Psalm 44. This is again a psalm
for the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their
days in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the
heathen with thy hand and plantest them. How thou didst afflict
the people and cast them out. For they got not the land in
possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save
them. But thy right hand and thine
arm in the light of thy countenance, because thou hast had favor unto
them. Thou art my king, O God. Command
deliverance is for Jacob. Through thee will we push down
our enemies. Through thy name will we tread
them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my
bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from
our enemies and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God
we boast all the day long and praise thy name forever. Selah. But thou hast cast us off. and
put us to shame and go us not forth with our armies. Thou makest
us to turn back from the enemy and they which hate us spoil
for themselves. Thou has given us like sheep
appointed for meat and has scattered us among the heathen. Thou sellest
thy people for naught and does not increase thy wealth by their
price. Thou makest us a reproach to
our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about
us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the
head among the people. My confusion is continually before
me, and the shame of my face hath covered me. For the voice
of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth by reason of the anger and avenger. All this has come upon us, yet
have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy
covenant. Our heart is not turned back,
neither have our steps declined from thy way. Though thou hast
sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the
shadow of death, if we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched
out our hands to a strange God, shall not God search this out?
For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake
are we killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Awake thou, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us
not off forever. Wherefore, hidest thou thy face
and forgetest our affliction and our oppression. For our soul
is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help and redeem
us for thy mercy's sake. Now, In this psalm is set forth the different measures and times
which the Lord pleased to bring His people through. And you know,
we are taught the things of God and we are caused by the grace
of God to trust Him. We learn things and we've heard
of things. Now, many of us, I speak especially
for myself, I was raised up in hearing the Bible and being taught
the things of God in a major, and I'm thankful for that. I
didn't much think a whole lot about it at the time, but you
know, all of the things that has happened in our lives have
happened for a reason to bring us to the place where we are
today, and if you could go back and change anything in your life,
would you? I mean, because how could you
be where you are now if you hadn't learned all the things that you
did and you hadn't went through the things that you did? I mean,
it's an amazing thing how God has His hand upon His people
at all times. And even in the times when they
are in a wayward situation and going astray from that pathway
that we know to be right and good, and now we see in our own
lives those things that are right and good, yet the Lord had His
hand upon us at all times. And He brought us by the way
that was known to Him, though it wasn't known to us. Because
we couldn't have ever got where we are today by our own understanding
and our own effort and our own power. It is only by the grace
of God. But you know there is a passage
of Scripture that says sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
And you've probably heard someone say before that today's blessings
are not any good for tomorrow. Now we can learn something from
the blessings of today that will benefit us tomorrow, but just
like the manna that fell every day and they had to go out and
gather it, they couldn't keep it till the next day. And you
can't live on yesterday's blessings. You know it's one thing to look
back and unfortunately a lot of the mind that a lot of people
have about their walk with the Lord is they keep looking back,
well I remember back when you know I began to walk with the
Lord. Well that's a good thing to remember
back and remember when the Lord began to work with you but brethren
If that's the only thing that we can do is go back and look
at what happened way back there, then it's not really of much
use to us, because we need the present work of the Lord within
us, and that's what this psalm is about. Now, he begins here
by saying, we have heard with our ears, O God. We've been taught
these things since we were children. We've been raised up in the understanding
of this. And our forefathers told us how
you drove out the heathen in the land, and you planted them,
and you were faithful to them. How thou didst afflict the people
and cast them out, you drove out the heathen. For they got
not the land in possession by their own sword. We know they
didn't accomplish these things on their own. Neither did their
own right arm save them, but thy right hand, and thine arm,
and the light of thy countenance." That was the power that brought
them where they were. I mean, you know, when you look
at our country, and you see the vastness of it, and you see how
the Lord move people from one place to the other for varied
reasons. It is mind-boggling to think
of all the different reasons that the Lord used to bring one
person from over here and put them over there. And then all
the things that came together and worked together for the good
of those that love God who are called according to His purpose.
