unfailing love

DEVOTION

PSALMS

UNFAILING LOVE

Ps 44

44:1 For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil.

We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. 2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. 3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.

4 You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. 5 Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. 6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; 7 but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. 8 In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Selah 

9 But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. 10 You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. 11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. 12 You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.

13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. 14 You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. 15 My disgrace is before me all day long, and my face is covered with shame 16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

17 All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant. 18 Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. 19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals and covered us over with deep darkness.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? 22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. 24 Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

25 We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. 26 Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.

NIV

Here is a song that has been song for many years, perhaps since the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt. David did not write this one, but is it credited to the sons of Korah. It is divided into two parts, but has but one purpose, to remind God all that he did and to let him know they knew it was all him and none of them who brought them so many victories over their enemies. The reason for all that reminiscing was twofold. First, they wanted to let God know they remembered all the times he gave them victories. Second, they were now not in the victory business, but being conquered instead. They also wanted God to know they never gave up on him, but we know they had from time to time. Even shortly after their rescue from Egypt they convinced Aaron to make a golden calf, a false god thus proving they turned their backs on God. They did spread their hands out to a foreign god and now they were paying the price. It seemed to them the God who fought for them in the past was asleep and was not watching over them. They were even bold enough to ask God to search their hearts to know they were telling the truth. That takes either courage or stupidity to ask God to examine their heart when it was lying. Here is where the rubber meets the road for us. God does examine our hearts, he knows our ever thought.

Ps 139:2-4

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

NIV

We have read about how Jesus knew the thoughts about the people trying to trap him into saying something they could charge him with. God knows our thoughts and he perceives our motives, our words before we say them. We cannot hide the truth of who we are from God, who are inner being is. This song also reminds us that it is God who does it all, he fights our battles, and he brings us the victory. It is not by our strength, our abilities, our efforts, our education or wealth which brings us the victory. It might seem many of the pagans are winning victories in this life and some believers appear to have won some as well. But we need to know it is all God in our lives, he is the source of all things good for us. We can never spread our hands out to a foreign god. Who this foreign god is may well be different for each believer. But there are many foreign or false gods out there for us to choose from. It is easy to get swept up in the course of life and start to make choices based on our wants, our desires, or our cravings. Maybe we kept ourselves from an actual physical encounter, but our mind is being drawn toward this foreign god. Honesty with God is the only way we can survive the onslaught of temptations from these foreign gods. He already knows but we need to let him know we know. We know our weakness, our soft points, and the holes in our defense against such gods. Arise Oh Lord and fill the gap, fight the battle, stand in our stead and win the victory for us, for we are weak, but you are strong. We are committed to remaining in you and having you remain in us. Without you we are lost and defenseless. You have not sold us out, but in fact you have bought us with your blood. You have redeemed us because of your unfailing love.