Psalm 44: an impudent prayer
I look at this psalm as a lesson in how not to pray. I find the tone not very humble, and the accusations brought before God untrue. The author is clearly upset. While blaming God may make him feel better short-term, it isn’t going to help long-term.
You see, God never goes back on His promises. If He did, He wouldn’t have sent us His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. And besides, to counteract the claims made specifically in this psalm, we have Deuteronomy 28:25, and the adjoining verses: “Yahweh will have you defeated by your enemies; you will advance on them from one direction and flee from them in seven; you will be a terrifying object-lesson to all the kingdoms of the world. Read the entire section in Deuteronomy, the entire chapter 28, to see how interestingly it parallels psalm 44.
This isn’t by coincidence, of course. Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy contains the very same blessings and curses bestowed on the Israelites when they entered their promised land. The conditions were laid out clearly, and only if God’s commandments weren’t obeyed were they to experience the curses.
Now, do you begin to see who’s really at fault here? It’s not God. We know He’s always constant. It’s the person blaming God. I’m not accusing the author of being untrue. It may very well be that he, and his entire family, were faithful to God, while the Israelites as a whole were not. His frustration may be genuine, but his examination of the facts isn’t. If he’d have only opened his eyes, he would have seen the apostasy of Israel.
Ah, but there’s the rub! One must be willing to see that sort of stuff, and what’s even more inconvenient, one must be willing to speak out against it. That’s always the difficult part, isn’t it? Because as believers in God, it’s our duty to point out what’s wrong, and to work to correct it. I bet if they did that in Israel, and, as a nation, got back on the right track before their enemies started attacking, this psalm wouldn’t exist. This prayer would have never been uttered. But they, and we - because people are the same everywhere - get so preoccupied with our own relationship with God, with our own problems, with our own worries and desires and frustrations, that we forget about others. It’s an inconvenience, a nuisance, to worry about or to help others, isn’t it? Come on, admit it! We’ve all thought that at one point or another! But we must overcome those feelings, and help! It’s our duty!
So you see, the real lesson of this psalm is to stop ignoring problems around us. We should get involved, and we should point out the right path, the Biblical path, the Godly path to take, otherwise we too, risk being taken into exile and persecuted together with the unbelievers.
And now, dear reader, I can tell you truthfully that I had no idea I was going to arrive at this conclusion when I started writing this, as with many, if not all, of my entries. I simply let God lead the way and prayed as I wrote. And that’s another lesson in itself. Every time I let God lead, things work out well. When I push my agenda, I mess up. I’d do well to remember that more often!