Because you know, when you're riding down the interstate highway,
going from one place to another, you need to be thanking God that
He brought these things to pass for the benefit of His people. Now, the other people in the
earth, they get benefit from it. But the purpose of all things
that transpire in earth is to work together for good to them
that love God, who are the cold, according to His purpose. That's
why all these things happen. That's why all these things exist. What a glorious thing it is to
realize that the mercy of God is ever upon His people. And
He is moving all things unto their benefit. But surely by
the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto
them, what do we have that we have not received? What can you
look at in your life that is of any benefit whatsoever to
you that you have not received, that has not been granted to
you, that has not been given to you? Now you know a lot of
people like to think they had a whole lot to do with it. But
really and truly, we didn't have a whole lot to do with anything,
did we? I mean, the Lord, in His mercy, brought us by a way
which we knew not, and He planted our feet where He would, and
He brought us by His own hand. and according to His mercy. Thou
art my King, O God. Command deliverance is for Jacob. This is our desire, is it not? Praise Him. Thou art my King.
Through Thee will we push down our enemies. Now we know that
if we should have any victory whatsoever in the future, or
in the present, it must come from his hand. Through thee will
we push down our enemies. We will triumph, Lord. You are
that one. Through thy name will we tread
down them that rise up against us. The Lord said he would build
his church, and the gates of hell could not prevail against
him. He will do that, and we have
confidence that he will. for I will not trust in my bow,
neither shall my sword save me. He's taught us that, has he not?
I mean, I hope that we've learned that. We're in the process of
learning it anyway. Now, we kind of sometimes keep
going back and say for sure that we don't have any errors in the
quiver, you know. We kind of sometimes get things
where we could actually, you know, do this or cause this to
occur. But I will not trust in my bow,
neither shall my sword save me. Peter didn't learn that, did
he, Till, right at the end. He still thought right up to
the end, you know, just before he turned around and denied the
Lord. He pulled his sword out. He was
going to triumph by the sword, but the Lord told him, you know,
put that thing up. That's not the way in which we
will go. But thou hast saved us from our
enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. The Lord has made a show of the
enemies of God openly. He has spoiled, the Scripture
says, principalities and powers. He has overcome them. He has made all of those that
hated us to be put to shame. In God we boast all the day long
and praise thy name forever. Selah. Now, that's a glorious
thing, is it not? All those things that he set
forth and all of those things we believe. All of those things
the psalmist rejoiced in. But remember that yesterday's
blessings, as great as they are, can't be carried over. till today. Now you know there are some things
that you cook and eat that actually get better when you warm them
up, but most things really aren't. I mean usually there are some
things I look forward to eating as leftovers, but for the most
part You know, there it is, you know, it's just there. And that's
really the way it is with the blessings of God. Now there are
some things that we can rejoice in for a long time, you know,
the good of them, but in the strictest sense of the word,
the blessings of God are only good at the time they are, because
you know, you can be, God can pour out his blessing upon you
in this day and tomorrow, you can be walking through the valley
of the shadow of death. And that's really, you know,
it's, the word Selah, of course, you know, different people have
different ideas about what it was, but, and that song we sang
there a moment ago where it said to pause, that's kind of like
what that is, that's Selah, it's pause, it's stop. Think about
that. And so that's where we're at.
So here he comes, he brings us here, he says, in God we boast
all the day long and praise the name of our God forever. That's
not going to change. But our circumstances might. And that's what he says here,
because he says this. Now remember, he's just been
praising God for all the deliverances. that he had, but see here, he's
in a real situation. He's not making this up. Now,
religious men, they like to talk about how great everything is
all the time, don't they? I mean, you turn on some of these
smiley face preachers on the TV, and boy, they just tell you,
oh, it's just great, you know, everything is wonderful, it's
just fantastic, and you know, you're gonna have a great day
today, and I'm gonna have a great day today, and if you'll send
me some money, you'll have an even better day, and all of that
kind of stuff, you know. That goes on. Well, the psalmist,
he didn't listen to that. He didn't turn that channel on
because he says this, but thou hast cast us off. Now did he
mean God had actually cast him off? That God had actually, didn't
he just say the Lord was with us forever? But what he means
is that's how I, that's where I'm at. It's what it seems like. Lord, have you cast us off forever? I mean, I'm in a place of great
need here. But thou hast cast us off and
put us to shame and goeth not forth with our armies because
sometimes we don't see the victories, do we? I mean, the Of course,
I didn't live through it, so I don't know, and I don't guess
there's really probably anybody in here that did in an adult
sense of having comprehension of what was going on, what went
on in World War II, especially in the early days of World War
II. From the things I read and whatnot, it was pretty bleak.
situation. I mean, you know, everything
wasn't going just right. I mean, you know, the way the
history is and the outcome of it, I mean, everybody rejoices
in all of that, but there were some dark days in that when it
didn't, I mean, they didn't know if it was going to turn out like
they wanted it to or not. In fact, it looked like it wouldn't.
