Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 44:1
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, [what] work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
1. our fathers have told us ] In obedience to the often repeated injunction to hand on the memory of God’s marvellous works on behalf of His people. See Exo 10:2; Exo 12:26 f.; Exo 13:8; Exo 13:14; Deu 6:20; Jos 4:6; Jos 4:21. Cp. Jdg 6:13; Psa 78:3. Observe the importance attached to oral tradition as a means of perpetuating the memory of the past. Much of the early history of Israel was doubtless preserved by oral tradition for a long period before it was committed to writing.
in the times of old ] Better, even the days of old. Cp. Isa 37:26 (A.V., of ancient times).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. A retrospect. Not their own valour but God’s help and favour gave Israel possession of the land of Canaan.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We have heard with our ears – That is, it has been handed down by tradition.
Our fathers have told us – Our ancestors. They have delivered it down from generation to generation. The word rendered told means properly to grave, or to insculp on a stone; and thence, to write. Then it comes to mean to number, to count, to recount, to tell, to declare. The word would be applicable to any method of making the thing known, either by hieroglyphic figures in sculpture, by writing, or by oral tradition, though it seems probable that the latter mode is particularly referred to here. Compare Exo 10:2; Exo 12:26-27.
What work thou didst in their days – The great work which thou didst accomplish for them; or, how thou didst interpose in their behalf. The reference is to what God accomplished for them in delivering them from Egyptian bondage, and bringing them into the land of Canaan.
In the times of old – In ancient times; in the beginning of our history. The idea here is, that we may properly appeal to the past – to what God has done in former ages – as an argument for his interposition in similar circumstances now, for,
(a) His former interposition showed his power to save;
(b) it was such an illustration of his character that we may appeal to that as a reason for asking him to interpose again.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 44:1-26
We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what work Thou didst.
Aspects of national piety
There is such a thing as national piety. I mean the aggregation of genuine godly thought, sympathy and aspiration, whether found in the breast of paupers or princes. Here we have it represented–
I. As acknowledging Gods providential kindness to the nation in the past (Verses 1-8).
1. The certain assurance of it. We have heard it as an historical fact–heard it from our own fathers, who would not deceive us, and who told it to us in love. Gods merciful interpositions on behalf of the Hebrew people are recorded, not only in the annals of the chosen people, but in the progress of the human race, not only in documents and monuments, but through an institution as divine as nature, as old as the race, viz. parental teaching.
2. The striking manifestations of it. How Thou didst drive out the heathen, etc. It is not our armies and navies that have saved us and made us what we are, but God.
3. The practical influence of it.
(1) Loyalty towards God.
(2) Confidence in God.
II. As deploring Gods present apparent displeasure toward the nation (Psa 44:9-16). He saw his country–
1. Defeated. But Thou hast cast off, etc. We struggle, but succeed not; there is no victory for us; we are foiled in all our efforts.
2. Victimized. They which hate us, etc. We are made use of by our enemies.
3. Enslaved. Thou sellest Thy people for nought, etc.
4. Confounded. My confusion is continually before me, etc. I am ashamed and bewildered. We have lost our dignity and self-command.
5. Scorned. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, etc.
III. As avowing fidelity to God notwithstanding the calamities of the country.
I. A consciousness of fidelity to Heaven. All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten Thee, etc.
2. Persecution on account of their fidelity. For Thy sake are we killed, etc.
(1) Genuine piety may co-exist with great suffering. Abraham, David, Job, Paul.
(2) Genuine piety may be stimulated by great suffering.
(3) Genuine piety enables one to bear great suffering.
IV. As invoking Gods interposition in order to restore past privileges.
1. A humanification of Deity. Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? No creature can have a complete conception of the Absolute.
2. Utter prostration of being. Our soul is bowed down to the dust, etc. What stronger expression could there be of depression and degradation than this? In a moral sense all men are thus debased and crushed by sin.
3. Entire dependence on sovereign mercy. Arise for our help, etc. We cannot redeem ourselves, nor can we plead our own merits or excellences as a reason for Thy interposition. (Homilist.)
Gods doings of old
I. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light on the doings of the present.
1. We learn the principle of development. Men are taught that all our present privileges in knowledge, science, civilization and religion came from very small sources. We know that God performed wonders of old, but we also know that those wonders have been continuously progressive.
2. We learn the principle of equalization. If God has done great things for us, He did great things for those of old. They may not have had the full revelation of religion, but they had to exercise faith in the same way as we do.
3. We learn the lesson of common depravity. The people of old did not notice Gods works at the time they were wrought. And so we all allow mercies to come to us unheeded and unpraised, and not till they are taken away do we appreciate their worth.
II. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light upon the faithfulness of God. He is a God who changes not and who never deserts His people.
III. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light upon our expectations for the future. What God has been He will always be. (Homilist.)
Early Israel, the Lords host
The spirit evinced in these words is very different from that which is regarded by some as the special excellency of modern times. 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. Now, I venture to say that our fathers never did or said anything more silly than the modern extravagance I have now described. We blame the Jews for thinking that Gods love stopped with them, and then we coolly declare that Gods wisdom began with us. Of the two, the Jew had the greater excuse for his onesidedness. Our text clearly introduces us to the time of Joshua, when Israel invaded the land of the Canaanites avowedly by a Divine commission, and destroyed its inhabitants in the name of the Lord.
I. Now they really had a divine commission to do this, or they had not. The very plausible objection is based upon a comparison of tribal histories in primitive times. There is no need to deny the presence of important analogies between the history of Israel and that of other tribes, for the special mission of Israel did not make it cease to be human in its history. But its subsequent history is sufficient to show that it occupied a position of pre-eminence from the beginning as the chosen of God. However rudely it may have conceived its mission, to deny its special mission at the commencement of that history is to make its subsequent development unintelligible, and to declare that its life was false at its very foundation. Next, it is objected that Israel could not have received such a mandate from God, seeing that it was immoral to engage in such aggressive wars. But such an objection as this is pure assumption, and fails to take account of different moral conditions and necessities. It is further urged that the cruelties sometimes practised by Israel upon the conquered are morally indefensible. This may be perfectly true, but it is not relevant as an objection. The abuse of a commission does not prove the denial of its reality.
II. The continuity of their mission is seen further in the power in which they trusted. Israel very significantly distinguished at the very first between the might of its army and the might of its God. This was very important, for it contained the germ of all further development. This distinction between God and physical force makes God definitely ethical. It was this God that gave Israel a mission. No doubt there were many crudenesses in it. It was but as the grey dawn, and was separated by many a stage from the perfect day. But whatever the form of the mission, it was such as was necessary for the time, and was distinctly ethical in spirit. The God they served and in whom they trusted is the eternal God, that liveth and abideth for ever.
III. In perfect harmony with these characteristics was their belief in their divine election. Because Thou hadst a favour unto them. It is important to note that this election, though insisted upon with great emphasis, was ethically conceived. Everything in the religious thought of Israel was necessarily related to its essential conception of God as an ethical Being. Hence the true faith of Israel affords no prototype of later conceptions of arbitrary and non-ethical election and rejection. The true prototype of these is found in corruptions and perversions of Israels true faith. We must point out further that Israels election, as truly conceived, simply imposed upon Israel a special task and mission, and issued no decree of exclusion upon the rest of the world. Putting it generally and tersely we may say that Gods elections do not involve exclusions. The man of Gods choice, who is called to make known in his life the thought and life of God is so far exclusive that he makes war against sin in such a form as is suitable to the age in which he lives, but the final object of his mission is to lead others to share his life and spirit, and to enter into his heritage. This the prophets clearly perceived to be the true purpose of Israels election (Isa 60:3). (John Thomas, M. A.)
Lessons from the past
This verse, slightly altered in form though not in sense, occupies a prominent place in the Church Litany. It is not a prayer at all: it does not form one of that long series of supplications of which the Litany consists. The origin of the Litany is very interesting. It is a most perfect and beautiful sample of a large class of devotions which in earlier ages abounded in the Church, and which seem to have taken their rise in those dark and anxious days which accompanied and followed upon the break-up of the Roman Empire. There, battle, murder and sudden death; plague, pestilence and famine, and all the calamities attendant on what seemed to be the entire collapse of social order, were common things. Hence, when the misery of the people seemed likely to bring in its train the withdrawal of such small blessings as they had, and even, in some cases, the fierce ungodliness of despair; then it was that, in their agony, holy souls turned towards God and sought to enkindle the souls around them by the sharp, prominate ejaculations, such as men might spontaneously utter amid the ruins of a falling world. Our Litany was drafted at the time of the Reformation from earlier compositions of this kind, and it maintains its supplicatory character throughout with a simple and emphatic exception. Between the two solemn adjurations to God to arise and help, there comes in the verse of the psalm, O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers, etc. It is an appeal, if we may reverently say so, to the historic consistency of God. It is an act of acknowledgment and praise, and we find the reason for its occurrence in the Litany in the drift and history of the psalm from which it is taken. This psalm was written, probably, at a time and under circumstances not unlike those which some centuries later created the Litanies of the Christian Church. It probably belongs to those dark times which immediately preceded the great and final catastrophe of the Babylonish Captivity. We live over those times, as nowhere else in Holy Scripture, in the pages of Jeremiah. Everything was pointing to some coming disaster: there was failure abroad, there was misery at home. At such times the hearts of thoughtful and religious men turned back upon the past of Israel and upon all that God had done for Israel. Was He not the same God? Was not Israel the same people? Would He be, could He be, inconsistent with Himself? Surely it was enough to remind Him of His mercies in the past to be certain that the future would in some way not be unprovided for. O God, we have heard with our ears, etc. Now, since human history is a record of the way and will of God, we may explain why it is that so large a portion of the Bible is made up of history. It has a distinctly religious use as showing how God works and what He is. There are two main reasons which practically make history so precious at all times, and especially in times of public or private anxiety, and the first is, that it takes us out of the present, takes us out of ourselves. We are taken out of the clouded and fluctuating present, and how can we better learn than from experience, if the judgment be undisturbed? It is also a record of the unalterable character of human nature, and it places us face to face with the infinite and eternal God. I am Jehovah, and change not. Now, to apply this, there are three departments of human life in which this recurrence to the past is of great religious value.
I. The family. Every family has its traditions as well as its hopes. We see it in the families of the wealthy and powerful, amid nobles and princes. To be the descendant from great and illustrious families is to inherit a past of which every educated man feels the magnificence and the power. And it is not less true of the humble and undistinguished lives which belong to most of us. When a boy is told that some generations ago one of his ancestors did something noble and generous; when he is told that, but for the misconduct of such and such a member of the family, he and his would be in a very different position now; and when he is bidden imitate that which was noble, and shun that which was bad in them who went before him, he is brought in this way under the play of very powerful motives, and which cannot but have much influence over him. They are part of the predestined discipline, depend upon it, to which God subjects him, and a very valuable part too.
II. There is our country. And here we have to remember that God shapes the destiny of every nation as surely as He did that of Judah and Israel. It should be part of every young Englishmans education to trace Gods hand in the annals of his country until he can with sincerity and fervour exclaim, O God, we have heard with our ears, etc. And then there is–
III. The great and sacred home of souls–the church of Jesus Christ. And all this has to do with personal religion, for it is the religious use of history which enables us better to do our duty in home, in nation and in the Church, and it makes history itself full of interest and encouragement. (Canon Liddon.)
The story of Gods mighty acts
No stories stick by us so long as those that we hear in our childhood, notwithstanding that so many of them are idle, vain and fabulous. But amongst the early Christians and the old believers in the far-off times, nursery tales were far different from what they are now. Abraham would, no doubt, talk to young children about the flood, and the Israelites who had been in bondage in Egypt would tell their children about that, and how the Lord delivered them. In primitive Christianity it was the custom of parents to tell their children the story of Jesus, and so it was among our Puritanic ancestors. The old Dutch tiles were the lesson-books in Bible history of many beside Doddridge. The writer of this psalm seems to have had told him by his father the story of the wondrous things God had done in the days of old. Let us now recall such things, and speak–
I. Of the wonderful stories we have heard of the lords ancient doings. God has, at times, done very mighty acts at which men have been exceedingly amazed. See the history of Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan; of Sennacherib and many more. And in the New Testament, of Pentecost and of all the triumphs of the Gospel told of there. And since those days in the history of the Church, of Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin and others not a few. And nearer to our own times, of Wesley, Whitfield and the Methodists. Now, in all these works of old there were these features–
1. They were sudden. The old stagers in our churches think that things must grow gently, by degrees. But all Gods works have been sudden. At Pentecost. At the Reformation. In Whitfields day. And so in all revivals.
2. Gods instruments have been insignificant. See little David when he slew Goliath; a woman slew Sisera. And also were Luther, Whitfield and the rest.
3. And all these works were attended with much prayer.
II. The disadvantages under which these old stories frequently labour. People say, Oh, times are different now. But has God changed? Cannot He do vow what He did of old?
III. The proper inferences that are to be drawn from the old stories of Gods mighty deeds.
1. There should be gratitude and praise.
2. Prayer. For how many are still unsaved. Preaching will not alone save them. God has done much in answer to prayer.
3. Entire dependence upon God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The days of old
A frivolous and shallow person once inquired of an old Carthusian monk how he had contrived to get through his life. He replied in the words of another psalm, I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. That man had found one great secret of hope, and cheerfulness, and moral strength. It is unquestionably an immense gain to be able to get beyond our own little life and the little circle which is round it, and to allow our thoughts and sympathies to work in the wider and freer region of the worlds past and present and future. Is it not profoundly melancholy in this world whose history is of such solemn, and indeed painful, interest, to listen to the thing called conversation by vast numbers? Education has done so little for vast numbers that if they do not converse about their neighbours, they cannot converse at all. They are simply without topics. It is pre-eminently the result of mental training that we have the power to get away from our own concerns and surroundings, to feel ourselves one with all mankind, to know that they and we are moving forward to the fulfilment of a glorious hope. Here, however, it is that the influence of religion enters in. Reading and writing and arithmetic, essential as they are, have no tendency to enlarge the mind or to widen the mental horizon. But put the Bible into the hands of a child, and at once that child becomes aware of the fact that its little world is but a corner of the great wide world, that its little existence is but a segment of the life of the race. And at once an idea is set before it under an immense variety of aspects which inevitably expands its mind, and by doing this achieves one of the greatest aims of education. The child learns that it is in a very large world, a member of the great human family; it is taught to look back to a past in which God has been wise and good, to look forward to a future in which that wisdom and goodness will be more perfectly justified and unfolded. This habit of considering the days of old and the years of ancient times will have two happy results; it will teach humility, and it will calm down anxiety. While we thank God for the light He has vouchsafed in these last days, while we will not lend an ear to the suggestion that knowledge, progress, science, civilization are bad things, we must also disallow the monstrous notion that there was no wisdom in the world until this century. There were giants in the earth in those days. And as we thus learn modesty, so may we, by considering the days of old and the veers of ancient times be delivered from unreasoning panic and unbelieving timidity. The faith is attacked; And was it never attacked before? Surely the intellectual shock which men experienced at the Reformation was far more violent than any which is felt now. A hundred years ago there was a more widespread and pestilent scepticism than any we have to lament; yet religion grappled with it, did not simply stand on the defensive, but attacked, and attacked successfully. It seems to me that the robust trust of these old psalms cries shame upon us, who live in a brighter and happier day. For the individual as for the community the ultimate trust must be in the character of God, in His faithfulness most of all. (J. A. Jacob, M. A.)
The eternal providence of God
I. Providence is not of yesterday. Men love what is ancient. Now, this antiquity of Providence is not a myth. The Psalms are historical. They were written some thousands of years ago, and yet the writers speak of former times of old.
II. The man is very bold who disputes this providence. He must be either a very great or a very little man; there can be nothing common about him. But he ought to be sworn before he gives evidence. We have a right to know who he is. We cannot have any chatter upon this great question.
III. Providence is a revelation: there is a Gospel of Providence. It is a Gospel to be assured that the foundation of your haven is strong; that all things are under the hand of God.
