psalmthing to chew on: psalm 44

‘We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago…’ [verse 1]

i found this a difficult psalm to grab a lot from, but one thing that jumped out at me was that line at the beginning which is such a powerful line. it reminds me of a contradictionary line found in Judges which says:

‘After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.’ [Judges 2.10-13]

this psalm stresses the importance of story-telling – in the days of the early church before they had printed copies of the bible in their hands [and before even the priests had copied versions of what we now see as scripture] they had to rely on story-telling – we see this on many occasions in the book of Acts with Peter and Paul and Philip and Stephen among those who share the story of Jesus and see peoples lives transformed.

but it is on an even more intimate level in families where we see the importance of this. so as to avoid a generation growing up who have not heard of God or the things He has done. we have to continue to speak out the stories of what God has done in our lives.

in fact in the book of Revelations verse 10-11 it says, ‘For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.’

talking about how the enemy is ultimately defeated, it mentions that it is by the blood of the Lamb [what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross] and by the word of our testimony [the stories of what Jesus has done in and through us] which is so powerful – it means that these testimonies, these stories of how God is at work in and through our lives, have the power to defeat the enemy.

don’t stop telling the stories. don’t stop living them!

[To return to the Intro page and be connected to any of the other Psalms i have walked through before now, click here]

psalmthing to chew on: psalm 22 part ii

continuing with some further thorts from psalm 22

‘I will declare Your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him!
Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel! For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.’ [verse 22-24]

‘The poor will eat and be satisfied; those who seek the LORD will praise Him — may your hearts live forever!’ [verse 26]

this psalm serves as a reminder as to those who God seems to have special time and affection for – the afflicted one, the poor. this is backed up hugely by evidencing Jesus’ life in the gospels as He was constantly representing God’s heart for those in the background, the marginalised, by reaching out to the people of the day who were not considered worthy to spend time with – children, women, samaritans, lepers, drunkards and prostitutes, tax collectors… and powerfully vocalised in the parable of the sheep and goats which Jesus concludes with, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ [matthew 25.45]

reaching out to the ‘least of these’ is not an optional extra for Christ followers [who have been called to deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Him in luke 9.23] but an identifying sign of who we are. ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ [james 1.27]

and then lastly, i love how this psalm ends:

‘…future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!’ [verse 30b-31]

this is the exact opposite to what is evidenced in judges 2.10 just after joshua dies: ‘After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD…’

yet in this psalm David is speaking of God’s name being pronounced and declared to a future generation that has not even been born yet. the question is begged of us, how will we continue the legacy of Jesus-following among present and future generations?