And if you've ever read anything about the history of England,
you know, in the days when Churchill first got in there, I mean, it
was a bad situation. And so that's kind of the idea
here. That's the thought. Lord, cast
us, thou go'st not forth with our armies. I mean, we're being
defeated on every hand. You ever felt like that? They'll
make us just to turn back from the enemy. And they, which hate
us, spoil us for themselves. They just said, you made all
our enemies ashamed. But Lord, it doesn't feel like
it right now. Now we can be rejoicing that
the Lord overcame our enemies yesterday, but then today, when
we're confronted with them once again, we're not so sure about
it from time to time. Thou hast given us like sheep
appointed for meat. I mean, we've been turned over
to the wolves and scattered us among the heathen. I mean, does
it not seem like that? You know, the glories of the
gospel are often trampled underfoot. I mean, where is the bold word
of God being proclaimed today in a broad fashion. I mean, people
are caught up in their own way and they love their own way of
religion and all of these things that, you know, seem good unto
men. But where is the voice of one
crying in the wilderness? Where is the one lifting up the
glory of God? Thou hast given us like sheep
appointed for meat. Thou sellest thy people for nothing,
and dost not increase their wealth by price. Now you know one thing
I've noticed in the Scripture, and that is that the Scriptures
are honest. If you'd have wrote the Bible,
you'd have never put some of this stuff in there. Because
you wouldn't have wanted people to have thought you wasn't religious.
Or you wouldn't have wanted people to really know how you really
felt. But see, the Bible is written
as the Lord gave men, and this was how the writer of the psalm,
which we believe probably was David, that's really how he felt. I mean, he was honest before
God. He said, Lord, you've left us. You've turned us over to
our enemies. We're scattered. Now, you know,
on the one hand, he said that, on the other hand, he had faith
that God had not forsaken him, but yet that's how he felt, that's
how it seemed, that's what it looked like. Thou sellest thy
people for nothing and dost not increase thy wealth by their
price. They are not worth anything,
basically, what it means. You can gain anything by them,
I mean, you just cast us off for no use. Thou makest us a
reproach to our neighbors. They laugh at us. A scorn and
a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword
among the heathen. Shaking of the head among the
people. Yeah, we remember them. You know, when they were really
something, but boy, they're nothing now. You remember, when you read the
book of Ruth, And that's kind of when Naomi came back tomorrow,
she came back in bitterness, did she not? And don't you imagine
the people said, yeah, we knew they'd be back. You know, they
went off and had the big high life and all this was great,
but now look at them. Isn't it the way of men, they
love to see somebody Fail. You know, they love to see somebody
that really was doing good lose everything. I mean, that kind
of gives some people some satisfaction. Well, man, you know, he thought
he was a big shot, but now he's not. He's learned back, you know,
how it is. That's just the way men are.
But that's the true feeling here that's being conveyed. Thou makest
this a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the
people. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my
face hath covered me. Now, while the psalmist is speaking
this in his own experience and feeling that he has been forsaken
of God, or at least that's the honesty with which he's expressing
himself to the Lord, you know, it would be like when you would
come to someone you love and you didn't think that they expressed
their love to you as they ought, and you say, well, you know,
you don't even care. Now, you know, really in the back of your
mind, you know that they do, but it just doesn't seem like
it, does it? And you're desiring that they tell you of that. that
they reinforce that to you. And this is the purpose, I believe,
of what the psalmist is saying here. And I believe at the same
time this is the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ as He bore
the sorrow of His people. You see, He knew what it is to
be abandoned, or to have that angst. Now there was never a
day in His life when He did not trust the Lord. We're not talking
about trusting the Lord is not ever expressing your doubts or
your fears. See, a man may be trusting the
Lord. Why else would he even come to
the Lord if he wasn't trusting the Lord? See, you wouldn't make
your request known unto God if you didn't believe God, would
you? I mean, would you call upon somebody
you knew couldn't help you? What would be the point in that?
