Psalm 44
26 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 74×4Psalms 78×3Psalms 119×3Deuteronomy 8×2Psalms 42×2Psalms 108×2
Summary
Chapter summary
A corporate lament of the sons of Korah. 'We have heard with our ears… what work thou didst in the days of old': the land won not by their sword but by thy right hand. But now: 'thou hast cast us off… thou makest us a byword among the nations.' All this is come upon us, 'yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant': suffering without apostasy. 'For thy sake are we killed all the day long' (Romans 8:36). 'Rise up for our help, and redeem us for thy lovingkindness' sake.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 44The history
The psalm opens with the fathers' account, told by word of mouth: what God did in driving out the nations and planting Israel in the land. Israelite households were commanded to teach that history to their children, and this is what that instruction sounded like from the receiving end.
"Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen. Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price." Defeated populations in the ancient world were deported and sold. Assyrian and Babylonian kings moved entire regions and traded prisoners as chattel, and the slave markets of the period ran on exactly this supply. The complaint is that God sold his people and got nothing for them.
"Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people." A conquered nation's god was reckoned to have lost. Enemy inscriptions boasted in those terms, crediting victory to their own gods by name — the Moabite Stone, raised by King Mesha, says exactly that about his campaign against Israel.
"Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons" points to wild, ruined country where jackals live — the ancient way of describing a site so destroyed that only scavengers use it.
What it meant to them
What makes this psalm hard is verse 17: all this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee. The usual explanation for defeat — you sinned — is refused here to the singer's face.
So the prayer stops explaining and starts shaking the door: awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Israel kept a song that accuses God of sleeping, and Paul later quoted its "we are counted as sheep for the slaughter" over the persecuted church.
Sources cited
- Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 44
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 44. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.