Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.
~ Psalm 44:26
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandpaa and grandmaa like to talk about you to other people. They like to show pictures of you to other people. Your grandpaa and grandmaa are proud of you because you are their grandchildren. When grandparents are proud of their grandchildren, they will boast about them. When we talk to other people about you, we boast about you. You have given us reason to boast about you. Boasting sometimes is good to do. There are times when boasting is not good to do. Boasting is bad when you talk about yourself in a way that makes you look good. If you tell other kids that you are really smart, you are boasting to make yourself look good. If you tell other kids that your dad is really smart, boasting about your dad is good for you to do. Boasting in God is especially good for you to do. Israel, in Psalm 44, was boasting in God all day long. God chose the Israelite people group to have them be more special to Him on planet Earth than any other people group. Israelite guys, gals and kids are God’s special children just like you are your dad and ma’s special children and your grandpaa and grandmaa’s special grandchildren. As you read the Bible, you will read a lot about God’s specially chosen people – the Israelites. You will read how the Israelites often disobeyed God just as you sometimes disobey your ma and dad. When you disobey, you do something that is not right for you to do. When you disobey your dad or your ma, what do they do to you? They punish you. God often punished His specially chosen people because they often disobeyed Him.
Your grandpaa’s dad only spanked your grandpaa once in his life. Your grandpaa’s dad one day found your grandpaa and your dad’s Aunt Marie in a chicken coop breaking eggs. Your grandpaa and your dad’s Aunt Marie thought that it was fun to watch the chickens eat the broken eggs. Your dad’s grandfather knew that if the chickens got to where they liked to eat their eggs that your dad’s grandmother would not have any eggs to bake things – such as the cookies that she was really good at making. Your great grandfather spanked your grandpaa and your dad’s Aunt Marie to punish them for breaking eggs for chickens to eat. Because your grandmaa and your dad’s Aunt Di were both making a lot of noise one evening and because your grandmaa’s dad and ma were entertaining visitors, your grandmaa’s dad yelled upstairs to tell them that they were to stop making noise and to go to sleep. When your grandma and your Aunt Di did not stop making noise, your grandmaa’s dad went upstairs to your grandmaa and your dad’s Aunt Di’s bedroom and spanked them. Each time when your grandmaa’s dad got to your grandmaa’s bedroom door to go back downstairs, your grandmaa and your dad’s Aunt Di would start to laugh resulting in their dad having to spank them two more times. Your grandpaa used a wooden spoon to spank your dad. Even though your dad would sometimes try to hide the wooden spoon, your dad would still be punished if he was disobedient. Have your dad and ma ever punished you for doing something that you knew was wrong for you to do? How do you feel about needing to be punished for something that you have done that you knew that you should not have done?
Sometimes a guy or a gal or a kid will boast about something thinking that if he or she does that he or she will not be punished. That never ever works with God. The Israelite people group would sometimes think that they were praising God through how they boasted about God. Psalm 44 is about God’s especially chosen people – the Israelite people group, during a time when they thought that they were doing everything right. We sometimes think that we are doing everything right. We tell others how we helped God. We tell others when we pray. We tell others how we told someone else about God. We tell others when we read the Bible. It does not take long for us to begin to measure again our relationship with God by what we say and do. The Israelites thought that they were acting out everything just the way they thought God wanted them to act. Just as God for some reason stopped being there for Israel, God will seem at times not to be there for you. There will be times when you will feel like no one cares about you. There will be times when you will feel like there is no one around willing to help you. What did the Israelite guys, gals and kids do when they realized that God was no longer there for them? They asked God in verse 26 to “Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love”. God never stops loving everyone who He chose before the beginning of time to be His adopted children. Your dad and ma love you as the children who God especially gave to them. God wants your dad and your ma to teach you how to live like one of His adopted children. Remember – you actually have two fathers. You have an earthly father who is your dad. You have a heavenly Father who is God. When your dad is away from home working, you miss him. Right? You are really happy to see your dad when he comes home again from work. We find that we will really begin to miss our heavenly Father when He decides to leave us to our own wiles to begin to do again what we want to do instead of . . . God wants us to speak with Him. He wants us to ask Him for His help. He wants us to know that He loves us. He wants us to remember what happened when He sent His Son to planet Earth to redeem us. It is easy to forget what God our Father has done for us. This is why it is so important to constantly boast in God to others about all the things which He has done for us. God leads us to boast in Him to others. God will not let us forget Him just as He will never let us forget our earthly father. You have parents, grandparents and great grandparents who boast about what God has done in their lives. Your grandpaa thinks that all Christ-followers are to be always boasting in what God has done, is doing and will be doing forever in their lives.
Psalm 44
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