I mean, if you wanted to borrow a million dollars, would you
come see me? No, because there wouldn't be
any need for you to come see me, because I ain't got a million
dollars. So you know good and well there
wouldn't be any need in that. But see, a man will call upon
the one in whom they trust. My confusions continued before
me, and shame of my face hath covered me. Now, why was he ashamed? because of sin. Whose sin? Our sin. You see, he bore our
sin, carried our sorrows, for he was and is our substitute. For the voice of him that reproacheth
and blasphemeth by reason of the enemy and avenger, all this
has come upon us. Yet have we not forgotten thee.
Now, why have we not forgotten the Lord? If we can say in the
midst of our trouble, Lord, we've not forgotten Thee, why is that?
It's because the same thing that He started. No, because the Lord
hasn't cast us off. You see, the people of God can't
not trust the Lord. I mean, they can't not trust
the Lord. They can look sometimes like
they're not trusting the Lord, they can act that way from time
to time, but I'm telling you, God will bring His people to
Himself. He'll bring them through the
valleys and He'll bring them over the hills and He'll do all
the things that He's pleased to do, but He will cause them
to trust in Him. They can't do anything else. But we have not forgotten thee,
neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. We've not cast
it off. Our heart is not turned back,
neither are our steps declined from thy way. Even though we
can't see that, we don't have the answers. You know, I was
thinking today about things that I just don't have the answer
for. You know, I look around me and I see people that I have
great affection for and that I believe are good people insofar
as good people go. And I think, well, Lord, would
you cast all these people away? Would you destroy them? But then
I get to thinking about that. Well, I don't see them as God
sees them. I can see them as I see them.
You see, the Scripture says all of our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. And when I look at people and
I think about all the good things, I'm thinking about their righteousnesses,
am I not? The Lord's not interested in
their righteousnesses. Because there's none of the righteousnesses
of men that measure up to the standard of Almighty God. I mean, if you just had to meet
my standard, you might be alright. But, dear brethren, that's not
the standard. Not the standard. And I don't
understand these things, I don't have the answers. All this is
coming upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee? Our hearts not
turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way.
Though thy has sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered
us with the shadow of death. I mean, he's talking about some
deep waters, is he not? Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
walk through the valley of the shadow of death? Did he not have
the death of His people, the sorrow associated with that death,
weigh upon Him. Sure it did. If we have forgotten
the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange God,
shall not God search us out? Search this out, for He knoweth
the secrets of the heart. Do we not get that? I mean, when
He said, Thou shalt have no other gods before My face, do we not
understand that? Is it our desire to have another
God before His face? I mean, can the man who is given
the grace of God, can he desire to worship another God? Can he
desire to have nothing to do with Jesus Christ? If the Lord
has shown him His mercy and His kindness, is his heart not compelled? In the midst of whatever situation
he might find himself in, he is strangely drawn to that. You
ever watched a moth flying around a light bulb? And they'll hit
that thing, and it'll be hot, and they'll get around in there,
but they just keep going right around it. Why is that? Because
they're drawn to the light. Isn't it, brethren? That's the
way the children of God are. They're drawn to the light. And
you think to yourself, well, you know if that moth was smart,
he'd fly off out there somewhere, but he can't. Why? Because he's
drawn to the light. And that's the way the people
of God are. We're drawn to the light. And we desire the light. See, once you've been in the
light, you don't really like the darkness. And we don't do
well in the darkness. We want the light. What's the
first thing you do when you walk in a room? Turn on the light. Why? Because
you're creatures of light. And so it is. That's the same
thing that's true in a spiritual sense. That's what a man wants
to do. He wants the light on. He's not interested in the darkness.
Now I guess there are certain creatures the Lord has made that
are made creatures of the night. But his children are not creatures
of the night, they're creatures of the light, and they desire
it. Shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets
of the heart. Yea, for thy sake are we killed
all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. That's the way it appears, does
it not? I mean, we're just steadily marching
down the road towards death. I mean, the older you get, the
more clearly you can see that. I mean, we're just here for a
short season. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever.
