LIKE SHEEP APPOINTED FOR MEAT

This psalm is one of thirteen that are dedicated to ‘the wise’ (Heb. Maschalim) of Israel. They contain special teaching that is often difficult to accept, and this psalm is no exception to the rule. It considers the reversal of Israel’s fortunes on the battle­field and reaches the shocking conclusion, ‘Thou hast cast off and put us to shame’, v. 9.

The sentiments expressed by the writer are timeless in their application. So many Christians today carry in their minds a world picture, where God is responsible for all the good circumstances in their lives and Satan is behind all the bad.

The psalmist had a similar view of life. He had no problem in trusting in a God who could ‘command deliverances for Jacob’, v. 4. But his anticipation of victory was turned to deep perplexity when he realized that it was the same God who had given His people to the enemy, ‘like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen’, v. 11. God had given His peo­ple over to the enemy to be butchered and sold into slavery! This realization brought him ‘confusion continually’ and ‘shame’, and was made worse by the genuine record of Israel’s faithful­ness to God, vv. 15, 17, 18.

This wise man learned that life was not as black and white as he had once thought. He cast himself on God’s counsel and per­fect understanding. This allowed him to take a great step of faith and declare, ‘Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter’, v. 22.

The wise of our dispensation have been given greater insight into ‘the sufferings of this present time’. They know that, ‘all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose’. They rejoice in the ‘love of Christ’ in days of ‘tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword’. And, through His intercessory love, ‘the sheep for the slaugh­ter’ become ‘more than conquerors’, Rom. 8. 18, 28, 35, 36, 37.