Psalm 44
The school of faith
Intro
√ Forsaken?
If there's one word that describes what the psalmist is felling it is the word…
"forsaken"
Why? Because in this psalm we find the psalmist in the midst of a crisis of faith!
As a whole the nation was experiencing defeat before their enemies.
Rather than advancing they found themselves retreating before the wicked.
Instead of blessing, they experienced want.
Worse, they could not understand why God was not fighting for them!
They were faithful to God
They were doing what God required of them
In short, they were doing all that they knew to do that they might be blessed by God…
…yet they found themselves apparently forsaken by God!
What was going on!?
√ The school of faith
God had enrolled them in the school of faith!
Friends, faith is not learned vicariously - that is, we do not experience the real power of God at work in our lives by simply reading or hearing about someone else' faith!
Rather, having heard how God worked in another's life, we then learn to walk by faith ourselves when we step out and experience God's wonder working power in our own venture of faith.
Ex. A Venture in faith!
Just about anyone who watches this video will be stirred by the stories to step out in their own "venture of faith"!
Follow pastor Chuck and experience the awesome work of God's Spirit in our own lives.
To watch God show Himself faithful as we put into practice the spiritual truths that Chuck has coined…
Ex. Regarding church growth…
"The Word, if you teach it, they will come"
Regarding financial provision…
"Where God guides, God provides"
All of it is true, but you need to understand that Chuck didn't learn those lessons in a day, or a week, or even in a year…
…rather, he learned them over a 17 year period of time in which he like the psalmist often felt forsaken by God!
Ap. How about you?
Do you sometimes wonder whether or not you're forsaken?
Or perhaps that God has switched sides and is now helping your enemies!! Or that the promises of God found in scripture are no longer true!
What should you do at times like that? The psalmist shows us…
You remember God's faithfulness
You trust in God's faithfulness
You continue to walk by faith
…we need to learn these truths and apply them in our lives for too many people never experience the awesome power of God in their lives because they drop out of God's "school of faith".
You remember God's faithfulness (vs. 1-3)
Ps. 44:1 We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old:
Ps. 44:2 You drove out the nations with Your hand, But them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
Ps. 44:3 For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, Nor did their own arm save them; But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, Because You favored them.
√ You remember God's faithfulness
Whenever you find yourself in a crisis of faith, the best place to begin digging out, is by recalling all that God has done in times past.
Note vs. 1…
"We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, The deeds You did in their days, In days of old"
…then the psalmist begins to recount how God - not Man - conquered the Promised Land.
The point? Simply this, that when we are in a crisis of faith we will find strength and encouragement by remembering how God has delivered those who lived by faith before us!
Ex. Joshua
A quick review of Joshua's experience taking the Promised Land reminded the psalmist that from a purely human perspective Joshua didn't have a chance!
The giants still lived there - Joshua & his men were of small stature.
The cities were still well fortified - Joshua had nothing to breach the walls.
The people of the land were more numerous and better
equipped than the men of
Yet, in spite of the odds the psalmist remembers that God was faithful to give Joshua the victory!
So, when we find
ourselves in a crisis of faith we must remember God's faithfulness!
You trust in God's faithfulness (vs. 4-8)
Ps. 44:4 You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob.
Ps. 44:5 Through You we will push down our enemies; Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
Ps. 44:6 For I will not trust in my bow, Nor shall my sword save me.
Ps. 44:7 But You have saved us from our enemies, And have put to shame those who hated us.
Ps. 44:8 In God we boast all day long, And praise Your name forever. Selah
√ You trust in God's faithfulness
The next thing the psalmist does is to proclaim his trust in God's faithfulness.
That is, he acknowledges that his hope for deliverance is in God alone.
He is not counting on his own strength or wisdom to defeat his enemies.
Rather, his trust is in God's faithfulness to do awesome wonders in his life just as He had done for Joshua!
Ap. Reminds us that we must not trust in ourselves!
The work of God cannot be accomplished by the power and
wisdom of
Just as Joshua did not take the Promised Land by his own strength and wisdom…
…so we will discover that God's call upon our lives, or upon the work to which He has called us, will not be accomplished by human means.
Ex. Building the church - who's job is it?
The work of Jesus…
Mat.
Mat.
Mat.
The wisdom of Peter…
Mat. 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
Mat.
Mat.
The example for us is that Jesus has a perfect plan by which He will build His Church. Whenever Man gets involved we find that God's work is hindered, or not accomplished.
Ap. You don't have to "do something"!
When we're in a crisis of faith our first reaction is to…
"Do something!"
…to take the steering wheel of our life back from God and fix it!
However, the Lord is teaching us to trust in His
faithfulness to bring about His promises in your life by His power and His
strength - not the power and wisdom of Man.
