Psalms 44
44
To the director: A maskil from the Korah family.
1God, we have heard about you.
Our fathers told us what you did in their lifetime.
They told us what you did long ago.
2With your great power you took this land from other people,
and you gave it to us.
You crushed those foreigners
and forced them to leave this land.
3It was not our fathers’ swords that took the land.
It was not their strong arms that brought them victory.
It was your power.
It was because you accepted them and smiled down on them.
4God, you are my king.
Give the command and lead Jacob’s people to victory.
5We need your help to push our enemies back.
Only in your name can we trample those who attacked us.
6I don’t put my trust in my bow.
My sword cannot save me.
7You are the one who saved us from our enemies.
You are the one who put our enemies to shame.
8We have praised you all day long,
and we will praise your name forever. Selah
9But you left us and put us to shame.
You did not go with us into battle.
10You let our enemies push us back.
You let them take our wealth.
11You gave us away like sheep to be killed and eaten.
You scattered us among the nations.
12You sold your people for nothing.
You did not even argue over the price.
13You made us a joke to our neighbors.
They laugh and make fun of us.
14You made us one of the stories that people love to tell.
People all over the world laugh at us and shake their heads.
15All I can think about is my shame.
Just look at my face, and you will see it.
16All I can hear are the jokes and insults of my enemies,
as I watch them take their revenge.
17We have not forgotten you.
But you do all those things to us.
We did not break the agreement you gave us.
18We did not turn away from you.
We did not stop following you.
19But you crushed us in this home of jackals.
You left us in this place as dark as death.
20Did we forget the name of our God?
Did we pray to foreign gods?
21If we did, then God knows it,
because he knows our deepest secrets.
22All day long we died for you.
We are like sheep being led away to be killed.
23Lord, wake up!
Why are you sleeping?
Get up! Don’t ignore us forever!
24Why are you hiding from us?
Have you forgotten our pain and troubles?
25We have been pushed down into the dirt.
We are lying face down in the dust.#44:25 This shows that the people were being treated like slaves who must bow down to their masters.
26Get up and help us!
Rescue us because of your faithful love.
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Psalms 44
44
God’s Past Favor and Israel’s Present Need
1For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.
I
2O God, we have heard with our own ears;
our ancestors have told us#Ps 78:3.
The deeds you did in their days,
with your own hand in days of old:
3You rooted out nations to plant them,#Ps 78:55; 80:9f.
crushed peoples and expelled them.
4Not with their own swords did they conquer the land,#Dt 8:17f; Jos 24:12.
nor did their own arms bring victory;
It was your right hand, your own arm,
the light of your face for you favored them.#Ps 4:7; 31:17; 67:2; 80:4; Nm 6:25; Dn 9:17.
5You are my king and my God,#Ps 145:1.
who bestows victories on Jacob.
6Through you we batter our foes;
through your name we trample our adversaries.
7Not in my bow do I trust,
nor does my sword bring me victory.
8You have brought us victory over our enemies,
shamed those who hate us.
9In God we have boasted all the day long;
your name we will praise forever.
Selah
II
10#Ps 89:39–52.But now you have rejected and disgraced us;
you do not march out with our armies.#Ps 60:12.
11You make us retreat#You make us retreat: the corollary of Ps 44:3. Defeat, like victory, is God’s doing; neither Israel nor its enemies can claim credit (Ps 44:23). before the foe;
those who hate us plunder us at will.#Lv 26:17; Dt 28:25.
12You hand us over like sheep to be slaughtered,
scatter us among the nations.#Lv 26:33; Dt 28:64.
13You sell your people for nothing;
you make no profit from their sale.#Dt 32:30; Is 52:3.
14You make us the reproach of our neighbors,#Ps 79:4; 80:7; 123:3–4; Jb 12:4; Dn 9:16.
the mockery and scorn of those around us.
15You make us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
16All day long my disgrace is before me;
shame has covered my face
17At the sound of those who taunt and revile,
at the sight of the enemy and avenger.
III
18All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
nor been disloyal to your covenant.
19#Our hearts have not turned back: Israel’s defeat was not caused by its lack of fidelity.Our hearts have not turned back,
nor have our steps strayed from your path.
20Yet you have left us crushed,
desolate in a place of jackals;#A place of jackals: following Israel’s defeat and exile (Ps 44:11–12), the land lies desolate, inhabited only by jackals, cf. Is 13:22; Jer 9:10; 10:22. Others take tannim as “sea monster” (cf. Ez 29:3; 32:2) and render: “you crushed us as you did the sea monster.”#Jer 9:10.
you have covered us with a shadow of death.
21If we had forgotten the name of our God,
stretched out our hands to another god,
22Would not God have discovered this,
God who knows the secrets of the heart?
23For you we are slain all the day long,
considered only as sheep to be slaughtered.#Rom 8:36.
IV
24Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Rise up! Do not reject us forever!#Ps 10:1; 74:1; 77:8; 79:5; 83:2.
25Why do you hide your face;#Ps 10:11; 89:47; Jb 13:24.
why forget our pain and misery?
26For our soul has been humiliated in the dust;#Ps 119:25.
our belly is pressed to the earth.
27Rise up, help us!
Redeem us in your mercy.
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