Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor
To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation[a] of the sons of Korah.
Our fathers have told us,
The deeds You did in their days,
In days of old:
2 You drove out the [b]nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
3 For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them;
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
Because You favored them.
[d]Command victories for Jacob.
5 Through You we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall 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 day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
And You do not go out with our armies.
10 You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken [e]spoil for themselves.
11 You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 My dishonor 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 the avenger.
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;
19 But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow of death.
Or stretched[f] out our hands to a foreign god,
21 Would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
24 Why do You hide Your face,
And forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the [g]dust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26 Arise for our help,
And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.
Footnotes
- Psalm 44:1 Heb. Maschil
- Psalm 44:2 Gentiles, heathen
- Psalm 44:4 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. and my God
- Psalm 44:4 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. Who commands
- Psalm 44:10 plunder
- Psalm 44:20 Worshiped
- Psalm 44:25 Ground, in humiliation