You continue to walk in faith (vs. 9-26)
Ps. 44:9 But You have cast us off and put us to shame, And You do not go out with our armies.
Ps. 44:10 You make us turn back from the enemy, And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
Ps. 44:11 You have given us up like sheep intended for food, And have scattered us among the nations.
Ps. 44:12 You sell Your people for next to nothing, And are not enriched by selling them.
Ps. 44:13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
Ps. 44:14 You make us a byword among the nations, A shaking of the head among the peoples.
Ps. 44:15 My dishonor is continually before me, And the shame of my face has covered me,
Ps. 44:16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, Because of the enemy and the avenger.
Ps. 44:17 All this has come upon us; But we have not forgotten You, Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
Ps. 44:18 Our heart has not turned back, Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
Ps. 44:19 But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals, And covered us with the shadow of death.
Ps. 44:20 If we had forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god,
Ps. 44:21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
Ps. 44:22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Ps. 44:23 Awake!
Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
Ps. 44:24 Why do You hide Your face, And forget our affliction and our
oppression?
Ps. 44:25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; Our
body clings to the ground.
Ps. 44:26 Arise for our help, And redeem us for Your
mercies’ sake.
√ You continue to walk in faith
Wow - pretty depressing, hopeless stuff! From the vantage point that the psalmist is writing it sounds like God has forsaken Israel!
Cast off by God
God no longer fights for them
The armies of Israel retreat before their enemies
Mocked and reproached by the ungodly
Dishonored and shamed
Covered with the shadow of death
What is truly bothersome about their situation, both to the psalmist and to us the reader…
…is that all this is going on even though Israel is doing the Lord's will!!
They've been faithful to remember God
Faithful to keep the covenant
Their heart is pure toward the Lord
And yet, their experience is one of trouble and defeat.
Ex. Learning in the school of faith
Can you relate with the psalmist? Have you ever stepped out to pursue God in a venture of faith…
Doing everything you know you're supposed to do
Doing His work as well as anyone
Doing His work at great cost to you and your family
Faithful in the work
Faithful to do all that He's asked you to do
Yet, the enemies of God seem to gain victory on every side! Rather than see God's kingdom advance under your faithful work, it seems like His kingdom is diminishing under your care!
What do you do? As we used to say in the 60's…
"Keep on truckin"
…or, as our study outline says…
"You continue to walk by faith!"
That is, you don’t…
Quit
Run away crying hysterically
Beat the sheep
Don't blame God
Don't get bitter
Become a harsh critic of what God's doing in other's lives
No, instead you submit your life to the Lord and continue to serve Him faithfully, even if His will means that you are called to suffer.
Look at vs. 22, at the end of all his questioning regarding the Lord's work in his life, the psalmist writes…
Ps. 44:22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
His point is that if God is gloried and His will accomplished at my expense…
…then may His will be done because He knows what is best for His kingdom and for my life.
Or as Job proclaimed in the midst of his suffering…
Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
It is interesting to note that the apostle Paul refers to Psalm 44:22 to express his faith to continue doing what Jesus called him too no matter what it cost him.
Rom. 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom. 8:36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Rom. 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Rom. 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
Rom. 8:39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul's point, his commentary on the difficult trials that he experienced as he sought to serve the Lord with all of his heart, mind, soul and strength…
…is that which the psalmist found to be true…
God's school of faith requires perseverance to graduate!
Ap. We're all enrolled!
We're all enrolled in God's school of faith from the moment we ask Jesus into our hearts. How well we do in His school really depends upon our attitude toward his lessons.
Ex. When it seems like God's forsaken us
I used to conclude that it was proof positive that God really does hate me!
Now that He's got me way beyond my comfort zone, my strength, and my support…
…He's going to finish me off!
However, having gone through my own lessons of faith I've come to recognize that the only way I can learn to really live by faith…
…is to experience the testing of my faith and His faithfulness firsthand! That is, He's teaching me to live by faith the same way that He taught…
"our fathers" vs. 1
Ex. The Promised Land wasn't taken until after…
The children of God had their labor increased by Pharaoh's command to find their own straw.
They found themselves trapped between the sea and Pharaoh's army.
They feared that they would all die for lack of water and food in the wilderness.
They faced the giants and the walled cities of Canaan.
The result of all their experiences is that those who were trained in God's school of faith learned to trust in the living God…
…not through someone else's experience, but by personal experience!
Faith is not inherited - it is not passed to our children through genetics.
Rather, each generation must learn to trust God in His school of faith.
Close
√ The school of faith
What should we do when we find ourselves in a crisis of faith?
You remember God's faithfulness
You trust in God's faithfulness
You continue to walk by faith
You're enrolled - are you learning, or resisting?
Go with the Lord, take your venture of faith, there's nothing else as exciting in all the world as watching God work in and through your life!