Psalm 44
לַמְנַצֵּ֬חַ לִבְנֵי קֹ֬רַח מַשְׂכִּֽיל
BSB
Redeem Us, O God
(Romans 8:35–39)
For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
1We have heard with our ears, O God;
our fathers have told us
the work You did in their days,
in the days of old.
2With Your hand You drove out the nations
and planted our fathers there;
You crushed the peoples
and cast them out.
3For it was not by their sword that they took the land;
their arm did not bring them victory.
It was by Your right hand,
Your arm, and the light of Your face,
because You favored them.
4You are my King, O God,
who ordains victories for Jacob.
5Through You we repel our foes;
through Your name we trample our enemies.
6For I do not trust in my bow,
nor does my sword save me.
7For You save us from our enemies;
You put those who hate us to shame.
8In God we have boasted all day long,
and Your name we will praise forever.
Selah
9But You have rejected and humbled us;
You no longer go forth with our armies.
10You have made us retreat from the foe,
and those who hate us have plundered us.
11You have given us up as sheep to be devoured;
You have scattered us among the nations.
12You sell Your people for nothing;
no profit do You gain from their sale.
13You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
a mockery and derision to those around us.
14You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
15All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face,
16at the voice of the scorner and reviler,
because of the enemy, bent on revenge.
17All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten You
or betrayed Your covenant.
18Our hearts have not turned back;
our steps have not strayed from Your path.
19But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals;
You have covered us with deepest darkness.
20If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21would not God have discovered,
since He knows the secrets of the heart?
22Yet for Your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping?
Arise! Do not reject us forever.
24Why do You hide Your face
and forget our affliction and oppression?
25For our soul has sunk to the dust;
our bodies cling to the earth.
26Rise up; be our help!
Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.
Introduction
Psalms 44
We are not told either who was the penmen of this psalm or when and upon what occasion it was penned, upon a melancholy occasion, we are sure, not so much to the penman himself (then we could have found occasions enough for it in the history of David and his afflictions), but to the church of God in general; and therefore, if we suppose it penned by David, yet we must attribute it purely to the Spirit of prophecy, and must conclude that the Spirit (whatever he himself had) had in view the captivity of Babylon, or the sufferings of the Jewish church under Antiochus, or rather the afflicted state of the Christian church in its early days (to which Psa 44:22 is applied by the apostle, Rom 8:36), and indeed in all its days on earth, for it is its determined lot that it must enter into the kingdom of heaven through many tribulations. And, if we have any gospel-psalms pointing at the privileges and comforts of Christians, why should we not have one pointing at their trials and exercises? It is a psalm calculated for a day of fasting and humiliation upon occasion of some public calamity, either pressing or threatening. In it the church is taught, I. To own with thankfulness, to the glory of God, the great things God has done for their fathers (Psa 44:1-8). II. To exhibit a memorial of their present calamitous estate (Psa 44:9-16). III. To file a protestation of their integrity and adherence to God notwithstanding (Psa 44:17-22). IV. To lodge a petition at the throne of grace for succour and relief (Psa 44:22-26). In singing this psalm we ought to give God the praise of what he has formerly done for his people, to represent our own grievances, or sympathize with those parts of the church that are in distress, to engage ourselves, whatever happens, to cleave to God and duty, and then cheerfully to wait the event.
To the chief musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
Cross-references: Ps 44:22 · Rom 8:36 · Ps 44:1 · Ps 44:9 · Ps 44:17