All to Him I Owe

I recently penned this principle in the margin of my Bible next to Psalm 44:“He who will properly reflect on history will be confronted with the One who should be trusted in the present.”

I want to show you where this helpful principle comes from. So let’s study Psalm 44 together.The psalmist begins with a brief synopsis of Israel’s history. As you read this history, note the words thou, thine, thee, and thy in the first three verses of the Psalm.

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

The facts speak for themselves! God is the one who had led, protected, and sustained Israel. It is hard to argue with history. Does a survey of your personal history reveal the same thing? Think about the spouse you married, your children, the needs that God has met, the job you have, the home you live in, the trials God has brought you through. Do you see the unmistakable hand of God in those things?

So, what do we do with the knowledge of God’s unmistakable hand in our past? Answer – we trust God in the present. Look at verse 5 and note the trusting conclusion the Psalmist had come to.

Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

Trusting in God, however, is not just the activity of resting in God. It also includes rejecting the tendency to do things on our own. Note how the Psalmist says it in vs. 6.

For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

Choosing to trust God in our present circumstances must include a refusal to trust in our own resources. The Psalmist mentions his bow and sword. We may not have weapons that we lean on like that, but all of us have particular resources we tend to lean on. Things like our work ethic, strength, wisdom, experiences, money, and authority are all a sample of things we tend to hold to rather than trusting God completely. Proverbs 3:5 supports this thought when it says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thy own understanding.” There is a two-sided act of trust. One is to rely on God! The second is to reject the act of relying on my own resources.

Let’s allow the proven facts of history to shape our week. Trust God in the present, because He has proven to be reliable in the past!

Let’s think about this Psalm today! Or, as the Psalmist puts it in verse 8, Selah.