SUFFERING: A BATTLE SCAR OF LOYALTY?

Have you ever felt as if God had abandoned you?  Maybe you feel that way now.  You’ve walked with Him and served Him with all of your heart, yet things are going on in your life that you can’t fathom and you find yourself asking: “What is going on Lord?  Where are you?”  It feels a lot like punishment, but is it?

That’s exactly the spot in which the nation of Israel found itself when the sons of Korah penned Psalm 44. 

The psalmist begins by speaking of the ways in which the Lord had blessed Israel in days past.

“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what you did in their days long ago.  With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers (in the promised land); you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.  It was not by their sword that they won the land. . . it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face for you loved them. . . . . in God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.”

The Lord had done amazing things to enable Israel to settle in the land of promise - delivering them from Egypt, bringing them to the brink of the land and defeating their enemies so that they could occupy it.  It was His battle, not theirs, and for that they boasted, not in their own strength or military genius, but in His faithfulness and strength on their behalf.

Maybe you have been looking back on your own life, recounting all the ways in which the Lord has blessed you in your past.  If you haven't, make a list of all His past blessings right now.  Thank and praise Him for them, as the writer of psalm 44 did.

Like the psalmist, all of these blessings might just cause you to wonder even more about the suffering you're encountering in the present.

In Israel's present the psalmist saw no evidence of His  continued favor either.  In verses 9-16 he laments:

But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our enemies

You made us retreat; our adversaries plundered us

You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and scattered us among the nations

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors

My face is covered with shame at the taunts of the enemy, bent on revenge

Why did all of this happen?  There were plenty of times in Israel’s history when the Lord did discipline them as a father the son he loves, because of sin and idolatry, but such was not the case this time.  The psalmist says:

All this happened to us:

·         Though we had not forgotten you

·         or practiced idolatry

·         our hearts had not turned back and our feet not strayed from your path

If we had forgotten the name of our God, or worshiped a foreign god, God who knows the secrets of the heart, would surely have discovered it.

Maybe this is exactly what YOU have been saying as you’ve examined your heart in the light of what seems like God’s abandonment. 

Perhaps your argument sounds like theirs:

Lord, where are you?  Have you rejected me?  I feel alone before enemies who seemed determined to destroy me.  I feel as if you've abandoned me here while other people reproach and taunt me.

Lord, I love you!  I’ve been as faithful to you as I know how.  I don’t understand what’s going on.  If I had lived my life as if you didn’t exist, or if I had given up worship of you in favor of some other “god” of my own making, if my feet had been wandering down a path that takes me far from you – maybe then I could understand.  But I have done none of those things.  I have been faithful to you.  So why is this happening?

Verse 22 of Psalm 44 is perhaps the key to answering the questions of your heart.  It reads:

“Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

My NIV Life Application Bible says this in the footnote for these verses:

“Although (the psalmist) felt his suffering was undeserved, he revealed the real reason for it; he suffered because he was committed to the Lord. (The Apostle) Paul quoted the psalmist’s complaint to show that we must always be ready to face death for the cause of Christ.  Thus, our suffering may not be a punishment, but a battle scar that demonstrates our loyalty.”

What a comfort, what an honor, to be counted worthy to suffer because of our identification with Christ. 

If you are suffering in a way that seems unjust, though you have been as faithful to the Lord as you know how, consider that your suffering is not a punishment, but a battle scar that comes AS A RESULT OF your commitment to the Lord, a battle scar that demonstrates your loyalty to Jesus – and rejoice that you have been counted worthy to suffer for His Name.