William Tyndale (1494-early October 1536) began his studies at Oxford in 1506. It was not until he was awarded the Master of Arts degree in 1515 that he was allowed to start studying theology, but the official course did not include the systematic study of scripture. Tyndale complained: They have ordained that no man shall look on the Scripture until he is modeled in heathen learning eight or nine years and armed with false principles, with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of the Scripture.1
The Church had shackled the Bible, but Tyndale wanted to put it in the hands of the common man. He said to a belligerent priest, if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost!2
He sought permission to translate the Bible into English, but due to opposition he fled England for Continental Europe from where he carried on his controversial work. While carrying on his translation work near Brussels (the full NT and half of the OT), he was betrayed, arrested, and sentenced to burn at the stake in 1536. His last words were, Lord! Open the king of England’s eyes. At the stake, he was strangled to death and then burned.3 His crime? He translated the Bible into English.
He was 42 years old, never married and never buried.4 Within 4 years of his death, 4 English translations of the Bible were published with Henry VIII’s approval, including the Great Bible. All were based on Tyndale’s work.5 Tyndale coined many of the phrases still used in the English translation tradition.6
When we look at Tyndale’s life and consider his death, what do we think of it? Would it be appropriate to think, What a waste? He missed so many of life’s best experiences. Perhaps, we could think that God treated him unfairly. He did not deserve the things he suffered. Yes, his death was a tragedy, but his life was a gift to the world. He was a righteous sufferer. He was caught up in a war that was, perhaps, larger and more far reaching than he could have imagined, a war he willingly embraced.
We don’t know the occasion of Psalm 44, but it presents Israel as a righteous sufferer. While Psalms 42 and 43 gave us a view of the individual sufferer, Psalm 44 expands the view from the individual (Pss. 42-43)7 to the people of God corporately experiencing crisis. The righteous sufferer is often a theme in the psalter, but the nation suffering righteously is a much rarer theme.8
The people were struggling with their suffering because they had been faithful to the covenant (17). They were experiencing what they felt were covenant curses.9 Like we saw in Job, they had a retribution theology: Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity, said Job (Job 31:3)? Like Job, they had believed that the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. Because they had not broken the covenant, they are searching for a cause of their defeat other than sin and punishment? Can the righteous suffer?10
I want us to walk through this psalm and then make some applications. The psalm is in its entirety a prayer and divides into 4 sections that allow us to see the struggle of the righteous sufferer.
Verses 1-8 God’s past actions and their present trust
In verses 1-3 the congregation looked back on the conquest. They had heard from their fathers all that God had done in the days of old (1), namely he drove out the nations and planted Israel in the Promised Land. Against all odds Israel inherited the land because God fought on behalf of his covenant people.11 The history of God’s mighty acts was preserved and handed down to coming generations. Israel had been caught up in something much bigger than them, God redemptive plan for history. They were the object of God’s favor and saving work (3c cf. Deut. 7:7).
In verse 4-8 faith sores.12 In light of God’s past acts (1-3), their present confidence took flight.13 In a sudden outburst, the psalmist confesses the sovereign kingship of God and bids him, Ordain salvation14 for Jacob (4).
Just as Israel of old was not victorious in their own power, the assembly knows they cannot trust in weapons (6). They were not able to defeat their enemies apart from God (5). Because of the mighty acts of God in their behalf, they had boasted in him and would continue to give thanks forever (8).
If the psalm ended here, it would be a victory hymn, but it, surprisingly, continues to a lament. This allows us to see their dilemma and sets the stage for the contrast that follows.
Verses 9-16 Their puzzling present
Verse 9 points to the present contradiction of their experience as God’s people. On the basis God’s past acts, they do not have a category in which to place their present reality. Because he had not gone out with their armies, it seemed to them God had rejected15 and disgraced (shame and humiliation) them (9), but was that God’s purpose in their defeat?
Because they were defeated, it was impossible in their minds that God could have been with them. They raised their accusations against God: You made us turn back (10); You made us like sheep for the slaughter and scattered us (11); You sold us for a trifle (12); You made us the taunt, derision, and scorn of our neighbors (13); You made is a byword and laughingstock among the nations (14). Verses 15-16 return to the disgrace mentioned in verse 9 and expounds on it (15a, cf. 9a).
Israel’s trouble was not because they believed God was weak and unable deal with their enemies. Their problem was they knew God was able to deliver and save his people. This is what creates such a dilemma for them.16 This raises the question, Why is this happening?
Verses 17-22 Their perplexed reasoning
Israel is perplexed because all of this has come upon them, and they have not forgotten God or been false to the covenant (17). If they had broken the covenant, their defeat would have been understandable.
That does not mean they were sinless, but rather they were confessing their sins and offering atoning sacrifices in tabernacle system. Their hearts and their religious practice were together. If they had forgotten or been untrue to the covenant, if they had hidden sin in their hearts, God would have known it (20-21).
Their retribution theology did not work. In fact, it never worked. Always they were God’s people simply because he delighted in them (3c) for no reason they could locate in themselves. In what category, then, could they place their suffering? Verse 22 is the result of reasoned faith: For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Suffering may be a battle-scar rather than a punishment; the price of loyalty in a world at war with God.17 It is no fault of God if his enemies and ours are unable to see his incomparable worth in the suffering of the righteous.
Verses 23-26 Their prayer for deliverance
They call on God to awake (23), rouse (23), and rise-up (26).18 They are calling God to do things they know God does not do (get up, wake up, rise-up). It seemed, however, that he was asleep. Like in Psalm 42:9 and 43:2, it seems as if God had forgotten and rejected them.
They appeal to the LORD to redeem them on the basis of his love for them (26). The steadfast love of the LORD is the last word of the psalm.
The psalms offers some encouragements for the righteous sufferer.
