#DailyDevotion Having A Bad Day Christian?
Psalm 44 17While all this happened to us, we didn’t forget You, nor were we untrue to Your covenant. 18Our hearts didn’t turn away, and our feet didn’t leave Your way, 19though You crushed us in a place for jackals and covered us with deep gloom.
One might wonder when the Israelites didn’t forget the LORD or were true to His covenant. I guess the Scriptures mostly have recorded their falling away more often than their faithfulness as a warning to us as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:6.
So here we have this recording of them being faithful to God even though the LORD crushed them in a place of jackals and covered them with deep gloom. Perhaps this is speaking of the remnant brought to Babylon after Jerusalem’s destruction. Of course the vast majority of them were not faithful. But we have Ezekiel, Daniel, and Daniel’s three friends. They were faithful to the LORD in that place and yet they suffered much at the hands of wicked men.
Such experiences must be looked at through the cross of Christ. Jesus did not forget His Father. Jesus was not untrue to the covenant. Jesus’ heart never turned away and His feet never left the way of the LORD. Yet look at Him with the opposition He faced. See what He suffered in the Sanhedrin, in Pilate’s and Herod’s courts. Look at Christ’s suffering on the cross. All who will be redeemed should expect to participate in some way in Christ’s sufferings. That goes for us now and for those before Christ Jesus as well.
20If we had forgotten the name of our God and stretched out our hands to a foreign god, 21wouldn’t God find it out, since He knows the secrets of the heart?
Despite the fact that we now know we will suffer with Christ being joined to Him in the waters of baptism, it still comes to a surprise for us when it happens. We examine ourselves and cannot find any major falling away in our hearts which we have left unconfessed and unrepented of. We know we cannot hide any sin from God. This is not happening to us because we have sinned. We are being disciplined by God the Father for our good, so we may share in His holiness and righteousness.
22No, because of You we are killed all day long and considered sheep to be butchered.
So St. Paul quotes this in Romans 8: 31What does this mean? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He didn’t spare His own Son but gave Him up for all of us — He will certainly with Him give us everything. 33Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? It is God Who declares us righteous. 34Who will condemn? Christ died, more than that, He rose, He is at the right hand of God, and He prays for us. 35Who will separate us from God’s love? Will sorrow, hardship or persecution, hunger or nakedness, danger or a sword? 36So it is written: “For You we are being killed all day long. We are considered sheep to be slaughtered.” 37But in all this He Who loved us helps us win an overwhelming victory.
When we suffer such things, we should not think the LORD opposes us. God is for us! Nothing can separate us from His love for us in Christ Jesus. It’s also a reminder we will suffer these things. We have these great and precious words to remember when we undergo great suffering. Whatever we are experiencing is temporary. When He gives everything with Christ Jesus, that will endure forever.
Heavenly Father, grant us faith to believe and to remain faithful in the midst of suffering, with Your great and precious promises, so we do not lose heart but rather rejoice in the holiness and righteousness You are giving us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.