Psalm 44
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Psalm 44 is perhaps the toughest Psalm in the entire Psalter, because it articulates a vigorous assault on God whom the Psalmist declares to be unjust and unreliable in his experience. Thus verses 9 - 14 consist in a pounding reiteration of “You” accusations against God. This assault on God follows in the Psalm after the wondrous doxological affirmation of God in verses 1 - 8 that end in hearty thanks to God. The switch from praise and thanks to complaint and assault is dramatically marked by the “yet” of verse 9.
The verses of complaint and assault are much to be appreciated precisely because the Book of Psalms as a whole models a genuine dialogue in which the human speaker (in this case, Israel) is sometimes permitted to take the initiative and set the agenda for exchange. This capacity for genuine dialogue is unlike the common practice of faith communities that in general cede all of the initiative to God, so that the human voice is reduced to thanks, praise, and petition. But Israel, in its hymnic practice, knows better than that. It knows that faith depends upon a genuine exchange in which both parties have immense freedom. This human assault on God, moreover, continues in verses 15 - 19 even though the Psalmist can readily assert that Israel
has not forgotten God;
has not been false to the covenant;
has not turned back;
has not departed “from your way” (vv. 17-19.
What is spectacular about this Psalm is that it does not end with this angry alienation from God. By the end of the Psalm, after the vigorously articulation of grievance and hostility toward God, the Psalmist can address God in a series of needful petitions:
Rouse yourself!
Awake!
Rise up!
Redeem us (vv. 23 - 26)!
The Psalmist knows that Israel has no other source of help, no one else to whom to appeal. Thus the petition of need must, in the end, be addressed to God who has just been accused of infidelity.
It may be that this voice of assault constitutes no more than an emotive exercise. Just as likely, however, the assault is designed to move God and to recruit God as a partner in fidelity toward Israel that for the moment has been abandoned. The intent of this angry prayer is to impact God and to call God to account.
In the singing of this Psalm, Israel knows that the whole truth must be told, including its own desperate need amid infidelity. This Psalm is not often used among us. But it should be. It brings to speech the very negations that dwell within us. When these negations are not given honest voice, they are most often acted out in dangerous and destructive ways. Israel deals with the God of all truth; that truth includes the awareness that infidelity invites risky honesty. In this Psalm, Israel is fully up to that demanding work. We dare to imagine that the God of the covenant is able and willing to hear and to heed such demanding human truth-telling.
* First published in Carrier Pigeon Post
