Psalms 44:18
in Psalms 44Our hearts have not turned back; our steps have not strayed from Your path.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Our heart is not turned back, Neither have our steps declined from thy way,
KJV
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
⋯
This verse in Psalms 44
Commentary
10 notes on this verseLikewise they are stable in the good works of justice, which proceed from an upright heart; and therefore he says, "Our heart has not turned back," through the abandonment of charity. Lk. 9: "No one putting his hand to the plow," etc. Is. 1: "They …
This site's exposition
we have not forgotten You
on Psalms 44:17-19
The claim is plain: we have not forgotten You, and the steps have not strayed from Your path. Yet they are crushed in the lair of jackals and covered with deepest darkness. Calvin reads it as affliction with no cause they can name.
This site's exposition
Our hearts have not turned back
Heart and steps pair the inner life with the outer walk. Spurgeon read the claim as sincerity, free of willful sin and short of perfection. Barnes took it as the nation's general character, with no turn to a foreign god to explain its affliction.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"For Thou hast brought us low in the place of infirmity" (ver. 18): therefore Thou wilt exalt us in the place of strength.
"Our heart has not turned back; and Thou hast turned aside our goings out of Thy way" (ver. 18). See here is "understanding," in that "our heart has not gone back;" that we have not "forgotten Thee, have not behaved frowardly in Thy covenant;" placed as we are in great tribulations, and persecutions of the Gentiles. "Thou hast turned aside our goings out of Thy way." Our "goings" were in the pleasures of the world; our "goings" were in the midst of temporal prosperities. Thou hast taken "our goings out of Thy way;" and hast shown us how "strait and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life." What is meant by, "hast turned aside our goings out of Thy way"? It is as if He said, "Ye are placed in the midst of tribulation; ye are suffering many things; ye have already lost many things that ye loved in this life: but I have not abandoned you on the way, the narrow way that I am teaching you. Ye were seeking "broad ways." What do I tell you? This is the way we go to everlasting life; by the way ye wish to walk, ye are going to death. How "broad and wide is the road that leads to destruction: and" how "many there be that find it! How strait and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and" how "few there be" that walk therein! Who are the few? They who patiently endure tribulations, patiently endure temptations; who in all these troubles do not "fall away:" who do not rejoice in the word "for a season" only; and in the time of tribulation fade away, as on the sun's arising; but who have the "root" of "love," according to what we have lately heard read in the Gospel. ...
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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. For the proof of their integrity they take God's omniscience to witness, which is as much the comfort of the upright in heart as it is the terror of hypocrites (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Our heart is not turned back,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way. Heart and life were agreed, and both were true to the Lord's way. Neither within nor without had the godly sufferers offended; they were not absolutely perfect, but they were sincerely free from all wilful transgression.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way. Heart and life were agreed, and both were true to the Lord's way. Neither within nor without had the godly sufferers offended; they were not absolutely perfect, but they were sincerely free from all wilful transgression. It was a healthy sign for the nation that her prophet poet could testify to her uprightness before God, both in heart and act; far oftener the case would have worn quite another colour, for the tribes were all too apt to set up other gods and forsake the rock of their salvation.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Our heart is not turned back - That is, We have not turned away from thy service; we have not apostatized from thee; we have not fallen into idolatry. This must mean that such was not at that time the characteristic of the nation; it was not a prominent thing among the people; there was no such general and pervading iniquity as to explain the fact that these calamities had come upon them, or to be properly the cause of these troubles. Neither have our steps declined from thy way - Margin, goings. The idea as expressed by our translators is, that the people had not departed from the path prescribed by God; that is, from what he required in his law. The Septuagint and the Vulgate render it, “Thou hast turned our steps from thy way;” that is, though our heart is not turned back, and we have not revolted from thee, yet thou hast turned our steps from thy way, or hast turned us from the way of thy favor and from prosperity. The rendering in the common version, however, is more in conformity with the idea in the original.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| נָס֣וֹג | nasog | it had turned back | H5472 → | 14 times |
| אָח֣וֹר | ʾachor | backwards | H268 → | 41 times |
| לִבֵּ֑נוּ | libenu | heart our | H3820 → | 595 times |
| וַתֵּ֥ט | vatet | and it had turned aside | H5186 → | 214 times |
| אֲשֻׁרֵ֗ינוּ | ʾashureinu | steps our | H838 → | 9 times |
| מִנִּ֥י | mini | from | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| אָרְחֶֽךָ׃ | ʾarechekha | path your | H734 → | 58 times |
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
נָס֣וֹגit had turned back
nasogH5472 →14 times
אָח֣וֹרbackwards
ʾachorH268 →41 times
לִבֵּ֑נוּheart our
libenuH3820 →595 times
וַתֵּ֥טand it had turned aside
vatetH5186 →214 times
אֲשֻׁרֵ֗ינוּsteps our
ʾashureinuH838 →9 times
מִנִּ֥יfrom
miniH4480 →1188 times
אָרְחֶֽךָ׃path your
ʾarechekhaH734 →58 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Zephaniah 1:6and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”
it leads to
- Jeremiah 2:13
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
- Isaiah 1:4
Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on…
- Jeremiah 15:6
You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.
- Jeremiah 2:17
Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way?
- Hebrews 10:38–39
But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”
- Jeremiah 2:13
Through
Psalms 119:51The arrogant utterly deride me, but I do not turn from Your law.
it leads to
- Job 23:11
My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.
- Job 23:11
Through
Psalms 119:157Though my persecutors and foes are many, I have not turned from Your testimonies.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
Through
Psalms 78:57They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.
it leads to
- Hosea 7:16
They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in…
- Hosea 7:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, ON THE PSALMS, Psalm 44; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.