IV. And there is a providence of facts. The men of old abused these, and from a long succession of such observations they drew their conclusions. History seems to make it more difficult to deny than to admit Providence.
V. Whatever objection any may have against the doctrine, its effect on life is good. We ask, what kind of man does this belief in Providence produce; what fruit does it bear? The creed which says God is, God rules, God will judge–what manner of man will this creed make? It will give courage. See Moses before Pharaoh. And what blessed peace it imparts. But surely this is a great presumption in favour of its truth. And thus should all theology be tested. What are its effects; how does the theology come out in the life?
VI. The miraculous element is no difficulty. For what miracle can exceed the miracle of your own spiritual development? The story of the Red Sea has been true of ourselves, such seas have been before us, and they have opened for us, and we have gone through them as on dry land. And the story of the manna; do we not know all about that? We must read the Bible as having to do with our own life.
VII. Providence leads up to redemption. He who takes care of this present life must care for our eternal life. Does God care for oxen; then how much more for man? But if for mans temporal welfare, so that He has provided everything for it, can He have made no provision for the needs of the soul? Impossible I Now, such is our faith to-day. We have come to it not by inheritance but by personal reception of it. We are one of a great band of witnesses that the Lord reigneth, that all that occurs, whatever it be, is by His ordering and under His control. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM XLIV
The psalmist recounts the mercies of God; shows to his people
how God in ancient times gave them the victory over all their
enemies, 1-8;
points out their present miserable state, 9-16;
asserts that thy have not apostatized, and appeals to God for
the truth of his assertion, 17-22;
and calls upon the Lord for deliverance from their enemies,
23-26.
NOTES ON PSALM XLIV
The title here is the same as that in Ps 42:1; which see. The Syriac says it was “A Psalm of the sons of Korah, which the people and Moses sung at Horeb.” Such titles are fancies to which no credit should be attached. Like the preceding, it appears to belong to the time of the captivity.
Verse 1. We have heard with our ears] The psalmist begins with recounting the marvellous interpositions of God in behalf of the Jewish people, that he might the better strengthen his confidence, and form a ground on which to build his expectation of additional help.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
What work thou didst in their days: they allege their former experience, as encouragements to their faith, and motives to God to continue to be gracious to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1-3. This period is that of thesettlement of Canaan (Jos 24:12;Jdg 6:3).
have toldor, “related”(compare Ex 10:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We have heard with our ears, O God,…. The church being in distress calls to mind the past favours of God to his people, in order to encourage her faith and hope; and this expression, delivered in such a form, shows the clearness, evidence, and certainty of what was heard; and which was heard not only as a tradition from father to son; but being recorded in the writings of Moses and the prophets, and these things read both in private and in public, were heard with the ear;
our fathers have told us [what] works thou didst in their days, in the times of old: such as the signs and wonders in Egypt, the slaying of the firstborn there, and the bringing of the people of Israel from thence with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; which fathers were used to tell in the ears of their sons, and sons’ sons; and of which there were memorials continued in future ages, which led children to ask their parents the meaning of them; when they informed them of the wondrous works of Providence done in former times, and by which means they were handed down from age to age: see Ex 10:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 44:2-4) The poet opens with a tradition coming down from the time of Moses and of Joshua which they have heard with their own ears, in order to demonstrate the vast distance between the character of the former times and the present, just as Asaph, also, in Psa 78:3, appeals not to the written but to the spoken word. That which has been heard follows in the oratio directa . Psa 44:3 explains what kind of “work” is intended: it is the granting of victory over the peoples of Canaan, the work of God for which Moses prays in Psa 90:16. Concerning , vid., on Psa 3:5; Psa 17:14. The position of the words here, as in Psa 69:11; 83:19, leads one to suppose that is treated as a permutative of , and consequently in the same case with it. The figure of “planting” (after Exo 15:17) is carried forward in ; for this word means to send forth far away, to make wide-branching, a figure which is wrought up in Ps 80. It was not Israel’s own work, but ( , no indeed, for [Germ. nein, denn ] = imo) God’s work: “Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance,” they it was which brought Israel salvation, i.e., victory. The combination of synonyms is just as in Psa 74:11, Sir. 33:7, , and is explained by both the names of the members of the body as applied to God being only figures: the right hand being a figure for energetic interposition, and the arm for an effectual power that carries through the thing designed (cf. e.g., Psa 77:16; Psa 53:1), just as the light of His countenance is a figure for His loving-kindness which lights up all darkness. The final cause was His purpose of love: for (inasmuch as) Thou wast favourable to them ( as in Psa 85:2). The very same thought, viz., that Israel owes the possession of Canaan to nothing but Jahve’s free grace, runs all through Deut. 9.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Grateful Acknowledgment of Past Mercies; Consecration to God. | |
To the chief musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. 4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. 5 Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. 6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. 7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. 8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
Some observe that most of the psalms that are entitled Maschil–psalms of instruction, are sorrowful psalms; for afflictions give instructions, and sorrow of spirit opens the ear to them. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest.
In these verses the church, though now trampled upon, calls to remembrance the days of her triumph, of her triumph in God and over her enemies. This is very largely mentioned here, 1. As an aggravation of the present distress. The yoke of servitude cannot but lie very heavily on the necks of those that used to wear the crown of victory; and the tokens of God’s displeasure must needs be most grievous to those that have been long accustomed to the tokens of his favour. 2. As an encouragement to hope that God would yet turn again their captivity and return in mercy to them; accordingly he mixes prayers and comfortable expectations with his record of former mercies. Observe,
I. Their commemoration of the great things God had formerly done for them.
1. In general (v. 1): Our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days. Observe, (1.) The many operations of providence are here spoken of as one work–“They have told us the work which thou didst;” for there is a wonderful harmony and uniformity in all that God does, and the many wheels make but one wheel (Ezek. x. 13), many works make but one work. (2.) It is a debt which every age owes to posterity to keep an account of God’s works of wonder, and to transmit the knowledge of them to the next generation. Those that went before us told us what God did in their days, we are bound to tell those that come after us what he has done in our days, and let them do the like justice to those that shall succeed them; thus shall one generation praise his works to another (Ps. cxlv. 4), the fathers to the children shall make known his truth, Isa. xxxviii. 19. (3.) We must not only make mention of the work God has done in our own days, but must also acquaint ourselves and our children with what he did in the times of old, long before our own days; and of this we have in the scripture a sure word of history, as sure as the word of prophecy. (4.) Children must diligently attend to what their parents tell them of the wonderful works of God, and keep it in remembrance, as that which will be of great use to them. (5.) Former experiences of God’s power and goodness are strong supports to faith and powerful pleas in prayer under present calamities. See how Gideon insists upon it (Judg. vi. 13): Where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of?
2. In particular, their fathers had told them,
(1.) How wonderfully God planted Israel in Canaan at first, Psa 44:2; Psa 44:3. He drove out the natives, to make room for Israel, afflicted them, and cast them out, gave them as dust to Israel’s sword and as driven stubble to their bow. The many complete victories which Israel obtained over the Canaanites, under the command of Joshua, were not to be attributed to themselves, nor could they challenge the glory of them. [1.] They were not owing to their own merit, but to God’s favour and free grace: It was through the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour to them. Not for thy righteousness, or the uprightness of thy heart, doth God drive them out from before thee (Deu 9:5; Deu 9:6), but because God would perform the oath which he swore unto their fathers, Deut. vii. 8. The less praise this allows us the more comfort it administers to us, that we may see all our successes and enlargements coming to us from the favour of God and the light of his countenance. [2.] They were not owing to their own might, but to God’s power engaged for them, without which all their own efforts and endeavours would have been fruitless. It was not by their own sword that they got the land in possession, though they had great numbers of mighty men; nor did their own arm save them from being driven back by the Canaanites and put to shame; but it was God’s right hand and his arm. He fought for Israel, else they would have fought in vain; it was through him that they did valiantly and victoriously. It was God that planted Israel in that good land, as the careful husbandman plants a tree, from which he promises himself fruit. See Ps. lxxx. 8. This is applicable to the planting of the Christian church in the world, by the preaching of the gospel. Paganism was wonderfully driven out, as the Canaanites, not all at once, but by little and little, not by any human policy or power (for God chose to do it by the weak and foolish things of the world), but by the wisdom and power of God–Christ by his Spirit went forth conquering and to conquer; and the remembrance of that is a great support and comfort to those that groan under the yoke of antichristian tyranny, for to the state of the church under the power of the New-Testament Babylon, some think (and particularly the learned Amyraldus), the complaints in the latter part of this psalm may very fitly be accommodated. He that by his power and goodness planted a church for himself in the world will certainly support it by the same power and goodness; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(2.) How frequently he had given them success against their enemies that attempted to disturb them in the possession of that good land (v. 7): Thou hast, many a time, saved us from our enemies, and hast put to flight, and so put to shame, those that hated us, witness the successes of the judges against the nations that oppressed Israel. Many a time have the persecutors of the Christian church, and those that hate it, been put to shame by the power of truth, Acts vi. 10.
II. The good use they make of this record, and had formerly made of it, in consideration of the great things God had done for their fathers of old.
1. They had taken God for their sovereign Lord, had sworn allegiance to him, and put themselves under his protection (v. 4): Thou art my King, O God! He speaks in the name of the church, as (Ps. lxxiv. 12), Thou art my King of old. God, as a king, has made laws for his church, provided for the peace and good order of it, judged for it, pleaded its cause, fought its battles, and protected it; it is his kingdom in the world, and ought to be subject to him, and to pay him tribute. Or the psalmist speaks for himself here: “Lord, Thou art my King; whither shall I go with my petitions, but to thee? The favour I ask is not for myself, but for thy church.” Note, It is every one’s duty to improve his personal interest at the throne of grace for the public welfare and prosperity of the people of God; as Moses, “If I have found grace in thy sight, guide thy people,” Exod. xxxiii. 13.
2. They had always applied to him by prayer for deliverance when at any time they were in distress: Command deliverances for Jacob. Observe, (1.) The enlargedness of their desire. They pray for deliverances, not one, but many, as many as they had need of, how many soever they were, a series of deliverances, a deliverance from every danger. (2.) The strength of their faith in the power of God. They do not say, Work deliverances, but Command them, which denotes his doing it easily and instantly–Speak and it is done (such was the faith of the centurion, Matt. viii. 8, Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed); it denotes also his doing it effectually: “Command it, as one having authority, whose command will be obeyed.” Where the word of a king is there is power, much more the word of the King of kings.
3. They had trusted and triumphed in him. As they owned it was not their own sword and bow that had saved them (v. 3), so neither did they trust to their own sword or bow to save them for the future (v. 6): “I will not trust in my bow, nor in any of my military preparations, as if those would stand me in stead without God. No; through thee will we push down our enemies (v. 5); we will attempt it in thy strength, relying only upon that, and not upon the number or valour of our forces; and, having thee on our side, we will not doubt of success in the attempt. Through thy name (by virtue of thy wisdom directing us, thy power strengthening us and working for us, and thy promise securing success to us) we shall, we will, tread those under that rise up against us.“
4. They had made him their joy and praise (v. 8): “In God we have boasted; in him we do and will boast, every day, and all the day long.” When their enemies boasted of their strength and successes, as Sennacherib and Rabshakeh hectored Hezekiah, they owned they had nothing to boast of, in answer thereunto, but their relation to God and their interest in him; and, if he were for them, they could set all the world at defiance. Let him that glories glory in the Lord, and let that for ever exclude all other boasting. Let those that trust in God make their boast in him, for they know whom they have trusted; let them boast in him all the day long, for it is a subject that can never be exhausted. But let them withal praise his name for ever; if they have the comfort of his name, let them give unto him the glory due to it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 44
Prayer Based On Retrospect
Scripture v. 1-26:
Verses 1, 2 relate that Israel has heard by their own ears, as their fathers had related, the kind of works the living God had done in their days, in days now long past. They had witnessed how Jehovah, the powerful, and elohim, the living God of strength had driven out the enemy by their hand; how He had afflicted the heathen, at their hand and cast them out, while planting Israel, His elect, firmly in the land He had promised to their father Abraham. Such was repeatedly told by the sages, elders, and prophets, as recounted Exo 15:17; Exo 34:11; Deu 7:1; Jos 10:12; Jos 11:23; Jos 21:43; Neh 9:22-27; Psa 78:55; Psa 80:8; Psa 105:44; Psa 135:11-12.
Verse 3 adds that they did not possess the land merely by their own sword, for theirs alone were no stronger than the arm and sword of the heathen, Deu 8:17; Jos 24:12. But David declared it was by the right hand and arm (of strength) of the Lord, and by the light, favor arid good will of his face, as a favor to them, that they had taken homestead possession of the land, Deu 4:37; Psa 43:3; Num 6:25-26, “Not by might, nor by strength, but by my spirit, saith the Lord,” was the conviction of David, as expressed also Zec 4:6.
Verses 4, 5 commit and plead,” Thou art (exist as) my King, O God, command deliverance for Jacob, “Psa 74:12. David simply affirmed that he was subject to the living God as king (absolute ruler) over his life; He was a sufficient commander to remove David’s enemies, to assure to him many blessings, Psa 147:15; Psa 107:20; Mat 8:8-9. He added that “through you (your strength) we will push down our enemies,” Dan 8:4. He is still the true source of strength for conquering the world, the flesh, and the devil, Php_4:19.
Verses 6, 7 disavow any trust in bow or sword, as agencies for David’s deliverance, in battle or any conflict, Psa 33:16; Hos 1:7. He attributed their past salvation from all enemies to the power of the Lord in whom he yet trusted.
Verses 8, 9 assert that their boast, glory, or praise for Achievements would be in the Lord, forever, as also certified Jer 9:24; Joh 8:41; 1Co 1:29; 1Co 1:31; Rom 2:17. But David lamented that the Lord had now cast Israel off, put her to shame, and did not go forth with her armies, because he had not consulted the Lord in the matter of battle, as before times. 2Sa 5:24.
Verse 10 adds “thou makest us (caused us) to turn back or flee from the enemy,” so that those who hated them took spoil of warfare and battle for themselves, their own use, to their heart’s content, 1Sa 14:48; 1Sa 23:1; Lev 21:17; Deu 28:25; Jos 7:8; Jos 7:12.
Verse 11 adds further that the Lord had given them like sheep for the slaughter, scattering them among the heathen, as He had forewarned in the law, Deu 4:27; Deu 28:64; 2Ki 17:6; Psa 60:1; Isa 11:12; Isa 11:12; Jer 32:37; Eze 31:17; Luk 21:24; Rom 8:36.
Verses 12-14 continue to relate God’s judgments on His erring people over whom David reigned, as David lamented; that God sold them for nothing, and did not increase his wealth by their price, Isa 52:3-4. He asserted the Lord did not gain by alienating them from Zion, Jer 15:13. Yet it was by His chastening will, for their penitent good, that He sold them into captivity to the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. He added that God caused them to be an object of reproach, scorn, and derision to their neighbors and those round about them; He made them to be even, as Moses had foretold, Deu 28:37; Psa 22:7; Psa 79:4; Psa 80:6.
Verses 15, 16 state that David’s confusion was continually before him, so that his face was covered with shame and humiliation. Such was agitated by the enemy and avenger who continually derided and scorned and blasphemed him, a thing of which all Israel had been forewarned should she turn away from Him and His laws, as further related Jer 3:25; Psa 69:7. Yet, Satan is a great enemy and avenger of the people of God, Psa 8:2; 1Pe 5:8.
Verses 18, 19 continue’ to plead “our heart (affection) is not turned back, nor have our feet turned out of or gone down from your ways.” The claim was not true, Psa 119:57. He adds that though the Lord had sorely judged or broken them in the desert of dragons, or jackals, covering them with the shadow of death, it was an harsh chastening that they did not really deserve. This is often the attitude of children toward the chastening of their parents, Heb 12:5-12; Isa 13:22; Isa 34:13; Isa 43:20; Psa 74:13-14; Eze 9:3; Revelation 12; Revelation 9; Rev 13:2.
