Psalm 44, this is the word of the Lord. To the choir master, Amaskil of the Sons of Korah. Oh God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old. You with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples, but them you set free. For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arms save them, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your face, for you delighted in them. You are my king, O God, ordain salvation for Jacob. Through you we push down our foes, through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow did I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes, and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah. But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe and those who hate us have gotten spoiled. You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no higher price for them. You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long, my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face. At the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false in your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way. Yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign God, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake, we are killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake. Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our belly clings to the ground. Rise up. Come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. That is the word of the Lord. May we be blessed by it as we consider it today. You may be seated. OK, well, as you can see, if you happen to have an outline, and I don't have a PowerPoint, so you're going to have to try to guess what goes in the blanks. We'll get a prize to whoever gets the most blanks correctly filled. Just kidding. But anyway, I'll try to, I don't even remember what some of them stand for, but I'll try to emphasize maybe what might go in there. But as you can see by the talk, and if you tuned in this morning, we're dealing with hope in God again, and this one I've titled, More Hope in God. And I think that's what we need even to this day in what we are in, that we need to hold on to God and hoping him for that's easily what is lost in times of trials and tribulations and struggles in life. At certain points we find ourselves not hoping in what really we have hope in and ought to have hope in and that's in God. This psalm speaks to that, but it takes a very interesting turn and twist in it that we didn't see in Psalm 42 and 43, which had the title of hope in God, had the refrain of hope in God that we spoke of last time. But this one takes an interesting turn and adds a new perspective that really helps us get a more complete view of God himself. a more complete view of God and of life and of our relationship to Him and our reliance upon Him. I think in our current situation and with the current pandemic, I guess we'll use that term that they've used and with the effects that all of all this going around us and that we're feeling from government bans and mandates and closing of businesses and all that has been happening and as we've even heard in our prayer time is not just having physical effects on people, we're having economic effects on people's lives, that we as a church and a nation need to be reminded more and more that our hope is in God and not in the institutions of man. It's so easy in rough times and times of uncertainties that when they sit in that we start looking around and we start looking at the tangible and we start looking at those things we can actually see and begin letting those dictate our convictions. But now we have to remind ourselves we need hope in God. But hoping in God doesn't mean that you don't have concern, doesn't mean that you don't do anything. It's not a do nothing type of position. It's not a think nothing and say nothing type of position. It doesn't mean that you fall to fatalism. Well, whatever will be, will be. If God wants me to have a virus or be sick, I will be. So there's, you know, Nothing I ought to do. We got to be careful that we don't go to the extremes of fear and definitely not to the extremes of foolishness, but we walk in the line of faith, right? We walk in the line of faith and that's where we need to be. And even in the line of faith, we ought to be conscientious and thoughtful of the things that we do. But where is our hope? That's the key. Where do we put our hope? Is it in the things of men or is it in the things that we see? If it's in the things we see, we can often find ourselves panicking. If it's in the things of men, we often will find ourselves failed because man and man-made institutions are not where we should invest ourselves. Now, as we see in this psalm, Even in just the cursory reading, you can tell it's dealt with fighting, and war, and conquering, and the first part very positive. And we've got to realize that when Israel went to war for the conquering of Canaan, they went in faith. They did something, okay? They were active. They were engaged. They were thoughtful about what they were doing. They planned. They strategized. They took thought yet walked in faith. And again, I'm saying, we've got to be careful we don't do the idea of, well, nothing. and say, well, God will take care of us. What if Israel said, well, we're supposed to fight the enemy, but we'll do nothing because God's going to take care of it? They would have lost, okay? They would have lost. They did have to raise their swords. They did have to engage in the battle, but what they recognized is God gave the victory, okay? Yeah, we got to be