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Summer Psalms - On Psalm 44

August 17, 2022

Pray for Illumination - Heavenly Father, help me to know your ways; teach me your paths and lead me into your truth. Amen.

Read Psalm 44

We have heard it with our ears, O God;
    our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
    in days long ago.  Psalm 44:1

As a parent, it is quite normal for me to get called out for not treating my kid’s equally - “But dad, you never make ___________ do any chores! Why does it always have to be me?  What did I do?”  If reasoning doesn’t work, then sometimes they might resort to pleading their personal suffering - “But I am sooo tired!”.  They are trying to bring into question my parenting skills, my compassion and my justice.  But at the end of the day, they know that I love them and they can always trust me.

Psalm 44 sounds like a child complaining to a parent, trying to get under their skin.  God, we know how you treated our ancestors.  Why are you mistreating us?  What did we do to deserve this?  And then, the ultimate challenge:

Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?  Psalm 44:23

Clearly an attempt to get a rise out of God!  This should remind us of the great battle-of-the-prophets on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  They prophets of Baal were trying to get their god to answer their prayer and set fire to their sacrifice.  But no answer.  And Elijah taunts them: “Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”.  This battle ends with the God of Israel consuming Elijah’s sacrifice with fire and showing himself to be the only true God.  

But at the end of this Psalm, after pleading their case and trying to poke at God, the writer finally resigns himself to plead their case, not on why they deserve it, but simply on the love of God.

Rise up and help us;
    rescue us because of your unfailing love.  Psalm 44:26

Sometimes life doesn’t seem fair.  It doesn’t matter how old you are.  And even though at times it may seem that God is sleeping on us, and we may be tempted to plead our case based on how good we think we are, we always know that God has already revealed his love for us through Jesus Christ.  We are safe in the Father’s hands and ultimately everything will be made right.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  1 John 3:1

As you pray today, praise God for his great love and remember that you are talking with your Heavenly Father who cares deeply about you!