Verses 20, 21 reassert that they have told the truth, v. 17, 18, not having forgotten the (worthy) name of their living God or stretched out their hands to worship an idol or strange god. David rhetorically asks, “God will search this out, will He not?” For He continually knows the secrets of the heart. Such is surely certified Psa 139:1; Job 31:14; Jer 17:10; See also Jos 22:22-23; Ecc 12:14; Joh 2:25; Act 1:21; Rom 2:16; 1Co 4:5; Heb 4:12.
Verses 22-23 appeal “For thy sake we are slaughtered all the day long, counted as sheep for the slaughter,” Verse 23 pleads “awake!” or wake up, why do you sleep on, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever,” or do not leave us to perish; The answer is given Psa 121:4; Mat 8:25; The prayer of the afflicted must always rest on the sure promises of the Lord, 1Sa 12:22; Jer 31:37; Rom 11:1; Heb 13:5.
Verses 24-26 conclude this lamenting appeal of David as he complained, like Job, that God had hidden His face from and forgotten the affliction and oppression of David, His people Israel, while their soul was bowed down to the dust and their belly stuck to the ground in utter humiliation, Psa 119:25. Then in a final cry, he said, “Arise (stand up) for our help” meet our need, and “redeem us for thy mercies’ sake,” not because of our righteousness, Psa 63:7. It was a cry God did heed. Because of this spirit he was called a “man after God’s own heart,” 1Co 10:31; Psa 145:18-19; Exo 14:30; Isa 59:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. O God! we have heard with our ears. The people of God here recount the goodness which he had formerly manifested towards their fathers, that, by showing the great dissimilarity of their own condition, they may induce God to alleviate their miseries. They begin by declaring that they speak not of things unknown or doubtful, but that they related events, the truth of which was authenticated by unexceptionable witnesses. The expression, We have heard with our ears, is not to be considered as a redundant form of speech, but one of great weight. It is designed to point out that the grace of God towards their fathers was so renowned, that no doubt could be entertained respecting it. They add, that their knowledge of these things was handed down from age to age by those who witnessed them. It is not meant that their fathers, who had been brought up out of Egypt, had, a thousand and five hundred years after, declared to their posterity the benefits God had conferred upon them. The import of the language is, that not only the first deliverance, but that also the various other works which God had wrought from time to time in behalf of his people, had come down, as it were, from hand to hand, in an uninterrupted series, even to the latest age. As, therefore, those who, after the lapse of many ages, became witnesses and heralds of the grace which God had exercised towards this people, spake upon the report of the first generation, the faithful are warranted in saying, as they here do, that their fathers have declared to them that which they certainly knew, because the knowledge of it had not been lost by reason of its antiquity, but was continually preserved by the remembrance of it from the fathers to the children. The sum of the whole is, that God had manifested his goodness towards the children of Abraham, not only for ten or twenty years, but that ever since he had received them into his favor, he had never ceased to bestow upon them continued tokens of his grace.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
RUIN AND REDEMPTION
Psalms 42-50
WE have already called attention to the fact that the Books of the Psalms constitute a Pentateuch, and there are excellent students of the Word who consider that the five Books of the Psalms correspond, in spiritual character, to the five volumes that constitute the Pentateuch.
Beginning, then, with the forty-second chapter and concluding with the seventy-second, we have the second Book, which is supposed to parallel Exodus.
Exodus is the Book of Redemption, the story of Israels recovery from Egyptian bondage. This fact is voiced in the following sentence, Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation (Exo 15:13).
It will be conceded also that the types in Exodus turn the attention to redemption. Even the Divine title Jah, the abbreviated form of Jehovah, is employed first in the Book of Exodus (Exo 15:3) and it is a significant fact that this same title is employed in this second Book of the Psalms (Psa 68:4).
There are those also who see another point of parallelism: The Book of Exodus opens with a picture of oppression in Egypt, while the second Book of the Psalms opens with a cry for God. The second Book of the Psalms also refers, in passing, to localities and individuals, as for instance, Sinai and Miriam, found in the second Book of the Pentateuch.
It is not unnatural, therefore, to discuss the first ten chapters of this Book under heads that would naturally remind one of the old Exodus experience, namely, The Ruin Realized, The Deliverance Needed, and the Deliverer Discovered.
THE RUIN REALIZED
First, in The conscious loss of God!
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me; for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the House of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God; for I shill yet praise Him for the kelp of His countenance (Psa 42:1).
One wonders at such language. It involves figurative difficulties and also excites a certain astonishment. Does the hart always pant after the water-brooks? No! There is but one time when the hart pants after the water-brooks and that is when he is chased by his enemy, when the dog is on his trail, or the wolf pack has sighted or scented him and is crowding him hard. Then the exhaustion of the race is such, and the terrible fear that takes possession of him is so great, that moisture leaves his body and he is compelled shortly to reach the brook and be refilled and refreshed that his strength may suffice in further efforts of escape. In truth it is commonly the habit of a deer or hart, when thus in danger, not only to seek the brook for drink, but to plunge its entire body into the water with the dual purpose of cooling the fevered veins and at the same time throwing the enemy off the scent and thereby securing time in which to escape the vicinity of danger.
Its a satisfactory figure then. The Psalmist had his enemies, and as they pressed him hard, thirsting for his life-blood, he felt his need of Gods refreshing and protecting presence. In all likelihood David wrote these words at the very time when he was being hunted like the partridge on the mountain; when Absaloms henchmen sought his life. He was compelled to accomplish a hiding in a well over which a woman threw a cover and spread corn thereon until the danger was over-past, and David and his followers made their escape over Jordan as recorded in 2 Samuel 17.
In evidence of this probable fact, it will be remembered that that chapter closed with the statement that certain people
brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,
And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat; for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness (2Sa 17:28-29).
It is great to believe that God is the answer to heart-hunger. It is great to know that God is rest for the weary. It is good to know that in Him is an unfailing fountain for the thirsty. It is good to believe that God is for the hour of danger and need!
Second, the consequent sense of loneliness!
O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts; all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
I will say unto God my rock, Why hast Thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (Psa 42:6-11).
It is doubtful if there is any more disquieting experience than the feeling that one has lost God. One of the most pathetic questions to be found in all the Book of the Psalms is (Psa 77:7-9), Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will He be favourable no more? Is His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He, in anger, shut up His tender mercies?
Such is an hour in which the soul is cast down. Such is the day in which the waves and billows go over one. Frightful is the feeling that one is God-forsaken. The oppression of the enemy is then heavy indeed. The very bones are thrust through with the sword and the daily reproaches of the enemy, Where is thy God? produce a disquieted spirit, and praises perish from the lips and the countenance shows no health!
But even here Jesus has gone before! On the Cross even He cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Mat 27:46). That was the darkest hour of His days on earth.
Three times in very recent years, young women have come to me, whose God has been taken from them by the false philosophies of the present-day college-life and teaching, and with cheeks scalded with hot tears, have told how they lost Him, how their teachers had taken away their Lord, and they could no longer find Him; how even their very eyes had been blinded, not alone to His beauty, but also to His existence; and how heart-loneliness and soul-anguish had followed. One might imagine that with David there was sufficient mental and even physical resources to keep from despair, but it is doubtful if any or all the natural resources of life bring the least satisfaction to the soul that feels that God is gone. The consciousness of His presence and the certainty of His loving-kindness these and these alone can satisfy the soul. That is the true meaning of Davids cry for both.
The third suggestion is inevitablewhen one has consciously lost his God and has come into the consequent sense of loneliness, he seeks to no other than did David.
He cried for the Light!
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
For Thou art the God of my strength; why dost Thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
O send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles;
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God my God.
Why art Thou east down, O my soul? and why art Thou disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (Psa 43:1-5).
The significant sentence in this Psalm is this: O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles (Psa 42:3).
How strange; and yet, how natural! Men are always asking God to do what He has long since done. They are asking Him to show mercy. He has proffered it a thousand times, and it is always awaiting the man who will appropriate it. They are asking that He send out light as if He could withhold it, even! God is light! The difficulty with men is that they turn their backs on God and look into the darkness cast by their own shadows, and feel as if the light did not exist. It is a strange conclusion, but it is a natural product of human sin and human skepticism. No man ever got light by asking for it. The light is secured by turning to it.
I saw some years ago a statement that illustrates just what I mean. Dwight S. Bayley, writing in the Sunday School Times, said, It was just after sunset, and I was enjoying a short wheel ride before supper. The sun had sunk behind the mesa, whose outline drew its dark, rugged silhouette boldly against the red sky beyond. Presently I came to the railroad crossing, and there I dismounted to stand and watch the western glory. The rails stretched their parallel course east and west, and, as I looked toward the east, to see if any train were approaching, I saw the track soon disappear into the gloom of the approaching night. But turning again to the west, I saw the rails become two paths of shining light, penetrating, and, for the moment, making me forget the gathering dusk.
And as I stood there in the sweet silence of the closing day, I thought of One who is the Light of the world. How many, said I, find their path dark, and leading only into deeper gloom, because they are facing away from the light. And how many, thank God, forget the surrounding dusk, and tread a path that is clear and joyful, because they are walking toward the Light.
Gods light is shining constantly and as certainly for one as for another. Those who face toward it will be led by it. By it they will be brought unto Gods Holy hill and unto Gods tabernacle. By it they will go unto the altar of God with exceeding joy, and in consequence of it they will praise God with the harp and hope in Him who is the help of their countenance and their God.
But we pass to the future study,
THE DELIVERANCE NEEDED
Gods help is a matter of history!
We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
How Thou didst drive out the heathen with Thy hand, and plantedst them; how Thou didst afflict Thy people, and cast them out.
For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them.
Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
Through Thee will we push down our enemies: through Thy Name mil we tread them under that rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
But Thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
In God we boast all the day long, and praise Thy Name for ever. Selah (Psa 44:1-8).
The providential dealings of God are matters of history. He made records long before Edison devised his scheme of catching the voice and giving permanence to words. So important were His acts that men made note of them and not only rehearsed them, but wrote them down that the future might be refreshed by the reading; and perhaps the most dependable records that exist in the archives of man relate to Gods dealings with His people and with the world.
We live in a day when men are attempting to trace God in nature, or, if they deny His existence, to tell us what nature itself has accomplished. They talk of what took place trillions of years ago and what happened a few billions since, and what man was doing 500,000 summers gone. And then they have the effrontery to call that science, or even to speak of it as the history of the ages. They seem to forget that science is knowledge gained and verified, and they seem to ignore the fact that history is a systematic record of past events, especially the record of events in which man has taken part. What nonsense then to talk of the history of a trillion or a million or even of 20,000 years ago!
Scientists, at this present moment, are mad with speculations, and in order to add authority to their speech they name it science or history, when it is neither.
But we have history, and it honors God. It tells how He bared His arm in behalf of His people; how it was His Word rather than their sword that gave His people the promised land, and His arm, not their own strength that saved them, and His favor that prospered them. It was in a power Divine that they pushed down their enemies and trod under foot those who rose against them. In Him alone, had they any right to boast.
Stopford Brooke truthfully said, God dwells in the great movements of the world, in the great ideas which act in the human race. Find Him there in the great interests of man. Find Him by sharing in those interests, by helping all who are striving for truth, for education, for progress, for liberty all over the world.
The man who said, Gods in His Heavenalls well with the world, spoke a half truth, which is always a whole falsehood. God is in His Heaven ; but all is not well with the world! That is not Gods fault! He is constantly intervening in the affairs of men to make things right. He is constantly overthrowing heathenism in that interest. He is constantly favoring His people to that very end. God doesnt favor His people because He is partial; but He favors them because He is righteous. God doesnt favor His own because they are His own, and He has no interest in others. He saves His own because His own are worth saving and were willing, and He overwhelms their enemies because their enemies are evil.
The history of Divine providence is at once the most interesting and the most inspiring history ever written. We do well to study the relationship that God sustained to our fathers. We do well to make ourselves acquainted with how He wrought with them and how He fought for them. The man who would make God his King, and be content under that Divine administration, must needs know God, who He is and what He has done. In other words, history must be His teacher and the record of Divine providences the inspiration of His faith.
The charge of Gods withdrawal is unjust.
But Thou hast cast off and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
Thou sellest Thy people for nought, and dost not increase Thy wealth by their price.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face covered me,
For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
All this is come upon us, yet have we, not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant.
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way;
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we have forgotten the Name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Yea, for Thy sake are we kilted all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Awake, why steepest Thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression.
For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth,
Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies sake (Psa 44:9-26).
The Psalmist certainly has spiritual chills and fevers. One moment he is filled with praises to God and the next he is mouthing complaints.
Thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies,
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves,
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen,
Thou sellest Thy people for nought, and dost not increase Thy wealth by their price,
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us,
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people,
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger,
All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant,
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way;
Though Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we have forgotten the Name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart,
Yea, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter,
Awake, why steepest Thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever,
Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth,
Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies sake (Psa 44:9-26),
What biliousness! Strange what foolish speech can escape the lips of true believers and how unjustifiable complaints can characterize a Christian! It is always true perhaps that a man looking into the past, thinks God treated his fathers better than He is treating him. That is because he sees in history the very path by which his fathers were led, and marks the fact that it is a path which, however crooked, leads ever upward and ever onward toward the shining gates of the Celestial City. He doesnt see the bleeding feet that pressed that path. He cannot mark the edges of the sharp stones that cut deeply into the flesh. The distance is too great for him to make observation in minutiae! He cam not even tell how precipitous the difficulty hills were. He cannot even see any of the lions that stalked that path or the dangers that beset the journey! And so he concludes that God was good to his fathers, but that He is forgetting him.
It is a foolish reasoning! We sing quite often, at least in orthodox circles,
Faith of our fathers, living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword,
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Wheneer we hear that glorious word!
Faith of our fathers, holy faith,
We will be true to thee, till death.
But the sad part of it is that we sing it without experience of dungeon, without smell of fire, and without ever having felt the edge of the sword.
We render a second verse:
Our fathers chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free;
And blest would be their childrens fate,
If they, like them, should die for Thee:
Faith of our fathers, holy faith,
We will be true to thee till death.
But the probabilities are that if we had a little touch of dungeon, fire and sword, or any prospect whatever of martyrdom, we would make a louder complaint than the Psalmist here records. We would think that we were utterly forgotten, that God had turned His back upon us and flung us willingly into the hands of our enemies, to let us be eaten as sheeps meat, or sold for nothing according to the opponents pleasure. We would imagine that He had made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to men of the world, a byword among the heathen and that all this had come upon us in spite of our utter loyalty to Him, and our perfect keeping of every covenant made and our upright walk.
How ridiculous! What poor occasions we have for parading our faithfulness or even referring to the importunity of our prayers, or, for that matter, to the sacrifices we have made. We slip ourselves and imagine that God is slipping. We turn our backs upon Him and imagine that He has hid His face. We call upon Him to arise for our help when the truth is that He is up already and we are down!
It is difficult to be patient with people that not only complain of their fellows, but even reach the point where they complain of God; and seldom is there any instance of the sort divorced from personal unworthiness and self-blame.
Gods Son is the souls adequate solace!
My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the King: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee for ever.
Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most mighty, with Thy glory and Thy majesty.
And in Thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things.
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the Kings enemies; whereby the people fall under Thee.
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy Kingdom is a right sceptre.
Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.
All Thy garments smelt of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad.
Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women: upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy fathers house;
So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him.
And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour.
The kings daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto Thee.
With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the Kings palace.
Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom Thou mayest make princes in all the earth.
I will make Thy Name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise Thee for ever and ever (Psa 45:1-17).
Beyond all question, this is a picture of Jesus, the King, the One fairer than the children of men, into whose lips grace is poured; who wears the sword at His thigh and whose glory and majesty and might know no measure; whose truth, meekness and righteousness render majestic; the power of whose right hand is to be truly feared; the sharpness of whose arrows can lay the enemy low and whose throne is established; whose sceptre is a right sceptre; who loves righteousness, hates iniquity, and who is, therefore, the One that God hath anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. As if to put beyond question who this person is, the Psalmist says, All Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia; out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad (Psa 45:8).