careful we don't move into the position of tempting God by just not doing anything. That's foolishness. We don't run in fear either. In every situation, God calls upon his people to engage themselves, to thoughtfully act, to strategically plan, but realize that their complete faith and trust is to be in him. So let's look at Psalm 44. I'm gonna give a little introduction to it here. I do because it's gonna be recorded and other people may hear it. I do wanna recognize that I was really inspired by a sermon by Joe Moorcraft. He's somebody I listen to periodically. I trust his messages and I thought, man, he's got some good things to say. So there'll be some ideas in here from him and somebody might listen to it and say, that sounds like Joe Moorcraft. Well, I probably borrowed it. but I did think thoughtfully about how this would apply to us. If we look at the structure of Psalm 44, We can get a little bit of a grasp on this chapter. The chapter is easily divided into two major sections, and each of them can then be subdivided into two or three subcategories of what is being shared here. The first major division is verses one through eight. And it deals with how God really does care for his people and has cared for his people in every kind of situation. The second major section begins in verse 9 and goes to the end of the chapter. In this second section, this major division, speaks of calamities, speaks of national disasters that have fallen upon Israel. And it's not because of apostasy or rebellion on the part of these people, but it's simply because God brought it in their life. And that's a hard lesson sometimes to accept, that God would just bring a hardship in your life and you couldn't point to this that or the other of a result of some sinful act on your part but really if there's the lesson and lesson to be learned from this psalm. That is it, that God, for his divine purposes and for your good, sometimes sends disasters in people's lives, even national disasters in people's lives, even into his faithful people's lives. He brings these things and many times it's to prove them. Many times it's to prove them that they will remain loyal to him. We're going to see some of that as we walk through this chapter. That's pretty much the main message here. It's really one of the major points of what this chapter is about. That we need to recognize that God does act in ways And in this way, and that is because truly he cares for us. It's not, you know, some haphazard act of his, but it's out of a care and desire and love for us to help us grow, to help us have opportunity to respond faithfully in trials to him. So you have the two major divisions, and we can break them down a little bit more minutely to help us grasp greater what is being said here. The first major division was verses 1 through 8, and that could be divided into the first three verses, which speak to God as the protector and deliverer of Israel in their past. And verses four through eight that speak to the confidence that is expressed in God as the king, the covenantal king of the nation. But then, as I said, in that second division, it takes a drastic turn and it deals with disasters in the nation that the nation is facing and God's people are dealing with. And that can be divided into three subdivisions. In verses 9 through 16, there's a lament over the present condition. We're losing battles. We lost battles. God seems to have just given us over to our enemies. And then the next subsection is verses 17 through 22, and that's a protest, really. The psalmist is protesting his innocence before God. He's saying, we haven't turned from you. And he's even declaring, I'm still clinging to you. And so there's feelings of some confusion as to why I'm in this situation. Then it closes with really the answer to dealing with these situations, and that's fervent prayer. Fervently crying out to God to arise, fervently calling upon him to intervene into the situation. Finally, as part of introduction, you get the setting of this, of which the short answer is nobody knows what the setting is for sure. It can range, I'm not gonna go over all of them, there's like about eight different possibilities, but they range from a Psalm that was sung at the foot of Mount Sinai by Moses and the children of Israel. to a psalm that was written and sung during the time of the Maccabeans, when Antiochus Epiphanes was the tyrant that was imposing Greek culture upon them and forbidding their practices, including celebration of the Sabbath. And that's the intertestamental period. And so you're talking about 1450 BC for Moses or about 150 or 70 BC for the Maccabean period. And I was surprised to find out that Calvin chose that latter part. I personally have a hard time thinking of any canon of scripture being past Ezra. I kind of see him as the scribe who collated the Old Testament. I could be wrong. But I do think this is the psalm of David. I do think it's a psalm of David at a time when he had had such great success in battle, but suffered a defeat and couldn't believe it. I mean, the stories of God fighting for his people and winning, and it had been their practice to go out in faith and win, and he suffered a great loss. And he is just totally startled by this. There's a hint. Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown's commentary went more extensive on it, and I just couldn't quite piece together everything they were saying, but apparently there was a battle in which David did suffer a great loss, and Joab, I think it was, had to go and bury the dead and David was probably mourning over it all. There's a hint at it in 1 Kings 11.15. In 1 Kings 11.15, Starting in verse 14, it says, And then it talks about how Joab also struck down every male in Edom, and it was rather successful. But apparently, there was quite a defeat, and they brought together some history that I just had to do more research on to confirm it for sure. But quite possibly, it was such a defeat as that that David had suffered. In some fashion, Israel has suffered a national calamity that they highly did not expect would come upon them. here in the course of a battle with an enemy and they have lost. So let's take a look now, more specifically, at this psalm. As I mentioned, it starts out with acknowledgment of who God is and has been in their history. As you see in verse 1, our God, what deeds you performed in their days, or more, you know, that's edited. Oh God, what we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old. So there's a reflection upon what God has done, what they've experienced, and where these stories have been told to them by their fathers. And it's an indication that there's been a faithful passing on from generation to generation what the Lord has done. passing on of the great works of God in their history. And this is a fundamental principle of education of scripture, is that you pass on from generation to generation the works of the Lord, and there's great purpose in doing this. Another psalm that speaks of this is Psalm 78. In Psalm 78, it addresses this very thing and the benefit of it. Psalm 78, verses 1 through 8, it says, give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children. but will tell the coming generation." And then it tells you what? The glorious deeds of the Lord and His might and the wonders that He has done. He established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach their children. that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. And so scripture tells us that one of the things that God has set in place and has called upon us to do to help increase the faith of the next generation, to assure the faith of the next generation, is to speak of him as to what he has done. and has done in your history, and has done in your nation's history, so that they won't become a stubborn and rebellious nation, but that they would maintain a steadfast faith in the true and living God. This is a principle that he's laid out, and God was active in the founding of Israel. And so many times the Psalms and other parts of scripture, when the nation faced trouble and trial, they would look back to what God had done and say, you acted this way in our founding. But you know, God has never stopped being active. Okay, he has always and ever been active, not always overtly noticeable in our hearts and minds in history, but he's always been there and at times he's moved in miraculous ways that we can say, look what God has done. And it wasn't just in the Old Testament. It was in the New Testament. But it wasn't just in the New Testament. It was in the first century church. But it wasn't just in that first century church. But age after age after age, there are stories of God's miraculous move and work for his people and for his purposes and for his kingdom. And we ought to know these things. And we ought to tell our children about them, including those works of the time of the Reformation and then the founding of this country. They were great works of God. And these are things that we can point to and we can identify in addition to what's in scripture and can be passed on to our children that they too would be steadfast in their faith in God. The stories of God's mighty acts are known by the parents and grandparents. They can be passed on. And that's a responsibility of us as parents to know these things and to pass them on to our children. And so if they're known by the parents and grandparents, they can be taught to the children. And then when trying times come, what can the children do? They can say, I know God has done this and has done this and has done this in my history as a nation or as a family. And that's something they can hold on to. And that's something that helps them and helps us have hope. And that's how this psalm opens. And that's what this psalmist is grasping on to. He knows where he's headed. If we had just started this psalm, we might think this was just a praise of another great work that God has done. But he knows where he's headed. He knows he's headed to where he's going to say, What's happened? You're not behaving as you have in the past, but actually quite a different thing has come about. Going to verses 2 and 3, he tells of the mighty works that God did at the founding period of the nation of Israel. where it says, you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples, but them you set free. You know, when I first read over that, I thought, you know, that's confusing to me when I read those words. With your own hand, you drove out the nations, but them you planted. Who's them? Well, what you understand for clarity here is, you as God, the nations and the people are the heathens of Canaan, and the them is Israel. And so that verse reads this way, you, God, with your own hand drove out the nations, Canaanites, but them, Israel, you planted. You, God, afflicted the peoples, that's the Canaanites, but them, Israel, you set free. It's almost a singing of what God did at the conquest of Canaan. And he continues in verse three, for not by their own sword, that's still Israel, not by Israel's sword did they, Israel, win the land, nor did their, Israel's