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Psalm Chapter 43-44
August 17th 2025
Someone asked me the other day, if being a Christian is easy or hard in our day and age? It is a fascinating question when we think about it, isn’t it? And we have so many perspectives that come forth in reply. First, we have the Nation of Israel and their blessing/obedience & and trials/disobedience model in scripture. Then we have the Apostolic Record model where true faithfulness was rewarded with alienation, starvation and even physical deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God.. But when we look around today there are many souls who claim that we in the age of Grace, even the age of fulfillment, and that we merely walk in faith and love and boom – its all gravy, right? Of course, there are others who maintain that physical, temporal, spiritual trials continue today for the faithful and then there are even those who mandate that actual suffering should be part of our lives – with some going so far as to inflict it upon themselves? What do you say and how do you justify your response?
Perspectives on Trials and Success
Should a believer seek to live in discomfort today or expect to? Should we not prepare or equip ourselves for this life to show God that we are not of this world? Or is it God honoring for a believer to obtain skills for this life in the things of this world like business, medicine, science, technology and actually seek to use and develop their God given gifts in and for this world and for His Kingdom and if so, wherein comes the suffering when we are rewarded for their earthly successes? These things are big questions to sincere believers – I hear them all the time – especially from young believers trying to figure out how to navigate paying their bills and making a life while honoring God with all of their heart. How many of us who seek YAHAVAH with all of our hearts discover our lives are hard? How many of us sit in the dentist office while a getting a root canal or have our car break down, or lose our job wonder if we are being punished by His punitive hand? These questions, because of the scriptural narrative, are VERY HARD TO ANSWER . . . but we are going to try and explain what we believe is the reality today in light of the scripture, in light of fulfilment and in light of the fact that because of fulfillment the life of post biblical believers is certainly going to be different – in terms of both suffering and comfort.
I am going to read one passage from Psalm 43, and then the whole of Psalm 44 to lay the ground work for our teaching today. As an FYI, today we are venturing forward into Psalms that we are not going to fully read (in some cases) but just glean he highlights as we go. And we will work through all the ones we haven’t covered in the manner until the end of the year. In chapter 43, the Psalmist at verse 5 asks, of course rhetorically,
Reflection on Psalms
Psalm 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Have any of you struggled with depression, anxiety, doubt, or mental illness as a Christian and in the face of this world? Do you wonder why there are times in the face of your walk that you too ask, Why are thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me?”
In many ways, Psalm 44 give us something of a template of answers to help us understand trials, despair, difficulties and the suffering God allows in our lives. In verses 1-8 the Psalmist regales the wonders of YAHAVAH’s protection over the Nation. Let’s read.
Psalm 44:1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them. 4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. 5
Reflections on God’s Protective Hand
Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah. Very pro-God is on our side, right. And the way they describe His protective hand is by citing their history – our fathers have told us. And it is a very very strong method of illustrating God work in our lives, isn’t it – by looking back and reciting all that God has done. This is especially true in the culture of the Nation of Israel and continues on today as all of their celebrations are tied to the Exodus, the Passover, and several other holiday observances that retell all that God had done for them. We note the material basis for their reflections – an actual Exodus out of an actual land, an actual Passover of the Spirit of actual death, an actual celebration of tabernacles, right.
Historical and Cultural Observances
I recently read about the LDS refocusing their material history again by reintroducing the Trek program. My oldest sister and her husband, in their very calling in the LDS church, physically dress up in pioneer clothing and are booked out going to grade schools and teaching the kids how to make soap, make quilts and hearken back to the days when they claim God lead them out of captivity and abuse to this promised land of Utah. All extremely reminiscent of the Nation of Israel material culture first described in the Tanakh. But in the face of the original article and the LDS attempt to model itself after them, we notice something interesting in the scripture – when Christ came and established His Church/Bride, their recognition of the Nations observance began to fade. No more Sabbath worship. The only remembrance they actually were commanded to do was take communion until He returned as they were commanded. Some believer tried to make the first day of the week worship become a material day of worship – you know, to revamp the old with new application, but even that is put way when Christ took that day and assigned it to Himself, saying, Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give your rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of ME for I am gentile and lowly of heart.
