WE ARE KNOWN

Psalm 44: 1-26

A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe

When I was little and first heard about God's all seeing and knowing capabilities, I reacted rather like the wicked will act at the end of the age when they will call down the mountains and hills to cover and hide them from the revealed wrath of God upon all ungodliness. In my mind at that young age, if I wanted to think or plan any orneriness I had only to hop into the bottom bunk bed in my room and pull the covers up over my head to be outside the knowledge of God. I don't think it took me too long to realize that if God were really God that that process really would not accomplish any protection at all. My thinking was very much like that of most atheists who wanting to sin wantonly simply come to the conclusion that not believing in God solves the whole problem of sin.

Such is the way of the material world today which has simply redefined sin as disagreeing with the common sinfulness manifest in society. This relates to an article that I had to read in Seminary. The intent of the article was suggest that the wider our tolerance for sin, the less we opened ourselves to judgment! In that sense, funny fundamentalists would obviously have the most grievous time in heaven because they were so judgmental in their attitude towards the worldly who were only exhibiting a more healthy attitude to the reality of sinless actions that should not be condemned! When will the worldly ever come out from under the covers and understand the light of truth? Well may we lament the sad situation in our worldly culture in our day and time. But we have to realize that the world has always been this way and that we are called to trust more completely in the Lord God of heaven to cover our sin even as we learn to admit it and ask for His gracious forgiveness.

Our psalm today may be divided into three or five portions depending upon which commentator we would choose to follow. For our purposes this morning I will follow the three fold division of Derek Kidner. Verses one to eight concern the glorious past history of Israel. Verses nine to sixteen concern the psalmist's disastrous present. And verses seventeen to twenty-six are a prayer for the future.

Like many psalms, the honesty of the psalmist's emotions underlines the sincerity of his questions. The heart wrenching question foremost in this psalm is summarized in verse twenty-two: "Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." While the psalmist does not fully develop this theme, Paul picks it up and explains it in Romans 8: 35-37: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

So we see that the psalmist's question is answered in God's own time. And like the soldier in the midst of modern battle, who must wait to hear the verdict of history, all of those who serve our Lord and Savior often times do not realize the outcome of their hard service and sometime suffering. This is the idea that our psalmist is pursuing in this psalm. Let us follow the theme as this Son of Korah develops it.

In the opening section of eight verses the psalmist outlines the provident leadership and kindly provision of Israel's Father God. These are the lessons of History that psalmist tells us were handed down from Father to Son. This first section is summed up in verse eight where we see Israel's boast ought only to be in the Lord as His people praise His name forever. This verse is set apart with the note "Selah" which means the reader ought to meditate on the teachings carefully. In the same way as ancient Israel, we today ought to consider the Lord's founding of our own country.

We come to the depressing second portion of this psalmist's lament. Here the patriot poet begins to contrast the glorious past with the sadness of Israel in his lifetime. We can see the deepening darkness of that time in the progression of verses nine through fourteen. Verse fifteen sums up the emotions of this section. Our psalmist takes the national disgrace personally and feels the taunts of the wicked cut into his own heart. Here our psalmist bottoms out, he has lost all confidence and is utterly demoralized. I can well remember the complaints of a friend a few years ago who wondered what had happened to the glories of Christ's Church in his long lifetime. What had happened, he asked? Where there were once three healthy congregations in his county, there is hardly any Reformed witness left at all.

This brings us to the third portion of this psalm. O Lord, my friend asked, what have we done or what have we failed to do? His little congregation has been faithful in prayer most of this century, yet the fortunes of both church and community seem to become worse with every passing year. Derek Kidner in his commentary on these passages says that the important fact that needs to be noted here is that God's apparent withdrawal, when His people were still praying, should be seen in light of Paul's appreciation of the teachings in this Psalm. We who serve the Lord faithfully, even to the point of wounds and on occasion death do so for His sake. And even as we participate in the lessons of history, we know that the final victory will be His and His alone.

God will not be hurried to do what we expect Him to do. Our psalm explores the baffling fluctuations in the fortunes of Christ's own Churches down through the centuries. The periods of time when the Gospel is in season are contrasted with other seasons when there is little interest or impact. The little island of Britain has been evangelized three times in history and is in desperate need of a fourth revival in our own time. By God's grace both the Old and New Covenant Churches grew across many centuries. Our job is to serve our Lord faithfully and like our psalmist we should earnestly pray and plan for the future. There is work to be done and risks to be taken so that His Kingdom might increase.

I am reminded of the naval Admirals of several nations who at great cost gathered their fleets of battleships for combat in the wars of this century. More than once the Admirals refused to send their fleets into battle because they could not bring themselves to risk their ships in combat. Thereby they missed the first rule of successful war making. You have to be willing to risk that which is most valuable to you in order to accomplish a worthy goal Certainly, like the psalmist, once we realize our utter weakness and our inability to make a personal difference on the stage of history, the more likely we can begin to pray that God will accomplish what we cannot. Is this not where our psalmist arrives at the end of this National Lament? "Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love."

Do we believe that the Lord will help us because of His unfailing love? In the past few weeks the elders have been looking at a particular piece of property that is just barely affordable. A denominational executive has been up from Atlanta to look at it and he assures me that the property is a great bargain and that we should stretch our resources and trust the Lord to make it possible. That advice has been reinforced by a leader in our own Presbytery as well. Yes, we can see the financial dangers, the possibility that in such a process of stepping out in faith that everything we have would be at risk and that if we failed, we could loose everything that we have gathered into the Lord's house these last eight years!

Do we believe that the Lord knows us, has forgiven us and would use us for the upbuilding of His kingdom? Is now the time to take a calculated risk and trust the Lord our God for the future He has planned? We have seen His hand in His mighty acts of History, but do we have the confidence to step into the future at His bidding and with the encouragement of His appointed and respected leaders? May this matter be the subject of intense prayer these next few weeks as we endeavor to determine what the Lord God of heaven and earth will allow. Amen.

	Resources Used:
Kidner, Derek.	Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms.
Spurgeon, C.H.	The Treasury of David.
IBS: The Holy Bible, New International Version (1984)
Psm 044b	7 July 91 & 17 August 97

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