own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your face for you delighted in them. So the psalmist is recognizing that Israel went to battle. Israel used the sword. Israel fought in the strength they had, but Israel did not win by their own efforts. When he says the victories were not by the sword and arm of man, he is not implying that Israel stood still and didn't engage the army. They did. But their faith wasn't in their own arm. Their faith was in God. And it was God whose hand and arm saved them and brought the victory. And why? See that last line of verse three? You delighted in them. That's why. That's why God did it. He did it because He delighted in them. What does that mean? What does it mean, He did it because God delighted in them? It means because God in His sovereignty and of His own free will and mercy and grace shed it on them. It's a word of election and choice on the part of God. God sovereignly elected to graciously delight in them and bring them victory. That's what he's teaching there. God delighted in shedding his elective grace on Israel, and in doing so, he fought for them, and they won their battles, and he brought them into the land, and that's who God is. Completely sovereign in all these things. and indefinitely the victories of his people. And that's the God that we serve. And he delights in his people. And because of that, he fights our battles for us. And then the psalmist moves into praising God for who he is, not only in and of himself as God, but in terms of his relationship to Israel. And he moves from the past to the present now. He's reflected upon the great works of God before. Now he's talking about now. And in verse four, you are my king, O God. Ordain salvation for Jacob. Jacob is another name for Israel, obviously. And here he's saying, you're the king. He's saying, you're my king. And I accept that this is David speaking, and he's speaking as king of the nation of Israel when he says this. And by doing that, he's declaring God as the king of Israel. And he says, ordain salvation. ordained salvation for Jacob. Some translations will say command victories for Jacob. And I think they're capturing the whole essence of the fact of battles going on when they're saying that. But realize if your scripture reads command victories, that word is ordained. And ordained is something God declares beforehand that it will be. And that's what he's saying here. He's resting in the fact that it is God's decrees that are what will take place and come about. And he prays and cries out for the decree of victory for Israel over their enemies. Because God, this is your nation. You're our king. You're the king of the nation of Israel. He's the king of his church and of his people, and we, with the psalmist, can pray these same prayers. That needs to be our attitude in time of trial. We need to realize, is, and acknowledge, recognize, and admit, yea or nay, is God your king? Is God your king, and is it in him that you trust for your safety and salvation physically and spiritually, okay? David's declaring that that's the truth for Israel. That's where they're at. And he builds up to kind of a climax from there on to verse eight, as he speaks of God and what they have accomplished in his name. Verse five, through you, we push down our foes. Through your name, we tread down those who rise up against us. Hebrew, I'm going to get excited when I get to study Hebrew one of these days, but Hebrew is a very pictorial language. I've gathered that in listening to people and some studies that I've done and this picture of push down our foes is not quite captured by those words. The picture really is of a mad, powerful bull taking his horns and just tossing into the air, say, a dog or animal that's attacking him. It's not just pushed down. It is like in the rage of a mad bull, goring and throwing the enemy. They've had success in battle. So that's the picture of goring and tossing whatever's attacking a mad bull. In other words, we fight like a powerful mad bull in you, God. And through your name, we tread down, literally trample those who rise against us. He says it's in your name, and when the scriptures speak of something being done in the name of that expression, your name or the name of is a way of capturing all that individual person, or in this case, God himself, his whole essence. In all that you are, we have done these things. Everything that you've attributed to yourself, everything that we understand about who you are, every aspect of you, your power, your omnipotence, your omniscience, all that you are, by this we have been successful and trampled down the enemies. As I read that and I studied that concept, I thought, you know, do we really, I mean, we've just prayed here and most of us in our prayers end with in the name of Jesus Christ. You understand what you just said? Do you believe what you've just said? In all that who you are, in all that you contain, in all that I understand you to be, it is in that that I pray. Because why? Because nothing will come about at your prayers unless he brings it about. And who is Jesus Christ? You know, we could have a whole message on that. I'm not going to go for an hour on that, okay? But just think about what you're saying when you say, I pray this in your name. Jesus said, if you ask in my name, I will do it. If you ask in the name, ask the Father in my name, He will do it. He says that in various places in scripture. And it's an idea that I think we need to really keep in mind of what we're saying. It's not just a little, you know, trick little thing at the