Arise for our help,
and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.

Psalms 44:26

There are few matters that concern us so deeply as the spiritual condition of our nation. With this in mind there are few Psalms that are as helpful and encouraging as the 44th, in terms of relevance, as we offer prayers for the country which God by His providence has made us citizens of.

REFLECTFUL…verses 1 – 8

The Psalmist, as he was composing words which would capture the national mood, began by looking backward. Remembering “the times of old” the inspired writer acknowledged that the land was received by a Israel only as a result of divine intervention. God drove out the heathen, His right arm gave them the victory, He alone commanded and therefore ordained deliverances for Jacob. Therefore the prayer begins with a note of humility and gratitude, recognising the role that God played in their history.

The Psalmist also instructs us as to how he became acquainted with the past; “our fathers have told us”. We must never underestimate the value of recording , relating and learning the history of our nation. For the Christian, history is the discovery of what God has done in the past. Without a knowledge of Israel’s past, this Psalm would not have been written and this prayer would not have been offered.

In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, we are part of a nation which has been been created and maintained as a result of the sovereign hand of God. The unity of our four nations arose directly out of the Protestant reformation; against the power and cunning of Rome’s Jesuitical counter-reformation the United Kingdom was forged by one Protestant faith. We can trace the Christian influences which shaped our nation from Patrick the missionary, to the Christian King, Arthur who defeated the Vikings, to Magna Carta, to Wycliffe, to the Reformation, to John Knox, to the stakes of the martyrs, to the translation of God’s Word, to the battles for freedom, to the great revivals and missionary activity…we cannot understand what it means to be British without the Gospel.

We would not have our freedom and our faith, our Bible and the Church were it not for God. Therefore we pray with humble gratitude.

REMORSEFUL…verses 9 – 22

This writer is evidently penning his words in bad days,; these were times of military defeat and national decline. He does not accept, however, that these circumstances were brought about as a result of random forces. He sees the hand of God at work and actually attributes the national tragedy to Him. From verses 9-14 he repeatedly employs the word “thou”, in emphasising this:

But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame;
and goest not forth with our armies.
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy:
and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat;
and hast scattered us among the heathen.
Thou sellest thy people for nought,
and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,
a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen,
a shaking of the head among the people.

This leads the writer into serious self examination as he looked for the answer to the question why? He employs the word “confusion”, he is unable to find an answer because he believes the nation has been honourable and faithful:

All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee,
neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
Our heart is not turned back,
neither have our steps declined from thy way;

Verses 17-18

Unlike other periods in history when the godly could identify the reasons for suffering and military defeat (idolatry, turning away from the voice of God’s servants etc….) this author was at a loss. This disaster befell the people in a time of faithfulness not in a season of apostasy. Despite this I believe this man of God is indicating that whatever the Lord is inflicting them with, the people will continue to be faithful. They won’t lose heart nor will they lose faith.

Even so, the writer in his distress ask God to look for their sin, revealing them, so that they can put wrongs to right:

If we have forgotten the name of our God,
or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
Shall not God search this out?
for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

verses 20 – 21

This is both a heartfelt and an honest prayer.

We live in days when we can see the reasons why God would want to judge our nation. Are we not a people deserving of the outpouring of God’s anger; we ought to become a byword among the nations of the world.

Perhaps we are guilty of not inspecting our own hearts, nor facing our own wicked ways that must be turned from if the land is to be healed? We must ask God to search our hearts today. The future of our nation depends upon such prayers coming from honest, sincere, repentant hearts.

REQUESTING…verses 23 – 26

The Psalm concludes with one mighty and passionate bursting forth of desire to the God of heaven.

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
arise, cast us not off for ever.
Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust:
our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise for our help,
and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.

The cry is for God to arise, to work and act of behalf of His people. Using words like “cast is not off” and “redeem” the godly author was appealing to the covenant. Israel were God’s people with a right to expect certain benefits from Him. The honour of God was at stake. Therefore the appeal was spirited and desperate, passionate, interceding laying all on the line:

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
arise…Arise for our help

Such prayers for our sinful broken nation will certainly draw a response from our covenant keeping God who is full of mercy and truth.

Our Presbyterian ancestors first came to Ulster in the early 17th Century. For many, the move was made from Scotland for reasons not altogether honourable, as Rev Andrew Stewart of Donaghadee recorded:

And from Scotland came many, and from England not a few, yet all of them generally the scum of both nations, who, for debt, or breaking or fleeing from justice, or seeking shelter, came hither…

These people were highly favoured because the cream of Scotland’s Presbyterian clergy followed them. These were men who were driven out of Scotland because of renewed persecution against those who were faithful to the Biblical principles of John Knox. As the godly preachers proclaimed Christ revival broke out among the settlers in the Sixmilewater Valley of Co Antrim. Beginning in the village of Oldstone in 1625 the fire spread through the counties Antrim and Down, lasting for perhaps five years. Another Scottish Presbyterian minister, Rev Robert Blair of Bangor wrote of the showers of blessing which came in those years:

And indeed preaching and praying were so pleasant in those days , and hearers so eager and greedy , that no day was long enough , nor any room great enough to answer their strong desires and large expectations .

Andrew Stewart also gave his eye witness accounts of the effects of the power of God’s spirit upon a people once careless and ungodly:

For the hearers finding themselves condemned by the mouth of God speaking in his word, fell into such anxiety and terror of conscience that they looked on themselves as altogether lost and damned; and this work appeared not in one single person or two, but multitudes were brought to understand their way, and to cry out, men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? I have seen them myself stricken into a swoon with the word; yea, a dozen in one day carried out of doors as dead; so marvellous was the power of God smiting their hearts for sin, condemning and killing.

The Presbyterian historian James Seaton Reid wrote in 1834 on the effects and depth of this move of God’s Spirit:

“The revival of religion which occurred at this period subsequently attracted considerable attention both in Scotland and in England. The fame of it extended even to America, and it has been repeatedly referred to by religious writers of the last century, as one of those sudden and extensive manifestations of the power of divine grace upon a careless people, with which the church has been occasionally favoured.”

This revival undoubtedly laid down the roots of Presbyterianism in Ulster and in so doing turned the tide of our history towards the Gospel.

Let us not underestimate the need of this hour. Let us pray with believing hearts that God will arise and revive His work transforming the conversation of our nation.