Trusting God

All this has happened though we have not forgotten you. We have not violated your covenant. Our hearts have not deserted you. We have not strayed from your path. Yet you have crushed us in the jackal’s desert home. You have covered us with darkness and death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread our hands in prayer to foreign gods, God would surely have known it, for he knows the secrets of every heart. But for your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep. [Psalm 44.17-22]

"All that happened" was Psalm 44.9-16, and, it was bad!

As much as we may be tempted to create a doctrine of suffering from this passage, we should, first of all remember that if this is indeed placed chronologically in the Bible (and, it is), idolatry was as rampant as ever. So, there's that. 

But also, as we should do with any Old Testament passage we find "difficult," we should see if the New Testament sheds any light on it. And, in the case of this passage, we find direct address of it in Paul's letter to the Romans:

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 8.35-39]

It would seem there may be times when bad things happen that we can never explain. But, this does not mean that we are hopeless. It means that we have Jesus Christ and the very keys to heaven. Jesus taught faith. And so, we can be sure that we cannot "be good enough" to be saved but that, in faith, we can enjoy every blessing of the power of heaven culminating in eternal life.

Father, I want to be found trusting You. Even though I know I must rid myself of idols and sin, I know that so doing is no guarantee of a trouble free life, because "ridding myself of idols" can become an idol unto itself - an idol of "my own efforts." May I be found only in faith - faith in Jesus Christ. So be it.