“But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death . . . Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalm 44:19, 22).
Dear Praying Friends:
Like Job, the Psalmist complains that, though God’s people had done nothing to deserve God’s anger (this time), he had allowed their enemies to oppress them and afflict them sorely. The Lord seemed to have abandoned them, even though they had not forsaken him for other “gods.” Was he asleep? Why was he hiding his face from them?
Such suffering and sentiments are common among God’s people, both in the Scriptures and throughout Christian history. Whether from human enemies or from sickness, setbacks, or direct attacks of Satan, hardship is, for followers of Christ, “normal” in this fallen world.
Paul quotes this psalm to describe our life now as well, but he does so in the middle of the assurance that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,” that Jesus is praying for us, that “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us,” and that nothing, nothing at all, “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:28, 37, 39).
We can hold on to these truths when we encounter pain of all sorts, and we can confidently share them with other believers who are in trouble.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).
Yours in his generous love,
Wright