When suffering and hardship come remember the savings acts of God (1-8). You are part of a far larger story than your immediate circumstances. God is at war with a world that opposes him, and we are to take up his cause in this world. You will not do that without hardship.
God will ask you to do hard things. We cannot judge what God’s will is by the path of least resistance or by what is more agreeable to our liking. Peter found this to be true when Jesus told Peter how he would die (Jn 20:15-23). It is not for God to bid us do what we like, we must train ourselves to love what God bids us do.
Teach your children the mighty acts of God in your life and among us as his people (1). Peg Jones wrote her testimony and gave it to her children and grandchildren for Christmas one year.19 We need to recount to our children how the Lord in answer to prayer brought Cornerstone to this property. It is a remarkable story. Ask me about it, I’ll be glad to tell you. Imagine what stories God will give us to tell when we build. How will he provide? What exploits of faith will we see? Whom among us will God move to extraordinary vision?
Because Israel had heard the stories of the saving acts of God, when crisis came to them, they knew to call on God. They understood that God is king, and no matter what the circumstance, the sovereign God has destined his people for good. So, they could call on him in their crisis, Ordain salvation for Jacob (4). They knew to whom to turn and that God is able to save.
When all is said and done, why will God save his people? Simply because He delights in them (3c).
Do not factor God out of the hard things in life. To do so is the quickest way to arrive at hopelessness. 6 times in these verses the people of God directly lay their distress at the feet of God (You, 9,10,11,12,13,14).20 You see how they are fighting for faith.
You cannot call on God to save you if you divorce him from difficult circumstances. Your only option is to do better, try harder, or to grit your teeth and bear it. To factor God out of situations is to create a god that, on the one hand, cannot save you, and, on the other hand, needs saving himself. So often, factoring God out is our attempt to save him.
After the memorial service held at the crash site of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, Lisa Beamer, a young widow, said, I listened to well-intentioned speakers, who were doing their best to comfort but with little if any direct reference to the power of God to sustain us. As much as I appreciated the kindness of the wonderful people who tried to encourage us, that afternoon was actually one of the lowest points in my grieving. It wasn’t the people, or the event, or the place. Instead, it struck me how hopeless the world is when God is factored out of the equation.21
One of the disadvantages in believing in a great God is He faces you with hard questions.22 You cannot believe he gives victory (1-8) but is not also behind defeat.
The people of God do some self-examination in these verses.
A. You may find that you have sinned
We can have the hardest time seeing the connection between our sin and our misery. Some people so disassociate their life of sin and their life of faith that they lead double lives with which they are perfectly comfortable. The people of God in this text looked deeply into their lives knowing that God knows the secrets of the heart (21b).
Could there be a direct connection between your sin and your misery? If so, blessed misery! If you carry on a life of sin and have no conscience about it, friend, you are unconverted, and I need to preach the gospel to you. Often I talk with people who see no connection between their disordered lives and their sinful lifestyle. Their problem is they are upset that they can’t do what they desire and be happy.
Our culture is pathologically narcissistic. We get to decide our gender and our sexuality, what will make us happy, our heads or buried in porn and videogames, and we live in virtual reality. We can be what we want to be. The sky is the limit. We are the masters of our fate, the captain of our soul23, and we are sailing that ship to hell.
B. You may find heart and hope aligned
They had been true to the covenant. Their hearts and their religious practice were consistent. One was the true expression of the other. They are not saying that they had not sinned, but rather that they were not running after sin. When they did sin, their repentance was true and heartfelt.
They came to the conclusion that All of this has come upon us (17) and it was not because they had sinned. Here, they realized that not all suffering and defeat is because of sin. God knew they had not been untrue to him (20-21). What can they conclude but that somehow, someway, inscrutable to them, for God’s sake they are killed all the day long; they are counted as sheep to be slaughtered (22).
That sounds terrible on the surface. If the purpose of God to you is that you have a magical, trouble-free, perfect life, you will end up bitter, disillusioned, and angry at God. As much as we know that in this world no such life exists, we are so lured to think of ourselves as the center of the universe, with a god who revolves around our lives to insure everything goes our way.
There is more, but if nothing else, suffering delivers us from the idols of our hearts. We have to discover, like Lisa Beamer, that your greatest comfort in tragedy, in suffering, in trial, and disappointment is that God is right in the middle of it working to show his power and glory in you as his child.
Do you see how a firm belief in the sovereignty of God, and only that, leads inevitably to prayer? While the whole psalm is a prayer, when the people of God realized that their defeat was somehow for God’s sake, they cried out all the more: Awake, rouse yourself, rise-up. Our crises are opportunities to pray for deliverance.
Obviously, God does not sleep. It just seems that he does. It feels like waiting for the ambulance. Realizing that God was in the middle of their misfortune, they could call on him because the foundation of the covenant is the mercy of God (26b). So they appealed finally to the steadfast love of the Lord.
The dilemma raised in Psalm 44 is not resolved until the New Covenant. We can see the last stanza of this psalm (23-26) in dramatic fashion in the scene with Jesus and his disciple on the storm-tossed Sea of Galilee, while Jesus is asleep in the boat. They woke him saying, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace. Be still. And there was calm. Jesus said, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? The disciples were filled with fear and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him (Mk. 4:41b)?
Paul shows us the New Covenant resolution to Psalm 44 in Romans 8. He takes two ideas from the Psalm and shows us how they work together: we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (22 cf. Rom. 8:36), and the steadfast love of God for us (26, cf. Rom 8:35,37,39). Paul takes these two truths and says, Nothing anywhere, anytime, in any situation can ever separate us from the steadfast love of God for us in Christ Jesus. Paul concludes, as the psalm concludes, In all these things we are not more than defeated,24 but more than conquerors through him who loved us (Rom 8:37)!