Like Sheep to be Slaughtered
Good morning Cities Church. Great to be with you. This morning I want to start by telling you about a man I was close to in my young adult years. In my late teen years and early 20s he was like a mentor to me. One of the greatest men I ever met. His name was Len.
In his early 50s he got prostate cancer. We prayed. At first it looked bad, but then, he recovered and went into remission. And the doctors were shocked. One doctor described it as miraculous.
And then a few years went by, and in his mid-50s, the prostate cancer came back. And again it looked bleak. And again we prayed. And again, he recovered. And again, at least one doctor referred to his recovery as miraculous. Awesome!
Over the next few years all three of Len’s daughters got married and start having children. So, Len and his wife are looking forward to being grandparents. He had long been a great mentor to many young adults, and he was looking forward to using his retirement years to invest more time in his grandchildren and the young adults of his congregation.
Well, just as Len is about to embark on these golden years, the prostate cancer comes back, for a third time. And again, we prayed. But this time, God does not heal him. He dies. And I remember thinking: God, that’s not how we wanted the story to go.
Sometimes, things don’t go the way we wanted them to go. And that’s hard to grapple with. Sometimes, we take survey of our lives and we think to ourselves, “That’s not the script I would’ve written.”
A few years later, I got news that one of Len’s daughters, currently in her mid-30s, is married to a man that was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). It’s progressed rapidly and unless intervenes miraculously, and fast, he’s going to die soon. My friend is watching her husband die, facing the prospect of being a widow, in her mid-30s, with two small kids. You watch friends like this go through painful scenarios and just can’t help but ask yourself, “Why God?” Again, I say to myself, “That’s not the script I would’ve written. That’s not the way it was supposed to go down.”
Many of us have felt this. For some of you, you never imagined that you’d still be unmarried at this point in life. For some, you never imagined that you wouldn’t have kids by now, and all those visits to the fertility doctor feel like they’ve been a waste of time and money.
For some, you never imagined that you’d be divorced or that your marriage would be so hard or that you’d be estranged from family or that you’d have a wayward child.
In life, we all face difficulties. And we ask God to intervene, and sometimes, sometimes… it just seems like he’s not listening. That’s the sentiment behind Psalm 44. Psalm 44 is a lament, like some of the other Psalms that we’ve looked at this summer… but it’s not just a lament, Psalm 44, as you’ll see, is a protesting lament. Let’s dive in. Look at vv. 1-3 with me:
O God, we have heard with our ears,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old:
2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,
but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
but them you set free.
He starts off praising God. He’s saying, we’ve heard about the previous things you did for our people. We’ve heard about the deeds. It’s been passed down to us. He’s alluding to the fact that God rescued the Jews from Egypt and brought them in the land of Canaan… most of us are familiar with this, we’ve read the book of Exodus… or we’ve seen the movie the “Price of Egypt”, right?
God rescued the people, brought them out of Egypt, and eventually into the land of Canaan. But the land was occupied, so God drove the Canaanites out of the land and gave the land to Jewish people. Here in Psalm 44, the author is acknowledging that the Jews could not have don’t that on their own. It was God’s doing.
He says that God “afflicted” the Gentile peoples that had been living in the land, but he “planted” the Jewish people. Look at v. 3:
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
and the light of your face,
for you delighted in them.
It wasn’t because of the Jewish people’s great military prowess; it was because of the great arm of God. He continues. Look at verse 4:
You are my King, O God;
ordain salvation for Jacob!
5 Through you we push down our foes;
through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our foes
and have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.
Here the tense changes. In the previous verses it was we *heard* of the things you did in previous generations, but now we see a present tense type of lingo.
It shifts from, God did those great things for them… to… God has continually been doing these things for us, and we boast about what he’s been doing. Okay, verse 9 is where the lamenting really begins:
But you have rejected us and disgraced us
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have made us turn back from the foe,
and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter
and have scattered us among the nations.
He’s implying: God, we’re facing some disastrous situation, but you’re not delivering us from it. In the previous verses he’s talked about how strong the arm of God is, how God led the people into the Promised Land, but now, it feels like God has abandoned us. Then in verse 11 he uses the phrase “sheep for slaughter”, that’s an important metaphor, it’s used again later in the Psalm, so we’ll come back to that one.
In essence, what the author of this Psalm is saying: “God, you could easily come through for us here, you could easily deliver us, you have a strong arm, but God you’re not coming through for us on this one. You’ve rejected us.” He continues, look at verse 12:
12 You have sold your people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
He’s saying, “God, you sold us out; and there does seem like there was a whole lot of benefit in it for you anyway.”
