Psalms 44King James Version
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us. Yet thou hast cast off, and put us to shame. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever. A national lament.
A national lament with one of the boldest accusations in the Psalter. The community recounts God's past victories: our fathers told us what you did. Now you have cast us off, you go not with our armies, you sell us for nothing. And the extraordinary claim: we have not forgotten thee, we have not turned back, yet thou hast sore broken us. God is directly accused of sleeping while the covenant people suffer for his sake.
Corporate faithfulness that has been met with corporate suffering creates a legitimate lament that goes beyond personal sin toward the mystery of covenant suffering.
verse: "Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." Paul quotes this in Romans 8:36 as the experience of those who cannot be separated from God's love.
Superscription: 'To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.' The national disaster described may refer to a specific military defeat: the Babylonian exile, a battle gone wrong under a righteous king, or a series of defeats. The accusation against God is unusually direct and unresolved: the psalm ends with petition ('arise for our help') but no guarantee.
The corporate 'we' of the covenant community; the ancestors who told what God did; God addressed directly and accused; the nations who now scorn; the people scattered among the heathen.
Psalm 44 is the primary biblical resource for understanding undeserved communal suffering within the covenant. Paul uses v22 in Romans 8:36 to describe the condition of those who are 'more than conquerors' through Christ despite, not because of, their circumstances. The Talmud applies this psalm to periods of persecution and martyrdom.
For when a whole community is suffering and no one is able to identify what sin caused it. This psalm is for corporate grief that has no easy explanation and refuses false ones.
1[To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.] We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
2How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
4Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
8In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
10Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
19Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake.