Walking by Faith not by Sight - Psalm 44

“To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, the deeds You did in their days, in days of old. You drove out the nations with Your hand, but them You planted. You afflicted the peoples and cast them out. For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them.” Psalm 44:1-3

God was so good to preserve the historic record of how He uprooted idolaters from the land that He promised to Abraham and to His descendants. This He did during the days of Joshua. According to Psalm 44:3 and Joshua 10:16-12:24, Joshua and the Israelites conquered 5 kings in one day and 31 kings during the entire campaign. They did so by the light of God’s face. By the strength of His right hand and arm! He was there for them! They prevailed by God’s grace.

Spiritually speaking, Christ is using His body the Church to drive out enmity from the souls of people via the preaching of the Gospel. He conquers by the spiritually active sword of His Word “swinging” or making disciples of all nations. During each conversion, Christ removes sin and fills the void with His Holy Spirit.

Each person’s conversion to Christ is a mini reflection of a great heavenly event.

At first, the earth was the devil and his angels domain. [1] But then, God placed His image-bearers, Adam and Eve, here and gave them dominion over creation. [2] The devil stole the title deed to the earth by deceiving Adam and Eve to sin. In a sense, he became the god of this sinful world. [3] However, in Revelation 5:8-10, the heavenly host sing unto the Lamb [Jesus Christ], saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals. For You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God.” Jesus regained the title deed to earth when He took on human flesh, lived a sinless life and died on the cross to remove our sin. Now, thanks to Jesus, the devil and his followers will eventually be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur to be tormented day and night for ever and ever. [4] God will create a new heaven and new earth for people that will be untainted by sin and the curses of sin. It will be paradise. [5]

The fathers mentioned in Psalm 44 did a good job of recounting to their children the great things God had done for their ancestors. In Romans 10:14, the Apostle Paul asked, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

Children need to be informed about what the Lord has done because faith comes by hearing God’s Word. The world does not hold back from teaching our children lies. Why should Christian parents hold back from teaching our children truth? We shouldn’t.

“You are my King, O God, command victories for Jacob. Through You we will push down our enemies. Through Your Name we will trample those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, nor shall my sword save me. But You have saved us from our enemies and have put to shame those who hated us. In God we boast all day long and praise Your Name forever. Selah!” Psalm 44:4-8

God commands victories for those who acknowledge and profess Him as their king. We trust in God our King’s Law and Gospel as the highest and purest rule for life. In Acts 5:29, Peter and the other apostles told those who wanted them to compromise the faith, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

According to Revelation 12:17, the devil is at war with those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. He’s at war with such because it is God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus that defeats him. In Matthew 8:8, a Roman centurion professed faith in the power of Jesus’ words. He said to Jesus, “Speak the Word only, and my servant shall be healed.” His servant was healed that very hour by Jesus.

In Jeremiah 1:12, the Lord said, “I am watching over My Word to perform it.”

A man cannot stand in the middle of a highway and stop a speeding vehicle with human strength. But place a government issued police badge and uniform on him, and he can. The motorist stops due to fear of the government that stand behinds that officer.

James 2:19 says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” Demons fear the God whom we represent.

Thus, in Psalms 44:8, we make our boast in God all the day long and praise His Name forever.

“But You have cast us off and put us to shame, and You do not go out with our armies. You make us turn back from the enemy, and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You have given us up like sheep intended for food and have scattered us among the nations. You sell Your people for next to nothing and are not enriched by selling them. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn, and a derision to those all around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. My dishonor is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me, because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, because of the enemy and the avenger.” Psalm 44:10-16

The people of Israel complained to God because previously they had enjoyed victories due to His help, but now they were suffering horrible losses. They wanted wins as usual. They felt forsaken by God. In Romans 11:1, Paul asked, “Has God rejected His people?” Then, he answered is own question, writing, “By no means! For I myself am an Israelite.”

The enemies of Israel thought no more of killing an Israelite than killing a sheep. Under such circumstances, it seems to God’s people that He has forsaken them. But no, suffering for the Lord also brings Him glory, and wins people’s hearts to Him. Whenever we question if the Lord really loves us, we just have to remember Jesus, God’s Son, dying on the cross for us and we know that, yes, God loves us.

James 5:10-11 says, “My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the Name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” The suffering of the prophets and Job teach us that someone can be very close to the Lord, and yet, be tested just as others are with great hardships.

In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, Paul lists his extreme sacrifices for the Gospel to authenticate his apostleship. Rather than boasting of academic degrees or great achievements, Paul wrote of his floggings, shipwrecks, and imprisonments as his credentials of being a true servant of Christ. In Galatians 6:17, Paul viewed the “marks of Jesus” on his body as his license to represent God.

“Paul reframed the cultural definition of a leader from one of power and success to one of sacrifice and suffering, identifying this endurance as the true seal of his apostolic calling.” [6]

“All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way. But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the Name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever. Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our body clings to the ground. Arise for our help and redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.” Psalm 44:17-26

As with Job, when trials and persecution from our enemy come, the enemy would like us to believe that God allowed it because He hates us. No, God allowed Satan to attack Job because He knew that while the attacks would cause Job to question why, ultimately, Job would keep believing in God, and this was a witness that was needed for all future sufferers in Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5:7, Paul wrote, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” When we gauge our “favor with God“ by our day to day circumstances, we experience up and down emotions like riding on a roller coaster. We must base our “favor with God” on what Christ did for us on the cross. He died for our sins. He purchased a place for us in heaven. It is a done deal!

How did the apostles respond to being beaten by authorities for proselytizing in the Name of Jesus? Acts 5:41 says, “They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name.”

Praise God, according to 2 Corinthians 4:17, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”


[1] See Revelation 12:7-9
[2] See Genesis 1:26-29
[3] See Genesis 3 and 2 Corinthians 4:4
[4] See Revelation 20:10, Luke 8:30-31, and Revelation 12:12
[5] See Isaiah 65:17; Luke 23:43; Romans 8:21; Hebrews 12:26-27; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1
[6] https://josephmattera.org/contrasting-church-apostles-apostles-christ/