Psalms 44 — KJV — Scriptura

44 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. ^{Verse 2} How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. ^{Verse 3} For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. ^{Verse 4} Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. ^{Verse 5} Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. ^{Verse 6} For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. ^{Verse 7} But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. ^{Verse 8} In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah. ^{Verse 9} But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. ^{Verse 10} Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves. ^{Verse 11} Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen. ^{Verse 12} Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price. ^{Verse 13} Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. ^{Verse 14} Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. ^{Verse 15} My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, ^{Verse 16} For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger. ^{Verse 17} All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. ^{Verse 18} Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; ^{Verse 19} Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. ^{Verse 20} If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; ^{Verse 21} Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. ^{Verse 22} Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. ^{Verse 23} Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. ^{Verse 24} Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? ^{Verse 25} For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. ^{Verse 26} Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.

Commentary

(Heb.: 44:2-4) The poet opens with a tradition coming down from the time of Moses and of Joshua which they have heard with their own ears, in order to demonstrate the vast distance between the character of the former times and the present, just as Asaph, also, in Psa 78:3, appeals not to the written but to the spoken word. That which has been heard follows in the oratio directa. Psa 44:3 explains what kind of "work" is intended: it is the granting of victory over the peoples of Canaan, the work of God for which Moses prays in Psa 90:16. Concerning ידך, vid., on Psa 3:5; Psa 17:14. The position of the words here, as in Psa 69:11; 83:19, leads one to suppose that ידך is treated as a permutative of אתּה, and consequently in the same case with it. The figure of "planting" (after Exo 15:17) is carried forward in ותּשׁלּחם; for this word means to send forth far away, to make wide-branching, a figure which is wrought up in Ps 80. It was not Israel's own work, but (כּי, no indeed, for [Germ. nein, denn] = imo) God's work: "Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance," they it was which brought Israel salvation, i.e., victory. The combination of synonyms ימינך וּזרועך is just as in Psa 74:11, Sir. 33:7, χείρα καὶ βραχίονα δεξιόν, and is explained by both the names of the members of the body as applied to God being only figures: the right hand being a figure for energetic interposition, and the arm for an effectual power that carries through the thing designed (cf. e.g., Psa 77:16; Psa 53:1), just as the light of His countenance is a figure for His loving-kindness which lights up all darkness. The final cause was His purpose of love: for (inasmuch as) Thou wast favourable to them (רצה as in Psa 85:2). The very same thought, viz., that Israel owes the possession of Canaan to nothing but Jahve's free grace, runs all through Deut. 9.

(Heb.: 44:5-9) Out of the retrospective glance at the past, so rich in mercy springs up (Psa 44:5) the confident prayer concerning the present, based upon the fact of the theocratic relationship which began in the time of the deliverance wrought under Moses (Deu 33:5). In the substantival clause אתּה הוּא מלכּי, הוּא is neither logical copula nor predicate (as in Psa 102:28; Deu 32:39, there equivalent to אתּה הוּא אשׁר, cf. Ch1 21:17), but an expressive resumption of the subject, as in Isa 43:25; Jer 49:12; Neh 9:6., Ezr 5:11, and in the frequently recurring expression יהוה הוא האלהים; it is therefore to be rendered: Thou-He who (such an one) is my King. May He therefore, by virtue of His duty as king which He has voluntarily taken upon Himself, and of the kingly authority and power indwelling in Him, command the salvation of Jacob, full and entire (Ps 18:51; 53:7). צוּה as in Psa 42:9. Jacob is used for Israel just as Elohim is used instead of Jahve. If Elohim, Jacob's King, now turns graciously to His people, they will again be victorious and invincible, as Psa 44:6 affirms. נגּח with reference to קרן as a figure and emblem of strength, as in Psa 89:25 and frequently; קמינוּ equivalent to קמים עלינוּ. But only in the strength of God (בּך as in Psa 18:30); for not in my bow do I trust, etc., Psa 44:7. This teaching Israel has gathered from the history of the former times; there is no bidding defiance with the bow and sword and all the carnal weapons of attack, but Thou, etc., Psa 44:8. This "Thou" in הושׁעתּנוּ is the emphatic word; the preterites describe facts of experience belonging to history. It is not Israel's own might that gives them the supremacy, but God's gracious might in Israel's weakness. Elohim is, therefore, Israel's glory or pride: "In Elohim do we praise," i.e., we glory or make our boast in Him; cf. הלּל על, Psa 10:3. The music here joins in after the manner of a hymn. The Psalm here soars aloft to the more joyous height of praise, from which it now falls abruptly into bitter complaint.

