To the chief musician, for the sons of Korah, a maskil
44:Title Maskil was probably a literary or musical term.⚜
44
📚We have heard withour ears, O God,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds you did
in their days,
in olden times;
44:1 We do not know who wrote this psalm nor when it was written. The divisions of the psalm are clear. The writer remembers the past (vs 1-3); then he expresses his desire and confidence that God will work on their behalf in the same way He did in days gone by (vs 4-8); he describes the present sad state of things (vs 9-16); yet the people have remained faithful to God and have suffered and died for His name’s sake (vs 17-22); he closes with a prayer for deliverance (vs 23-26).⚜
2 📚how you drove out
the nations with your
hand, and planted them;
how you shattered the peoples
and drove them out.
44:2 This refers to Israel conquering Canaan as described in Joshua.⚜
3 📚For they did not get the land
in their possession
by their own sword,
nor did their own arm
save them,
but by your right hand,
and your arm,
and the light of your countenance,
because you were pleased
with them.
4 📚You are my King, O God.
Command victories for Jacob.
5 📚Through you we will push down
our enemies;
through your name we will trample
on those who rise up
against us.
44:5 Believers now should think of spiritual foes and have confidence in God for victory – Eph 6:10-12.⚜
6 📚For I will not trust in my bow,
nor will my sword save me.
7 📚But you have saved us from
our enemies and have put to shame
those who hated us.
8 📚In God we boast all the day long,
and praise your name forever. Selah
44:8 Victory over spiritual enemies too is gained only in the strength of God and all the glory should be His.⚜
9 📚But you have cast us off
and put us to shame,
and do not go forth with our armies.
10 📚You make us turn back
from the enemy,
and those who hate us take plunder
for themselves.
11 📚You have given us up like sheep
taken for food,
and have scattered us among
the nations.
12 📚You sell your people
for nothing,
and do not increase your wealth
by their price.
13 📚You make us an object of
reproach to our neighbours,
and scorn and derision
to those who are around us.
14 📚You make us a byword
among the nations,
a shaking of the head among
the peoples.
15 📚My dishonour is continually
before me,
and the shame of my face has
covered me,
16 📚Because of the voice of him
who reproaches and reviles,
because of the enemy and avenger.
17 📚All this has come on us,
but we have not forgotten you,
nor have we dealt falsely
with your covenant.
18 📚Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed
from your way,
44:17-18 Here the few faithful ones who remained in Israel speak. There were not many times in Israel’s history when this was true of the nation as a whole.⚜
19 📚Though you have crushed 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 stretched out our hands
to a foreign god,
21 📚Will God not search this out?
For he knows the secrets
of the heart.
22 📚Yes, for your sake we are killed
all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter.
44:22 Paul quotes this verse in Rom 8:36 and applies it to Christian believers. But Paul’s attitude, unlike this psalms author, was one of triumphant submission to God.⚜
23 📚Awake! Why are you sleeping,
O Lord?
Arise! Do not reject us
forever.
24 📚Why do you hide your face,
and forget our misery
and our oppression?
25 📚For our soul is bowed down
to the dust.
Our body clings to the earth.
44:25 Sometimes believers are laid as low as can be. The only way left to go is up.⚜
26 📚Arise for our help, and redeem us,
for your mercy’s sake.
44:26 There’s no better way to pray than to plead God’s grace and mercy.⚜