Morning Repost on Fathers Psalm 44: Part 1 of 2
To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah— 1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, the deeds You did in their days, in days of old: 2 You drove out the 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. 4 You are my King, O God; 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
"Maschil— i.e. Making wise...; for which purpose this psalm was composed by David, or some other excellent prophet, for the use of the Church, which is haeres crucis, the heir of the cross, as Luther speaketh; and is here instructed how to carry herself under it, and to get benefit by it.” (John Trapp) "It is supposed to be the height of wisdom now to laugh at what our father said, and to show what utter fools they were in comparison with their supremely wise and enlightened sons. Instead of our fathers ‘being the men, and wisdom dying with them,’ we are the men, and wisdom was non-existent until we appeared.“ (John Thomas, M. A.)
“‘We have heard with our ears,’— that is, it has been handed down by tradition.” (Barnes) “‘Our [spiritual] fathers have told us, the deeds You did in their days, in days of old,’ according to that they were commanded, Deuteronomy 6:1-10 and elsewhere, to whet good things upon their young children, and to propagate the memory of God’s noble acts to all posterity, Exodus 12:26; Exodus 13:14, Joshua 4:6-7, Psalms 78:4; Psalms 78:6. Hear this, saith Basil, and blush, ye fathers, that neglect to teach your children. They made their mouths as it were books, wherein the noble acts of the Lord might be read to His praise, and to the drawing of their children’s hearts unto Him…” (Trapp)— that they might the better strengthen their confidence, and form a ground on which to build their expectation of additional help, moving them to action in His name.
“‘You drove out the nations with Your hand’ - or dug them up as a gardner does. “The Canaanites were as a bad tree planted in a good soil, and bringing forth bad fruit with great luxuriance. God plucked up this bad tree from the roots, and in its place planted the Hebrews as a good tree, a good vine, and caused them to take root, and fill the land.” (Adam Clarke) “‘You afflicted the people’— the nations of Canaan. The word signifies ‘to do evil to.’— ‘And cast them out’—This may apply to the Canaanitish nations. But the verb often means, in a good sense, ‘to enlarge, to send forth, to make free,’ and thus may better apply to Israel, who enlarged, or sent forth, his root and branch. This accords withthe figure of planting just used, and with Psalms 80:11, ‘She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.’ It also better preserves the antithetic parallelism. Thus Conant:—
‘Thou, with thy hand, didst dispossess the heathen,
And them thou plantedst;
Didst crush peoples,
And them thou didst extend.’
Or Bishop Mant:—
‘Thy hand the people forth didst cast,
And Jacob plant instead,
Thy hand the stranger tribes didst waste,
And make thine Israel spread.’” (Whedon’s Commentary)
“The arm of God, not the sword of Israel, put them in possession of the land.”(Matthew Poole) “They did use their own arm and sword; but, for all that, it was God who won the victory for them. It was His might that made them brave, and a consciousness of His gracious purpose that made them strong, so that they routed all their foes until, from Dan to Beersheba, the land was all their own.” (C. H. Spurgeon) They did not gain possession of the land by works of the law- “Neither by their valor, nor cunning, nor for their merit; yet, they were obliged to fight.” (Adam Clarke)—“‘but it was Your right hand— the Man of Your own choosing. He smote more than they. The rock which followed them is Messiah. (1 Corinthians 10:4) "‘Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,’ This expression here seems to signify the special, the majestic presence of God, visibly presiding over the army of the Israelites, by a light shining cloud going before them and conducting them; so that the words here will be best rendered by ‘the light of thy presence,’ and not by ‘the light of thy countenance;’ which is the same with God's favor.” (Thomas Coke)
“‘You are my King, O God’- The whole people speak as one man, being united in one body.” (John Wesley) “What thou wert to them, be to us. We believe in thee as they did; we have sinned and are in captivity, but we repent and turn unto thee.” (Adam Clarke)— “‘Command deliverances for Jacob’— as in Creation, speak and bring it into being. “Some read it, ‘Command deliverances, O Jacob’; that is, ‘O God of Jacob,’ as Psalms 24:6.” (John Trapp) “‘Through thee will we push down’— ... Literally ‘We will toss them in the air with our horn;’ a metaphor taken from an ox or bull tossing the dogs into the air which attack him.” (Adam Clarke)— “‘Through Your name’ — i.e. by the help of thy power.” (Matthew Poole) instigated by calling on You, that is Your holy name in my time of need.