When was there ever any life in this world that had the aroma of beauty and sweetness about it that Christs life had? Kings daughters were among Thy honourable women: upon Thy right hand did stand the queen of Ophir, plainly refers to the women redeemed by His Word and to the Church, His coming Bride, the Bride whose beauty the King Himself desired and in whose worship He delighted.
What a picture this also of the Churchs pleasure in her Lord!
The kings daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold.
She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto Thee.
With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the Kings palace.
Instead of Thy fathers shall be Thy children, whom Thou mayest make princes in all the earth.
I will make Thy Name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise Thee for ever and ever (Psa 45:13-17).
Join all the glorious names Of wisdom, love, and power,That ever mortals knew,Or angels ever bore:All are too mean to speak His worth,Too mean to set the Saviour forth.
Great Prophet of our God,Our tongues shall bless Thy Name;By Thee the joyful newsOf our salvation came,The joyful news of sins forgiven,Of hell subdued, and peace with Heaven.
Jesus, our great High Priest,Has shed His Blood and died;Our guilty conscience needsNo sacrifice besides:His precious Blood did once atone And now it pleads before the throne.
THE DELIVERER DISCOVERED
The forty-fifth chapter, then, discovers the Deliverer in Christ, the coming One, the all glorious One! That naturally leads to the exclamations of the forty-sixth chapter.
Faith finds herself a voice.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the City of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.
The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire.
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah (Psa 46:1-11).
It is a great utterance. It is a rebound from the black unbelief of chapter forty-four. A man is never quite so happy, never quite so joyful, as when he comes out of the storm into calm, out of the black night into a bright morning, out of poverty and weakness into riches and strength, out of feelings of insufficiency into a consciousness of Gods sufficiency.
It is a triumphant utterance:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof (Psa 46:1-3).
Is it possible that this is the same man who wrote but yesterday
Thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies;
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy; and they which hate us spoil for themselves;
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen;
Thou sellest Thy people for nought, and dost not increase Thy wealth by their price;
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a, derision to them that are round about us;
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen (Psa 44:9-14)?
Yes, the very same man! What is the difference? This: yesterday the Psalmist had his eyes upon himself; he reflected upon his weakness, his failure, his confusion, his shame! Today, he has his eyes upon God. The night is gone, the sun has risen. The flood is over, and in its stead there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the City of God. * * God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early; the heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted; the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge (Psa 46:4-7). Oh, what a change! The God of refuge is with us.
God is the refuge of His saints,
When storms of sharp distress invade;
Ere we can offer our complaints,
Behold Him present with His aid.
Loud may the troubled ocean roar;
In sacred peace our souls abide,
While every nation, every shore,
Trembles and dreads the swelling tide.
There is a stream, whose gentle flow
Supplies the City of our God,
Life, love, and joy still gliding through,
And watering our Divine abode.
That sacred stream, thy holy word,
Our grief allays, our fear controls;
Sweet peace thy promises afford,
And give new strength to fainting souls.
Praise discovers fit expression.
O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph;
For the Lord Most High is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth;
He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved. Selah.
God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet
Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises unto, our King, sing praises.
For God is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding.
God reigneth over the heathen; God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness.
The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham; for the shields of the earth belong unto God; He is greatly exalted.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the City of our God, in the mountain of His holiness;
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God; God will establish it for ever. Selah.
We have thought of Thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of Thy Temple.
According to Thy Name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth; Thy right hand is full of righteousness.
Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Thy judgments.
Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof.
Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our Guide even unto death (Psa 47:1 to Psa 48:14).
Was there ever a more blissful burst of true belief? This is an instance in which the Psalmist starts a solo, but his singing becomes a contagion; it swells not to a duet or quartette, but into a mighty chorus. He directs; O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph (Psa 47:1); and he gives the reason, He is a great King over all the earth; He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet; He shall choose our inheritance for us? (Psa 47:2-4); and as if to bring the last tongue to praises, he calls to all that have breath, Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises unto our King; sing praises (Psa 47:6).
O worship the King, all glorious above,
And gratefully sing His wonderful love,
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light,
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
God and God alone is adequate.
Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world;
Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my keels shall compass me about?
They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him;
(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever;)
That He should still live forever, and not see corruption.
For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names; nevertheless man being in honour abideth not; he is like the beasts that Perish.
This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me. Selah.
Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him.
Though while he lived he blessed his soul; and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from; the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice; and the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is judge Himself. Selah.
Hear, O My people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against Thee; I am God, even thy God.
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before Me.
I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds;
For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell Thee; for the World is mine, and the fulness thereof.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High;
And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.
But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth?
Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee.
When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.
Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.
Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mothers son.
These things hast Thou done, and I kept silence; Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as Thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight; that Thou oughtest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and 1 shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the hones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners Shall be converted unto Thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness.
O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.
For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt-offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering; then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar (Psa 49:1 to Psa 51:19).
Here we come to the conclusion of the matter, so far, at least, as certain experiences are concerned; and that conclusion is that God, and God alone, is adequate. He would have all the people hear it, men of both high and low degree, rich and poor. The perverse, the boastful, the corrupt, the brutish, he would have them see that their way is folly, that death awaits them and Sheol will consume; but God will redeem his soul and receive him into glory. He would have men realize that even death shall strip them of both wealth and honour, they will perish as the beasts do, but the mighty one will remain. The Jehovah who called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, whose perfection of beauty doth shine, and whose speech is above the storm, and to him the heavens themselves will respond and the very earth tremble will gather His saints to Himself and show His covenant by His sacrifice, while the heavens declare His righteousness; and then, as if God Himself was at hand to speak, the Psalmist steps aside and gives audience to the voice Divine,
O Israel, * * I am Thy God, even Thy God.
I do not reprove them of these sacrifices nor the multiplication of burnt offerings;
I will not take a bullock out of thy house, nor a he goat from thy folds, since I have no need;
Every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills;
I know all the birds of the hills and that which moveth in the fields.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is Mine and the fullness.
I am no eater of bulls flesh, nor drinker of goats blood.
I am God; sacrifice to Me thanksgiving and pay to Me thy vows and call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me (Psa 50:7-15).
Then, after having shown his attitude toward the wicked, and the wickeds attitude toward Him, and after having warned these God-forgetters, of the day of judgment when none shall deliver, he concludes, He that offereth praise, glorifieth Me; and he that altereth his way, will I show the salvation of God (Psa 50:23)
I have sought to bring you this morning the three major thoughts to be found in these ten chapters. Beyond all question they are the Recognition of Ruin by Sin, the Conscious Need of a Deliverer, and the Joyful Discovery of God. I confess frankly, very frankly, that I have had other objectives than merely to interpret these Psalms. I believe that knowledge of Scripture always fruits in increased faith and further, in effective service. I am anxious that you should know God, that you should know Him as one who can redeem us from the ruin of sin, that you should know Him as one who can meet all the demands of the heart life, that you should know Him as one who proved His power and love to your predecessors, that you should know Him as one who is the source of strength against adversaries and for all conceivable service.
There are tasks ahead, great undertakings, as important and prophetic as enormous; and I want you to enter upon them, upon those that are immediately ahead of us for this week and for those that are planned for the two weeks following, believing God and trusting Him for all needed strength.
We are told that when Napoleon was leading his soldiers over the Alps, the cold and fatigue of the journey caused many of them to falter. Some were about to turn back. Napoleon ordered the band to play, and the spirits of some of the men revived, but not all. Then he told them to play music that would remind them of the home-land and more of them revived. Then at his word, the buglers sounded the bugle call. The men sprang to arms, and new life surged into the brains of every breathing body, for they knew not where the enemy might be.
Activity is the best and surest cure for faltering souls. My candid conviction is this, that the effort of this church will be glorious in proportion as we actively undertake big things and bring them to pass; and why not? when Jehovah is our God.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.To the Chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. See introduction to Psalms 42.
We have no means of determining who was the author of the psalm. Nor are we able to ascertain with certainty upon what occasion it was composed. The various speculations and conjectures on the subject are not amongst the most satisfactory things with which we are acquainted. Looking at the psalm from the homiletic standpoint, we have: a well-founded assurance (Psa. 44:1-8); a painful experience (Psa. 44:9-16); and an earnest appeal and prayer (Psa. 44:17-26).
A WELL-FOUNDED ASSURANCE
(Psa. 44:1-8.)
In the consideration of the Psalmists confidence in God, founded upon His former doings on behalf of His chosen people, many points will arise which, without any forced interpretation, will illustrate His work for and in the soul of the Christian believer, and which are fitted to encourage our confidence in Him. We have here
I. A commemoration of Gods former and glorious doings.
1. The nature of these doings. Thou didst drive out the heathen with Thy hand, and plantedst them; Thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. The Psalmist here sets forth
(1) The expulsion of the Canaanites and the establishment of the Israelites in their land. By the Divine power the original inhabitants of Canaan were driven from that country, and the chosen people planted therein. The figure of planting a nation or a people is frequent in both literature and conversation. We meet with it in Exo. 15:17 and Psa. 80:8. The figure-suggests the ideas of life, growth, and fruitfulness. It is with a view to these that we plant trees.
(2) The affliction of the Canaanites, and the growth of the Israelites. Thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. Upon the heathens the Lord brought calamities, while He blessed His own people with increase in the land. The words cast them out, or spread them abroad, refer not to the Canaanites, but to the Israelites. God had extended them like the branches of a tree. We meet with the same idea in Psa. 80:11. It sent out its boughs to the sea, and its branches to the river. Barnes says that the parallelism here clearly demands this interpretation. This view is adopted by Alexander, Hengstenberg, Luther, De Wette, Tholuck, et al. Now, whether we view this work in relation to the nation expelled or to the nation planted and increased, it is a great work; and illustrates His work in us. It is He that casts out our spiritual foes, our inbred sins; that plants us in the kingdom of His grace; and that enables us to grow in grace. The beginning and the progress of spiritual life are with Him:
2. The Author of these doings. Work Thou didst, &c.
(1) Negatively. They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them. It was by neither their might nor their courage that they dispossessed the Canaanites and took their land.
(2) Positively. But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance. He favoured them and fought for them, or they would have fought in vain. How true is this in spiritual life! The foes of our soul-life laugh to scorn our unaided efforts to conquer them. God alone has the power to quicken us into spiritual life, enable us to grow, and vanquish our foes.
3. The reason of these doings. Because Thou hadst a favour unto them. The Israelites did not merit the glorious doings of God on their behalf. We discover little merit in them, but much demerit. They owed all to Gods free and sovereign favour. Not for thy righteousness, said Moses, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. Gods work in us, for our salvation, is entirely due to His own free, unmerited, sovereign favour. By grace are ye saved.
4. The obligation of every generation to transmit to posterity an account of the doings of God in their day. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, &c. Generation after generation had been thrilled with the narration of Gods glorious deeds of former times. Those that went before us told us what God did in their days, we are bound to tell those that come after us what He has done in our days, and let them do the like justice to those that shall succeed them; thus shall one generation praise His works to another, the fathers to the children shall make known His truth.
5. The obligation of every generation to profit by the experiences of those who have gone before. We are the heirs of all the ages, and ought to be wiser, braver, holier than those who have gone before us. History is charged with
(1) Admonition as to the evil of sin, &c.
(2) Encouragement to trust in God, to serve humanity for Him, &c. Are we heeding its teachings?
II. A declaration of confidence in God. (Psa. 44:4-8). This confidence is set forth, and is worthy of imitation in several respects.
1. In the ground on which their faith rested. It rests on what He had done for their fathers and for them in former times. Out of what He has done, their faith in what He will do grows. There is implied here belief in His unchangeableness and faithfulness. He had fulfilled His promises to their fathers; will He not fulfil them to them also? He had done glorious things for their fathers; will He not do glorious things for them also? Is He not The Immutable? Gods past doings in and for us should encourage us to put strong confidence in Him. We are confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
2. In the relationship which He sustained to them. Thou art my King, O God. They had taken God for their sovereign Lord, had sworn allegiance to Him, and put themselves under His protection. He who as the King of their fathers did put forth His power and glory on their behalf, is appealed to by the Psalmist and people as their King in expectation of protection and victory for them. As Hengstenberg puts it, As certainly as God is the King of Israelthis His past deeds plainly testifyso certainly must these deeds again revive, must He also at the present time dispense salvation to His people. If God is our King, we may look for protection from Him.
3. In the petition which they present to Him. Command deliverances for Jacob. Notice here
(1) The extent of their desires. Deliverances. Not one; but as many as are needed for their complete salvation.
(2) The greatness of their faith. Command. Michaelis says: Because he had named God his King, he makes use of a word which points to kingly authority and irresistible power. He has but to command it, and their salvation shall be accomplished. He speaks, and it is done. We are reminded of the centurion and our Lord. Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Let us honour God by a like faith in His power to save.
4. In the renunciation of other objects of trust. I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. In Psa. 44:3 the Psalmist declares that it was not their power or weapons that had saved them, but God alone, and in this verse he announces their abandonment of all confidence except that which is fixed in God. In the spiritual life our faith must be fixed in Christ alone for all things, for pardon, power, purity, victory, glory. From first to last we have no Saviour but Jesus, and He is all-sufficient.
5. In their assurance of victory. Through Thee will we push down our enemies; through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. Thou savest us from our enemies, and dost put to shame them that hate us. The idea of the 5th verse is that of a conqueror with his foes completely vanquished, and prostrated and powerless before him. And the 7th verse should be translated and interpreted not in reference to their past but present foes; not to what God had done for them, but what He would do for them. They were confident of complete victory through Him. In the Christian life and conflict we may confidently anticipate victory through our Lord. The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
6. In their praise of God. In God we boast all the day long, and praise Thy name for ever. Boast is not a good rendering. Praise would express the meaning. Or as Hengstenberg translates: God we extol continually, and Thy name we praise for ever. They extolled Him as their God, their King, in whom they confidently trusted for salvation. They resolve to praise Him,
(1) Continually. All the day long.
(2) Perpetually. For ever.
CONCLUSION. Surely this well-founded assurance in God, rising out of the recollection and celebration of His glorious doings for His people in former days, and exercised in the midst of such dark and distressing circumstances, is a thing to be emulated by us. Let every Christian believer seek to tread the path of life, perform its duties, bear its trials, and fight its battles, singing,
This God is the God we adore,
Our faithful, unchangeable Friend;
Whose love is as great as His power,
And knows neither measure nor end.
Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;
Well praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all thats to come.
Hart.
A PAINFUL EXPERIENCE
(Psa. 44:9-16.)
We here come at once upon a complete change of sentiment. In this and the preceding section of the psalm we have a double contrast. Here is a contrast between the exultant confidence in God expressed by the poet as the mouthpiece of the people in the former section and the sorrowful complaint of their miseries in this section. Here also is a contrast between what God had done for them and for their fathers in time past and what He was doing for them now. Consider,
I. The miseries of which they complain. Of these there are several
1. Their rejection by God. But Thou hast cast off, and put us to shame, and goest not forth with our armies. The word translated cast off means rejected, forsaken. We are not to suppose that the Psalmist believed that God had utterly abandoned them. With the previous section of the psalm in our mind such a supposition is impossible. But judging from their outward and visible circumstances they seemed forsaken by God. The usual tokens of His favour and presence with them were altogether wanting. One of these tokens is here mentioned, Thou goest not forth with our armies. In former times they went forth to war confident of His presence with them, and returned victorious. Now they go forth not realising His presence, and return defeated and put to shame. (We will not attempt to decide what battles and other events in Jewish history are here referred to. Such attempts as have been made in this direction are of little worth.)
