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We are continuing our series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below. Read Psalm 44:1-16  Listen to Psalm 44:1-16 The psalm begins with recollecting God’s past intervention on Israel’s behalf when they came into the Promised Land. Their success was due entirely to the Lord. The writer goes on to assert Israel’s continuing reliance on God: they acknowledge that it is God who gives victory over the enemy, just as much as before. In the second half of the passage for today the mood changes dramatically. In violent contrast to the past, the present experience is one of retreat, being plundered and scattered, reproach and disgrace. The enemy is walking all over them. We are offered a clear-sighted analysis of the current situation: how things were when everything was going well; how we still rely on God, not our own resources, for help; how horrible things are currently. There is no sugar-coating of the pill, no putting a brave face on it or pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps. And yet … all this is being poured out before the Lord, not bottled up inside. Lord Jesus, when things are tough, help me to be honest with myself and with you and to come to you anyway, even when I am bewildered about why I am in my current situation.