“To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. 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. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 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. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah. But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves. 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. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger. All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.” (Psalm 44, KJV)
1. To the Chief Musician. To the Sons of Korah. Maschil. The same question here arises as in Ps. 42, as to the sense in which the psalm is ascribed to the Sons of Korah. For the reasons there assigned, it is, on the whole, most probable that David is the author, however difficult it may be to account for the omission of his name in the inscription, and the appearance of the sons of Korah in the place which it usually occupies. See above, on Ps. 42:1. The addition of Maschil, i.e. a didactic psalm, is meant to shew that though occasioned by a particular event, perhaps the same as in Ps. 60, it was composed and left on record for the permanent use and edification of God’s people. See above, on Ps. 32:1. The train of thought is marked with unusual distinctness. God was, in ancient times, the protector and deliverer of Israel, ver. 2–5 (1–4). He is still their national and covenanted God, ver. 6–10 (5–9). But he seems to have given them up to their enemies, ver. 11–18 (10–17). Yet Israel still cleaves to him and suffers for his sake, ver. 19–23 (18–22). He is therefore importuned to reappear for their deliverance, ver. 24–27 (23–26). The state of things described and the sentiments expressed in this psalm, do not afford the slightest reason for referring it to any later period than that of David, when the same occasions of complaint and importunity were in existence, although not to so great an extent as afterwards.
2 (1). O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have recounted to us, the work thou didst work in their days, in the days of old. What they had heard with their ears is tacitly contrasted with the very different things which they had seen with their eyes. See below, Ps. 48:9 (8), and compare Judges 6:13, 2 Chron. 20:7, Hab. 3:2. Our fathers have told us, as enjoined or predicted in Exod. 10:2. The verb means properly to count, and then to recount or relate, with particular reference to the detailed enumeration of particulars. See above, on Ps. 2:7. The last clause may be construed as a separate proposition. A work thou didst work, &c. But this leaves the active verbs of the first clause without a grammatical object. The emphatic combination of the verb and its derivative noon is greatly weakened in the English Bible, what work thou didst, and still more in the Prayer-book version, what thou hast done. The particular work meant, as appears from what follows, is the conquest of Canaan and the settlement of Israel in it.
3 (2). Thou (with) thy hand didst nations dispossess and plant them, didst crush peoples and extend them. This, though a literal translation, is obscure in English, because the pronoun them in both clauses refers to Israel. In the second clause it might indeed have reference to the Canaanites, and the verb be taken in the sense of sending out, expelling, as in Gen. 3:23, 1 Kings 9:7, Isa. 50:1. But as it is also used to signify the sending out of shoots or branches by a tree or vine, Ps. 80:12 (11), Jer. 17:8, Ezek. 17:6, 7, 31:5, the parallelism seems decisive in favour of that meaning here. The verb translated dispossess means properly to cause to inherit, but is sometimes applied to the substitution of one heir or possessor for another. See Exod. 34:24, Num. 32:21, 33:52, Deut. 4:38. The verb translated crush may simply mean to injure; but the stronger sense is here entitled to the preference.
4 (3). For not with their sword did they possess the land, and their (own) arm did not save them; for (it was) thy right hand, and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance; for thou didst favour them. The for at the beginning introduces the proof or amplification of the general statement in the preceding verse, that it was God who planted and settled them. Save them, literally to or for them. i.e. did not bring deliverance to them, or work out deliverance for them. The translation of the second כִּי by but gives the sense but not the form of the original, as the use of the particle, in its strict sense, just before and after, forbids our taking the intermediate one in any other. With the first clause compare Josh. 24:12 with the last clause, Ps. 4:7 (6).
5 (4). Thou art He, my King, (O) God! Command deliverances for Jacob. The form of expression in the first clause is highly idiomatic and somewhat obscure. It may either mean, “Thou who hast done all this art still my king,” or “Thou art he who is my king,” which last may be thus resolved into the English idiom, “It is thou who art my king.” Compare 2 Sam. 7:28, 1 Chron. 21:17. The church here claims the same relation to Jehovah that was sustained by the former generations of his people. The last clause may also be translated, order the salvations of Jacob, i.e. cause them to take place and regulate them by thy providence. The personal name of the patriarch is poetically substituted for his official title as the father of the chosen people. See above, on Ps. 24:6.
