25.
• He was a young man who turned his back on everything this world had to offer
in order to serve the Lord, and it cost him everything before it would appear
that he accomplished anything.
• Austin Duncan told his story and spoke of how when his mother came to bury
him she had a single phrase etched on his grave stone.
It said, “Apart from Christ there is no explanation for such a life.”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2017/february/forgotten-final-resting-place-of-william-borden.html
We could say the same of our Psalmist here in this Psalm.
There is no human reason for why someone would keep the faith
When the faith never seems to pay off.
• All our Psalmist has to go by are some ancient stories of God’s power which he has never seen manifest in his life.
• There is no human reason why our Psalmist should endure unless his faith is in fact a supernatural enduring faith.
• Apart from Christ there is no explanation for such endurance.
BUT THERE IT IS.
YOU SEE HIS COMMITMENT.
His Consideration, His Confession, His Complaint, His Commitment
#5 HIS CONFUSION
Psalms 44:20-22
The Psalmist has already determined to stand strong.
The singer has already decided to endure.
But that does not mean he understands.
Notice his confusion
(20-22) “If we had forgotten the name of our God Or extended our hands to a strange god, Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Here our Psalmist takes inventory.
You know Joshua couldn’t figure out why God let them lose to Ai,
But it was because of a sin in the camp.
So the Psalmist takes inventory as well.
• Did we forget God? No
• Did we worship a strange god? No
And God knows this. He knows the secrets of the heart.
• God knows we’ve been faithful.
• God knows we have not defected from Him.
• God knows we have not fallen into idolatry.
And yet, despite our faithfulness, God is not delivering.
In fact, we read (22) “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
That is to say,
“On account of You…On account of our faith…We just die”
They don’t value our lives any more than they do a sacrificial animal
That is bred and born only to die upon the altar.
Here it is:
OUR FAITH IN YOU HAS NOT YIELDED
ONE SINGLE EARTHLY BENEFIT.
Let that sink in for a moment.
• In a day when men are far more concerned about what they can get from God than what they give to Him.
• In a day where God has taken the form of servant genie rather than Sovereign God.
• We live in a day when if God doesn’t immediately give us what we want, we run to someone who will.
Men who do that indicate that their faith is not genuine.
Men who do that indicate that they really have no faith at all.
They don’t love God
They don’t desire God
They don’t trust God
They simply seek to use God and if that is unsuccessful they quit.
BUT OUR PSALMIST DID NOT.
• Trusting God has not yielded one single earthly benefit.
• Trusting God has only resulted in ridicule, suffering, and death.
And yet, the Psalmist is committed.
That is enduring faith isn’t it?
AND NOTICE, even in his request, he does not defect to another God.
Even in his suffering he maintains a commitment to God.
#6 HIS CRY
Psalms 44:23-26
You see that don’t you?
HE’S NOT LEAVING.
• He wants deliverance to be sure.
• He wants protection to be certain.
• He doesn’t understand why God isn’t delivering.
• BUT HE ISN’T LEAVING
In fact He still trusts in God’s CHECED
(26) “Rise up, be our help, and redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.”
SO THE TEMPTATION in reading this Psalm is to read it
And praise this Psalmist for his great faith even when God is silent.
The temptation is to lift him up as a poster child
And tell all other believers, you need to have faith like this Psalmist did.
THAT IS THE WRONG MESSAGE
This is not a story about the great faith of the Psalmist.
This is a story about the faith that God grants to His children.
• GOD WAS HELPING THIS PSALMIST
• GOD WAS INTERVENING ON HIS BEHALF
• GOD GRANTED THIS PSALMIST FAITH IN THE MIDST OF HIS TRIALS
• GOD GRANTED THIS MAN ENDURANCE IN THE MIDST OF DEATH
Otherwise this man would not have endured.
He had a supernatural faith, which was a gift from God
And this is why he was able to endure.
NOW LET ME PROVE IT:
TURN TO: ROMANS 8:35-39
You see there the question. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”
Now, that question DOES NOT MEAN, “Who will make Christ stop loving us?”
That is NOT what Paul is asking.
If that were so the list might say, “Will sin or defection or immorality or lack of giving or lack of prayer?”
That would be a list of things
That might make us think Christ would quit loving us.
But that’s not what Paul is talking about.
Paul IS ASKING is there anything that can cause us to quit loving Christ?
And that is why the list goes like this: “Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Can any of those things cause one of Christ’s redeemed
To turn on Him and quit loving Him?
After all: (36) “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.”
You recognize that verse. That’s Psalms 44:22.
And Paul here is asking a very important question.
It is the reality of the Psalmist we study tonight.
Can persecution cause a believer to quit loving Christ?
Can you face tribulation or death to such an extent
That you would be willing to give up Christ to save your life?
That’s a real question isn’t it?
• Will my faith endure such hardship?
• Will my love for Christ endure such treatment?
AND THE UNEQUIVOCAL ANSWER FROM PAUL IS A RESOUNDING YES!
(37) “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
• Paul doesn’t say that we get through them by the skin of our teeth.
• He doesn’t say, we survive, but barely.
He says we “overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us”
• We love because He first loved us.
• We endure because His faith was poured into us.
• The faith we have toward God and the love we have for God is not from ourselves, it is from God.
And Paul says that no amount of hardship
Can even come close to causing us to fall away.
And that was certainly true of the Psalmist wasn’t it.
There was no human reason why he should have endured.
“Apart from Christ there is no explanation for such a life”
(8:38-39) “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.”
It is the Love Christ has for the Father.
That love has been poured into us.
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
YOU WILL ENDURE
You are a possessor of that same supernatural faith.
It is a faith that endures persecution.
When you understand that you then you rightly understand Psalms 44.
• That Psalmist wasn’t holding on to Christ.
• Christ was holding on to him.
The Psalmist held the bar, Christ held his hands to it.
Does that make sense?
What a blessing then to see
How God has so worked in our life to cause us to stand.
Now read:
1 Peter 1:3-9 “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.”
Now read:
Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,”