2. Their defeat in battle and its consequent evils. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy. They had no courage. They did not fight like brave men. They acted as mere mercenaries of war and cowards. O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? Defeat was followed by
(1) Slaughter. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat. Hengstenberg: Like sheep for slaughter. Margin: As sheep of meat. M. Henry: They make no more scruple of killing an Israelite than of killing a sheep; nay, like the butcher, they make a trade of it, they take a pleasure in it as a hungry man in his meat.
(2) Spoiling. They which hate us spoil us for themselves. The enemies had plundered according to their hearts desire, and without any effective restraint.
(3) Captivity or Slavery. Thou hast scattered us among the heathen. Thon sellest Thy people for nought, and dost not increase Thy wealth by their price. We do not affirm that the people had been literally taken captive into other lands, or sold into slavery. But some of the results of their defeat in battle had been such that they may fitly be so described. On Psa. 44:12 Hengstenberg saysThe sense is: Thou hast given Thy people into the power of their enemies without trouble, without causing the victory even to be dearly bought, as one who parts with a good for any price, which he despises and hates, desiring merely to get rid of it; so that there is an abbreviated comparison. Parallel is Jer. 15:13, thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price.
3. The reproaches of their enemies. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, &c., Psa. 44:13-14. According to Psa. 44:13, the surrounding nations treated them with contempt, as a people forsaken by God, and powerless to defend themselves against their foes. , here translated byword, properly signifies a similitude. So Hengstenberg translates it here, and explains it thus: The misery of Israel is so great, that people would figuratively call a miserable man a Jew, just as liars were called Cretans, wretched slaves, Sardians. So far are the people from being now the blessed of the Lord, in whom, according to the promise, all the heathen are to be blessed. The shaking of the head means that their enemies shook their heads at them in scorn and derision.
4. Their own shame. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me, &c., Psa. 44:15-16. Notice here
(1) The reason of this shame. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger. The people were slandered, God was blasphemed, and their enemies were about to wreak their vengeance upon them; therefore were they ashamed.
(2) The greatness of this shame. The shame of my face hath covered me. The shaming is ascribed to the countenance, because it always betrays itself, especially there. So great was the shame of the Psalmist, who speaks in the name of the people, that he represents himself as covered with blushes.
(3) The incessancy of this shame. My confusion is continually before me. There was no intermission from the sense of disgrace which they felt. Such are the deep miseries of which they complain to God.
II. The author of their miseries. Thou hast cast me off, &c. Six times in as many verses they attribute all their suffering and shame to God. He has done it all. Now a statement of this kind needs to be weighed, and its exact meaning ascertained before it is accepted. We know that He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. His great aim is to promote the well-being of His creatures. To this end all His plans and workings tend. That He should forsake His people who trust in Him is inconceivable, impossible. How, then, can He be said to be the Author of their miseries? In this way we understand it: the meritorious cause must have been in the people. God never forsakes His people unless they first forsake Him. There must have been some important defection on their part in their relation to God ere He would have allowed these miseries to come upon them. This being the case we can understand how the inflicting of the calamities was of the Lord. Their enemies were but the instruments by which their troubles were effected; and they could have had no power against them unless, at the least, it had been permitted them from above. And that power would not have been permitted them had there not been some defection on the part of the chosen people in their relation to God. This, then, we take to be the meaning of the Psalmist,Thou hast done it by withdrawing the light of Thy presence and the shield of Thy protection.
III. The instruction which their miseries are fitted to afford. Three lessons, at least, stand out prominently here to which we shall do well to give heed.
1. That God, in perfect consistency with His faithfulness and love to His people, may under certain circumstances withdraw from them the signs of His presence and favour, and for a time apparently abandon them to their enemies. He may do so
(1) As a chastisement for their sins. It his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments, if they break My statutes, and keep not My commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
(2) For the perfecting and showing forth of their character. The case of Job is an example of this.
2. That when the professed people of God lose the signs of His presence and favour, they are held in contempt by the world. Of this the Psalmist complains. When Samson had proved unfaithful, and forfeited the Divine favour, he became an object of scoffing and ridicule to those who had formerly trembled at the mere mention of his name. If the salt have lost his savour, it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Here is solemn warning for us.
3. That the people of God when bereft of His presence and help, and suffering at the hand of their enemies, do well to carry their complaints to God Himself.
(1) Because the effort to draw near to Him is good and helpful. It relieves the troubled heart, lessens the conscious distance between Him and their soul, &c.
(2) Because He only is able to restore the strength and joy which they have lost. Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.
AN EARNEST APPEAL AND PRAYER
(Psa. 44:17-26.)
I. An earnest appeal. Psa. 44:17-22.
This appeal of the people to God is based on the ground that they had not apostatised from Him. In it there are several prominent points. They assert that they have
1. Not broken His covenant. We have not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant. By this we understand the Psalmist to mean, that there had been in the history of the people no marked forgetfulness of God, nor had there been any conspicuous or prevalent departure from the covenant which He made with their fathers.
2. Not lapsed into idolatry. They assert that they have not forgotten the name of their God, or stretched out their hands to a strange God. The stretching out of the hands is significant of worship or prayer. The force of this verse is, that they have not apostatised either by worshipping a strange god, or forgetting the God of their fathers.
3. Not backslidden from God either in heart or in life. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way. They had not departed from Him in their heart. They were still loyal to Him in their affections. And in their goings they followed the path which He had prescribed for them.
4. They appeal to the Omniscience of God in proof of this. Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart. The this denotes the apostacy of which they had protested that they were not guilty. The force of the verse is, that if as a nation there had been any considerable departure from God, if in their hearts they had apostatised from Him unto idols, He would have known it, for He knoweth all things, even the secrets of the heart. Thus the verse is a very solemn declaration that they had not forsaken God.
5. As additional proof that their miseries had not come upon them because of their departure from God, the Psalmist says that they were suffering severely and constantly because of their attachment to Him. For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. The most conclusive proof that they have not fallen away from God is, that they are persecuted for the very sake of God. That which perplexed the Psalmist was, that they should suffer so severely although there had not been any prevalent departure from God. Can we reconcile this protestation of their faithfulness with their miseries? Our statement on the author of their miseries in the preceding homily appears irreconcileable with the statements made by the poet in this appeal. Can we explain this? and how? Matthew Henry says: Though we cannot deny but that we have dealt foolishly, yet we have not dealt falsely in Thy covenant, so as to cast Thee off and take to other gods. Tholuck accuses the Psalmist of a superficial view of sin (comp. on the other hand the impressive reference to the heart, Psa. 44:18-21), whereby he was led to charge God with breach of fidelity, instead of seeking the blame in the Church. The following remarks, it is hoped, will remove the difficulty:
(1) When the Church here maintains that she had not broken Gods covenant, this manifestly refers only to fidelity in the main, as to the chief matter, and manifold smaller infidelities and weaknesses are not thereby excluded. These smaller deviations justify the chastisements of God, faithfulness in the main excludes a total rejection.
(2) When the Church regards the suffering that had come upon her as an anomaly, she does so only in so far as this appears to carry the aspect of continuance,comp. the words: Cast us not off for ever, in Psa. 44:23. The whole of the last strophe shows, that the temptation will be at an end the moment God has, in point of fact, removed this appearance. But this would not have been the case if the suffering had formed in itself a stone of stumbling for the Church.
(3) It is not to be overlooked, that we have here before us a didactic psalm. What is declared in the form of history, forms at the same time indirectly an impressive admonition.
(4) We must not expect that every psalm shall fully exhibit all particular points of truth, and so render all misapprehension impossible. They rather, on the contrary, require somewhat to be supplied.Hengstenberg.
II. An Earnest Prayer (Psa. 44:23-26). We have here
1. Believing expostulations. Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Why seems to imply the impossibility of any reason being assigned for His sleep, and the assurance that He will speedily awake. Faith, says David Dickson, doth not allow nor subscribe unto carnal sense, but in presenting the objections thereof unto God, really refuteth them, by avowing that such misregarding of His own cause and servants, as sense and temptation vented, is inconsistent with His nature, covenant, promises, and practices towards His people; for, why sleepest Thou, is as much as, it is not possible that Thou sleepest; and why here is not a word of quarreling, but a word of denying, that any reason can be given for such a thought, as God sleepeth. Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and forgettest our affliction and oppression? Sense says, God is asleep and hath cast off His people for ever. Faith replies, If so, why is it so? Sense says, God hath forgotten the affliction of His people. Faith replies with a persistent Wherefore?
2. Urgent entreaties. Awake, arise, cast us not off for ever. Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies sake. This is a prayer that God, who had seemed to take no interest in them, would speedily evince an interest in them and arise and save them. In Psa. 44:12 they had complained that God had sold them; in Psa. 44:26 they entreat Him to redeem them. If He sell us, it is not any one else that can redeem us.
3. Effective pleas.
(1) Their misery. For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth. The expression of the former clause denotes great grief and fear, and the figure of the latter clause extreme prostration and affliction and inability to assist themselves.
(2) Gods mercy. Redeem us for Thy mercies sake, i.e., in maintenance and illustration of His character as a God of mercy. Or, as the word is plural, mercies, may it not mean for the sake of the long line of mercies He had bestowed upon them and their fathers? Let not the long series of Thy mercies to Thy people fail, and let them not perish by reason thereof. In any case, it is an appeal to God on the ground of His unmerited grace to save His afflicted people.
CONCLUSION.There are here some practical points of great importance, which we shall do well to ponder in their relation to our own life.
1. The completeness of the Divine scrutiny of human life. There is no province of our life which escapes His examination. There is no flaw or sin, however cleverly disguised, that will escape detection when He searches us (Psa. 44:21).
2. The great support afforded by a clear conscience in the time of affliction. It was no small thing for the people that in this the day of their distress they were able to appeal to God as they did (Psa. 44:17-22). In his unparalleled afflictions, Job received immeasurable support and comfort from the possession of a conscience void of offence toward God and men (Job. 13:15). And Shakespeare represents Wolsey as thus sustained in the depth of his misfortunes, and as saying of himself that he was
Never so truly happy.
I know myself now; and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
3. A grand inspiration and consolation in the difficulties and disappointments of Christian life and work. For Thy sake. What is there that we cannot dare, or do, or suffer for the sake of our Lord, when we love Him supremely?
4. In the whole of this section of the Psalm we have a splendid example of Faith fighting. Here it is attacking doubt, repudiating the conclusions of sense, scrutinising life and conduct, expostulating and pleading with God. Such faith must come out of conflict victorious. Such faith may be ours Let us seek it.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 44
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Israel Suffers for God.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 44:1-8, The Psalmist, Encouraging himself by Jehovahs Past Favour in Giving Israel their Land, Emboldens himself to Expect Further Victories. Stanza II., Psa. 44:9-16, Sudden Reverses Confound Israel, and cause the Psalmist to feel the Deepest Shame. Stanza III., Psa. 44:17-22, Expostulation based on Israels Fidelity. Stanza IV., Psa. 44:23-24, and V., vers., 25, 26, Impassioned and Plaintive Appeals for Divine Interposition.Psalm probably written by David on a defeat of Israel by Edom (inferred from a comparison of 2Sa. 8:13 with 1Ki. 11:15, and the inscription to Psalms 60), and Adapted to a Later Occasion by Hezekiah.
(Lm.) An Instructive Psalm.
1
O God! with our own ears have we heard
our fathers have told us,
the work thou didst work in their days
the days of aforetime:
2
Thou thyself with thine own hand didst dispossess nations and plant them,
didst afflict peoples
and spread them out.
3
For not by their own sword possessed they the land,
nor did their own arm win victory for them;
But thine own right hand and thine own arm,
and the light of thy face, in that thou didst take pleasure in them.
4
Thou thyself art my king, my God,
the commander[474] of the victories[475] of Jacob.
[474] So Sep., Syr., Br. and others.
[475] Or: great salvation (pl. intensive).
5
By thee at our adversaries will we thrust,
in thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6
For not in mine own bow will I trust,
nor can mine own sword give me victory.
7
For thou hast saved us from our adversaries,
and them who hate us hast thou put to shame,
8
In God have we boasted all the day,
and unto thy name unto the ages will we give thanks,
9
But nay! thou hast rejected and confounded us,
and art not going forth with our hosts;
10
Thou turnest us back from the adversary,
and they who hate us have plundered at will:
11
Thou dost give us up like sheep to be devoured,
and amongst the nations hast thou scattered us:
12
Thou dost sell thy people for no-value,
and hast not made increase by their price:
13
Thou dost make us a reproach unto our neighbours,
a mockery and derision to them who are round about us:
14
Thou dost make us a by-word among the nations,
a shaking of the head among the peoples.
15
All the day is mine ignomy before me,
and the shame of my face hath covered me:
16
At the voice of him who reproacheth and revileth,
At the face of the foe and avenger.[476]
[476] Cp. Psa. 8:2.
17
All this hath come upon us yet had we not forgotten thee,
neither had we dealt falsely with thy covenant:
18
Our heart had not turned away backward,
neither had our steps declined from thy path:
19
That thou shouldst have crushed us down in the place of jackals,
and covered us over with deep darkness.
20
If we had forgotten the name of our God,
and had spread forth our palms to the GOD of a foreigner
21
Would not God have searched into this,
since he knoweth the secrets of the heart?
22
Surely for thy sake have we been slain all the day,
we have been accounted as sheep for slaughter.
23
Oh arouse thyself!wherefore shouldst thou sleep Sovereign Lord?[477]
[477] Some cod. (w. 2 ear, pr. edns): JehovahGn.
oh awake! do not reject altogether.
24
Wherefore thy face shouldst thou hide?
shouldst forget our humiliation and our oppression?
25
For our soul hath sunk down to the dust,
our body[478] hath cleaved to the earth.
[478] Ml.: belly. Heb. betan. Cp. Psa. 31:9.
26
Oh arise as succour for us,
and ransom us for thy kindness sake.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
(CMm.) For lilies = Passover. For the sons of korah= patriarchs of song.
Cp. Intro., Chap. II., 3.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 44
O God, we have heard of the glorious miracles You did in the days of long ago. Our forefathers have told us how You drove the heathen nations from this land and gave it all to us, spreading Israel from one end of the country to the other.
3
They did not conquer by their own strength and skill; but by Your mighty power and because You smiled upon them and favored them.
4
You are my King and my God. Decree victories for Your people!
5
For it is only by Your power and through Your name that we tread down our enemies;
6
I do not trust my weapons! They could never save me.
7
Only You can give us the victory over those who hate us.
8
My constant boast is God. I can never thank You enough!
9
And yet for a time, O Lord, You have tossed us aside in dishonor, and have not helped us in our battles.
10
You have actually fought against us and defeated us before our foes. Our enemies have invaded our land and pillaged the countryside.
11
You have treated us like sheep in a slaughter pen, and scattered us among the nations.
12
You sold us for a pittance. You valued us at nothing at all.
13
The neighboring nations laugh and mock at us because of all the evil You have sent.
14
You have made the word Jew a byword of contempt and shame among the nations, disliked by all.
15, 16 I am constantly despised, mocked, taunted and cursed by my vengeful enemies.
17
And all this has happened, Lord, despite our loyalty to You, We have not violated Your covenant.
18
Our hearts have not deserted You! We have not left Your path by a single step.
19
If we had, we could understand Your punishing us in the barren wilderness and sending us into darkness and death.
20
If we had turned away from worshiping our God, and were worshiping idols,
21
Would God not know it? Yes, He knows the secrets of every heart.
22
But that is not our case! For we are facing death threats constantly because of serving You! We are like sheep awaiting slaughter.
23
Waken! Rouse Yourself! Dont sleep, O Lord! Are we cast off forever?
24
Why do You look the other way? Why do You ignore our sorrows and oppression?
25
We lie face downward in the dust.
26
Rise up, O Lord, and come and help us. Save us by Your constant love.