6 (5). In thee our adversaries will we push; in thy name will we trample our assailants. The hopes of Israel still rely upon that power which expelled the Canaanites. The word translated adversaries properly means those who press, oppress, or persecute. See above, on Ps. 3:2 (1), and compare Ps. 13:5 (4), 27:2, 12. Our assailants, literally our risers up, those rising up against us. See above, on Ps. 18:40 (39), and compare Deut. 33:11. The verb in the first clause means specifically to push with the horns, to toss, or gore. See Exod. 21:28–32, and compare Deut. 33:17, 1 Kings 22:11. In thy name, not merely by thy authority, or as thy representatives, but in thyself, in union and communion with thee. See above, on Ps. 5:12 (11), 18:30 (29). The meaning of the future verbs in this connection is, that they will triumph, if at all, in this way. They must prevail thus or be vanquished.
7 (6). For not in my bow will I trust, and my sword will (or can) not save me. “What was true of my fathers is equally true of me. As they did not prevail by their own strength, neither can I hope to prevail by mine.”
8 (7). In God have we praised all the day, and thy name unto eternity will we acknowledge. Selah. The construction in the first clause, although foreign from our idiom, is more expressive than the simple phrase, we have praised God. It names God first, as the object in which the occasion and the theme of praise had been sought and found. “It is in God that we find the subject of our praises.” The common version (boasted) confounds the verb here used with another derivative of the same root. Thy name, thy manifested nature. See above, on Ps. 5:12 (11). To eternity, or perpetuity, for ever. All the day (long), i.e. always. See above, on Ps. 25:5, 42:11 (10). Acknowledge, i.e. gratefully give thanks. See above, on Ps. 6:6 (5).
9 (8). For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and our haters (or those hating us) hast shamed. The preterites in this verse are explanatory of the futures in the one before it. “We will not rely upon ourselves hereafter, because it is thou who hast helped us heretofore.” This logical relation of the verses is destroyed by confounding the preterites and futures with each other, or explaining both as presents. Shamed, i.e. defeated, disappointed. See above, on Ps. 6:11 (10), 14:6.
10 (9). Nay, thou hast rejected and disgraced us, and thou wilt not go forth with our hosts. The particle at the beginning (אַף) implies something more than a negation of the favours just described. “But now thou dost not so deal with us; nay more, thou hast rejected us.” This Hebrew verb implies disgust and abhorrence. See above, on Ps. 43:2. The other verb means to put to shame, to cover with disgrace, as in Ps. 35:4, 40:15 (14). The past tense of the first verbs implies that the rejection was already manifest; the future following implies an apprehension that it would continue. Go out with our hosts, as a guide, a commander, and an ally. Compare 2 Sam. 5:24.
11 (10). Thou wilt make us turn back from the adversary, and (already) those hating us have plundered for them, i.e. for themselves. Two of the most unwelcome incidents of warfare are here specified, flight and spoliation. Spoiled for themselves, not merely for their own advantage, but at their own will and discretion. Compare 1 Sam. 14:48, 23:1.
12 (11). Thou wilt give us as sheep (for) food, and among the nations hast scattered us, The consecution of the tenses is the same as in the preceding verse. Sheep for food, or flocks of food, i.e. intended and accustomed to be eaten. Give may either mean place, render, constitute, or give up, abandon. The last clause has by some been understood to refer to the Babylonish exile, and regarded as a proof of later date. But in every war with the surrounding countries, there were partial deportations and dispersions. See Joel 4:2, Amos 1:6, 9, and compare 1 Kings 8:46.
13 (12). Thou wilt sell thy people without gain, and hast not increased by their price. They seemed to be gratuitously given up, i.e. without necessity or profit. Without gain, literally wealth or riches, as a product or equivalent. The same noun may be repeated in the next clause, thou hast not increased (thy wealth), just as the verb gain is absolutely used in English. Their price, literally their prices, perhaps with reference to the individual captives, or to repeated sales of the kind here mentioned. Another possible but far less natural construction, treats the preposition as a mere connective, and reads, thou hast not enhanced their price, i.e. set a high price upon them, implying that he had, on the contrary, sold them for too little, or rather given them away for nothing. Compare Jer. 15:13.
