As far as military defeat and exile goes, Psalm 44 could have been prayed at many different stages of Israel and Judah's history. Like all psalms, I am sure it has meaning that grows as the Bible's story unfolds. The problem that a few of us have tossed around is that military defeat was usually tied to the infidelity of God's people to the God who would otherwise have fought for them (as forecast in Deut 28-30). But Psalm 44 claims innocence (vv.17-18, 20).
Something to note: this psalm is written by a group of temple singers (the sons of Korah) for the king to sing. This means there is a generalness about the psalm and perhaps an idealism (not to be mistaken for dishonesty or uselessness!).
Godly OT kings ought to lead their people, so as to be able to pray this way. I think this holds up, since the Psalms were an instructional tool, training people how to think, not just expressing what they actually think. Perhaps Psalm 44 was to model what ought to be reality (but mostly to convict since this was rarely the reality!). I am not an OT scholar, so I am happy to leave this point as speculation!
A common Old Testament theme is that God fights for his people, against the nations who oppose them (eg. Deut 9, the book of Joshua). The Israelites got out of Egypt only because of the wonders God worked single handedly. The forty year wandering in the wilderness was because the people (apart from a Caleb and Joshua) didn't trust God to fight for them (Numbers 13-14). Entry into the Promised land finally came about only because God went ahead and "drove out the nations" with his own hands (Ps 44:2).
God chose to save his rebellious people time and again through various leaders in the period of the Judges, in ways that made Israel's military dependence on him obvious. Israel won when they trusted God to fight for them. When they took things into their own hands through arrogance or unbelief, they lost. The whole point was that Israel would know that God was their strong King and he would get glory among the nations.
Psalm 44 celebrates this triumph of God in Israel's history. The question that gets asked by the leading voice (the king) in this psalm is, why not now?
This king is praying admirably. He is acknowledging that God is his king and the king of his people (v.4). He is not trusting his own sword or bow (v.6). He knows that God's people win only when God fights for them. But this time God hasn't (vv.9-16). Military defeat says God is not delighting in them (v.3).
This king wants God to fight for his people for a good reason. "For your sake we are slaughtered (v.22), so for your sake, save (v.26)!". The king is worried about God's people being the laughing stock of the nations, because that means God is too (vv.14-26). This desperate king is asking God to fight again for his people, for the sake of God's own reputation. This king wants to keep boasting in his God, giving thanks forever (v.8).
At any point in Israel's history, even the most idolatrous, there would have been a small (sometimes undetectable) remnant of people who kept trusting, obeying and longing for God to fulfil his purposes in and for his people. These faithful people still suffered as part of the community for the unfaithfulness of the whole nation, even though they personally didn't participate in it. This prayer could have been legitimately prayed by that small minority as they experienced God's judgement on their community, even though they personally had not "spread out their hands to a foreign god" (v.20). See Dave's point here.
All that being said, it still feels like a few leaps before Christians can connect with this psalm. The Apostle Paul throws a new angle on Psalm 44 when he quotes it in Romans 8...that is another (briefer) post!
0 comments:
Post a Comment