Psalms 44

Let this pair of beautiful Psalms suggest the blessedness of having such a God, the Refuge of our soul in trouble, the exceeding joy of our heart in the day of our deliverance! It is no mean occasion of thanksgiving that God gave His servant David such experiences and then caused them to be sent down to us in this sacred record for our example and edification. Let none of us fail to have like trust in God in the days of our affliction and equal joy and gratitude for the salvations of His presence! C.

1. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, What work thou didst in their days, in the days of old. 2 Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand, and plantedst them in; Thou didst afflict the peoples, and didst spread them abroad. 3 For they gat 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 deliverance for Jacob. 5 Through thee will we push down our adversaries: 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 adversaries, And hast put them to shame that hate us. 8 In God have we made our boast all the day long, And we will give thanks unto thy name for ever. [Selah] 9 But now thou hast cast us off, and brought us to dishonour; And goest not forth with our hosts. 10 Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary: And they which hate us spoil for themselves. 11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; And hast scattered us among the nations. 12 Thou sellest thy people for nought, And hast not increased 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 nations, A shaking of the head among the peoples. 15 All the day long is my dishonour 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 the 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 steps declined from thy way,

19. That thou hast sore broken us in the place of jackals, And covered us with the shadow of death. 20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, Or spread forth 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 Rise up for our help, And redeem us for thy lovingkindness’ sake.

THERE is scarcely any Psalm which seems at first sight to furnish a more decided clew to the probable date of its composition than this, and yet leaves us, after all, in so much uncertainty. The notes of time are apparently three: The conquest of Palestine was looked back upon as distant—“the times of old.” The period was a period of great national distress; the people were hard pressed by enemies. All this had come on them not as a judgment for national sin; hence the age must have been one when the nation was holding fast to the worship of Jehovah and eschewing idolatry. This last circumstance is so peculiar that we might expect it to decide the question. Now we know of no period of Jewish history previous to the exile, when the assertion would be true that the people had not forgotten God, nor “stretched out their hands to any strange god.” Hence many interpreters refer the Psalm to the time of the Maccabees, and the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Macc. 5: 11-23). The nation was then free from the taint of idolatry, and it suffered cruelly. So far as the internal evidence goes, it is unquestionably in favor of this period.

The Psalm consist of four principal divisions: 1. The sacred poet calls to mind the great deeds which God had wrought for His people in the days of old. God alone, he confesses, had given them possession of the land of Canaan, and had driven out their enemies before them. Remembering this, they had ever made their boast in His name, and would still continue to praise Him (vs. 1-8). 2. Most painful is the contrast of the present with the past. God has forgotten His people. He has given them over into the hand of enemies, who hate and insult and slay them. God goes not forth now with their armies, as He had done when He brought them into Canaan; they are scattered among the heathen and sold for nought (vs. 9-16). 3. And yet this cannot be a chastisement for their transgressions; for they have not forgotten God, but, on the contrary, die the death of martyrs for His truth (vs. 17-22). 4. Therefore he prays that God the Saviour of His people, and the giver of victory, would again be favorable unto them, as of old, and redeem them from their enemies (vs. 23-26).

1. The Psalm opens with a glance at the past history of the nation, and the acknowledgment that from the first every victory which they had won had been won not by their own strength, but by the immediate hand of God. This was, it might be said, the perpetual lesson of their history. P.

What work Thou didst. While the songs of other nations sing of the heroism of their ancestors, the songs of Israel celebrate the works of God. Tholuck.—Those who are taught to see God in history have learned a good lesson from their fathers, and no son of believing parents should be left in ignorance of so holy an art. A nation tutored as Israel was in a history so marvellous as their own, always had an available argument in pleading with God for aid in trouble, since He who never changes gives in every deed of grace a pledge of mercy yet to come. The traditions of our past experience are powerful pleas for present help. S.

2. God’s love to Israel was free, unmerited, and amazing, and He gave them a land for which they did not labor, and cities which they built not, and vineyards and oliveyards which they planted not. Since the fall of Adam all good things in the lot of any mere man are undeserved kindnesses. Plumer.

6. The less confidence we have in ourselves or in anything beside God, the more evidence have we of the sincerity of our faith in God. Dickson.

8. Let him that glories, glory in the Lord, and let that forever exclude all other boasting. Let those that trust in God make their boast in Him, for they know whom they have trusted; let them boast in Him all the day long, for it is a subject that can never be exhausted. But let them withal praise His name forever; if they have the comfort of His name, let them give unto Him the glory due to it. H.

9-14. Calvin’s remark is of importance, as bearing on all this attributing of their calamities to God: “We must observe, however, that God is represented as the author of these calamities, not by way of reproaching him, but that the faithful may with the more confidence seek the remedy from the hand which hath smitten and wounded.” P.

17,18. It is not supposable that the Psalmist meant to say that his people had been faultless before God, for this would imply that God had forsaken and chastened them without cause. He might, however, say that they had not apostatized in such a degree as to forfeit their relation to God as His people. Their heart still turned toward their God, and recognized His covenant with them. C.—What is here professed is not entire exemption from all acts of infidelity, but freedom from the deadly sin of total oblivion and apostasy. In spite of His unfaithfulness, Israel still claimed to be and was the chosen people of Jehovah. A.—We may the better bear our troubles, how pressing soever, if in them we still hold fast our integrity. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to God, we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God; for He will not leave us, if we do not leave Him. H.

20,21. If we slacken our service to God, or fall off to any degree of apostasy, the Judge of hearts knoweth all; God knoweth whether we would have depraved and corrupt doctrine, worship, or ordinances; or whether we will faithfully adhere to Him, to His Word, and worship, and ordinances, whatever it cost us. Manton.—Three points suggested here: 1. The sin—forgetting God and holding up the hands to some strange god. These are not two sins, but one and the same sin, contemplated first upon one side and then upon the other.

2. The certainty of the discovery and punishment of the sin. “Shall not God search it out?” God will search out these idols, these strange gods to which we lift up our hands, rendering to them the service, the love, the fealty, the affection, which we justly owe to Him, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. The ground of this certainty, because He with whom we have to do is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of man. The one great lesson is to beware of idols. Trench.

22. For Thysake.** This passage is cited by Paul (Rom. 8:36), apparently from the LXX, in illustration of the fact that the Church of God has in all ages been a persecuted Church. But there is this remarkable difference between the tone of the Psalmist and the tone of the apostle. The former cannot understand the chastening, complains that God’s heavy hand has been laid without cause upon His people; the latter can rejoice in persecutions also, and exclaim, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.” P.—The whole verse is a strong poetical description of severe persecution or distress arising from the spite of enemies, and as such is applied by Paul to the sufferings of the Church of Christ, in which the ancient Israel continues to exist.

23. Arous Thee!** Why wilt Thou sleep, oh Lord? Awake, do not cast off forever. This bold apostrophe implies strong faith as well as warm affection. Such an address would not be made to an inanimate object or an imaginary being. The idea is, that the withholding of God’s help or of His sensible presence may be figuratively described as a state of inaction or of sleep, from which He awakes and arises when He once more manifests His presence and affords His aid. The verse is therefore really nothing more than an importunate petition for Divine assistance. A.