end. It's not some trivial thing to be said. It means that you recognize that, recognize all that it is. that has been given to the Son through whom you are praying and what has been given to him, all authority in heaven and earth. That's a powerful position in which to pray. And that's why it's so very, very important in honor and respect of him that in every way possible you pray in accordance to the word. and his will made known to you. It's not a flippant thing to do, to pray in the name of the Son. For he has been given all authority in heaven and earth, and all things have been promised to him by the Father. He is the true heir of which you are a benefit simply because you're a co-heir with him. And God will answer your prayers if it benefits Christ. He does all things for his son and for his own glory. And we're recognizing that when we say we're praying in your name. And so the next three verses kind of complete the climax of this first part of the psalm in his praise. And so verses six through eight, For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me, but you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. And then it says, Selah. Does anybody remember what I said that meant? Huh? There you go. She gets an A for the day. That's right. Some think that it means there's been a big clash of symbols. Some think it's a trumpet blast. Some think it just means stop. But there's a pause. Whether it's entered into as some big instrumental sound or not, I don't know. But just think about what we just talked about. the great historical work of God, the things he's done in history. He's the king of the nation, and we're going to continually just praise him. But then where does it go after that pause? It's amazing. But during the pause, we ought to think about, I brought it up. Is he your king? Is that true? Is he the sole source of your salvation? Are you relying upon anything else? Do you walk in faith in him? Are you able to put down the things of this world that are the enemies of your soul? Do you trust in the name of the Lord in all that you're doing? Do you boast in God? Do you give thanks to him continually? These are the things that we've been called upon to consider at this point. And those last two things, boasting in God, how great he is, thanks to him continually. Those are the two critical ones that are going to be challenged with the next part of the song. And with what comes up in the next part of the psalm, are you going to still boast in God, and are you going to thank him? That's some tough questions when you read what happens. The dramatic change. But you've rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe and those who hate us have gotten spoiled. You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for a trifle demanding no high price. You have made us a taunt of the neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations. a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunt and the reviler at the sight of the enemy and the avenger." Are you going to continue to boast in God and be thankful to Him continually? That's what's being challenged here. I mean, that doesn't sound like anything we've read before. Where's the success? Where's the victory? It's disappointment, it's defeat, and it's disaster. They've been turned back by their foes. They've become the spoiler of the enemies. They've become the sheep to a slaughter. They've been scattered among the nations. They're the taunt, the laughingstock. All these things are being expressed in these words. And David, really, I get the idea he can't believe. We're losing battles. We're losing men. We're losing reputation. We're losing to the enemies. But why? Is it just some happenstance occurrence that has come about in their life? Is it just the luck of the day or bad luck of the day that they've lost? What is he attributed to? Well, you've gathered it. You have rejected us. You have made us turn back. You have made us like sheep to the slaughter. You have sold your people. You have made us the taunt. You have made us a byword. Who is you? God. Yeah, the pronoun still stands for the same person. God has done this. You know, when things go well, it's easy to recognize God is sovereign. Isn't it? It's easy to say God is sovereign. His providence is active. He's working. And when things go wrong, it's easy to say, where are you, God? Right? And even the psalmist does that at times, where are you? But we rarely look at it the way the psalmist has here and think that God is right there in the midst of the calamity and he brought it about. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. But is he the sovereign God or is he not? The psalmist doesn't change his theology based on his circumstances. We need to practice consistent theology in all things. He doesn't change his theology based on the circumstances. His theology stays the same. God is sovereign. God is providentially acting in these disasters and our recent defeats. He knows that God's providence is what has brought this about. Can you say that in struggles in your life? Can you say that in the current pandemic that God is involved and has brought it about? Well, David is sounding very bold in making these statements. He almost sounds like he's complaining to God, murmuring to God. We got to realize it's not wrong to express some strong feelings about some things. God understands the human psyche. He's made you and me. It's not wrong. It's wrong to lose sight of your hope. to give up faith, to trust no longer, but to whom should you complain, if you want to use the