The Shift from Material to Spiritual
The point being, in Christ, everything material is repurposed – not in material affectations or expressions – and because of this which is made obvious both in the scripture and in history EVENTS in the Christian faith (excluding Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Anglicans and Lutherans) are Christmas and Easter – and those were hijacked from pagan cultures. WHY? Because Christ came and established Himself alone, the living Christ, as the constant daily remembrance of God’s goodness and mercy to the world. Him alone. Christians don’t celebrate or hold memorials over the miracles that He did for the people in the early church – we celebrate Him and we do it in spirit and truth, which means constantly and not in material expressions like the Nation of Old. Going back to Psalm 44, after writing about how much God blessed them materially in the first 8 verses, we see a shift, and from verse 9-16 he bemoans the way God has punished them. Six times in the next seven verse the Psalmist now lays their suffering at YAHAVAH’S feet by saying, thou or You – You have done this, you have done that – ready? (verse 9)
But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen. Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy.
The Relationship Between Obedience and Material Blessings in the Old Testament
Verse 1-8, he recites all that God had done for them, according to their forefathers, then from 9 to 16, all the trials, suffering, and difficulty that He has also allowed. We know from the Old Testament and the Nation that God would let them enter into great material suffering when they were disobedient – this was the model they lived under because that was the basis of living by the Law. Keep it – blessing. Fail to keep it, cursing. And it was by this metric that the prophets wrote and described the treatment God had given them as a material Nation on material earth and members of a material nation. Remember this – this material world was their focus, that is why they expected a material king and Messiah to emancipate them from Roman rule and reign over all the other kingdoms (where) on earth.
Material Successes and Law
What can we say about this? I think that we can make the leap to suggest that material successes, blessings, and protections, in this life, operate on material laws. That is what God gave the nation and that is how God blessed them – materially. Because of this when something evil would fall upon them they would all look around and ask, “What did we do? Who has an idol hidden amongst us? Who has broken a law in our Nation?” We see this idea illustrated all over the Old Testament in the stories of Moses, Achan, David, and a guy named Gehazi. Before the Law was given, the law given Moses killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand, a type for hidden sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. – which we touched on last week when we discussed the importance of being truthful before God as the means to receive his constant mercy.
After the Israelites’ miraculous victory at Jericho, God instructed them not to take any spoils of war. However, a guy named Achan secretly took a beautiful cloak of gold and silver and hid it in his tent. This hidden sin had devastating consequences for the entire nation causing the Israelites to be defeated at Ai, where thirty-six men died. When Achan’s sin was exposed, he and his family were stoned to death, and their possessions were burned, demonstrating that God judges hidden sin and its impact on the community. Of course, we have David’s hidden Sin with Bathsheba and trying to hide her pregnancy from her husband by having him killed but David’s actions were not hidden from God, who sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. The consequences included the death of the child born from the affair and a lifetime of ongoing family strife for him. And then Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, secretly took gifts from Naaman after Naaman was healed of leprosy, demonstrating that even those who serve God can fall into the trap of hiding sin.
Lessons from the Old Testament
So, in the Old Testament we had God’s chosen people given Laws, and when they obeyed them they were materially blessed but if they were broken, even in secret, God typically punished them and that is what verses 9-16 speak to. Before the writer speaks to the faithful’s reaction to these detrimental things God allowed to happen to them materially on earth and based on their failure to keep His Law here in this real where Law reigns, the LDS have also formed their material faith and culture on Law. As I have suggested, this world works off Law and because they re-constituted Law in their organization, material blessings are associated – no differently than the Nation of Old. Want material blessings on this earth – join the Nation of Israel or the LDS and live their Laws – it’s as simple as that. Just because the LDS reinstituted them in 1830 does not mean that following Law on earth in the name of God will amount to anything different than it did to the Nation of Israel.
But there are two very important concepts to accept about embracing Law here in the name of God – The rewards are applicable here and now – materially. You have to keep the Law to be blessed and, The blessings have zero application to His Kingdom above that He established. Why? Paul plainly explains in Romans 3:20 saying, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Here is a wild concept, but what happened when Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
The Knowledge of Good and Evil
Evil. The scripture says, Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. That knowing, that came when the eyes of them were both opened (listen) and they knew they were naked” suggests to me that the forbidden tree of knowledge of Good and Evil was in some manner, the Law. Because eating it brought them shame and condemnation (they knew they were naked).
