O God, we have heard... the work that You did.

Psalm 44:1-8  from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.
² You with Your own hand drove out the nations;
Then You planted them;
You afflicted the peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.
³ For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them.

⁴ You are my King, O God;
Command victories for Jacob.
⁵ Through You we will push back our adversaries;
Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor will my sword save me.
⁷ But You have saved us from our adversaries,
And You have put to shame those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted all day long,
And we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.

2 Timothy 3:16 says:  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.    The psalmist says:   O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old. You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You spread them abroad. For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.     Along with teaching, training and correcting us, scripture also offers us the encouragement of seeing and hearing what God has done in the past. Our faith is increased, knowing that because God has done great things in the past for others, we should also believe that He can and will do for us, whatever we need.  When we hear of the things God has done, we can believe what He has promised in Deuteronomy 31:6, saying:  “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”  Romans 8:31 says:   If God is for us, who can be against us?   Knowing the great deeds, the great victories and the great provision of God in the past, we, like the psalmist can say:   You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob. Through You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, Nor will my sword save me. But You have saved us from our adversaries, And You have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted all day long, And we will give thanks to Your name forever.    Whether our battles, our enemies our adversaries are natural, physical enemies or whether they are spiritual battles and enemies of our soul, we have the confidence of knowing that God has previously provided victory for others. So, we can call on Him and count on Him to do it again. We need not fight on our own or in our own strength. He is with us.

Even more, we have the confidence of knowing what Jesus said in John 16:33:  “These things I have spoken to you, thatin Me you may have peace.In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer,I have overcome the world.”  1 Corinthians 15:57 says:  Thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.     Through Christ we are even victorious over sin and death. In Psalm 23:4, the psalmist says:  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.     Even death holds nothing that we should fear because the Lord has conquered it. It is merely a shadow because the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. On the cross, with His final words before He was raised from the grave, Jesus said:  “It is finished.” (John 19:30)  Everything that Jesus came to do, every promise and every purpose of God is already finished, complete, the victory over every battle and enemy we face is already provided through the finished work of the cross. We can have confidence in what He will do because of what He has done for others, but also because of what He already has done for us, it is already accomplished in and through Christ.

Before He was crucified, when Jesus was in the garden, in Luke 22:42, He prayed:  “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”  Think of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, that we should say:  Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Because we are victorious, even over death, we know that we will not face our enemies, our battles or our struggles, regardless of what they are, when we are in heaven. On the cross, Jesus was obedient to and fulfilled the will of the Father. Because of the finished work of the cross, it already is on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of heaven has come to earth. Even more, in Luke 17:21 Jesus says:  “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”   Every promise of God; all the realities of the kingdom of heaven are accomplished for us in the finished work of the cross. They are ours because God not only is with us, but He, in the indwelling Holy Spirit is within us.  

O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old.  Because of the finished work of the cross, I will give thanks to Your name forever.   Amen.