EXPOSITION
It is quite possible that, in the course of adaptation and transmission, this valuable psalm has suffered some disturbances of its outward form as regards both metre and stanza. It is doubtful, however, whether successful attempts can now be made to restore the original symmetry which may well have existed. For example, it is not unlikely that the psalm was a trimeter throughout, including the opening lines, which now appear as pentameters. But it would not only take a bold hand to reduce the lines to a severer metre, but that bold hand might strike off accretions which are equally authentic with the original verse, as may appear when once the principle of joint-authorship is admitted. If Hezekiahs harp could adapt itself to those grand pentameters which open the psalm as we now have itand, we may add, which appear to have offered themselves to the ancient Greek translatorswho are we, and what know we of any rigidity in harping exigencies, that we should deliberately lop off syllables which, at all events, are very ancient. Similar caution must stay our hand from undue meddling with the stanzas. They are slightly irregular, as it is, undoubtedly; but we may justly refuse to mutilate the psalm, especially when the very lines we should sacrifice might prove of the highest value in bringing the historical occasion of its production into clear perspective.
That this psalm was written by David, notwithstanding the absence of his name from the inscription, at once becomes in the highest degree probable by merely comparing it with Psalms 60, which bears witness to the occasion which gave it birth. Then, when we ponder the weighty fact that, when this psalm was written, Israel was free from the taint of idolatry; and come to realize, for that reason, our choice lies between a very early and a very late datethe time of David, on the one hand, and the time of the Maccabees, on the other; we shall perhaps find, at every step, how reasons multiply for preferring the early date. The very changes which literary criticism plausibly suggests, and the adaptations to after occasions which historical criticism more strongly claims, all required time before they originally appeared. Public texts are not modified in a day: especially where copies are few, and for the most part are jealously preserved in royal libraries. So that, if we assume that changes had already been made in the days when the Septuagint was executed, it is but reasonable to allow those changes ample time in which to appearwhich requires us rather to push back authorship than to draw it forward. Besides all which the more the Davidic authorship of this psalm is candidly examined, the more does it commend itself.
Let us now recall the undoubted fact, that the work of Joshua was left for David to complete. What more natural, then, than that David should strengthen himself in God for the arduous work that remained, by steeping his spirit in remembrances of the work Divinely done now so long ago? Those brave ancestors drew the sword, indeed; but it was their God who gave them the victory: Not by their own sword possessed they the land; but thine own right handthine own armthe light of thy facethese were the sources of strength by which Joshua and his men had gone on from victory to victory. And David realises that it still is so:
Thou thyself art my King my God,
The commander of the victories of Jacob.
It is David all over:the intense personal faiththe fellowship with his brethren: in swift alternation, first the man, then his people, then himself again: our adversaries, our assailants; mine own bow, mine own sword. The stripling who before Goliath strengthened himself in his God, and boasted of him, do so still.
In God have we boasted all the day.
And unto thy name unto the ages will we give thanks.
Then comes the sudden reverse, the astounding fact of disaster: in the portrayal of which some otherwise excellent critics have failed to see David. In particular, they think that the language of the second stanza indicates something more than temporary defeat. Thus Perowne says: The language of the psalm is altogether too large to be applied to a sudden attack. It describes a more serious and lasting calamity. But it is respectfully submitted that this estimate of the poets language results from some failure to apprehend the psychological elements in the situation. David was nothing if not intense. He believed his mission to be Divine. If his God failed him, no general could save him. If Jehovah failed him once, he might fail him again: if he continued to fail him, all would be lost. The present reverse was evidently most serious: Davids men had been slain and captured and sold as slaves. The small surrounding nations were on the watch, ready to join in the fray as soon as they deemed it safe. The larger nations at a distance were being kept well-informed and ready to point the finger of contempt at valiant little Israel. Then see how the profoundly moved monarch took it all home to himself:
All the day is mine ignominy before me,
The shame of my face hath covered me;
At the voice of him who reproacheth and revileth,
At the face of the foe and avenger:
using the very language of the 8th psalm. Moreover, the 19th verse, graphic as it is, describes rather one terrible defeat than a long series of reverses. One can see the individual battle-field, whereupon the defeat happened: the carcasses of Davids men Consumed by jackals: calamitous enough to Davidwho was only used to victory, and only expectant of itto make him feel how deep was the darkness which for the moment covered Israel: for the moment! yes, but that moment was equal to days of mortal agony. Intensifying the agony and turning it into temporary despair, was the mystery of it: there had been no unfaithfulness on the national covenantno drawing back to idolatry.
And so was learned the lesson, to be learned again and again through the ages, that Israel may be called upon to suffer even where Israel has not sinned. It is comparatively a new lesson, leading up to a higher level than that hitherto frequented by mortal feet; but it is a lesson which Gods saints are to be privileged to learn; and, therefore, so beloved a man as David must have his share. By-and-by, one of his descendants will be called upon to drink more deeply of the cup of undeservedand therefore Divinesuffering; and, finding this psalm in the royal library, will be able to appreciate its teaching, and will be moved to add to it a few words growing out of an experience of which David has had little or no share: words pointing to the peculiar combination of sorrows due to the fact that when the soul hath sunk down to the dust under the weight of public calamity, the body also hath cleaved to the earth under a loathsome though only temporary and comparatively undeserved disease; imparting an additional pathos to the plea that God would arise to succor and ransom by a new display of his well-known kindness. On the whole, we may deem this to have formed a grand passover psalm, in the musical execution of which the patriarchs of song could most appropriately take a conspicuous share.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Consider this outline of the psalm: (1) Praise for past deliverance. Psa. 44:1-3; (2) Hope for the future deliverance. Psa. 44:4-8; (3) Disappointment at present defeat. Psa. 44:9-16; (4) Innocence claimed of guilt for present trouble, Psa. 44:17-22; (5) Prayer for help. Psa. 44:23-26. (As adapted from G. Scroggie)
Does this outline have any similarity to our experience? Who hasnt followed this same pattern? Discuss.
2.
Supposing this did happen to DavidWhen and where? Discuss. Read Psalms 60 for a suggestion.
3.
Why would anyone feel this psalm was written in the Maccabean period? Read verses thirteen and fourteen for a suggestion. Discuss.
4.
Read Psa. 44:22 through Psa. 44:26, and discuss the two-fold application.
5.
Read Psa. 44:10-14, and notice the use of the term thou. What circumstances are attributed to God?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) We have heard.The glorious traditions of ancient deliverances wrought by Jehovah for His people were a sacred heritage of every Hebrew. (See Exo. 10:2; Exo. 12:26, seq.; Deu. 6:20, etc.) This, and all the historical psalms, show how closely interwoven for the Jew were patriotism and religion.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Our fathers have told us This is not a reference to oral tradition, but an allusion to Exo 10:2; Exo 12:26; Exo 13:8; Exo 13:14; Deu 6:20-23; where God commands the fathers to teach the meaning of the written law, and the history of their settlement in Canaan, to their children. They had been taught in childhood, by the command of God, that the Hebrew title to the land was of divine authority. This is here appealed to as the basis of the plea and prayer against dispossession, which the heathen now threatened.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A Description Of What God Has Done For His People In The Past ( Psa 44:1-3 ).
The Psalmist first calls to mind how it was God Who gave His people victory when they initially took possession of the land of Canaan.
Psa 44:1
‘We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us,
What work you did in their days,
In the days of old.
The people (‘we’) call to God and describe what they have learned from their fathers in the past, of how God had acted for them in days of old. Each year at their festivals these things would be recalled, and read out to them as a reminder of God’s graciousness in the past, and especially so at the end of the seven year cycle. Compare Exo 23:14-17; Exo 24:7; Deu 16:16; also note Deu 31:11-13; Deu 31:24-28.
‘Our fathers have told us.’ It was the responsibility of every father to make his family aware of YHWH’s deliverance of His people from Egypt at the Feast of the Passover (Exo 12:26-27; Exo 13:8), and to make known His word daily (Deu 11:19).
Psa 44:2
‘You drove out the nations with your hand,
But them you planted,
You afflicted the peoples,
But them you spread abroad.
On the one hand He had driven out the nations with His hand, on the other He had planted and established His own people in their place. On the one hand He had afflicted the peoples, and on the other He had spread His own people abroad throughout the land.
The picture is possibly of a tree which is firmly planted, and then grows and spreads out its leafy branches (compare Psa 80:8-11). The idea of His people being ‘planted’ is a common one in Scripture (e.g. Exo 15:17; 2Sa 7:10). It is applied in Isa 61:3 to those who will be restored to God by the coming Anointed Prophet, ‘that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of YHWH’, compare Mat 15:13 where those who are not of the Father’s planting will be rooted up.
Psa 44:3
‘For they did not get the land in possession by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them,
But your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance,
Because you were favourable to them.
And it was God Who had done it. For it was not by their sword that they took possession of the land, nor as a result of the exercise of the strength of their own arm that they were saved (although they used both. Trust in God is no excuse for not acting ourselves where possible). Rather it was God’s right hand, and His arm, and the fact that He was looking on them with love and favour, that was responsible for their success.
The thing that stood out to them in their history was the amazing way that time and again God had openly acted on their behalf when they themselves were in dire straits.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psalms 44
Psa 44:1 (To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.) We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
Psa 44:1
“But if it be necessary also from the ancient Scriptures to bring forward the three who made a symphony on earth, so that the Word was in the midst of them making them one, attend to the superscription of the Psalms, as for example to that of the forty-first, which is as follows: ‘Unto the end, unto understanding, for the sons of Korah.’ For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the Book of Exodus, Aser, which is, by interpretation, ‘instruction,’ and the second Elkana, which is translated, ‘possession of God,’ and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered, ‘congregation of the father,’ yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit, and one voice, and one soul, which wrought with true harmony, and the three speak as one, ‘As the heart panteth after the springs of the water, so panteth my soul alter thee, O God.’ But also they say in the plural in the forty-fourth Psalm, ‘O God, we have heard with our ears.’” ( Origen’s Commentary on Mat 14:1) [57]
[57] Origen, Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, trans. Allan Menzies, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, ed. Allan Menzies (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, c1896, 1906), 495.
Psa 44:1 Word Study on “Maschil” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “Maschil” ( ) (H4905) is a participle meaning, “a didactic poem.” Strong it means, “instructive,” thus “a didactic poem,” being derived from ( ) (H7919), which literally means, “to be circumspect, and hence intelligent.” The Enhanced Strong says it is found 13 times in the Old Testament being translated in the KJV all 13 times as “Maschil.” It is used as a title for thirteen of the 150 psalms (Psalms 32; Psalms 42, 44, 45, 52 through 55; 74; 78; 88; 89; 142).
Most modern translations do as the KJV and transliterate this Hebrew word as “maschil,” thus avoiding the possibility of a mistranslation. The LXX reads “for instruction.” YLT reads “An Instruction.” Although some of these psalms are didactic in nature, scholars do not feel that all fit this category. The ISBE says, “Briggs suggests ‘a meditation,’ Thirtle and others ‘a psalm of instruction,’ Kirkpatrick ‘a cunning psalm.’” [58]
[58] John Richard Sampey, “Psalms,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Prayer in Times of National Distress.
v. 1. We have heard with our ears, O God, v. 2. how Thou didst drive out the heathen with Thy hand, v. 3. For they, v. 4. Thou art my King, O God, v. 5. Through Thee will we push down our enemies, v. 6. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me, v. 7. But Thou hast saved us from our enemies and hast put them to shame that hated us, v. 8. In God we boast all the day long, v. 9. But Thou hast cast us off, v. 10. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy, v. 11. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat, v. 12. Thou sellest Thy people for naught, v. 13. Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, v. 14. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, v. 15. My confusion is continually before me, v. 16. for the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth, v. 17. All this is come upon us, v. 18. Our heart is not turned back, v. 19. though Thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, v. 20. If we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange god, v. 21. shall not God search this out? For He knoweth the secrets of the heart, v. 22. Yea, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. v. 23. Awake! Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? v. 24. Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, v. 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth, v. 26. Arise for our help and redeem us for Thy mercies’ sake,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE date and occasion of this psalm are greatly disputed. Most critics, from Calvin to Hitzig, refer it to the times of the Maccabees. Others suggest the fourth or fifth century b.c. One (Tholuck) dates it in the reign of Jehoiachin. Hengstenberg and Canon Cook argue for the reign of David. The time of Jehoram (2Ch 21:16, 2Ch 21:17) and that of the defeat of Josiah (2Ch 35:20-24) have also been proposed as possible. The Davidic date receives a certain amount of support from Psa 60:1-12; which is in the same tone, and resembles the present psalm in several expressions (comp. Psa 60:1 with Psa 44:9; Psa 60:10 with Psa 44:9, Psa 44:10; Psa 60:11 with Psa 44:26; etc.). It also harmonizes with the place of the psalm in the Psalter, and with its ascription to the “sons of Korah,” who were certainly among David’s musicians.
The occasion of the psalm is some serious reverse which the Israelites had sustained in a war with foreign enemies, but who were the enemies, and when exactly the reverse was sustained, are uncertain. No doubt there were many temporary reverses in the course of David’s wars, after one of which the psalm may have been written.
The psalm divides itself into four parts.
In part 1. (Psa 60:1-8) the writer recounts God’s mercies in the past, and from them confidently concludes that effectual help will be granted in the present emergency.
In part 2. (Psa 60:9 -16) he describes the emergency itself.
In part 3. (verses 17-22) he urges the fact that it had not been brought about by any infidelity or rebellion on the part of his countrymen.
And in part 4. (verses 23-26) he makes his prayer for deliverance.
The style is throughout simple, pure, and noble, possessing all the characteristics of the best period of Hebrew poetry.
Psa 44:1
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. The Law required all Israelites to teach their children the past history of the nation, and especially the mercies which had been vouchsafed to it (see Exo 10:2; Exo 12:26, Exo 12:27; Exo 13:8, Exo 13:10, etc.).
Psa 44:2
How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand; i.e. “by thy power.” The conquest of Canaan is the historical fact referred to. And plantedst them (comp. Exo 15:17, “Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;” and see also Psa 80:8, “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it”). How thou didst afflict the people; rather, the peoples, i.e. the Canaanitish nations. And cast them out. So the LXX, the Vulgate, and even the Revised Version. But most moderns, understanding “them” of Israel, render, but didst spread them out (comp. Psa 80:11).
Psa 44:3
For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them (comp. Jos 24:11, Jos 24:12): but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them (see Deu 4:37, Deu 4:38; Jos 24:11, Jos 24:18).
Psa 44:4
Thou art my King, O God; literally, thou art he that is my King, O God; i.e. I acknowledge no other king but thee, no other absolute lord and master. Command deliverances for Jacob. Being King, thou hast a right to command. We pray thee at this present time to command our deliverance.
Psa 44:5
Through thee will we push down our enemies. Do as we askcommand our deliveranceand then we shall assuredly “push down,” i.e. overthrow and prostrate, our enemies. Thy help will be found as effectual in the future as in the past. Through thy Name will we tread them under that rise up against us. Having pushed our foes to the ground (comp. Deu 33:17), we shall then be able to “tread them under.” The imagery is drawn from the practice of buffaloes and wild bulls.
Psa 44:6
For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me (comp. Psa 44:3). My trust, i.e; shall not be in myself, but in thee. The sword and the bow were the ordinary weapons of Israel.
Psa 44:7
But thou hast saved us from our enemies; or, dost save us. It is the voice of confident hope that speaks, not that of gratitude. And hast put them to shame that hated us; rather, and puttest them to shame that hate us. The writer is sure that God will do in the future as he has done in the past, and will raise Israel up again from the low estate into which they have been brought by disaster.
Psa 44:8
In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy Name for ever. We boast of God as our God, who saves us, and puts to shame our enemies (see Psa 44:7).
Psa 44:9-16
These verses form the second stanza, and are a loud and bitter complaint. God has recently dealt with Israel exceptionallyhas seemed to “cast them off,” has “put them to shame,” allowed them to be defeated and despoiled, slain and carried into captivity, made a scorn and a derision, a reproach and a byword. He no longer “goes forth with their armies,” to secure them victory over their foes, but holds aloof, and covers them with confusion. The description implies, not a single defeat, but a somewhat prolonged period of depression, during which several “armies” have been beaten, several battles lost, multitudes slain, and great numbers carried away captive (Psa 44:11). Still, a general captivity, like the Babylonian, is certainly not spoken of. The nation is as yet unconquered. It needs but a return of God’s favour to turn the vanquished into the victors, and to replace shame by boasting.