Now, what the disciple said to the Lord when he was in the boat,
I mean, he was tired, he was sleeping. At least they thought
that he was. But you know, even in his slumber,
even in his sleep, his consideration was for his people. Now you and
I can't enter into that. You know, dreams are an amazing
thing. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate
between that which is a dream and that which is real. I have
had things, I have dreamed about things that seem to me just as
real and I have even wondered. I think I might have told you
about this. I remember dreaming about doing a job And I would
have just about swore to you that I did this job, because
I could think, I could see the people, and I could think of
the work that we did in the house, and it was like I can remember
going there. But then I realized that I didn't do the job because
the place don't even exist where I was thinking, you know, that
it was. And so it's amazing. How can a man comprehend that? I mean, we don't even have control
over our dreams, but the Lord Jesus Christ, in His slumber,
He was the one who had control of those things. I don't get
it. I don't understand it. I don't
know how it is, but here was my point. The disciples, when
the Lord Jesus Christ was asleep in the boat, He was asleep in
the boat because why? He wanted them to call upon Him. See, He put them in a situation
that they couldn't extricate themselves. He brought them into
a place of great fear. Is this not what they said? Lord,
don't you care? I mean, we're about to sink, and
here you are sleeping! Awake! Get up! Help us! That's what he's saying. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off forever,
don't let us be destroyed. Now isn't that the place that
all of God's people are caused to come? And does he not sleep
in the boat sometimes? But you know the amazing thing,
he was in the boat, wasn't he? He was in the boat. He was right
there. Just like when they were toiling
away in the sea, and the seas were rough, and they were thinking
any minute they were gonna sink, and they said, yeah, I mean,
the Lord, we don't even know where he is. I mean, he sent
us over here to go across the sea, and here the storms come
up, and who knows where he is? I can just hear him, you know?
Yeah, I mean, if he was here, you know, everything would be
all right. Remember, that's what Martha said. Or Mary said, or Martha
said. Well, both of them said, Lord,
if you'd have been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died. Where have
you been? What are you doing? Awake thou that sleepest. Arise, cast us not off forever,
Lord, help us. Wherefore hidest thou thy face
and forgetest our affliction and our oppression? Now, does
he ever do that? Not really, but it seems like
it sometimes, doesn't it? Why does he bring us to those
thoughts of mine that he might show us that he has not forgotten
us? Why did he come walking on the
sea? You know, we would think, well, why did he ever let them
get in that shape to start with? Well, because he wanted them
to be in that kind of condition. See, every time you get in a
place of doubt and fear, the Lord's beginning to do a
work. Because He's bringing you to a place to call upon Him,
to trust Him. He's going to show you the faithfulness
of His own hand. He will not destroy His people.
For our souls bow down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto
the earth. Arise for our help and redeem
us for thy mercy's sake. See, God's people, even when
they do not see the deliverance. Now, the disciples, they saw
the deliverance of God. The children of Israel, when
they were standing by the Red Sea, and Moses said, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Now, we don't always see
it. Sometimes it gets pretty bleak
and we don't see it. And sometimes it's never fully
revealed to us. But as time goes on, as we look
back, we see, you know, the Lord did. He was faithful. He did bring us through that.
And He will do that. And the glorious thing is that
the people of God can't do anything else but trust Him. Now, do we
exhort one another to trust the Lord? Well, of course we do.
I mean, I need to be encouraged, do I not? Trust the Lord. Lean
not to thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge
Him, and He shall bring it to pass. But see, only the people
of God take that to heart. Only the people of God say, yeah,
that's what I've got to do. Like the woman with the issue
of blood. She says, if I can but touch the hem of His clothes.
Now did she think it was because she could touch it? Or was it
because of the one she desired to touch? She knew that it was
Him. She didn't have any confidence
at all that she would be able to touch Him, but she knew that
if she could, He would heal her. Blind Bartimaeus, as he sat by
the roadside, he didn't know that the Lord was going to help
him, did he? But he said, I know that you
can. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. Thou canst
cause me and my eyes to see, if you will. And dear brethren,
that's the place that the Lord's people are brought. Cast themselves
at the mercy of God, and he will hear the prayer of all of those
who are brought to such a place. But if I should die with mercy
sought, when I the king have tried, this were to die a delightful
thought, as sinner never died. What a wondrous thing it is to
know the mercy and kindness of God, that he will not cast off
those whom he loves, and those whom he gives a desire to walk
in his way. He will. meet their needs and
bring them to a wealthy place, even in the midst of their doubts
and fears. You know, a lot of people say,
well, you gotta not doubt. Well, you show some, you know,
the person who says that doesn't know what doubt is, because there
ain't no way you can keep yourself from doubting. Doubting is the
natural course of the human mind. The only thing that will prevent
doubt is the mercy of God. to come in and cause those doubts
to go away. You can't keep yourself from
doubting something. You just can't do it, because
that's just the way you made. But the Lord can take those fears
and doubts away, and only he can do it.