Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 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!
– Psalm 44:22–26
Oh, what a picture of the psalmist. Talk about a low point as we were praying according to Psalm 43, this is a picture of affliction and oppression in the psalmist’s life. My soul is bowed down to the dust; my belly clings to the ground and I need your help. Wake up, oh God! It seems like you’re sleeping. Rouse yourself. Don’t hide your face from us. For your sake we are killed all the day long; regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Psalm 44:22–26 Is A Plea for Help
This is a verse that Paul later quotes from in Romans 8, when he is talking about suffering in this world. If you remember what it says there, he says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it’s written, ‘For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.'”
And then he says in Romans 8, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that’s in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
In other words, Psalm 44:22, it starts, “For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered,” and it ends, verse 26, “Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.” And God is always, always, always faithful to redeem his people by his love, to raise them up. God will always come to his people’s help when they cry out to him.
That’s the takeaway from Psalm 44 connected with Romans 8. And there are so many ways we could go in praying these verses, but the specific unreached people group we’re going to pray for today is the Burusho people of Pakistan, 250,000 Muslims in this people group, no known followers of Jesus among the Burusho of Pakistan.
Psalm 44:22–26 Echoes a Voice of Hope in the Midst of Suffering
And it’s really hard to share the gospel in Pakistan. I have friends I know there, we have Urgent Partners in Pakistan and they often feel like they are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. And they are imprisoned or persecuted or opposed in a variety of different ways. So I want us to pray Psalm 44 specifically over them as they try to reach people like the Burusho of Pakistan. So can we just intercede right now for our persecuted brothers and sisters specifically in Pakistan? This is a good use of these couple moments in our day.
God, we come to you as our Father on behalf of our family, on behalf of our brothers and sisters in persecuted places around the world, and specifically today on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Pakistan. Feel like for your sake, they are being killed all the day long and regarded as sheep to be slaughtered, who may feel at times like you are asleep and hiding your face from them. And it may feel like you have forgotten their affliction and oppression.
But God, we pray on their behalf, Psalm 44:26. Rise up and come to their help. Help them in every way they need. Lord, help them in prison. Help them in their lives, their families. Help them in their churches to be unified together and to boldly spread the gospel amidst the challenges around them, and you would show your redemption. Redeem them for the sake of your steadfast love.
We pray Romans 8 over them, that they would be more than conquerors through you, that they would know that nothing can separate them from your love in Jesus. God, we pray that they would know your love even right now in fresh ways.
Praying for the Burusho People
We’re praying this. At all the different times we’re praying this, God, hear our prayers and answer them on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Pakistan and cause the church there to thrive.
Cause the Burusho people to be reached. We pray for these 250,000 Burusho in Pakistan. God, we pray that there would be disciples made and churches planted among the Burusho, that they might know your steadfast love, that they might know your redemption.
God, we pray for this, all of this, in light of your word to us in Psalm 44:22–26 and in light of Romans 8. We love how your word connects together, God. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
