Psalms 44:1-26
1 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.
2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3 For 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.
4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9 But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our stepsa declined from thy way;
19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake.
Psalms 44:1. Our fathers have told us. All ancient patriarchs instructed their children, and all ancient nations instructed posterity by oral traditions, as in this psalm, by reciting how Joshua drove out the Canaanites. This was done also in their sacred odes, as many of the psalms testify. Our northern fathers often employed the early part of their long winter-nights in the amusing runes and histories of their ancestors. When a stranger called for hospitality, it was reckoned his duty to entertain the family by a recitation of sacred odes and histories. The EDDA, that is, instruction, of Iceland, celebrates the gods, the fathers, and the heroes. The VOLUSPA, by the sibyl or prophetess Vola, is of the same character. She sung the age when Emir lived, when there was neither land, nor sea, nor heaven above. The age before the invention of arts, and the coining of money.
Psalms 44:12. Thou sellest thy people for nought. Thou deliverest them into the hands of their enemies, not indeed for money, but as corrections for their sins; for long and gross violations of the covenant, to which they had sworn.
Psalms 44:19. In the place of dragons. The low country of Chaldea, where serpents abounded.
Psalms 44:22. For thy sake are we killed all the day long. Rabbinical comments are often wide of the mark, yet we find here a reference to Mary, daughter of Nachton, who was taken captive with her seven sons, and shut up in prison. They brought forth the first before Cæsar; [Antiochus, 2 Maccabees 7., where the horrible story is related at large] and said to him, worship idols. He answered, it is written in our law, I am the Lord thy God. Then they carried him out and slew him, and brought the second before Caesar. The massacre of these seven sons took up the whole day. Dr. Lightfoot, Gittim, fol. 57. 2.
REFLECTIONS.
This Psalm being addressed to the sons of Korah, as well as Psalms 42. and 43., was probably much sung during the Babylonian captivity. It celebrates the goodness of the Lord in giving them the promised land, and by consequence indulges a distant hope of emancipation, though for the present he went not forth with their armies. It complains bitterly of the insults and the scorn they received in captivity; for calamities falling on persons of dignity are more severely felt than when they fall on the humble poor: and surely no persons are more justly exposed to scorn than fallen professors. There was another consideration which encouraged the Jews to hope for salvation; they had not forgotten the name of God in captivity. Therefore they were the more encouraged to pray that he would arise, help, and redeem them for his mercies' sake. In every view the dealings of God with his ancient people, are instructive to the christian church.