The Law and Human Understanding
In the face of this it seems that the tempter seduced Eve to eat of a tree’s fruit that would teach them Law – which was not bad in and of itself, in fact, it could have been the Laws by which God knows and operates by and perhaps maybe even secret laws ONLY God was to know but the seducer got Eve to eat of that sacred secret knowledge with the promise that they would be as the God’s knowing Good and Evil – but (READY) They could not handle it! Why? They were not God. Therefore, by the Law is the knowledge of sin! God understands His Law and is the only being that can use it rightly. And while the Law is Good, in the hands of human beings it only serves to make us aware of our sin.
So, while operative in this material world, and while it serves to bless those who try to live by it, the benefits of the Law are only applicable to the here and now – because it is God’s Law, not Mans – and Man should never have been exposed to it. Again, why? Because by the Law is the presence, the reality, the knowledge of sin. And this is the theological reason why NOBODY enters heaven by obedience to the Laws (ordinances, rites, covenants) but only by grace through faith.
The Role of Laws in the World
Do laws work on people? Do they aid organizations, make for better worldly empires? Just look at those who appeal to them in this life and the impact those groups have in this world. Certainly laws of chaos do not make the best organizations nor lend to material longevity. But Law? Damn, they make the world function, and thrive – any and all of them – so long as they point to order, demanded unity. Laws make people qualified to belong. Break one and you are stoned in ancient Israel. Break an LDS temple vow and you get exed. This world. This kingdom. Islam. Judaism. Mormonism. Any world religious powerhouse is someone living by the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and thrive on the land materially.
Which is why those who seek God in Spirit and Truth, and genuinely embrace His grace, His love, walking by forgiveness, patience, longsuffering as principles of the Spirit, will NEVER consume the earth. This world thrive and lives on Laws – making this world constantly in a state of sin – either judging or being judged. Proud because one obeys, dejected and ashamed because others cannot. If we can get this right, get this understanding down in our hearts and minds, then we are fully responsible for what road or means we choose to live by here – Law or the Spirit of Christ – who was born under the law, and fulfilled the Law on our behalf.
Suffering and Fulfillment
This brings us to the suffering of our day and age as believers who walk not after the flesh but by the Spirit. Our suffering today is different because of fulfillment. The Nation suffered when disobedient to God’s Law. The Bride of Christ is His day suffered from the hands of God by faithfulness to Him, the resurrected Lord, and it was real. But now that He has taken His bride who was, at least in part, once under the Law and was liberated by Christ, the Law keeper, those who seek the Kingdom above, and not to belong to the things and kingdoms of this world, suffer independently for what we choose, personally, independently, to embrace, use, keep and eliminate from our own respective lives. In other words, I do not believe that God blesses us materially for walking by faith because the very scriptural demands for walking by faith.
Faith and Law
are centered upon trusting in Him alone – not in laws, ordinances, rites or rituals. So, the very nature of faith is in direct competition, is at variance, with law keeping. Law keeping is based on laws and the keeping of THEM for blessings. Faith is wholly based on looking to Him and trusting in His hand to lead, guide, protect and provide. Again, I do think that they work in this world. Laws around saving money, compound interest are financial laws. Follow them and you will be blessed here, materially. But the Kingdom above is NOT in Law Keeping (not in eating the TOKOGAE) why?
The Knowledge of Sin
BECAUSE BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN. Religionists lose this entirely. They want, seek and impose law, forgetting that it is the very knowledge of sin, and instead of letting go of them, and all the idols that enforce them (religion, commands, rules, rituals, observances, tributes) they retain them, making themselves sinners (through pride or rebellion) along the way. When Christ walked the earth, as reported in the Gospels, one of the favorite phrases He and John the Baptist would say to the people is, “the Kingdom of GodGod’s spiritual reign—fulfilled and present, not political or future. is come to you.” Because other passages show that it was coming to them in full down the line, them saying this has always confused me but I think I understand now – Yeshua was standing there whenever this was said, and what He was saying is that He is the Kingdom of God alone – He had come to them. And just like He said that He was the Lord of the Sabbath He was also the Kingdom – as the Way, Truth and Life. Not Law – He fulfilled the Law and its ordinances were nailed to His Cross.
