2/15/2012 9:31:52 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus:
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 44:9-26
Message of the verses: In yesterday’s SD we looked at the introduction to Psalm 44 and the first main point, (Boasting in God: You Have Helped Us). Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his introduction these words, “The four stanzas that make up this psalm reveal four different attitudes on the part of the people.” Today we will begin with the second attitude that the people had.
Forsaken by God: “You Are Not Helping Us” (vv. 9-16): “9 ¶ Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor, And do not go out with our armies. 10 You cause us to turn back from the adversary; And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. 11 You give us as sheep to be eaten And have scattered us among the nations. 12 You sell Your people cheaply, And have not profited by their sale. 13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those around us. 14 You make us a byword among the nations, A laughingstock among the peoples. 15 All day long my dishonor is before me And my humiliation has overwhelmed me, 16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.”
This is a sudden change that takes place in this psalm as all of a sudden the psalmist goes from praising the Lord for what He has done for Israel in the past to saying that the Lord has left them and caused their enemies to triumph over them and some were killed while others were taken as slaves. He also talks about their enemies gloating over what has happened to Israel.
I am not sure of the time period of when this psalm was written and what the circumstances that surrounded the writing of this psalm. However from reading it and trying to find a cause as to why all of this happened to Israel I can’t help but to go back to a section of Scripture that I listened to just yesterday. I make an attempt to read through the Bible each year, and for the last couple of years I have been listening to the Bible in order to get through it in a year. Last year I listened to the entire Bible and then the NT two times after that and then began to listen to the book of Mark each day because I am studying Mark’s Gospel and writing commentaries on it. I have read the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy many times and when your read through this long chapter you will find out that God has made a covenant with the nation of Israel stating that if they keep His commandments and Laws that God will bless them, but if they begin to follow the practices of the nations around them, then curses will be brought against them. In some ways the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy is prophetic for we see there that Moses writes that Israel will be taken out of their land as punishment and then brought back into their land, which takes place around 531 BC. The 44 and 45th chapters of Isaiah speak of a man named Cyrus who God had chosen to allow Israel to go back to their land. It is believed that the prophet Daniel spoke to Cyrus about what Isaiah wrote about him and therefore he allowed the people to leave Babylon and return to Israel. Cyrus was the leader of the Meds and Persians who conquered Babylon in one night that is recorded in Daniel chapter five. Moses then declares that later on Israel would be punished by God again and would be taken all over the world. Jesus spoke of this defeat of Israel which is found in Matthew chapter 24 and also Mark 13. Just to finish this point we find in the book of the prophet Ezekiel that in the “latter days” Israel would be brought back into their land and this is found in Ezekiel chapters 36-37. In history we find that this happened in May of 1948 as Israel is now back in the land that God had given them way back in the book of Joshua, but promised all the way back in Genesis 15.
Faithful to God: “You should Help Us” (vv. 17-22): “17 ¶ All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant. 18 Our heart has not turned back, And our steps have not deviated from Your way, 19 Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals And covered us with the shadow of death. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God Or extended our hands to a strange god, 21 Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. 22 But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
I realize that in this section that the psalmist is saying that there is not sin that needs to be confessed to the Lord at this time, and that he is confused as to why these difficult things are happening to them. We seen that verse eleven is used by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:36 which is part of his wonderful argument that nothing could separate God’s people from His love not even defeat after a record number of victories. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The principle is the same for both God’s old covenant people and His new covenant people: those who give their lives in His cause are conquerors, not victims, and God can be glorified even in seeming defeat. When the five young men gave their lives in Ecuador to help reach the Auca Indians, many people asked, ‘Why this waste?’ But what looked like terrible defeat turned out to be glorious victory as many young people around the world felt the call of God and surrendered to serve Him. Israel’s defeat didn’t mean that God loved them less, it meant that He was permitting this to happen so that He could carry out a purpose known only to Him.”
In my commentary on the first section of today’s SD I mentioned that the problem for the defeat of Israel was due to sin and the breaking of the covenant found in Deu. 28, and even though that may not be the case here the things that I did write about what finally did happen to Israel is true. As we went through the book of Job we found out that there are different reasons for bad things happening to God’s children, and we saw there that what happened to Job was not due to sin, and there are other times when difficult circumstances happen to God’s children it is because of sin and we need discipline from the hand of a loving God. See Hebrews 12.
Trusting in God: “You Will Help Us” (vv. 23-26): “23 Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever. 24 Why do You hide Your face And forget our affliction and our oppression? 25 For our soul has sunk down into the dust; Our body cleaves to the earth. 26 Rise up, be our help, And redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.”
Well I had a call from my daughter at 10:30 and she needed me to run right over and pick up our grandson from school so no it is 12:46PM and I am back trying to finish this last section.
“O Lord”: “Lord-title, spoken in place of Yahweh in Jewish display of reverence.” (Heb/English Dictionary)
The people in Israel had come to the place that Job got to when he said, “"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.’” (Job 13:15b.) Dr. Wiersbe writes “The psalmist came to the place where he knew he could trust God to handle the defeats of life and ultimately turn them into victories. Yes, it seemed like God was asleep, and the nation had to awaken Him, but ‘He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep’ (Ps. 121:4 NKJV).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I began to look at Psalm 44 I thought that Israel had sinned, and that is why the Lord was chastising them, but then as I looked deeper into the psalm I found that the children of Israel were in the same place that Job was in. In my own life when things don’t go well there are times when I look to see if there is some unconfessed sin in my life and I go to Psalm 139:23-24 in order to ask the Holy Spirit to search my heart. If I am not then convicted I have to believe that this kind of like a Job problem, where I don’t understand why the hardship has come upon me. This is what the psalmist is facing, but the key to the whole issue is to trust in the Lord. Romans 8:37 states, “No, in all these things we win an overwhelming victory through him who has proved his love for us (Philips).”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue to trust the Lord to teach me contentment through some of the difficult things that are going on in my mind at this time.
2/15/2012 1:04:39 PM
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