Psalm 44
Past Glory and Present Need of God’s People
1 For the director. A maskil of the sons of Korah.
2 O God, we have heard with our ears,
our ancestors have told us,
of the deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old.
3 To establish them in the land,
you drove out the nations with your own hand;
you crushed the peoples
so that our ancestors could flourish.
4 It was not their own swords that won them the land,
nor did their own arms make them victorious;
rather, it was your right hand and your arm
and the light of your face,
because you loved them.
5 You are my King and my God,
who bestowed victories upon Jacob.
6 Through you we throw back our enemies;
through your name we crush our assailants.
7 It is not in my bow that I trust,
nor can my sword ensure my victory.
8 It is you who saved us from our enemies;
you scattered in confusion those who hate us.
9 In God we boast the whole day long,
and we will praise your name forever. Selah
10 But now you have rejected and humiliated us,
and you no longer accompany our armies.
11 You have forced us to retreat before the enemy;
those who hate us plunder us unceasingly.
12 You have handed us over like sheep to be slaughtered
and scattered us among the nations.
13 You have sold your people for nothing,
receiving no gain from their sale.
14 You have subjected us to the contempt of our neighbors,
to the mockery and scorn of all who are near.
15 You have made us a byword to the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
16 All day long I am confronted by my disgrace,
and my face is covered with shame
17 as I hear the shouts of taunting and abuse
and see the hateful enemy seeking revenge.
18 All this has happened to us
even though we have not forgotten you
or been false to your covenant.
19 Our hearts have not turned back,
nor have our feet wandered from your path.
20 Yet you have crushed us,
forced us to live among the jackals,
and covered us with darkness.
21 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or lifted up our hands to a foreign god,
22 would not God have discovered it,
he who knows the secrets of the heart?
23 For your sake we are put to death all day long;
we are treated like sheep destined to be slaughtered.
24 Awake, O Lord. Why do you sleep?
Rise up, and do not abandon us forever.
25 Why do you hide your face
and continue to ignore our misery and our sufferings?
26 We have been brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
27 Rise up and come to our aid;
redeem us for the sake of your kindness.
Footnotes
- Psalm 44:1
- Psalm 44:1
- Psalm 44:2
- Psalm 44:4
- Psalm 44:5
- Psalm 44:6
- Psalm 44:10
- Psalm 44:10
- Psalm 44:11
- Psalm 44:15
- Psalm 44:18
- Psalm 44:19
- Psalm 44:20
- Psalm 44:21
- Psalm 44:23
- Psalm 44:24
- Psalm 44:25
- Psalm 44:26
- Psalm 44:27