Psa 44:9
But thou hast cast off (comp. Psa 43:2) and put us to shame (see also Psa 44:16). It is the shame of defeat, rather than the physical pains or material losses, that grieve the writer. And goest not forth 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 (comp. Psa 60:10).
Psa 44:10
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy. Thou bringest it to pass that we turn our backs in shameful flight from the enemy, either making a feeble resistance or none at all. And they which hate us spoil for themselves. Spoil us of our arms and ornaments, which they seize and appropriate.
Psa 44:11
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat. “As sheep for the shambles” (Kay)a free translation, which well expresses the meaning. And hast scattered us among the heathen. Either “caused us to disperse ourselves among our heathen neighbours,” or “to be sold for slaves among them by our captors.” No general dispersion of the nation is intended.
Psa 44:12
Thou sellest thy people for nought; literally, for not-wealth (comp. Jer 15:13). The whole people is regarded, not as sold for slaves, but as delivered over to the will of their enemies; and all “for nought,” God gaining nothing in exchange. Thou dost not increase thy wealth by their price. A repetition for the sake of emphasis, but adding no new idea.
Psa 44:13
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours (comp. Psa 42:10; Psa 79:4; Psa 80:6). They would be reproached, not so much as cowards, or as weak and powerless themselves, but rather as having a weak and powerless God. A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. (For instances of the “scorn and derision” whereto the Israelites were exposed at the hands of the heathen, see 2Ki 18:23, 2Ki 18:24; 2Ki 19:23, 2Ki 19:24; Neh 2:19; Neh 4:2, Neh 4:3; Psa 79:4; Psa 137:7.)
Psa 44:14
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen (comp. Job 17:6; Jer 24:9). A shaking of the head among the people; rather, among the peoples (comp. Psa 22:7).
Psa 44:15
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me (see the comment on Psa 44:9).
Psa 44:16
For the voice of him that re-proacheth and blasphemeth. The reproaches of the heathen were most commonly “blasphemies,” since they consisted very mainly of contemptuous expressions against the God of Israel (see the comment on Psa 44:13; and comp. Isa 37:3, Isa 37:23). By reason of the enemy and avenger. The persons by whom the blasphemous reproaches were utteredIsrael’s enemies bent on avenging former losses and defeats.
Psa 44:17-22
In this third stanza the psalmist strongly emphasizes his complaint by maintaining that the calamities from which they are suffering have not come upon the people through any fault of their own, or been in any way provoked or deserved He is, perhaps, over-confident; but we cannot doubt that he is sincere in the belief, which he expresses, that the people, both before and during their calamities, have been obedient and faithful to God, wholly free from idolatry, and exemplary in their conduct and life. There are not many periods of Israelite history at which such a description could have been given without manifest untruth, and the time of David is certainly more suitable for it than almost any other.
Psa 44:17
All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Israel had neither put aside the thought of religion, and given herself up to wordliness, nor yet, while still professedly religious, transgressed habitually God’s commandments. She maintained “thorough sincerity in religion, and consistent integrity of life.” Yet “all this”all that has been described in Psa 44:9-16had come upon her.
Psa 44:18
Our heart is not turned back; i.e. turned away from God, as it was when they passed through the wilderness (Psa 78:41). Neither have our steps declined from thy way. Neither in respect of inward feeling nor of outward act have we strayed from the right path.
Psa 44:19
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons; rather, in the place of jackals; i.e. in wild and desolate regions, where jackals abound (comp. Isa 13:22; Isa 34:13). The expression is probably used metaphorically. And covered us with the shadow of death. Brought us, i.e; into imminent peril of destruction (see Psa 44:10, Psa 44:11).
Psa 44:20
If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out (rather, spread out) our hands to a strange god. If Israel had either forgotten the true God (see above, Psa 44:17) or fallen away to the worship of false or strange godsthen her ill success against her foreign enemies would have been fully accounted for, since it would only have been in accordance with the threatenings of the Law (Le 26:14-17; Deu 28:15-23); but as she had done neither of these things, her defeats and depressed condition seemed to the psalmist wholly unaccountable. We trace here the same current belief, which comes out so strongly in the Book of Jobthe belief that calamities were, almost of necessity, punishments for sin; and that when they occurred, and there had been no known precedent misconduct, the case was abnormal and extraordinary.
Psa 44:21
Shall not God search this out! i.e. visit for itpunish it. Such a result was to be expected. But when there had been no precedent idolatry, no neglect of the worship of Jehovah, what then? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Secret idolatry would, of course, explain the state of things; but the writer evidently knows of no secret idolatry.
Psa 44:22
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; or, continually, as the phrase is often translated. Not only are the Israelites not suffering on account of any previous desertion of God, or other misconduct, but they are suffering for their fidelity to God. The heathen hate them, and make war upon them, as worshippers of one exclusive God, Jehovah, and contemners of their many gods, whom they hold to be “no-gods.” They are martyrs, like the Christians of the early Church (see Rom 8:36). We are counted as sheep for the slaughter (comp. Psa 44:11).
Psa 44:23-26
The appeal to God is now made, after the case has been fully represented. God has always hitherto maintained the cause of his people, and given them victory over their enemies, unless they had fallen away from him (Psa 44:1-8). Now he has acted otherwisehe has allowed their enemies to triumph (Psa 44:9-16). And they have given him no reason for his desertion of them (Psa 44:17-22). Surely, if they call upon him, and plead their cause before him, he will relent, and come to their aid. The appeal, therefore, is made briefly, but in the most moving terms.
Psa 44:23
Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? The psalmist does not really believe that Jehovah “sleeps.” The heathen might so imagine of their gods (1Ki 18:27), but not an Israelite. An Israelite would be sure that “he that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psa 121:4). The writer consciously uses an anthropomorphism, really intending only to call on God to rouse himself from his inaction, and lay it aside, and come to Israel’s aid. Arise (see Psa 7:6; Psa 9:19; Psa 10:12, etc.). Cast us not off for ever (comp. Psa 44:9). Under the existing peril, for God to cast off his people will be to cast them off for ever. They had no strength of their own that could save them.
Psa 44:24
Wherefore hidest thou thy face (comp. Psa 13:1; Psa 27:9; Psa 69:17, etc.). And forgettest our affliction and our oppression? (see Psa 13:1; Psa 74:19).
Psa 44:25
For our soul is bowed down to the dust; i.e. brought very low, humbled, as it were, to the earth, so weakened that it has no strength in it. Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. The body participates in the soul’s depression, and lies prostrate on the ground.
Psa 44:26
Arise for our help; literally, arise as a help unto us; i.e. arise, and come to our aid. Help against the enemy is the one object of the entire prayer. And redeem us; or, save us”deliver us” (comp. Psa 25:22). For thy mercies’ sake (comp. Psa 6:4; Psa 31:16).
HOMILETICS
Psa 44:1
The blessing of memory: a commemoration sermon.
“We have heard,” etc. Memory is the thread which binds life together. A failing memory is one of the saddest infirmities of old age. Yet there is often this compensationthat the long-distant past is well remembered. The old man forgets what weather it was yesterday, but the sunny birthdays and snowy Christmas Days of childhood live in his memory. The old house, the old frees and voices, the old joys and sorrows, the lessons that sank into his heart in childhood are with him still. Suppose the reverse possiblethat one had a clear memory of even the least occurrences of the last few weeks or mouths, but no memory of things long ago; no associations clinging, binding him to old scenes, old friends; not so much as an old prejudice;what a shallow, mechanical, uninteresting life his would be! There are common memories as well as individual; household words, family traditions, public and national history, sacred heritages of former generations. One of the most precious possessions of mankind is the knowledge and remembrance of the past.
I. THE DUTY AND BENEFIT OF REMEMBERING THE PAST iS taught in the most impressive way in the Bible. Its whole structure is historical. Alone among books, it professes to trace an unbroken line of family history from the first human being to the beginning of the Christian era; ending in him who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” Its deepest and greatest lessons are bound up with the lives, the examples, the prayers, the spiritual experience of men who loved and feared God thousands of years ago. What could make up for the loss, if we could forget the faith of Abraham, the Laws of Moses, the Psalms of David? But the lives of these and other spiritual heroes are but links in the history of a great spiritual communitythe Church of God. Christians, St. Paul tells us, are children of Abraham. The gospel itself is history. Our Saviour consecrated this principle when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
II. FORGETFULNESS OF THE PAST MEANS IGNORANCE OF GOD‘S DEALINGS. His most wonderful works and glorious manifestations. The great law of God’s creation, providence, and grace is that the present grows out of the past, and is the root and seed of the future. The watchword of modern philosophy, “evolution,” has been used as a sort of conjuring word to get rid of God; to show how the universe may dispense with a Creator. But Scripture is full of evolution in the truest and highest sense, viz. the unfolding of God’s purpose, the development of Divine thought and love. “Evolution” means “unfolding” or “out-folding.” Nothing can be unfolded that has not been folded up. The plan, order, beauty, unity, life, happiness, of this wonderful universe could not be folded up in atoms of fiery gas, which after millions of years come out still as unchanged atoms of gas. They could be folded up nowhere but in a mind able to see the end from the beginning, and in the beginning to prepare for every following step and stage. What is true of God’s works in creation is true of his providential government of men and of nations; and equally true of his grace (Eph 1:4; Eph 3:9).
III. FORGETFULNESS OF THE PAST IS GREAT INGRATITUDE. True, we suffer for the faults and follies of our ancestors; but they conquered for us a rich inheritance. Who can reckon what we owe to the men who invented letters, figures, the plough, the loom, the anvil, the ship? Where should we be to-day without the mariner’s compass, the printing-press, the steam-engine? So in spiritual things. What do we owe to the evangelists for the four Gospels; to St. Paul and the other apostles for their Epistles; to the translators of the Scriptures; to reformers, preachers, sacred poets, writers? Ungrateful forgetfulness and consequent undervaluing of the past is one of the dangers and faults of our age. We are in little peril of the Chinese superstitionworshipping our ancestors. Men’s eyes turn feverishly to the future. What is old is set down as antiquated, obsolete, worn-out. In the wonderful movement, amazing discoveries, manifold progress of our day, we are apt to forget that our ancestors sowed, or at least ploughed, where we reap; and made the roads along which we travel, and the ladders by which we climb. If language, institutions, art, science, industry, had to make a fresh start with each generation, life would never rise above barbarism.
CONCLUSION. There is a sense in which it is well to forget the pastits failures, so far as they would discourage; its achievements, so far as they would content us (Php 3:13, Php 3:14). We are not to dwell among the tombs; not to resemble a man carrying a looking-glass before him, which reflects only what is behind, and hides his path; but we are to converse with the past, that we may learn thankfulness (Psa 103:2), humility (Job 15:7), courage (Jas 5:17), wisdom (1Co 10:11), faith and hope (Psa 77:10, Psa 77:11; Psa 48:14).
Psa 44:21
God’s knowledge of men’s hearts.
“Shall not God search,” etc.? A world of perfect, mutual knowledge, in which the secrets of every heart lay open to every eye, must needs be either heaven or hell. Every one must be perfectly good or else perfectly miserable. In this world of mixed good and evil, God has mercifully built a wall of secrecy, or at least thrown a veil of privacy, around the consciousness of each one of us. Every heart has its own secrets. But the text reminds us that there is neither wall nor veil to God’s eye, nor thinnest film of obscurity (Heb 4:13).
I. GOD KNOWS THE SECRETS OF THE HEART.
1. Our thoughts. How impenetrably these are veiled from our fellows! Our feelings often betray themselves. They escape our control. A look, a change of colour, a start, an exclamation, a tremor, may discover them against our will. But our thoughts lie deeper. Words may be used not to express, but to conceal them. A man’s outward conduct and apparent character may be such that if the habitual current of his inmost thoughts could be laid open, his nearest friends would stand aghast. But God knows. Thought may flash so swiftly through the mind, that we ourselves are scarcely aware of it; but God sees. It may fade in a moment from the mirror of memory; but God remembers.
2. Our feelings lie as open to God as our thoughts. They are often a mystery to ourselves, not to him. They surprise us by their sudden and unexpected character and power. They do not surprise him. They perplex us by their mixture of good and evil. All is plain to him. Our inmost springs of character lie under his hand as well as eye. He knows how to work in us both to will and to do (Php 2:13).
3. Our hidden future; unconscious capabilities, good or evil; undeveloped possibilities. Examples: Jer 1:5-9; 2Ki 8:13; Luk 5:2-10. Our sins (known or unknown to ourselves), and all our spiritual needs. Perhaps you have not felt your sins. But God takes account (Psa 90:8); knows your need of pardon (Isa 1:18); knows your weakness, and need of grace (Joh 13:37, Joh 13:38); knows your need of trial and discipline (Heb 13:6).
II. WE SEARCH IN ORDER TO KNOW; GOD SEARCHES BECAUSE HE KNOWS.
1. By his providence, proving men and revealing their character. As Abraham (Gen 22:12), Hezekiah (2Ch 32:31).
2. By. his Spirit (Joh 16:8).
3. By his Word (Heb 4:12, Heb 4:13).
CONCLUSION. The Lord Jesus claims this Divine prerogative (Rev 2:23; 1Co 4:4, 1Co 4:5). But he loves to discover even the little that is good in us, and to reward it (Rev 3:8). He that probes can heal. He that knows can save (Rev 3:9). Let us open our hearts to him (Psa 139:23, Psa 139:24).
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE
Psa 44:22 and Roman 8:36
Martyr Churches, Hebrew and Christian: a contrast.
There is something marvellously touching about this psalm. It is the voice of a martyr Church, which has to witness for God amid persecution, flame, and sword. It divides itself into four parts. In the first there is a glowing retrospect (Psa 44:1-8); in the second, a mournful plaint (Psa 44:9-17 and Psa 44:22); in the third, a solemn appeal to the Church’s King and Lord (Psa 44:18-21); in the fourth, an earnest prayer (Psa 44:23-26). As an historical document, which (as it has come down to us) is without date, we cannot but askTo what period of Hebrew history can it apply? Another question suggests itself, viz.Is the whole of the psalm justifiable? We will deal with these two questions as briefly as possible consistently with clearness, that we may “open up” the theme which the answers thereto will set before us. In order to ascertain the period of Israel’s history to which the psalm refers, we must note the data presented to us therein. According to the psalmist’s statements;
(1) Israel had been scattered (Psa 44:11).
(2) The people had been defeated in arms (Psa 44:10).
(3) They were a reproach and a byword among the nations (Psa 44:13, Psa 44:14).
(4) They were sold into slavery (Psa 44:12).
(5) They were “counted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psa 44:11, Psa 44:22).
(6) All this had happened to them, although they had not departed from their God; and although this had happened, still they were not departing from him (Psa 44:17, Psa 44:18).
(7) So far from this, they were even slain for their fidelity to truth and to God. “For thy sake we are killed all the day long” (Psa 44:22). It is not easy to find a period in the national life when the whole of these seven, data can be verified. By one consideration or other, we are almost driven forward to the time of the Maccabees, between b.c. 200 and b.c. 160 (2 Macc. 5:11-23). Mr. Walford says, “That fierce and idolatrous prince Antiochus Epiphanes, the King of Syria, was actuated by an inveterate hatred to the laws and religion of the Jews; and he employed the utmost efforts of his policy and power to induce them to apostatize. Under the severest penalties, he prohibited the worship of Jehovah, the celebration of the sabbath, and other religious festivals, the practice of circumcision, and the whole of the precepts of the Mosaic Law. Notwithstanding this dreadful persecution, the greater part of the people steadily adhered to the Divine institutions, and refused to comply with the idolatrous acts to which their tormentors would have compelled them, though they suffered the most dreadful tortures for their noncompliance with the injunctions of their formidable adversaries.” To this period alone do we feel warranted in referring this psalm. There are two objections which have been made thereto. One, that the canon of Old Testament Scripture was finally closed long before. But such does not appear to have been the case. Another, that at the time of the Maccabees the hope of a resurrection buoyed up the sufferers to an extent of which this psalm gives no trace whatever (2 Macc. 7:6-17). But though this may have some weight, yet we must be careful not to lay too much stress on what the psalm does not contain. In all probability the survivors were more broken in spirit than such as were appointed unto death. Anyway, it is fairly clear that in the period to which we now refer, each one of the seven data above named can be verified with tolerable ease. But this cannot be said of either of the other periods to which the plaint of this psalm has been assigned. These are:
1. The time of David. (So Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Moll, Fausset, et al.) But in David’s time we cannot verify either the first, second, third, or seventh of the above data. As Calvin remarks, the Church and nation, as a whole, were prosperous and victorious in David’s time.
