Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

• Remained loyal to God- “ All this has happened despite our loyalty to you.”(17) • Kept his commandments- “ We have not violated your covenant. (17) • Their hearts were steadfast- “ Our hearts have not deserted you.” (18) • Walked in Integrity- “ We have not strayed from your path. Yet you have crushed us in the desert. You have covered us with darkness and death.”(18,19) • Remained faithful in worship- “ If we had turned away from worshiping our God or spread our hands in prayer to foreign gods, God would surely have known it, for he knows the secrets of every heart.” (20,21) Despite all of their faithfulness to God, tragedy has overcome them and there seems to be no rea- sonable explanation for the troubles. Only the coming of Christ in the New Testament provides the an- swer to this perplexing question. Paul draws from the resource of this psalm to make one of the great claims of scripture. “ Can any- thing ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (Even the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’) No, de- spite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.” (Rom. 8:35-37) This passage puts ‘suffering unjustly’ into perspective. Christ became our Passover lamb, he was ‘slaugh- tered’, as it were, by his sacrifice on the cross suffering the greatest injustice of the ages. He suffers with us. He loves us unconditionally through our trials and will eventually lead us to an overwhelming victory through the power of his resurrection. Nothing can ever separate us from this incomparable love! “ For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”(22) “ Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! Do not reject us forever. Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression? We collapse in the dust, lying face down in the dirt. Rise up! Come help us! Save us because of your unfailing love.” (23-26) “There is even a tradition that it (Psalm 44) was a stated lamentation Psalm of the time of the Mac- cabees. The Levites daily ascended the pulpit and raised the cry of prayer: Awake, why sleepest Thou, Lord?! These Levite criers praying for the interposition of God were called ‘wakers 2 ’.” Their leader, John Hyrcanus finally put an end to their practice reminding them of the promise in scripture that “ …the one who watches over you will not sleep. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps.” (Psa. 121:3,4) God is not tired or comatose; he is intensely interested in every aspect of our well-being. In reality, it is the faith of the believer that ‘goes to sleep’ and needs wakening. The cry for ‘God to awake’ is a sign that the believer has awakened their faith to call upon the only one who is able to save them. Unbelief causes anxiety, faith brings peace and rest even during a storm: “ But soon a fierce storm arose. High waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they woke him up, shouting, ‘Teacher, don’t you even care that we are going to drown?’ When he woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, ‘Quiet down!’ Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. And he asked them, ‘ Why are you so afraid? Do you still not have faith in me?’”(Mark 4:37-40) It is obvious that the situation was desperate and that Jesus was the only solution to the problem but it was ‘how’ they awoke him that showed a lack of understanding. • “ Frantically ” perhaps should have been “ calmly they woke him up… ” • “ Shouting ” might have been replaced with “ with a soft voice ” (no one appreciates being startled out of their sleep!) • “ Teacher, don’t you even care… ” could be substituted with “ Lord, we know you care about us and the boat is nearly full of water, how would you like to handle this?” IV PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION - 23-26

It is certainly not wrong to call upon God to awake, but remember to mix that call with faith. He is always waiting to hear us when we pray.

1 Keil & Delitzsch 2 Keil & Delitzsch

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