Psalms for Turbulent Times - Psalm 45: Love will win

Psalm 44[1]

¹ We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:
² you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;
³ for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm give them victory;
but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance,
    for you delighted in them.

⁴ You are my King and my God; you command^[a] victories for Jacob.
⁵ Through you we push down our foes;
    through your name we tread down our assailants.
⁶ For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.
⁷ But you have saved us from our foes,
    and have put to confusion those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name for ever. Selah



⁹ Yet you have rejected us and abased us,
    and have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰ You made us turn back from the foe,
    and our enemies have taken spoil for themselves.
¹¹ You have made us like sheep for slaughter,
    and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.

¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbours,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations,
      a laughing-stock^[b] among the peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me, 
     and shame has covered my face
¹⁶ at the words of the taunters and revilers,
    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷ All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you,
    or been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way,
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the haunt of jackals,
    and covered us with deep darkness.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God,
    or spread out our hands to a strange god,
²¹ would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Because of you we are being killed all day long,
    and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³ Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
     Awake, do not cast us off for ever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵  For we sink down to the dust;
     our bodies cling to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.

This psalm is a prayer for a nation in crisis. It reveals, again, the worldview of the psalmist: God is involved in history; God is involved in the present; and God holds the future. 

In our time of national crisis, one of the symbols of hope and trust has been the NHS. On one of our parks, Lightwoods off the Hagley Road coming into Birmingham, a symbol of hope has been erected by a local artist. This chicken-wire statue of an angel disguised as a healthworker is attracting attention. It is a creative response to this situation which has now claimed more than 30,000 lives in a matter of two months. It is a sign that love is winning, but at some cost.

For this praying poet, something has gone badly wrong. In the old days God acted and saved his people. He gave them the space to grow and feel safe. He accomplished great acts of national salvation and protection. All was well. And then suddenly, it was as if God no more cared for his people. They had become ‘like sheep to the slaughter’ (vs11 and vs22). They were scattered among the nations, their identity no longer certain – in fact they were a people who had become despised and rejected (vs9), taunted by enemies (vs11) and a laughing stock among all the nations (vs13). The humiliation was complete. Yet, faith persists. God is God. And although the people feel forgotten and forsaken by God, yet they do not forget God nor God’s covenant.

Though something has gone badly wrong (is it the exile? most likely so) the people will not forget God. In fact it is God who needs to wake up and remember God’s character which is to come to the help of the poor and needy. It is God’s nature to have mercy and not to forget the afflicted. So, the logic of the psalm is clear: God has to act again. God cannot stay hidden for long.

This is a psalm written to express a profound truth – the nation is in crisis and the nation needs God to act. Scholars are more or less sure that the 44^th psalm was written against the background of the bewildering experience of exile. Though it is very difficult to date it, from the time when the exiles began to return to their homeland right the way through to the time of Christ, the Jewish people suffered severe afflictions, pretty much continuously. This is the first psalm in the bible which registers a communal lament or complaint. It is a theological resource for a people accustomed to suffering and yet also accustomed to calling on God’s help.

In a sense, the problem in this psalm is not the suffering – although in the third section (vs 17-22) it is clear that the psalmist sees this suffering as unjust or undeserved. No, this is not the main problem of the psalm. The heart of the psalm’s concern is God’s inaction, God’s apparent distance or hiddenness. The main problem is not pain but painful silence.

And so it falls to the last line to give us the punchline of this tenacious faith: ‘Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.’ (vs26). It is God’s reputation at stake here. For God needs to enter the suffering of his people and not stand distant anymore.

A faith that is active is one that is not afraid to contend with God in the face of suffering. Such a faith will not let go of the argument that love demands action or else it is not love at all. 'Wake up God!' When was the last time you contended with God? If not, be encouraged by the rich tradition of contending prayer in the bible.

From Abraham and Moses through to Jesus we see again and again in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament an wrestling praying faith that does not let go of God. But this wrestling praying and trusting faith always in the end puts the life and soul of the individual into God’s hands.

Abraham did this at Mount Moriah when he trusted that God would provide an answer to the intractable problem of how Isaac, his only son, would not be sacrificed – God provided the ram at the last moment (Genesis 22.10). Moses wrestled with God in prayer and face to face in the on Mount Sinai (Exodus 32.11-14) and the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 33.12-23) in order to secure a future for the ragtag nation of erstwhile slaves. Jesus wrestled in prayer and trust with God his Father in the garden of Gethsemane and trusted that in offering himself and all his life, God would come through even on the other side of his death (Luke 22.39-46). For the sake of God’s steadfast love, God sends his own Son and suffers for that love. In the end, love wins. And God is rising up in a million acts of love and kindness spread right across our nation and the globe even as God is also suffering and dying in the lives to tens of thousands. Both good news and bad is held in God's committed care.

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[1] Footnotes: Psalm 44:4 Gk Syr: Heb You are my King, O God; command
Psalm 44:14 Heb a shaking of the head
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.