He is Our Boast and He is Our Praise…

1 We have heard with our ears, O God,

Our fathers have told us,

The deeds You did in their days,

In days of old:

2 You drove out the nations with Your hand,

But them You planted;

You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.

3 For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,

Nor did their own arm save them;

But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,

Because You favored them.

4 You are my King, O God;

Command victories for Jacob.

5 Through You we will push down our enemies;

Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.

6 For I will not trust in my bow,

Nor shall my sword save me.

7 But You have saved us from our enemies,

And have put to shame those who hated us.

8 In God we boast all day long,

And praise Your name forever.

Selah

9 But You have cast us off and put us to shame,

And You do not go out with our armies.

10 You make us turn back from the enemy,

And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

11 You have given us up like sheep intended for food,

And have scattered us among the nations.

12 You sell Your people for next to nothing,

And are not enriched by selling them.

13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,

A scorn and a derision to those all around us.

14 You make us a byword among the nations,

A shaking of the head among the peoples.

15 My dishonor is continually before me,

And the shame of my face has covered me,

16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,

Because of the enemy and the avenger.

17 All this has come upon us;

But we have not forgotten You,

Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned back,

Nor have our steps departed from Your way;

19 But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,

And covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God,

Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god,

21 Would not God search this out?

For He knows the secrets of the heart.

22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

23 Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?

Arise! Do not cast us off forever.

24 Why do You hide Your face,

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;

Our body clings to the ground.

26 Arise for our help,

And redeem us for Your mercies' sake.—Psalm 44:1-26

Israel in Psalm 44 seems to be in the midst of calamity and defeat. David looks back in verses 1-3 and remembers what God had done for them in the time of Joshua...how God had fought for them and driven out the pagan nations from the Promised Land.  When I do as David does here, my heart is encouraged and my spirit revives.

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the strength of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When the wicked came against me

To eat up my flesh,

My enemies and foes,

They stumbled and fell.

3 Though an army may encamp against me,

My heart shall not fear;

Though war may rise against me,

In this I will be confident.—Psalm 27:1-3

In Verse 3, David remembers the why of their victory. It was God who gave the land to the children of Israel. It was NOT their own arm that saved them.  It was His right hand...His arm that did it, because He favored them. Jesus did the same for each of us at the cross over 2000 years ago. 

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans 5:6;8

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.—Ephesians 2:4-9

I love the next few verses.  

4 You are my King, O God;

Command victories for Jacob.

5 Through You we will push down our enemies;

Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.

6 For I will not trust in my bow,

Nor shall my sword save me.

7 But You have saved us from our enemies,

And have put to shame those who hated us.

8 In God we boast all day long,

And praise Your name forever.

Selah—Psalm 44:4-8

Beloved...only God is trustworthy. Through Him, we will do valiantly. He is our boast, and He is our praise!  He will never let us down.  

Last night, I couldn’t sleep because of discomfort and pain.  Anxiety, taking advantage of my weakness and lack of sleep, crept in and did its best to gain a foothold by highlighting the many things in life that are beyond my control. 

Scripture that I had memorized became my refuge — specifically Isaiah 26:3-4.  Focusing on this passage reminded my heart of the time when God was not my refuge.  When, in my youth and arrogance, I thought I was the captain of my ship and the master of my faith...a time when anxiety didn’t assail me.  

Here is the thing.  Back then I DID have reason to fear.  Whether I acknowledged it or not, I was not in control. The end could have come at any moment, and His everlasting arms would not have been underneath to catch me. Today, no matter what happens, the eternal God is my refuge, and underneath me are His everlasting arms.  That truth brought His peace to my heart. My pain lessened, and I slept.

In verses 22-26 David cries out to God to His people for His mercies sake. As His children, we can do the same.  His banner over us is love.  Once we are His, we are His forever.  His left hand is under our head, and His right hand embraces us.  There is nothing that can separate us from His love. 

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 8:37-39