Psalms 44

In Psalms 42-43, the faithful remnant is outside the land and is in great distress there. Their greatest distress is that they cannot go to God in His sanctuary. Psalm 44 further describes that distress. Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 are an individual lamentation. Psalm 44 is a lamentation of the people. Although the people trust in the LORD, they are still in great distress because of what the nations are doing to them.

A division of the psalm:
1. First they remind God of the past, of what they themselves have heard about the occupation of the land (verses 1b-3).
2. They confess God as their God and express their trust in Him (verses 4-8).
3. Then they speak of their current situation: they are terribly persecuted (verses 9-16).
4. Then they confess their faithfulness (verses 17-22).
5. They conclude the psalm with a cry to God to rise up and be their help (verses 23-26).

The content of the psalm can also be divided with a few key words:
1. Trust: because of God’s actions in the past (verses 1b-8).
2. Dejection: because of the defeat by enemies. The slaughter in the land by the king of the North, although the remnant itself escapes the slaughter because they have taken refuge abroad (verses 9-16).
3. Confusion: how faith trust and hardship can go together (verses 17-22).
4. Request: whether God will grant salvation after all (verses 23-26).

For “for the choir director”(verse 1a) see at Psalm 4:1.

For “a Maskil” see at Psalm 32:1.

For “of the sons of Korah” see at Psalm 42:1.

Here they are speaking to God (verse 1b) and not to the LORD, the God of the covenant. This is true of most of the second book of Psalms (see the Introduction to Psalm 42). They are removed from the sanctuary and therefore feel removed from the covenant. They think of the work and wonders of God in overcoming mighty enemies and the promised land that has been given to them. This is what their fathers told them about (cf. Jdg 6:13). God has repeatedly commanded that His great deeds must be told by the fathers to their children (Exo 10:2; 13:14; Deu 4:9; cf. Exo 12:26-27).

For us as members of God’s New Testament people, the church, His great act is the redemption of our sins. He accomplished this by sending His Son, Who accomplished redemption through His work on the cross. The Son suffered, died and rose again and is now glorified with God in heaven. We may tell about this to our children.

When we read “in their days” and “the days of old” we can think of the deliverance from Egypt, but here especially of the taking possession of the land. God did a great “work … in their days” by helping them drive out the nations of the land and giving it to them. They lived there and enjoyed the blessing. Now this work seems to become undone, for they have been driven out of the land.

God “drove out the nations” with His hand (verse 2; Deu 7:1). In their place He “planted” His people (cf. Exo 15:17; Psa 80:8; Amos 9:15). Nothing is said here about the unbelief of the people. The faithful only want to speak about what God has done and thereby remind Him of His earlier dealings with His people. He “drove out” the nations who were then in the land because the measure of their iniquity was complete (Gen 15:16). His own people He has showered with blessing and “planted them” (cf. Psa 80:8-11).

They are aware that it was not in their own strength and by their own means that they drove the enemies out of the land (verse 3). It is all due solely to God’s power (Deu 8:17-18; 9:3-6). They speak of “Your right hand and Your arm”. It is a double display of power, for both speak of God’s power. On top of that, the light of God’s presence was present with them and guided them. It means that He “favored them”. This is evident from the fact that He chose them to be His own people.

Although the psalm is a collective lamentation, we find several times that the psalmist nevertheless speaks in the singular (verses 4,6,15). They acknowledge no other King but God (verse 4; cf. Psa 5:2). By contemplating the deeds of God in the past, the faith of the remnant has been strengthened. As a result, they now dare to declare individually that not the antichrist, but the LORD God is their King: “You [with emphasis] are my King, O God.”

From Him, the God, the Angel Who redeemed Jacob from all evil (Gen 48:16), they expect the complete deliverance of Jacob from Jacob’s distress. Therefore, they ask Him to “command victories for Jacob”. He will certainly do that in His time. Then, to their amazement, they will see that God, their King, is none other than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus.

Earlier they spoke of God using His right hand and His arm to deliver them. Now they speak of themselves that they in God’s power push back their adversaries (verse 5; cf. Deu 33:17). It is both true. Those who rise up against them to do them harm, they shall trample down in His Name (cf. Rom 16:20; Mal 4:3). God will give His people the strength to defeat their adversaries (cf. Zec 12:5-6). They do not rely on their bow to take out the enemy at a distance, nor do they rely on their sword to deliver themselves from the enemy nearby (verse 6). They realize that there is no strength in them.

There is no reliance on their own strength, but on God (verse 7). In faith they count on Him to deliver them from their adversaries. He causes their haters to be put to shame by making all their cunning plans fail completely. Christ will totally break the works of the devil and deliver His people.

When the gaze is thus fixed on God, the result is that the believing remnant boasts in Him “all day long” (verse 8). This boasting will culminate in the giving thanks to His Name “forever”. The praise of His Name will continue endlessly.

In verse 9, the tone of the psalm changes. This change is introduced with the word “yet”. “Yet” implies: despite the daily thanksgiving in verse 7 in response that God was kind to them. Embedded in this is the question, how the God of the fathers can now reject their children (cf. Psa 89:38).

The faithful – who identify with the rest of the people, as, for example, Daniel does (Dan 9:5) – look at the circumstances in which they now find themselves. They then note that the God Whom they praise and glorify has “rejected [us] and brought us to dishonor”. That He has rejected them, they describe in verses 10-12; that He has put them to shame, they describe in verses 13-16.

The enemy has come, but God did not go with the armies of Israel. As a result, they have turned back from the adversary (verse 10). God has given the enemy the upper hand over them, and now they are being plundered by those who hate them to benefit from it.

