When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Psalm 44
Main Idea: In our unexplained suffering we hold fast our confidence in God’s faithful love in Christ.
I. Past Victories (44:1-8)
The psalmist recalls stories passed down from Israel’s ancestors. The allusions in these verses are to events we read about in the “conquest” recorded in the book of Joshua (44:1-3), to their establishment in the Promised Land (44:4-8), the present day victories (44:5).
In naming these past and present victories in Israel’s story, they are all attributed to the hand of God. These are not their victories, as much as they are God’s victories:
What deeds you performed (44:1)
You with your own hand drove out the nations (44:2)
Them you planted (44:2)
You afflicted the peoples (44:3)
Them you set free (44:3)
Your right hand and your arm (44:4)
Through you we push down our foes (44:5)
You have saved us and put to shame (44:7)
II. Present Disaster (44:9-16)
There is a dramatic shift in tone in these verses; instead of a focus on the victorious past, the emphasis moves to a disastrous present. This is not a psalm of celebration, but of lament.
Contrast between 44:1-8 (victory) and 44:9-16 (defeat):
Victory: drove out the nations (44:2)
Defeat: scattered us among the nations (44:11)
Victory: them you set free [from slavery] (44:2)
Defeat: You have sold your people [into slavery] (44:12)
Victory: we push down our foes (44:5)
Defeat: made us turn back from the foe (44:10)
Victory: put to shame those who hate us (44:7)
Defeat: my . . . shame has covered my face (44:15)
In this section there is a similar emphasis on God’s hand. However, He is no longer the cause of victory, but it appears that he is the cause of their defeat. A few points of reflection on this difficult reality:
We need to be cautious in directly attributing to God the direct cause of every disaster that comes our way
We need to acknowledge, rest in, and trust God’s sovereignty.
Even if we cannot always know what or who is behind every event, even more important is our response to our suffering, and that is humility and trust.
III. Protest of Loyalty (44:17-22)
In this next section, we see another reason for disorientation for the people of Israel. Not only is the suffering inconsistent; it is also unexplained from their vantage point. The suffering we experience on this side of Eternity can often feel this way. Without any apparent change in our faithfulness or obedience, we experience fluctuations in our Christian life: periods of fruitfulness and barrenness; of victory and defeat; of advance and retreat.
“The psalm doesn’t develop it, but implies the revolutionary thought that suffering may be a battle-scar rather than a punishment; the price of loyalty in a world which is at war with God. If this is so, a reverse [e.g., a military defeat] as well as a victory may be a sign of fellowship with him, not of alienation.”
~ Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72
IV. Protest of Loyalty (44:17-22)
The concluding prayer in verses 23-26 is full of the language of lament. It gives us a pattern for our own prayers in face of unexplained suffering
Lament gives words to our perception that God is distant and uncaring.
Lament cries to God for His help
“Suffering of any kind confronts our self-sufficiency. We are always dependent upon God’s help, but pain makes that gap real. . . . By asking God for help, we are not only marshaling the resources of an omnipotent God; we are also reminding our hearts that God can be trusted.”
~ Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy
3. Lament ultimately trusts in God’s character
For the one who has trusted in Christ, God’s “steadfast love” (hesed) has been shown to us through the cross of Christ. When we cry, “Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love”, what we are saying as Christians is, “Save us (help us), because we know (we are confident), that you love us (and will always love us), even in the midst of our suffering. And, the reason we can be absolutely sure of your love is because you gave your Son on the cross for us.”
Romans 8:31-32, 35-39: If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered” (Ps 44:22). No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, not things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
