Psalm 44:24

Psalm 44:24

Why do You hide Your face?

As we have seen before, to see the face of God was beyond the hope and expectation of ordinary men and women. Moses is the only man who experienced God, on Mount Sinai, and afterwards his face shone and had to be veiled. He was a mediator between God and man of a Covenant that still echoes down through the ages. Jesus is the only other mediator, and He initiated a new Covenant with God that has been the supreme divine contract with mankind for 2,000 years. Although they could never see God every inhabitant of Israel longed to know that God’s face shone upon them. The idea became a by-word for God’s blessing; if the Lord’s face shone upon them, things were going well in the land. If God hid His face, then trouble ensued, and the people were lost and in despair. I think we can guess how they felt at the time this Psalm was written. We’ve seen the outpourings of the Psalm writer and we know that there was a national emergency – God must, therefore, have hidden His face. 

To accuse the Lord of forgetfulness is another matter altogether. Hiding one’s face is an option, a choice; forgetfulness is a weakness, a sign of old age or senility perhaps! We can never accuse God of such things. Some people say that God forgets our sins. That is not true either; what the Scripture says is, “Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more.”Isaiah 43:25 and Hebrews 8:12. The Lord chooses to put our sins behind Him and never to remember them again, that is a sign of His grace and mercy, it in no way suggests forgetfulness. Hallelujah!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psalm 4:1 Smear campaigns

Psalm 4:1    Smear campaigns   The background to this Psalm is so familiar; David is being slandered and maligned by his detractors.  It seems that some calamity has befallen the nation and the king is getting the blame! Lies are being told, a smear campaign has begun, and the reputation of the Sovereign is under threat.  As usual, if something goes wrong, culpability is laid at the feet of the one in charge.  David, quite rightly, turns to the Lord his God and prays for relief and for mercy. The Satan is a master of such campaigns and his emissaries gleefully turn on Christians in leadership positions although the whispering campaign can affect all of us. The whispering starts in our own heads, but it can also come from the lips of our detractors. It goes something like this: - You’re the reason it went wrong You messed up again You should have seen it coming Surely you know better You are not worthy You don’t know what you’re doing Someone else ought to be in c
Read more

Psalm 74:16

Psalm 74:16 God established the sun and the moon “ In  the beginning   God created   the heavens   and the earth.   2  Now the earth was formless   and empty,   darkness was over the surface of the deep,   and the Spirit of God   was hovering over the waters. 3  And God said,   “Let there be light,” and there was light.   4  God saw that the light was good,   and he separated the light from the darkness.   5  God called   the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”   And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” These, so familiar, words from Genesis 1 remind us of who is in charge! There would be no light without God. There would be no day or night without God. There would be no earth without God. And there would have been no living things unless God had created order out of chaos. The sun, moon and stars would not be fixed in their orbits without God and you and I would not exist unless He ordered our conception. It is because we see God as glorious, righteous
Read more

Psalm 71:17

Psalm 71:17 Since my youth ..... You have taught me I am reminded here of Paul’s words to Timothy.  “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  2 Timothy 3:14-15.  “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, lives in you also.”  2 Timothy 1:5. Timothy and David may well have enjoyed a similar upbringing. We know that Timothy’s mother was a Jewish Christian although his father was an unbelieving Greek. (Acts 16:1) It appears that the boy had a Christian grandmother also and, as Jewish boys began to study the Hebrew Scriptures at the age of five, Timothy would certainly have been taught by his mother and grandmother from infancy. Wouldn’t it be great if all our children were able to say,
Read more