They complain to God that He gives them to their enemies “as sheep to be eaten” (verse 11; cf. Zec 11:4,7). This “eaten” is done by the enemies of God’s people. The remnant has fled from the enemy, but nowhere are they safe. They experience what they as a nation did to their Messiah at the time. Their Messiah was sold by the people for little money (Zec 11:12-13; Mt 26:15; 27:9). Now they themselves are sold for little money (verse 12; cf. Deu 32:30; Jdg 2:14; Isa 52:3). They despised Him and now they themselves are despised.

They are reaping the fruits of their rejection of their Messiah. What they are experiencing, the Lord Jesus, their Messiah, also experienced during His days on earth. They are reaping what they have sown. God makes them a reproach to their “neighbors” (verse 13), which are primarily their neighboring peoples of Edom, Ammon and Moab.

“The nations” – where we can think of the nations among whom they are scattered, a wider circle therefore than the “neighbors” in the previous line – make them a byword (verse 14; Deu 28:37; Jer 24:9). They are a laughingstock among peoples. The remnant sees in the actions of the nations and the peoples the actions of God. Time and again they speak of “You”, “You”, “You”…. He works this mocking behavior. They don’t sue God about this, but acknowledge that they deserve it.

In verse 15, the king is speaking – he is the “me” in this verse. Literally he says “the shame of my face has covered me”. This goes further than “my humiliation has overwhelmed me”. In fact, it says: Shame has totally surrounded and covered me. This happens all day long. This is a great contrast to “all day long” boasting in God (verse 8). The cause of this is “the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, because of the enemy and the avenger” (verse 16). In this we recognize the antichrist, who has a big mouth and speaks blasphemies (Rev 13:5-6,11).

The remnant utters that even though “all this” has happened to them, they still have not forgotten God and have not dealt falsely with His covenant (verse 17). The severe trials do not result in them ceasing to think about Him. On the contrary, they focus all the more on Him because they know that He alone can give salvation. That is trusting in faith.

Their heart has not turned back to adhere to other gods (verse 18), but have remained faithful to God. Nor have their steps deviated from the way God wants them to go. Their walk and behavior are in accordance with His will. The severe trials do not result in them ceasing to serve God. They are keeping His commandments.

God has disciplined them so severely through the trials that they feel in the midst of their enemies as if they were “in a place of jackals” or a desolate place (verse 19; cf. Jer 9:11; 10:22). There they are crushed by Him. What a contrast with their “homeland”, the land flowing with milk and honey. While they would expect God to shelter them in the foreign land, they find that God “covered” them “with the shadow of death”.

If it were indeed the case that they had forgotten the Name of their God and had extended their hands to a strange god to ask its help (verse 20), God would certainly find out and discover it (verse 21). “For He knows the secrets of the heart” (cf. Jer 17:9-10a). To forget the Name of God means that they do not call upon Him, but they do nothing else than call upon His Name continually. Still less have they forgotten His Name by calling on a strange god, for they address Him exclusively.

They are constantly attacked by their enemies. The fact that they speak in the we-form indicates that they are united with each other as the people of God in this situation. They tell God that for His sake they “are killed all day long” (verse 22; cf. verses 8,15). Surely this proves that they have not forgotten Him. Their enemies see them as “sheep to be slaughtered” precisely because of their faithfulness to God. But if the people are not unfaithful to the covenant, then it seems that God is unfaithful to His covenant. How can that be? The psalmist is now confused. This leads to the prayer in verses 23-26.

Paul quotes this verse to show the believers in Rome – and us as well – the close connection that exists between the believers and Christ (Rom 8:35-36; cf. 1Cor 15:31; 2Cor 1:8-10; 11:23). Believers undergo trial and tribulation because of their connection with the Lord Jesus. They suffer what He suffered. In the world they suffer tribulation. “But” says the Lord to them, “take courage, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33b).

They do not believe that God sleeps (cf. Psa 121:4; 1Kgs 18:27b). They express themselves in this way because sleep is a human representation of the absence of any activity. They perceive that God is keeping Himself dormant because He does not act and intervene on their behalf (verse 23). They cry out here to the “Lord”, Adonai, the sovereign Ruler. The remnant is afraid that He will “reject” them “forever”, that is, for all eternity.

The disciples of the Lord Jesus have a similar experience to the sons of Korah. When a storm overtakes them in the ship with the Lord, Who is both Man and God, they wake Him up, for He is asleep. They awaken Him asking if He does not care that they perish (Mk 4:35-41).

God hides Himself from the believing remnant (verse 24). Because their affliction and tribulation last so long, it seems as if He forgets them. It seems as if the antichrist and the ungodly mass can have their way and kill them at their will (cf. Dan 7:25; Rev 13:7). But God cannot forget them. They are “inscribed … on the palms” of His hands (Isa 49:16) and are written “in a book of remembrance” before Him (Mal 3:16). They are in the melting pot of purification, where He heats the fire just as hot as it takes to make them a pure silver (Mal 3:2-3).

They feel like the dead, which they indicate by saying that their souls have sunk down into the dust (verse 25; cf. Psa 22:15). Their body cleaves to the earth, they say. By this they compare themselves to reptiles who cannot lift themselves up. It indicates the great humiliation and tribulation they suffer.

God is the help of His people (Hos 13:9). Therefore, they call upon Him to rise up and to be their help (verse 26). He is their help in trouble (Psa 46:1) and in this they find themselves. He is the Only One Who can help. There is no one else. They appeal to His “lovingkindness” to deliver them and not to any righteousness or faithfulness on their part or their suffering for Him. How God answers their prayer is the subject of the next four psalms (Psalms 45-48).