Justification by Faith
With the Law fulfilled and take out of the way, replaced with something far better (as the writer of Hebrews maintains) we are no longer in or under sin. We are wholly justified by faith and are able, as the writer of Hebrews told the Jews of his day, Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Under the law, the Nation (the LDS, the Muslims and all others that try to please God with their obedience to Law) would come to God justified by their obedience to the Laws they kept but because nobody could keep the Law (Adam, the Nation, the LDS, Islam) none are justified to enter the Kingdom on that metric. This is a biblical truth. Only through the grace of God by belief on the faith of His Son are any justified before Him. But on this earth and in this life the fruits of being covenant and oath makers? Law keepers? Sure. Have at it. It’s a proven metric for earthly success and power – just look around at what has built the biggest world empires of religion verses what tends to produce little impact. These things are really hard to see and believe because we want to believe that respectable material status on earth is a reflection of future heavenly status. This is a concept based on the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Quron which are all strongly based in the obedience/blessing model. When we get to the New Testament we see a shift and obedience to Christ and His Kingdom, which is NOT of this world, was rewarded with trials, punishment and even death.
And so we come to today and our view of fulfillment. Are believers blessed by God or cursed? Taking all views in hand, it seems to me that those souls who live by Laws well are blessed in this realm and this is a Law of God perhaps secretly ensconced in the fruit of the forbidden tree. One it was eaten humanity fell under the blanket of sin because the Law was introduced to the world and its power on earth which is capable of bringing great material unity and power but has no power to bring a human into the Kingdom and presence of God. The question every individual believer is then making is – am I living for blessings and rewards here and following whatever powers (Law or Anarchy) that create such OR Am I relying upon, submitting myself to, living by faith on Him alone, choosing to remove all idols and intermediaries from my heart and life, and to trust what God has in store for me here.
Rewards and Suffering in Faith
and in the Kingdom to come by our choosing Him and only Him – or Him plus. We all have our rewards given accordingly. And I would reiterate that those who live for the comforts of the here and now will pursue to Laws that govern either Good or Evil but that all of them lead to loss in the world to come. Those who seek the rewards of heaven appear to elect to walk unattached to the Laws of anarchy and chaos, or order and law, and to look directly, only, solely to Him. In that election, we are tacitly choosing to turn our faces from limited earthly offerings of blessing and to endure whatever choosing to look to Him alone entails.
These choices have little to do with the pain we all endure as citizens of this world. God is not causing our pain and discomfort in the dentist chair, or in and through the vicissitudes of life’s struggles – they are there for all of us – believer and not. The question really is, “Where does each individual want to receive their rewards?” And I maintain that those who want their rewards here and now live by Law and those who want their rewards in heaven live by grace through faith. The first has application to earth and material life, to human organizations, to unity and rule aimed at earthly reign and the comforts that come with and the other (genuine unobstructed faith) is what justifies all having a place in the New JerusalemThe spiritual reality of God's fulfilled presence with humanity—replacing Sheol after 70 A.D. above.
The Psalmist’s Perspective on Suffering
After extoling the miracles God bestowed upon them in the first 8 verses, then bemoaning all that they faced in the next 8 verses, the Psalmist now says at verse 17, 17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. 18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; 19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. 20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; 21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Herein the Psalmist give the justification for suffering while under the law even when they tried to do all He commanded and says, 22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. It’s an important passage because even outside of their Law-keeping, those who remember the name of the Lord and sought to keep Him alone on the throne the righteous suffered but the answer to the basis of this suffering is laid back on God’s intentions and motives when he writes, 22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
The Apostolic Age and Faithful Suffering
And we are presented with another facet of scripture that answers why suffering from the hand of God – even if we are obedient to Him and His law. Again, 22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. And here we have a general overall rule of thumb that both religious law keepers and people of “faith alone” can all stand upon when it comes to trials and problems they have as people seeking to live according to His ways. The statement was literal in the Nation under the Law – especially when they were rebellious. But we see the tables turned in the Apostolic age as Paul writes in Romans and takes this reference but assigns it to those who were faithful to Christ, saying,
Romans 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulationA real historical event fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a future apocalyptic crisis. More, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that 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
The Love of God and Personal Choice
Other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Today, it seems that all believers can recite the very same Psalm as Paul did, but that the killing we experience all the day long is subjective, is in the hands of the Spirit that each individual chooses to allow in – or that of Law. That what we are choosing and allowing to kill us is either Law or the Spirit but the focus is much less on our physical lives but out very souls – our minds, our wills, our emotions.
The Psalmist’s Cry
The Psalmist ends with, 23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. 26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake. The redeeming has been done.
Choice and Devotion
All that is left is personal choice, focus of devotion, and method of living – by Law or in faith. The former is tied to the here and now – the later to the Kingdom above.
Let’s stop here.
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