Psalm 44:1-3 The Providence of God in our Past

Psalm 44 is a beautiful declaration of the Providence of God. The sons of Korah illustrate the Providence of God in our Present, in our Pain, and in our Piety. They then make the Providence of God the basis of their Plea for deliverance. We will discuss each one of these sections over the next several days. But the sons of Korah begin by remembering the Providence of God in the Past.

Please read Psalm 44:1-3.

One of the themes of Deuteronomy is the importance of teaching our children the lessons that God has taught us. This message is repeated again and again in this last book of the Pentateuch. The most memorable passage is perhaps Deuteronomy 11:18-21:

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

Why was it so important for the Israelites to teach their children all that God had taught them?

Well, for one thing: if the children were faithfully taught about their parent’s disobedience, God’s punishment, and God’s mercy, then the children won’t need to make the same mistakes in order to learn those lessons.

You can get drunk and make a fool of yourself to learn that getting drunk is a bad idea. Or, you can watch someone else get drunk and make a fool of himself to learn that getting drunk is a bad idea. If your parents have already learned the lesson the hard way, then you can learn from their mistakes instead of needing to make them yourself.

For another thing: if God has faithfully delivered your parents when they were in a great time of need, then it will encourage you, in your time of need, to go to God for deliverance. That is the case in this psalm.

As we will learn about over the next few days, the nation of Israel is experiencing a great trial, which the sons of Korah are lamenting in this psalm. They are wondering where God is in the midst of this difficulty. But, rather than believing that God is absent, they remember the lessons that their parents taught them as children.

Back “in the days of old,” God performed marvelous deeds with His own hand: He drove out nations while planting Israel in the promised land; He afflicted nations with bondage while setting Israel free from slavery; He won battle after battle for His chosen people, when they couldn’t win the battle in their own strength.

Why did God do all of this? “For you delighted in them.” God chose Israel to be His people. God plucked Israel out of all the nations on the earth for no other reason than His good pleasure. God promised Israel that He would always be their God and they would always be their people. God has been faithful to Israel in the past, providentially providing for the nation in their times of trouble. Korah has faithfully taught these lessons to his sons, and they know them to be true. So, if God has been faithful to Israel in the past, then they can trust Him to be faithful in the present.

Let this motivate us, not only to remember God's faithfulness in the past, but to teach this lesson to our children. We should not hide our failures from our children, but allow them to learn from our struggles just as much as we have. Let our children also learn how God has delivered us in our darkest hour, so that when they reach their darkest hour, they will turn to Him as well.