“‘For I will not trust in my bow, nor shall my sword save me. But You have saved us from our enemies, and have put to shame those who hated us.’— “‘Thou art the same almighty God and Saviour, who by thy sovereign will didst of old effect these wonderful deliverances to thy people. Thou art our King, as thou wast their’s : therefore save and deliver us, as thou didst them.’ This is a never failing plea.” (Tho. Scott)
"See how the lesson from ancient history was turned to practical account in the psalmist’s own experience: ‘As our forefathers were delivered, not by their own bow or sword, but by the right hand of the Most High, so I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.’ Brethren, let us always labour to reproduce in ourselves, by God’s grace, the best experiences of His saints. Wherever we see the hand of the Lord displayed in others of His people, let us pray that the same hand may be manifested to us and in us.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “’In God we boast all day long, and praise Your name forever. Selah.’ The whole confidence being placed in God, the whole glory will be rendered to Him, and that forever. ‘Glorying in God’ is generally expressed, by another modification of the same verb. ( Isa 45:25. Jere 9:23. Heb.)” (Thomas Scott)
Psalm 44 part 2 of 2
To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. - 9 But You have cast us off and put us to shame, 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 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. 13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, 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.
“The author of the psalm now commences a description of the existing circumstances of the nation, so strongly in contrast with what had existed in former times when God interposed in their behalf, and when he gave them success. This is properly the commencement of the second part of the psalm, and the description is continued to Psalm 44:16.” (Barnes)
“‘But You have cast us off’—by Your just judgment. "The Hebrew word here rendered ‘hast cast off’ implies disgust and abhorrence, as the casting away of that which is loathsome." (Albert Barnes)—
“‘and put us to shame’ Only this, it should have been remembered that the Lord’s hand was not shortened … but their iniquities had separated between them and their God, Isaiah 59:1-2.“ (John Trapp)
“‘And You do not go out with our armies.’ Israel has still ‘armies’ at her disposal. It is therefore certainly not the early Maccabean period, nor the time of the expiring monarchy. Her armies have free play, are sent forth, only God does not ‘go forth’ with them.” (Pulpit Commentaries)
“‘You make us turn back from the enemy’ - By expectorating our faith and courage, and leaving us to a fearful faint heartedness, that flieth at the sound of a shaken leaf. God strengtheneth or weakeneth the arm of either army, Ezekiel 30:24.” (John Trapp) “‘And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.’ — Plunder our camps, and take our estates, and other property for their own use.” (Joseph Benson)
“‘You have given us up like sheep intended for food, and have scattered us among the nations.’ And whilst He gives over (נתן as in Micah 5:2, and the first יתּן in Isaiah 41:2) one portion of the people as ‘sheep appointed for food,’ another becomes a diaspora or dispersion among the heathen, viz., by being sold to them as slaves, and that בּלא־הון , ‘for not-riches,’ i.e., for a very low price, a mere nothing.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “Jews have been found in every province of the east; there they settled, and there their successors may be found to the present day.” (Adam Clarke) “‘You sell Your people for next to nothing, and are not enriched by selling them.’ As slaves who are sold for a low price, you do not look for him who offers the most, but take the first offer…” (Geneva Study Bible) “This expression implies the low esteem in which they were with God.” (Thomas Coke)
“Israel’s defeat had made her an object of ridicule among her neighbor nations. They laughed at God’s people because the Lord had not defended them.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) Read the Bible and witness this truth. Israel is cast off and the gentiles are drafted in. God’s planting is not permanent. When they were faithful, they prospered in the land. But when they finally apostated altogether, they were driven into exile— out of the land. God now has mercy on who He will have mercy (Romans 9:15)— those who regard Jesus' sacrifice and trust in Him for salvation.
17 All this has come upon us; 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. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God, or stretched 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. 23 Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? 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 dust; our body clings to the ground. 26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.
The remnant identifies with Israel, but sees the dishonor that is brought to God. All of this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten Him, not have we dealt deceitfully with His covenant. We are trying to walk in the way that leads to life. We have learned from the example of Israel. “‘For Your sake are we killed all the day long’ - Because of our attachment to thee and to thy religion, we are exposed to continual death;… and St. Paul applies these words to their case, Romans 8:36.” (Adam Clarke) We sin, but we have a way of dealing with sin- daily confession. Our suffering is for the sake of fidelity. “Such is the meaning intended by כּי , Psalms 44:23 (cf. Psalms 37:20)— ‘Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever.’” (Keil & Delitzsch) “’Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our body clings to the ground. Arise for our help, and redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.’ Our life is drawing near to the grave. If thou delay to help us, we shall become extinct.” (Adam Clarke)