Psalm 44 Jan. 24 For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative psalm.  1We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us, what work You did in their days, in the days of old. 2You drove out the nations with Your hand, but You planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but You spread them abroad. 3For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You were favourable to them. 4You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob! 5Through You will we push down our adversaries. Through Your name will we tread them under who rise up against us. 6For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. 7But You have saved us from our adversaries, and have shamed those who hate us. 8In God we have made our boast all day long, we will give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.  9But now You rejected us, and brought us to dishonour, and don’t go out with our armies. 10You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take spoil for themselves. 11You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations. 12You sell Your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale. 13You make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. 14You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. 15All day long my dishonour is before me, and shame covers my face 16at the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger. 17All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten You, neither have we been false to Your covenant. 18Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from Your path, 19though You have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death. 20If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread forth our hands to a strange god; 21won’t God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart. 22Yes, for Your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter. 23Wake up! Why do You sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever. 24Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? 25For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth. 26Rise up to help us. Redeem us for Your grace’ sake.   

Commentary

44:3 They didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword- This alludes to how Jacob’s final words were a claim that he had taken possession in the land by his own sword and bow (Gen. 48:22). Note how :4 says that it was God who gave Jacob his victories. Jacob was a faithful man who will be in the Kingdom, and yet he didn’t achieve perfection, and died with weakness and misunderstanding on his lips. Without encouraging complacency, we can take comfort that we will not of ourselves attain moral perfection and will die with some weaknesses and spiritual blind points; and yet still be saved by God’s grace if we abide faithful to Him in our hearts. But in this case it is for us to learn the lesson of Jacob’s failure- the Psalm goes on to teach us that our inheritance of the Kingdom will be by grace and not by our own sword and strength (:6).
 44:22 For Your sake we are killed all day long- Quoted in Rom. 8:36 in the context of teaching that even though we are killed all day long, this cannot separate us from the saving love of Christ. The context of Ps. 44:22 is speaking of how Israel suffered for their sins in being slaughtered by their enemies. So Paul in Romans is comforting us that although we may suffer for our sins, even those sufferings do not separate us from the saving love of Christ who quite simply so earnestly wants to save us in the end.