You can sense confusion, despair, anger. Have you ever felt these emotions? Have you ever felt these toward God? I know I have. He continues. Look at verse 13:
You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face
16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
Another English translation renders those same verses this way, vv 13-16, listen to this:
You let our neighbors mock us.
We are an object of scorn and derision to those around us.
14 You have made us the butt of their jokes;
they shake their heads at us in scorn.
15 We can’t escape the constant humiliation;
shame is written across our faces.
16 All we hear are the taunts of our mockers.
All we see are our vengeful enemies.
The author of this Psalm is like, “God, why would you do this?” Then the protest really begins in verse 17:
All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this?
He’s like, all this happen to us, even though we didn’t forget you. We didn’t break your covenant. Our hearts didn’t turn from you. God, we lived righteously and yet these bad things still happened to us God. What’s up with that? Have you ever felt that? I know I have.
Then in verse 20, he implies what would have made sense, he uses the phrase: “If we had forgotten the name of our God…”
He’s sort of saying, “Listen, God, if we had been disobedient, if we had sinned, if we had forgotten you, okay that makes sense, fine. Don’t protect us.
But God, we were faithful to you. We obeyed. That’s why this doesn’t make sense to us. Meanwhile, these Gentiles have plundered the land and they mock us, and God, you’ve done nothing about it!
God, these people are testing you and defying you, and they get away with it, yet, here I am, serving you, and you let these bad things happen to me? What’s up with that man! And he continues, look at verse 22, it repeats the language from verse 11:
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Another English translation, the CSB, renders it this way:
Because of you, we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
He says to God, we obeyed you and loved you, and we’ve been treated like sheep being butchered. God, you just handed us over to be slaughtered, this is your doing, and now we’re headed for the chopping block and you’re doing nothing.
There’s a serious lament and protest here. Can you feel the anguish?
GOD, WE’RE ABOUT TO BE SLAUGHTERED AND YOU’RE DOING NOTHING!
Then there’s a prayer, a request, in verse 23-26:
“Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!”
In other words, the author of this Psalm is saying, “God, wake up! Why are you asleep? You’ve rejected us, but please, don’t reject us forever. Do something.” Please!
And that last line, look at verse 26:
“Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!”
He’s saying, “God, you love us right? Well, because you love us, will you rescue us?
He’s like, “God, we know you love us. You’ve told us. You’ve proven it in the past. So, why don’t you do something? Why don’t you step in?
That’s what makes it so confusing. If God didn’t love us, then it would make sense why God was doing nothing. But since we know that God does love us, it doesn’t make sense. I want to look at a narrative in the Gospels that helps us understand this better.
There’s several instances in the Scripture that we could examine that could help us understand this better, but I want to go back to one we examined a few months ago. Back on Easter Sunday, way back in April, Pastor Joe preached from John 11, and we looked at the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. I want to revisit that for a moment this morning.
Quick recap of the story: Jesus is traveling and doing ministry with his disciples. He gets word that Lazarus is sick, and he’s being asked to come. And Jesus intentionally does not come immediately. Jesus knows that if he delays, then Lazarus will be dead by the time Jesus arrives. And Jesus purposely delays.
Jesus delays, Lazarus dies, and Lazarus’ family is heartbroken, they’re devastated. Jesus intentionally did something that led them into a situation where they felt pain. Jesus could have spared them one of the most painful moments of their lives. But Jesus didn’t. Why?
Because Jesus knew something they didn’t know!
Jesus was about to intervene, but not in the way they thought.
When Jesus finally arrives in the town, Lazarus had been dead four days. Mary comes to him, sobbing, she says, “if you had been here, you could have healed him.” She’s confused.
She’s thinking, “You say you love us, but you didn’t intervene. In our darkest hour, when we needed you most, you weren’t here.” She’s confused, similar to the sentiments that we see in Psalm 44: “God, we know you’re powerful enough to do these things, you’ve done it before. Why didn’t you do something?”
Back on Easter, in that sermon, Pastor Joe highlighted the confusion that they felt because that’s where most of us live. All of us faces hardships in this life, we face trials and suffering. And we know that God could deliver us from those things.
We know that God could protect us from the unjust boss or manipulative coworker.
God could heal the infertility.
God could pushback the tyrannical regime taking over a failed state.
God could change the heart of a wayward child.
God could stop the miscarriages.
God could reconcile the broken relationships.
God could stop the earthquakes in the nation that desperately needs revitalization.
God could heal the cancer or stop the chronic pain or deliver us from the depression.
