PSALM 44
A National Lament Over Remembered Past Glory in the Reality of Present Grief
Introduction: A nation desperately pleas to God over memories of its past deliverances in the misery of its present distress.
Psalms 44:1
BIBLE TEXT: "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old." (Psalm 44:1 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: No one can take the role of a father in the religious education of his children.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A child is more influenced by his father than by a hundred schoolmasters.
Psalms 44:2-3
BIBLE TEXT: "How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them." (Psalms 44:2-3 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: History is His story. It is not a record of what men have done, but a record of what God has done, not only for men, but through men.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Our salvation, like Israel’s, is altogether God’s doing, while we may have been active in it, we had nothing to do with the accomplishing of it!
It is God’s favor toward His elect, not the efforts of our flesh, that is to be credited for our conquest of Canaan; that is, for our possession of all of God’s promises.
Psalms 44:4
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob." (Psalms 44:4 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: God commands deliverances for those who confess Him as their God and obey Him as their King.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: If God is not your King, He is neither your God, for no one can say “no” to his or her Lord!
Psalms 44:5-6
BIBLE TEXT: "Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me." (Psalms 44:5-6 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: It is not taking up our bow and sword, but looking up to our Lord, that puts down our raised up enemy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: God’s army is the only army that advances on its knees.
Psalms 44:7-8
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah." (Psalms 44:7-8 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: When our enemy is beaten and put to shame we should boast in and praise our Lord’s name!
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Since our daily battles are the Lord’s our boast should be in Him all day long.
Psalms 44:9-11
BIBLE TEXT: "But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen." (Psalms 44:9-11 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: An army abandoned by the Almighty is sure to be shamed, spoiled, and scattered.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “I want my army to be an army of the living God.” (Stonewall Jackson)
Psalms 44:12-16
BIBLE TEXT: "Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger." (Psalms 44:12-16 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Nothing is more confusing or chagrinning to the saints than to be shamefully scorned by sacrilegious sinners.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: The world, which put Christ on the cross, should never be expected to put crowns on Christians’ heads.
Psalms 44:17-19
BIBLE TEXT: "All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death." (Psalms 44:17-19 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: We must not turn away from our allegiance to the Lord amidst all the adversities of our lives.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: No trouble or hardship should ever turn our heart from God.
Psalms 44:20-21
BIBLE TEXT: "If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart." (Psalms 44:20-21 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: No strange god can be secretly enshrined in human hearts without being searched out and seen by divine omniscience.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: Divided loyalty is not loyalty at all. If God doesn’t have all of your heart, He doesn’t have your heart at all.
Psalms 44:22
BIBLE TEXT: "Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." (Psalms 44:22 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: The psalmist’s woe becomes the Apostle Paul’s wonder, when he paints up all who are counted for Christ’s sake as sheep for the slaughter as more than conquerors through Him who is inseparable from them and who unfailingly loves them. (Romans 8:35-39)
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: All people suffer in this world, but only God’s people have the privilege of suffering for His sake.
Psalms 44:23-25
BIBLE TEXT: "Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth." (Psalms 44:23-25 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: Upon the presumption that they’ve been abandoned by God in their afflictions, especially those suffered at the hands of their adversaries, the people of God always pray for God to awake, arise, and avenge them.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: A bowed down soul can sink one down into the dust of the earth.
Psalms 44:26
BIBLE TEXT: "Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake." (Psalms 44:26 KJV)
BIBLE TWEET: All appeals for God’s help and our redemption must be made to God’s mercy.
BIBLE TAKEAWAY: “Help” is often a long enough prayer!