14 (13). Thou wilt make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoff and a jest to those around us. If this state of things continues, such will be the necessary issue. Make us, literally place us, set us up, expose us. See above, on Ps. 39:9 (8), and with the whole verse compare Ps. 79:4, 89:42 (41).
15 (14). Thou will make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. A byword, literally a likeness or comparison, a case that may be cited as a memorable instance or example. The expression is borrowed from Deut. 28:37. A shaking of the head, i.e. an object at which men will shake their heads, as an expression of contemptuous pity. See above, on Ps. 22:8 (7).
16 (15). All the day my disgrace is before me, and shame my face has covered. It is before me so that I cannot fail to see it or lose sight of it. See above, Ps. 38:18 (17). Shame is here represented as a covering, as in Jer. 3:25, but perhaps with special reference to the suffusion of the face with blushes, as in Ps. 69:8 (7).
17 (16). From the voice of slanderer and reviler, from the face of enemy and avenger. The preposition indicates the source or the occasion of the shame described in the preceding verse. Face may here mean either presence or the expression of the countenance. The last word is properly a participle, and means taking vengeance or avenging one’s self. Here, as in Ps. 8:3 (2), it denotes a spiteful and revengeful enemy.
18 (17). All this has come upon us, and we have not forgotten thee, and have not been false to thy covenant. With the first clause compare Judges 6:13. Come upon us: the construction is the same as in Ps. 35:8. We have not been false, or acted falsely. The same verb with the same preposition, in Lev. 19:11, has the sense of lying, or acting fraudulently, towards another. See also Ps. 89:34 (33). What is here professed is not entire exemption from all acts of infidelity, but freedom from the deadly sin of total oblivion and apostasy. In spite of his unfaithfulness, Israel still claimed to be and was the chosen people of Jehovah.
19 (18). Our heart has not turned back and our steps declined from thy path. The force of the negative extends to both clauses, as in Ps. 9:19 (18). Heart and steps are put for inward affection and its fruit, external action. Turned back and turned aside are natural and common figures for moral delinquency. Thy path, the way of thy commandments.
20 (19). That thou hast crushed us in a place of dragons, and hast covered over us with deathshade. The construction is continued from the preceding sentence. The connection may be thus made plain in our idiom. “We have been guilty of no such infidelity or total apostasy, that thou shouldest deal with us in this way.” Crushed, bruised, or broken in pieces. See above, on Ps. 10:10, and below, on Ps. 51:9 (8). Dragons may here be understood as meaning wild beasts or lonely animals in general. Whether the Hebrew word specifically signifies wild-cats, wolves, or jackals, is a question of little exegetical importance. The essential meaning of the whole phrase is a place inhabited by lonely creatures, i.e. a wilderness or desert. Compare Isa. 13:22, 34:13, 43:20, Jer. 9:10 (11), 10:22, 49:33, Ps. 63:11 (10). Covered over, i.e. covered up, completely covered, a stronger expression than the simple verb. Deathshade, or the shadow of death, a strong poetical expression for the profoundest darkness. See above, on Ps. 23:4.
21 (20). If we have forgotten the name of our God, and spread our hands to a strange God. Some regard this as the common elliptical formula of swearing. “(God do so to us and more also) if we have forgotten,” which is equivalent to saying, “we have not forgotten.” Another method of supplying the ellipsis is exemplified in Josh. 22:22. But since the verse, conditionally understood, yields a good sense in connection with the next verse, this, as being the more obvious construction, is entitled to the preference. The act of holding up or stretching out the hands is often mentioned as a natural gesture of entreaty. See Exod. 9:29, 33, 1 Kings 8:38, Isa. 1:15. The word God in the version represents two different divine names in Hebrew, Elohim and El. See above, on Ps. 43:4. A strange God, or a God (who is) a stranger, i.e. to Jehovah and his people. The Hebrew word is applied by Moses both to men (Exod. 30:33) and idols (Deut. 32:16),
22 (21). Shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. This is the apodosis of the sentence begun in the preceding verse. “If we have done thus, must not God know it?” The primary meaning of the verb translated search out is to dig, to bring to light what is hidden under ground. Thence, by a natural transition, it denotes the investigation and disclosure of all secrets. The interrogation is an indirect but strong affirmation of the fact in question. The for, at the beginning of the last clause, does not indicate the reason of the question, but of the affirmative answer which is tacitly implied. He (is) knowing, a form of expression which denotes continued and habitual knowledge. See above, on Ps. 1:6, and with the sentiment compare that of Ps. 7:10 (9).