(Heb.: 44:10-13) Just as אף signifies imo vero (Psa 58:3) when it comes after an antecedent clause that is expressly or virtually a negative, it may mean "nevertheless, ho'moos," when it opposes a contrastive to an affirmative assertion, as is very frequently the case with גּם or וגם. True, it does not mean this in itself, but in virtue of its logical relation: we praise Thee, we celebrate Thy name unceasingly - also (= nevertheless) Thou hast cast off. From this point the Psalm comes into closest connection with Psa 89:39, on a still more extended scale, however, with Psa 60:1-12, which dates from the time of the Syro-Ammonitish war, in which Psalm Psa 44:10 recurs almost word for word. The צבאות are not exactly standing armies (an objection which has been raised against the Maccabean explanation), they are the hosts of the people that are drafted into battle, as in Exo 12:41, the hosts that went forth out of Egypt. Instead of leading these to victory as their victorious Captain (Sa2 5:24), God leaves them to themselves and allows them to be smitten by the enemy. The enemy spoil למו, i.e., just as they like, without meeting with any resistance, to their hearts' content. And whilst He gives over (נתן as in Mic 5:2, and the first יתּן in Isa 41:2) one portion of the people as "sheep appointed for food," another becomes a diaspora or dispersion among the heathen, viz., by being sold to them as slaves, and that בּלא־הון, "for not-riches," i.e., for a very low price, a mere nothing. We see from Joe 3:3 in what way this is intended. The form of the litotes is continued in Psa 44:13: Thou didst not go high in the matter of their purchase-money; the rendering of Maurer is correct: in statuendis pretiis eorum. The ב is in this instance not the Beth of the price as in Psa 44:13, but, as in the phrase הלּל בּ, the Beth of the sphere and thereby indirectly of the object. רבּה in the sense of the Aramaic רבּי (cf. Pro 22:16, and the derivatives תּרבּית, מרבּית), to make a profit, to practise usury (Hupfeld), produces a though that is unworthy of God; vid., on the other hand, Isa 52:3. At the heads of the strophe stands (Psa 44:10) a perfect with an aorist following: ולא תצא is consequently a negative ותּצא. And Psa 44:18, which sums up the whole, shows that all the rest is also intended to be retrospective.

(Heb.: 44:14-17) To this defeat is now also added the shame that springs out of it. A distinction is made between the neighbouring nations, or those countries lying immediately round about Israel (סביבות, as in the exactly similar passage Psa 79:4, cf. Psa 80:7, which closely resembles it), and the nations of the earth that dwell farther away from Israel. משׁל is here a jesting, taunting proverb, and one that holds Israel up as an example of a nation undergoing chastisement (vid., Hab 2:6). The shaking of the head is, as in Psa 22:8, a gesture of malicious astonishment. In נגדּי תּמיד (as in Psa 38:18) we have both the permanent aspect or look and the perpetual consciousness. Instead of "shame covers my face," the expression is "the shame of my face covers me," i.e., it has overwhelmed my entire inward and outward being (cf. concerning the radical notions of בּושׁ, Ps 6:11, and חפר, Psa 34:6). The juxtaposition of "enemy and revengeful man" has its origin in Psa 8:3. In Psa 44:17 מקּול and מפּני alternate; the former is used of the impression made by the jeering voice, the other of the impression produced by the enraged mien.

(Heb.: 44:18-22) If Israel compares its conduct towards God with this its lot, it cannot possibly regard it as a punishment that it has justly incurred. Construed with the accusative, בּוא signifies, as in Psa 35:8; Psa 36:12, to come upon one, and more especially of an evil lot and of powers that are hostile. שׁקּר, to lie or deceive, with בּ of the object on whom the deception or treachery is practised, as in Psa 89:34. In Psa 44:19 אשּׁוּר is construed as fem., exactly as in Job 31:8; the fut. consec. is also intended as such (as e.g., in Job 3:10; Num 16:14): that our step should have declined from, etc.; inward apostasy is followed by outward wandering and downfall. This is therefore not one of the many instances in which the לא of one clause also has influence over the clause that follows (Ges. 152, 3). כּי, Psa 44:20, has the sense of quod: we have not revolted against Thee, that Thou shouldest on that account have done to us the thing which is now befallen us. Concerning תּנּיּם vid., Isa 13:22. A "place of jackals" is, like a habitation of dragons (Jer 10:22), the most lonesome and terrible wilderness; the place chosen was, according to this, an inhospitable מדבר, far removed from the dwellings of men. כּסּה is construed with על of the person covered, and with בּ of that with which (Sa1 19:13) he is covered: Thou coveredst us over with deepest darkness (vid., Psa 23:4). אם, Psa 44:21, is not that of asseveration (verily we have not forgotten), but, as the interrogatory apodosis Psa 44:22 shows, conditional: if we have (= should have) forgotten. This would not remain hidden from Him who knoweth the heart, for the secrets of men's hearts are known to Him. Both the form and matter here again strongly remind one of Job 31, more especially Job 31:4; cf. also on תּעלמות, Job 11:6; Job 28:11.

(Heb.: 44:23-27) The church is not conscious of any apostasy, for on the contrary it is suffering for the sake of its fidelity. Such is the meaning intended by כּי, Psa 44:23 (cf. Psa 37:20). The emphasis lies on עליך, which is used exactly as in Psa 69:8. Paul, in Rom 8:36, transfers this utterance to the sufferings of the New Testament church borne in witnessing for the truth, or I should rather say he considers it as a divine utterance corresponding as it were prophetically to the sufferings of the New Testament church, and by anticipation, coined concerning it and for its use, inasmuch as he cites it with the words καθὼς γέγραπται. The suppliant cries עוּרה and הקיצה are Davidic, and found in his earlier Ps; Psa 7:7; Psa 35:23; Psa 59:5., cf. Psa 78:65. God is said to sleep when He does not interpose in whatever is taking place in the outward world here below; for the very nature of sleep is a turning in into one's own self from all relationship to the outer world, and a resting of the powers which act outwardly. The writer of our Psalm is fond of couplets of synonyms like ענינוּ ולחצנוּ in Psa 44:25; cf. Psa 44:4, ימינך וּזרועך. Psa 119:25 is an echo of Psa 44:26. The suppliant cry קוּמה (in this instance in connection with the עזרתה which follows, it is to be accented on the ultima) is Davidic, Psa 3:8; Psa 7:7; but originally it is Mosaic. Concerning the ah of עזרתה, here as also in Psa 63:8 of like meaning with לעזרתי, Psa 22:20, and frequently, vid., on Psa 3:3.

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