God could. He could fix it all. But he doesn’t. Why?
Because he’s working in ways you cannot see.
For Mary and Martha, all they could see is that Lazarus was sick and dying, and Jesus didn’t show up in time. But what they didn’t know was that Jesus had a different plan, they just didn’t know what was coming. And they had to wait.
And that’s where we are, in this life. It’s hard. Suffering comes our way. And we wonder, where is God. Like the author of Psalm 44, we say, “Come on God. I’ve been faithful to you. Wake up. Please, redeem us!”
But the Scriptures make it clear, God has a bigger plan. We just don’t know exactly what that is. And we need to wait. And that’s hard.
We must wait patiently while we suffer, and that’s very hard to do. Mary and Martha wanted Jesus heal Lazarus before he died. But when we read John 11, specifically verses 5-6, we see, we see that the reason Jesus intentionally waited was because he loved them.
Jesus loved them so much that he didn’t short-circuit the grander plan by giving them what they wanted in the short term. Jesus loved them that he was willing to make a choice that was in their long-term best interest, even if it meant pain in the short-term.
When he arrived, he wept with them. Jesus cried because he saw the pain that they were in. And then he went to work, unfolding the grander plan… the plan they could have never imagined. The same is true for us. God loves us. And he loves us so much that he’ll intentionally lead us into painful situations, he will intentionally NOT stop the painful moments, because he knows in the long-term, it’s good for us.
In fact, pain is often the greatest means for our sanctification. C.S. Lewis famously said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
God will ordain suffering in our lives, in the short-term, because he has a grander plan, a grander plan that we cannot see.
In the meantime, while we’re hurting, he’ll cry with us. He’ll comfort us. He’ll give us grace. He’ll listen to our laments and complaints and our protests, even in our moments of sin and arrogance, he listens to us. And then eventually, he’ll unfold the grander plan.
As I close this morning I want to close to looking back at that key verse again. Verse 22:
Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
This verse is quoted by the apostle Paul in Romans 8. In the final section of chapter 8, the apostle Paul is talking about our future glory. And he comes to a section where he is reminding the believers that no matter what they face, they can be confident that God’s love will remain.
In verse 35, he poses this question: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”
Can any of these things separate us from God?
The implication here is that we’re going to face a lot of difficulties in this life, but do we really think that any of these things have the potential to separate us from the love of God?
Now, that’s the temptation. When we face these things, we are going to feel like God doesn’t love us or that he’s rejected us. It’s confusing. Just as Mary and Martha were confused, we will be confused too. That’s the sentiment that the apostle Paul is addressing here.
So he poses the question in verse 35, “who shall separate us from the love of God?” But he doesn’t answer the question immediately. He actually lets it linger. Instead of answering immediately, he quotes from Psalm 44:22. In verse 36, he says:
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
He does this to reinforce the implication of verse 35. The implication of verse 35 is that we will indeed face suffering in this life… and we’re going to be tempted to think God doesn’t love us. And by citing verse 36, Paul is basically saying, when you face hard times, it’s going to feel like what was written in Psalm 44; you’re going to feel just like the author of Psalm 44 felt.
When you face suffering in this life, you’re going to feel like sheep that are about to be slaughtered. You’re going to feel like, “God just handed me over to some butcher, and now I’m like a sheep about to get killed. I’m headed right for the chopping block, and God’s doing nothing about it.”
God why? Why would you do this? Haven’t I been faithful to you? Oh God, why have you forgotten me?
Paul quotes from Psalm 44 to let you know, as a Christian, you’re going to face hard things and you’re going to feel the same emotions that the author of Psalm 44 felt. But the apostle Paul takes it a step further. He answers the question that is left from Psalm 44.
The question of Psalm 44 is this: “God, does the fact that I’m facing these bad things mean that you stopped loving me?”
And Paul emphatically addresses that: The answer is no!
Just because your face bad things in this life, does not mean that God has stopped loving you.
In Romans 8:37, the apostle Paul is answering his own question from verse 35. In verse 35 he asked, “are any of the sufferings of this world powerful enough to separate us from the love of God?
And in verse 37, he says:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Cities Church, Jesus loved the author of Psalm 44, and he loved Mary and Martha, and he loved the apostle Paul, and Church, he loves you!
And because he loves you, he will take you through some very painful seasons in this life, and just like the author of Psalm 44 you’re going to want to lament and protest, you’re going to want to yell: “God, we’re like sheep headed for the slaughter. O God, wake up! Redeem us!”
In those moments, he will cry with you and comfort you and he will remind you that nothing in this life will ever be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.