By Jeremy Bell
I am going to highlight Christian agreement. Finding points of agreement helps build unity among people. Often, disagreements are in the application of fundamental ideas. I will share how Psalm 44 supports some salvation fundamentals. Understanding the unity across scripture is excellent theological practice.
God is gracious and nothing is outside God’s power to control. He allows and He doesn’t allow in any and every circumstance. God is also invisible. In His wisdom and power, He decided to partner with His creation, human beings, to testify about Him. His invisible qualities are seen by everyone in the world from all of time without exception. God has spoken, and people respond. Unfortunately, the response has been lacking. God reached out very specifically to His people with specific words that He wanted shared in storytelling with others. These were words of loving kindness, reconciliation, forgiveness, grace, and life. Unfortunately, once again, the dependability of humans to tell this specific story has been lacking.
It is the church that reminds people of the source of goodness. What has happened, who is responsible and why. It is people that make up the church, individuals, that are responsible to share accurate storytelling. In the days before Moses, the Hebrews were slaves, crying out to God because of their enslavement and treatment. The moment God rescued them, He gave them commands to remember who it was that delivered them. He didn’t do it with oppressive rituals that were a part to earn them salvation, He did it with rituals in celebration.
Storytelling Rituals
These rituals told a story. They didn’t generalize or include mystical stories from all the other nations. They were specific storytelling of a specific God who alone rescued them. God used a person, Moses, to speak to Pharaoh, and to mediate between the people and God, but it was God who did all the work and all the rescuing. In addition to the facts, the qualities of God are incorporated, to remind people of who He is and what He is like. This is for us, for each individual, to know who to go to as well as encourage us as to what we can expect from God. He is not an accuser, waiting to condemn, He is loving kindness, endless grace, waiting to forgive and make free.
Hopefully that gives some perspective and things to consider while preparing to hear or read this Psalm. They are by no means the only perspectives or considerations, just the ones right now. So… without further hesitation, here is Psalm 44. Highlights are provided in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization.
[ Psalm 44 ]
We have heard with our ears, God;
our fathers have told us what work you did in their days,
in the days of old.
You drove out the nations with your hand,
but you planted them.
You afflicted the peoples,
but you spread them abroad.
For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword,
neither did their own arm save them;
but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face,
because you were favorable to them.
God, you are my King.
Command victories for Jacob!
Through you, we will push down our adversaries.
Through your name, we will tread down those who rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow,
neither will my sword save me.
But you have saved us from our adversaries,
and have shamed those who hate us.
In God we have made our boast all day long.
We will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.
But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor,
and don’t go out with our armies.
You make us turn back from the adversary.
Those who hate us take plunder for themselves.
You have made us like sheep for food,
and have scattered us among the nations.
You sell your people for nothing,
and have gained nothing from their sale.
You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.
You make us a byword among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the peoples.
All day long my dishonor is before me,
and shame covers my face,
at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses,
because of the enemy and the avenger.
All this has come on us,
yet we haven’t forgotten you.
We haven’t been false to your covenant.
Our heart has not turned back,
neither have our steps strayed from your path,
though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals,
and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we have forgotten the name of our God,
or spread out our hands to a strange god,
won’t God search this out?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long.
We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.
Wake up!
Why do you sleep, Lord?
Arise!
Don’t reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face,
and forget our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust.
Our body clings to the earth.
Rise up to help us.
Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.
Rethinking the Stories we Tell
I think of this Psalm and often wonder what modern society might look like if accurate, Christian, storytelling had been maintained. I am from America, so, I think about the Revolutionary war. We tell stories and have statues of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Paul Revere. We memorialize what Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves of the Civil war. And who could forget the progress Martin Luthor King Jr. accomplished during the major Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s.
In all these circumstances, we idolize the people that made this happen. In the Hebrew release, they idolize God, who made everything happen. We talk about the goodness of these leaders of history, the Jews remember the goodness of God. With the inversion storytelling we tell, is it any wonder that the progress made is deteriorating? When people find flaws in people and start tearing these idols down, is it really surprising? Is it really out of line to think that people are flawed and can never really created something not flawed? People cannot save.
A Day is Coming
One day God is going to reveal Himself plainly and some will continue to hate Him despite the truth before their eyes. Some will be saved from the flawed deliverance humanity offers. When God does this, it will be too late for decision making. That time is not yet, which makes the storytelling of the church, and the stories Christians tell even more important. There will be persecution, there will be opposition, there will be laughing. That does not make the truth less true. Take heart, be encouraged, remember the Lord has already written the end.
If you are a Christian, consider the stories storytelling you pass on. Are they man centered, or God centered? Do they truly reflect God’s character, His grace, His unending loving kindness, or are they uncertain? The words matter, not just how we live our lives. Living proves the words, not the other way around. People need to know that Jesus is the name to call on and why. They need to know His character and that while they must die, He will make them live, and that will be more wonderful than we can ever describe. He is not tyrannical; He is huggable and embraceable. He is not the nature of human failure, He is the nature of God, He is the very Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Practical Steps to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.