23 (22). Because for thee have we been killed all the day; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. The causal particle at the beginning does not refer to what immediately precedes, but to the remoter context, and adduces a proof of the assertion, that the church had not forgotten or forsaken God. This proof is afforded by the fact that their very sufferings were on his account. For thee, for thy sake, literally on thee, on (account of) thee, on thy account. The preterite form, we have been killed, includes the present, we are killed, but with the additional idea that the sufferings in question were not new or altogether recent, but had long been experienced. Reckoned, counted, estimated, i.e. by our enemies, who set no higher value on our lives than on those of sheep for the slaughter, literally a flock of slaughter, i.e. one destined or accustomed to be slaughtered. This expression corresponds exactly to sheep for food, or flock of food, in ver. 12 (11) above. The whole verse is a strong poetical description of severe persecution or distress arising from the spite of enemies, and as such is applied by Paul to the sufferings of the church of Christ, in which the ancient Israel continues to exist. See Rom. 8:36.
24 (23). Arouse thee! Why wilt thou sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast off for ever. This bold apostrophe implies strong faith, as well as warm affection. Such an address would not be made to an inanimate object, or an imaginary being. The idea is the same as in Ps. 3:8 (7), to wit, that the withholding of God’s help, or of his sensible presence, may be figuratively described as a state of inaction or of sleep, from which he awakes and arises when he once more manifests his presence and affords his aid. Compare Ps. 121:4, Mat. 8:25. The verse is therefore really nothing more than an importunate petition for divine assistance. Cast off, reject with loathing and contempt, the same strong expression that occurs in ver. 10 (9), above. For ever, literally to perpetuity. The Hebrew phrase is not the same, however, that occurs in ver. 9 (8). above.
25 (24). Why wilt thou hide thy face, wilt thou forget our suffering and our persecution (or oppression)? The same thing which had just been represented by the figure of sleep is here described as a refusal to see and to remember. Both figures are employed in Ps. 13:2 (1), above, in reference to precisely the same subject. These anthropomorphisms, which would be unlawful in an uninspired writer, are perfectly intelligible, and exceedingly expressive. The word translated suffering (or affliction) is generic, and includes all forms of physical evil, one of which is then specified, to wit, the suffering caused by powerful and spiteful enemies. The same word denotes oppression or persecution at the hand of wicked men, in Ps. 42:10 (9), 43:2. Why wilt thou forget is evidently more than why dost thou forget, for it conveys the additional idea, “Why wilt thou persist in doing as thou hast done heretofore, and art doing now?”
26 (25). For bowed (or sunk) to the dust is our soul, fixed to the earth is our belly. Both Hebrew verbs are active, and literally mean, our soul has bowed down, our belly has adhered. Belly may either have the sense of body, as opposed to soul, as in Ps. 31:10 (9), above, or be taken in its proper sense, in which case the whole clause is descriptive of the deepest degradation, a grovelling on the earth, without the capacity or wish to rise, a state like that of the lowest reptiles, or the one denounced upon the serpent in Gen. 3:14. Whatever the image here presented may be, it is evidently meant to represent a state of deep depression and debasement.
27 (26). Rise, a help for us, and redeem us for the sake of thy mercy! This is the conclusion of his arguments, and the sum of his petitions. Arise, from this state of apparent inaction, and exert thy power. Not merely for our help, as in Ps. 38:23 (22), but as our help, thou who art thyself our help, its source, its author, a much stronger expression than our helper, though essentially synonymous. See above, Ps. 40:18 (17), and below, Ps. 63:8 (7). Because of thy mercy, as a ground or reason; according to thy mercy, as a rule or measure; for the sake of thy mercy, i.e. for its honour, as a motive and an end to be accomplished.
Alexander, J. A. (1864). The Psalms Translated and Explained (pp. 194–199). Andrew Elliot; James Thin. (Public Domain)
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