You!

God, you, you alone are my King… (Psalm 44:4, from the New Japanese Bible Translation, 2017)

I really love that translation, and it brings out the Hebrew much better than the English does.

“God, YOU are my King.”

Or, “God, You ALONE are my King.”

At a time when God seemed far away, when it seemed that God had abandoned him, the psalmist said, “God, YOU are my King.”

When the psalmist couldn’t understand why God would allow such defeat in his life, he still proclaimed, “God, YOU are my King.”

That’s my heart cry today: “God, YOU! Yes, YOU are my King!”

Father, YOU are my King.

So though you sometimes seem far away, I will continue to call on you.

Though sometimes things are hard, and it seems you have abandoned me, I will continue to trust you.

And though sometimes I don’t understand why you allow the things you do, I will continue to boast in and praise your name.

You are my King. You are my God. And you are good.

And so I cry out with Paul,

If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.

Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

Because of you
we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. (Psalm 44:22)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)