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Psalm 44

National Lament and Prayer for Help

To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Maskil.

We have heard with our ears, O God,

our ancestors have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

in the days of old:

you with your own hand drove out the nations,

but them you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

but them you set free;

for not by their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm give them victory;

but your right hand, and your arm,

and the light of your countenance,

for you delighted in them.

You are my King and my God;

you command victories for Jacob.

Through you we push down our foes;

through your name we tread down our assailants.

For not in my bow do I trust,

nor can my sword save me.

But you have saved us from our foes,

and have put to confusion those who hate us.

In God we have boasted continually,

and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

Yet you have rejected us and abased us,

and have not gone out with our armies.

You made us turn back from the foe,

and our enemies have gotten spoil.

You have made us like sheep for slaughter,

and have scattered us among the nations.

You have sold your people for a trifle,

demanding no high price for them.

You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,

the derision and scorn of those around us.

You have made us a byword among the nations,

a laughingstock among the peoples.

All day long my disgrace is before me,

and shame has covered my face

at the words of the taunters and revilers,

at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

All this has come upon us,

yet we have not forgotten you,

or been false to your covenant.

Our heart has not turned back,

nor have our steps departed from your way,

yet you have broken us in the haunt of jackals,

and covered us with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God,

or spread out our hands to a strange god,

would not God discover this?

For he knows the secrets of the heart.

Because of you we are being killed all day long,

and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?

Awake, do not cast us off forever!

Why do you hide your face?

Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

For we sink down to the dust;

our bodies cling to the ground.

Rise up, come to our help.

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

9. Nevertheless thou hast abhorred us Here follows a complaint, in which they bewail their present miseries and extreme calamity. There is here described such a change as showed not only that God had ceased to exercise towards them his accustomed favor, but also, that he was openly adverse and hostile to his people. First, they complain that they have been rejected as through hatred, for such is the proper import of the word זנחת, zanachta, which, along with others, I have translated abhorred If, however, any would rather translate it to forget, or to be cast off, I have no great objection to it. They next add, that they had been put to shame, namely, because it must necessarily follow that every thing should go ill with them when deprived of the protection of God. This they declare immediately after, when they say, that God no longer goes forth with their armies — goes forth as their leader or standard-bearer when they go forth to war.