word complain? To whom should you express your distress over a situation than the one who's involved and in control of it? This is what Calvin said. When faithful people of God represent God as the author of their calamities, it's not murmuring against him. It's not complaining against him. but that they may with greater confidence seek relief from the same hand that smote and wounded them. Okay? It is certainly impossible that those who impute their miseries to fortune or chance or bad luck can sincerely have recourse to God or look to for help in salvation from him. I mean, if you think things just happen by chance, Well, why cry out to God? It's chance that you're saying is behind things. If therefore we would expect a remedy from God for our miseries, we must believe that they befall us not by fortune or mere chance or bad luck, but that they are inflicted upon us properly by God's hand. Those are some pondering words that Calvin has written there. So why? Why do these things come on? Well, part of it is God purposed them to come upon the nation. He purposed them into the lives of Israel. He purposed calamities that do befall us into our lives. But there's more to answering, why have these come on? Because why would God purpose these things in our lives? And yes, that of people, their typical answer is, like Job's friends, because of sin. Because of sin is why you're having this hardship. Because of sin is why you're having this trial. You're being punished for unrepentant sin or forsaking God and not trusting him or going after other gods in some fashion or another. And God does punish for those things. He does. He's promised that. He said he would. You can read the curses in the law. You can see the acts of God upon Israel when they went astray. God has and does punish for evil and for sin. Go to 2 Chronicles 7. Probably a passage of scripture that even this day is being spoken of in pulpits across the land and probably should be because I'm not declaring yay or nay but probably yay that coronavirus is because of sin in our land. I mean I don't think we're going to be able to follow along with the rest of the psalm and say that it's America when it says we have not forsaken you okay or we have never walked out of your way and for say you know broken your covenant. I think that God does bring punishment and this land deserves it. But start at verse 13 of 2 Chronicles chapter 7. And it says, when I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, so when drought comes upon the land, or command the locusts to devour the land, you know, and all this coronavirus thing. Have any of you kept up on the devastating locusts destroying northern parts of Africa? I mean, that is amazing. Millions upon millions upon millions of these insects devastating hundreds of thousands of acres of land. Even the pagan medias happen to say, of biblical proportions. You know, they have to acknowledge that. It's tremendous and it's very, very sad. I mean, people's lives and hunger and famine that could come into that. But God brings that locus. Or send pestilence among my people. The word pestilence literally is plague. Coronavirus among my people. And he gives the remedy for this in verse 14. That it's upon the people, upon his people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. And that probably does very, very much apply to this very pandemic. And we do need to call upon God in repentance as a people and as a nation. And that's the greatest answer to any pestilence that would hit our land, that would fall on our face and call out to God, repenting of our sin. And we should, in the meantime, continue to live faith-filled lives, God-glorifying, active lives, certainly taking precautions, but in faith. Again, not in foolishness, not in fear. I've just thought about this analogy. I mean, we live our lives every day taking reasonable precautions. And we do it out of knowledge of situations. I mean, none of us in faith, believing that God will take our life when it's time for us to take our life, walk across a highway without any care. Is that not tempting, God? No, we look both ways. We take time to assess the situation and then move in a caution, but boldly and in faith to cross the road. We don't never cross the road. You know, those are the two extremes. We don't act in foolishness. Faith is not acting in foolishness. Faith is not acting, obviously, in fear. I don't think anybody would think that. But we don't decide, I cannot cross this road. Okay? If your reasonable activities call upon you to cross the road, then in faith, you resort to God's protection, taking the necessary precautions, and cross the road. And that is an active faith, knowing that God sovereignly protects you. sometimes even in our own foolishness, but he does. He sovereignly protects us, and he calls upon us to use reasonable caution. And that's how we should walk, even in these days. But is 2 Chronicles the answer to the Psalm 44 dilemma? Is it the answer to the Psalm 44 dilemma? Is it because there is national sin, that calamities have fallen upon Israel and their armies have been losing and they've lost men and they've lost battles. Well, verse 17 says no. Begins the no answer. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, it says. And we have not been false to your covenants. They haven't forgotten God. They haven't been covenant breaking and realize that doesn't mean that David is saying, there's not a sin in our land. No. Even within the covenant was provision for sin. What he's saying is when we've sinned, we've fallen on our face, provided the sacrifice appropriate and looked upon you in repentance and you've forgiven us. No, what it is, is he's saying we have not promoted blatant breaking of the covenant with, you know, disregard to the fact that if we sin, we owe a cry of forgiveness and sacrifice. He says we've honored the covenant. We haven't forsaken you. Verse 18, our heart has not turned back, their heart is towards God, nor have our steps departed from your way. Your way means in accordance to your law. We've not walked outside of your word and your law. Sure, stumbled along the way, but our heart's always been Godward. Verse 19, yet you have broken us in the place of the jackals and covered us with a shadow of death. That's the response they've gotten, yet that's not a response out of walking in blatant sin. Verses 20 and 21. If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a foreign god. You know, if we had gone after other gods, if we had worshipped other gods, even in our heart, he would discover it, right? Verse 21, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of our heart. Yeah, God knew that they hadn't gone after other gods. That wasn't the case. None of this calamity and defeat that the Israelites are facing here, that the psalmist is speaking of, is due to sin in the camp, so to speak. But why is it? Well, verse 22 speaks to it. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Paul quotes that in Romans 8.32, I think it is. And we ought to consider that that's really a song of his people. That there are times during the course of church history where God's people will be the subject of persecution, trial, tribulation, and defeat for God's sake. We saw it in the founding of the church. That's why Paul even stated it. He was reflecting upon the life he had lived. We saw it in the martyrs of old. We very well can see it in our day, if not in our own nation and certainly the persecuted church around the world. The defeat and destruction that they're facing is simply because God has determined it to be so. And what we need to gain from this is that sometimes Maybe many times in believers' lives, in the course of the history and life of the church, God brings trials and suffering for the sole purpose to test their loyalty to Him and to refine them. That's what He's doing. And then the question is there then, will you, like David, still boast in God? Will you still praise Him even in the midst of a trial like this that you say, I can't see why it's upon me? Will you still walk in faith before Him and not go after other gods or for us putting our faith in other institutions? Okay. Will you continue to truly trust in God and that he will sustain you, he will protect you, he will provide for you? Those tests could very well be coming upon us. Well, God does deal severely with his people at times. It's to purify them. It's to bring out a greater dependence upon him. It's to humble. It's to bring out a test of loyalty. And he does all this. because he loves you. He does it out of a love for you. He does it because he knows it's best for you. It's for your good and for his glory. That's why he does it. That's what Job had to learn. As I probably mentioned this morning, I look at this psalm as kind of like a miniature Job book. You know, Job praised God. Job sacrificed to God. Job prayed and sacrificed for even the sins of his own children, and yet here, whether they committed or not, in case they had. Yet it fell upon him and he lost all and he lost support of his wife, he lost his possessions, he lost his children and he didn't know why. It was because God said, this is what I have brought in your life by my purposes for you. Are we going to be able to think that same way? How do you respond to such a thing? When you respond as David did here, You rely upon the fact that your hope is in God, and it's He who has His hand in the calamity, and so it is He who will use His hand in the remedy. And so you say, awake, O God. Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Arouse yourself. Don't reject us forever. Move on my behalf, right? Don't hide your face. Why do you forget our affliction and oppression for our soul is about down to the dust and the belly clings to the ground. It's not wrong to say to God, I am beaten down by all this. And I know and I will express it. My only hope is in you. And where is that hope? It's in the fact that he loves you. That's what it says here. Rise up, come to our help, redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love. Because his love never changes. His love is consistent. He is an unchanging, all-loving God. And out of that, he will respond. That's our reaction, our response to these situations, because God is the only one who can completely remedy any situation. In fact, one of the primary reasons God brings in calamities is because he wants his people to fervently pray to him. And what brings it out more than anything is a trial like that in your life. And God says, ah, I will move on your behalf. And he does. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word and how it challenges and teaches us of who you are and your desire to be glorified in our lives. And at times, Father, by your will and purpose, you bring trials in our lives that will cause us to make that decision. Will we be loyal to you? Will we believe that in this you will bring good into our lives and into your people, and in your name we'll be glorified. Father, we pray that we would have that faith and loyalty to you, trusting in your steadfast love that never changes. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.