2. Other periods assigned have beenthe time of the Exile (Geikie); the times of Jchoiachin and Zedekiah (Baur, De Wette, and Tholuck); the times of Josiah and Jehoiakim (Barnes); the last days of the Persian dynasty (Ewald); but of one and all of these it may be said that they fail to meet the conditions of data 6 and 7. For the Chronicler expressly declares that the troubles of those periods came upon Israel in consequence of the peoples’ unfaithfulness to their covenant and their God. Consequently, until further light is thrown on the subject, we adhere to the Maccabean period as that which most nearly fulfils the conditions to which reference is made. Another question is thisIs the Church’s strong assertion of national integrity to God justifiable? Some say, Yes (so Moll, Delitzsch). Some, No (so Perowne). But it is only fair to the writer to suppose him to refer simply to the occasion that drew forth the complaint; he cannot mean that all the nation had been always and uniformly faithful. His intention evidently is thisthat there was at that time no defection from God on the part of the people to account for the specific persecution over which he mourns. And since this is the case, he feels he may appeal to God to fulfil his own promise, and to save them for his mercies’ sake. We are not prepared to question the propriety of this. All depends on the spirit in which it was said. We well remember that, in the late American War, a noted and eloquent abolitionist went so far as to maintain that the North must win, because God was God! At the same time, there is no doubt that the complaint, the appeal, and the whole tone of the psalm bear traces of a partial revelation, and consequently of an imperfectly developed faith. We have but to pass over the line that divides the two dispensations, to plant ourselves in the middle of the first Christian century, and there we find that Christians were having, and were likely to have, a struggle as hard and fierce as that of the Hebrews of old. So much so that one of their number adopts as his own the most touching words in the whole psalm, “For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” And yet there is neither moan nor sigh, no, not a tear; rather, a song of gladness, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us!” (Rom 8:36, Rom 8:37). Whence the contrast between the Hebrews‘ sigh and the Christians‘ song whilst in the midst of persecution and death!
I. IN THE HEBREW DISPENSATION GOD SPAKE THROUGH PROPHETS; IN THE CHRISTIAN GOD HAS SPOKEN IN HIS SON. (Heb 1:1.) The great Transfiguration scene sets this forth in marvellous clearness. Moses and Elias vanish from sight, and the favoured three are left with Jesus only; in him believers saw the incarnate Son of God, the Father’s express Image, who brought with him, in peerless union, the tenderness and sympathy of the brother-man, with the majesty and might of the infinite and eternal God. Hence the figure in the background of Hebrew thought was vastly different from that in the background of Christian thought; the former commanded reverential heed, as a Messenger from heaven; the latter, unbounded love and entire consecration, as Saviour and Lord of all!
II. THE STORY OF THE REDEMPTION WITH WHICH ISRAEL‘S NATIONAL LIFE OPENED IS FAR OUTDONE BY THE HISTORY OF THE REDEMPTION BROUGHT IN BY JESUS CHRIST. It was with a glow of pride and thankfulness that the Hebrew singer recounted the deliverance from Egypt, and the entrance to Canaan’s land (see also Psa 78:1-72; Psa 105:1-45; Psa 106:1-48; Psa 107:1-43.). But how vastly is all this surpassed both in tenderness and in grandeur, by such words as these!”He loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20); “Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” The words fell with force and beauty on the ears of Old Testament saints, “I gave Egypt for thy ransom; Ethiopia and Seba for thee;” but how much greater the charm on Christian ears of the words, “He gave himself” (Isa 43:3, Isa 43:4; Gal 2:20)!
God, in the Person of his Son,
Has all his mightiest works outdone.”
III. THE HEBREW CHURCH, TERRITORIAL AND NATIONAL, HAS GIVEN PLACE TO THE CHURCH OF GOD, made up of men gathered from every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue. The Church’s “land” now can never be invaded. We can never sigh, “The heathen are come into thine inheritance.” That is impossible. The entrance into Christ’s Church is not decided by rites nor by birth, save by the new birth of the Holy Ghost. Neither features nor racial marks form any sign of this new brotherhood. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Gal 6:15).
IV. THE HATRED OF THE JEW BY THE GENTILE IS SUCCEEDED BY THE WORLD‘S HATRED OF THE CHURCH. Where religion is or has been regarded as a piece of statecraft, whether among pagans, Papists, or Protestants, divergence from the rites appointed by state or Church has been punished with fire and sword. And the Antiochian persecution in the time of the Maccabees had its parallel in the Diocletian persecution in the Christian era. And although in our own land such treatment is not permitted, yet there is, though largely unseen to the public eye, a fierce hatred by the ungodly of pure and undefiled religion; and many and many a faithful soldier of the cross has to endure petty insult, abuse, and scorn, to an extent known only to himself and his Lord.
V. THE HATRED OF THE WORLD, WHICH WAS THE HEBREWS‘ DREAD, IS NOW THE CHRISTIAN‘S BADGE OF HONOUR. It was SO with the apostles (Act 5:41; Gal 6:17). It was so with private Christians in apostolic times (1Pe 4:13-16). In enduring persecution in the early Christian centuries, believers so regarded it. And even now we have to remember the Master’s words in Joh 15:18-21. The ancient Hebrews could not bear the scorn of their foes; Christians regard it as “the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings,” and delighted in the words, 2Co 4:10, 2Co 4:11.
VI. IN THE MIDST OF FIERCEST PERSECUTION, CHRISTIANS HAVE REALIZED THE CHANGELESSNESS OF DIVINE LOVE; even when they were “counted as sheep for the slaughter.” Where we have from the Hebrews a groan, we have from the Christians a song (Rom 8:35, Rom 8:36; Stephen, Act 6:15 and Act 7:55-60; Mat 5:12; Rom 5:3; 2Co 12:10; Php 1:29; Heb 10:3, Heb 10:4; Jas 1:2; 1Pe 4:13, 1Pe 4:16). Believers knew that nothing could ever separate them from Divine love; and that the stroke that closed the life below set them free for the higher life “with Christ, which was very far better.”
VII. HENCE CHRISTIANS SAW, WITH A CLEARNESS TO WHICH HEBREW SAINTS COULD NOT ATTAIN, THAT THE CHURCH EXISTS IN TWO WORLDS. So our Lord has taught in Mat 16:18 (Revised Version); Rev 1:18. And the disclosure of this became even clearer through the visions granted to the seer in Patmos, when (Rev 7:1-17.) he saw one part of the Church, below, sealed in the great tribulation, and another part of the Church, above, caught up out of it. Knowing this, as the early Christians did, they knew also that the rage and hate of the enemy could in no wise really harm the Church, since their Lord was building it up in the realm above by the incoming of saints passing up from below. Hence even the slaughter of the people of God was but as a chariot of fire conducting them to the region where “they cannot die any more.”
VIII. THU, INSTEAD OF AN AGONIZING CRY TO GOD TO INTERPOSE, THERE IS A PEAL OF TRIUMPH THAT NO INTERPOSITION IS NEEDED. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” More than conquerors! What a grand and noble defiance of the enemy is there here! And how richly glorious is this proof of the development of the Divine intent to reveal his love more fully as the ages rolled on! Note: If an expositor unfolds Psa 44:1-26. historically only, he must transfer himself to the ancient times; but if he will deal with that psalm from a Christian standpoint, he will have a glorious field for expansion in contrasting the piteous wail of Psa 44:22 with the gladsomeness with which the very same words are quoted and applied in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Blessed be God that we live in the days of Christ’s fulness of light and life! Amen.C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 44:1-26
In the days of old.
From this psalm we may learn three great lessons
I. WE ARE TAUGHT TO SEE GOD‘S HAND IN HISTORY. There is no such thing as chance. “The chapter of accidents,” as some one has well said, “is the Bible of the fool.” There are differences in the nations and the ages; but God is in all. We acknowledge how God was with the Jews; but we are not so ready to admit that he had to do just as really and truly with other peoples. The difference, in the case of the Jews is that as to them the veil has been lifted, that light has been thrown upon their history. The story of their nation was written as by the hand of God himself, and was committed as a sacred heritage to be transmitted pure and entire from generation to generation (Deu 6:7-20; el. Moses, Exo 18:8; David, Psa 58:8; Hezekiah, Isa 38:19). But, as St. Paul has taught us, “All these things happened to them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1Co 10:11). God governs the nations on the same principles as he governed the Jews. “There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all” (1Co 12:6).
II. HOW GOD IS CARRYING OUT HIS OWN GREAT END THROUGH ALL THE AGES OF HISTORY. The wise man said, “One generation passeth away, and another cometh; but the earth abideth for ever” (Ecc 1:4). But if the earth abideth it is because God abideth. He has his plans as to men, and throughout the ages he is working them out. There is the manifestation of himself. More and more the knowledge of God has increased. The Jews knew more than the patriarchs. The Christians know more than the Jews. Besides, God is, in a sense, educating the world. We stand related to the past and the future. We have learned much from the past. God employs one age to benefit another. How great are our obligations, through books and otherwise, to the great men of the pastto Gentiles and Jews! We are the heirs of all the ages. And if we have benefited by those who came before us, so we are bound to benefit those who come after us. Privilege is the measure of responsibility. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luk 12:48). We see but a little, and, as oar knowledge is limited, our judgment must be imperfect. Yet we see and know enough to be satisfied that God is working in and by all events, and that he works ever towards a perfect end.
“Happy the man who sees a God employ’d
In all the good and ill that checker life,
Resolving all events, with their effects
And manifold results, into the will
And arbitration wise of the Supreme!”
(Cowper.)
III. THAT GOD HAS CARED FOR HIS PEOPLE THROUGH ALL THE AGES OF HISTORY. This is the burden of this psalm. This is the great truth that gives life to the faith professed (Psa 44:1-8); that awakens the complaint of desertion in time of grievous trial (Psa 44:9-16); that sustains the hope of help and ultimate deliverance (Psa 44:17-26). As in the past, so still, there will be changesnot only mercies, but judgments. There will be trials of our faith; there will be the sharp discipline of chastisement; there will be, in some form or other, the “persecution” which tests our loyalty, and strengthens and purifies our love. But, come what will, God changes not; and God is our God. Our trust in men may fail, our hopes of earthly leaders may be disappointed and put to shame; but God is faithful who has promised, and he will never forsake those who trust in him. After Culloden, a soldier of Prince Chades’s army was found lying dead on the field, with his Gaelic psalm-book open in his hand, and a bloody finger-mark at the ninth verse of this psalm, “But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame, and doest not forth with our armies.” But Christ, the great Captain of our salvation, will not suffer the least of his soldiers thus to die, with blighted hopes and broken heart.W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 44:1-26
A prayer for help against foreign enemies.
The train of thought is this: “Thou hast helped us, thou must help us; but thou hast not helped us; yet have we not by any guilt on our part cut ourselves off from thy help; do thou therefore help us.” The problem of suffering, as argued in this psalm, is similar to the problem in the Book of Job. That God should not help them
I. WAS INCONSISTENT WITS GOD‘S PAST TREATMENT OF THEM. (Verses 1-3.) Their fathers had told them what work God had done in their daysin the days of old. What a history of Divine work have we in the past of the Christian Church!
II. INCONSISTENT WITH THEIR FAITH IN HIM. (Verses 4-8.) God was their Almighty King, through whom they were able to achieve all conquests.
III. IT WOULD BRING NO PROFIT OR HONOUR TO GOD. (Verse 12.) To leave them to their enemies. How could God act thus, so as to seem to dishonour himself and to bring no profit to his people?
IV. IT COULD NOT BE A PUNISHMENT FOR UNFAITHFULNESS. (Verses 17-22.) They had not forgotten God; their heart was not turned back, neither had their steps declined from his way. They could not explain.
V. DID NOT SEEM CONSISTENT WITH GOD‘S REGARD TO HIS OWN HONOUR. (Verses 15, 16, 24.) He seemed to be taking the side of the blasphemer, and forgetting their fidelity. And this was the mystery of their experience.
VI. YET IT DID NOT UPROOT THEIR FAITH IN DIVINE HELP AT LAST. For they continue to supplicate the redeeming interposition of God (verses 23-26). Faith always conquers its difficulties thus, by trusting where it cannot see or explain.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 44.
The church, in memory of former favours, complaineth of her present evils: professing her integrity, she fervently prayeth for succour.
To the chief musician, for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
Title. lamnatseach libnei korach maskiil. This Psalm appears to have been composed at a time when the Jewish people suffered greatly from their enemies, and many were carried into captivity; though the state itself subsisted, and the public worship of God was maintained. The author, by the singular number which occurs every now and then, must have been of eminence; it could not sound well out of any mouth but that of the prince himself; therefore either the prince, or some one about his person, must have been the writer; not unlikely, as Bishop Patrick thinks, Hezekiah; and perhaps from Psa 44:15-16 it was written soon after the blasphemous message of Rabshakeh. Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 44
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil
1We have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us,
What work thou didst in their days,
In the times of old.
2How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and, plantedst them,
How thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3For they got not the land in possession by their own sword,
Neither did their own arm save them:
But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance,
Because thou hadst a favour unto them.
4Thou art my King, O God:
Command deliverances for Jacob.
5Through thee will we push down our enemies:
Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6For I will not trust in my bow,
Neither shall my sword save me.
7But thou hast saved us from our enemies,
And hast put them to shame that hated us.
8In God we boast all the day long,
And praise thy name forever. Selah.
9But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame;
And goest not forth with our armies.
10Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy:
And they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat;
And hast scattered us among the heathen.
12Thou sellest thy people for nought,
And dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
13Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,
A scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
14Thou makest us a byword among the heathen,
A shaking of the head among the people.
15My confusion is continually before me,
And the shame of my face hath covered me,
16For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth;
By reason of the enemy and avenger.
17All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee,
Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18Our heart is not turned back,
Neither have our steps declined from thy way;
19Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons,
And covered us with the shadow of death.
20If we have forgotten the name of our God,
Or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21Shall not God search this out?
For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long;
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
Arise, cast us not off forever.
24Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
And forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust:
Our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26Arise for our help,
And redeem us for thy mercies sake.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.The title is the same as that of Psalms 42. The hosts of Israel have been worsted in battle by hostile neighbors. The whole nation has been thereby not only involved in great misery and oppression, but is in danger of losing its nationality by being carried away and dispersed among other people. Under this great calamity there comes into the consciousness of the nation a very sharp contrast, which also finds expression in the song. God had helped their fathers in the conquest of the land. The story had come down to the present generation, Psa 44:2-4, and had awakened and maintained in it, the faith that the same God as the King of his people, would and must give the victory over its oppressors, for his own praise in the future as well as in view of former glories, Psa 44:5-8. These records of the past, and the hopes of faith founded on them, stand in strong contrast with the overwhelming defeat which Gods chosen race had experienced. It seemed as if God had forsaken their armies, and deeming them of no account had given up His people to the assaults and the scorn of their enemies, leading them to fear that they might perish in shame and contempt, Psa 44:10. This contrast is strengthened by the fact that the people can appeal to the omniscient God, Psa 44:21-22, as a witness to their earnest and sincere faithfulness to the covenant, Psa 44:18-20. The way is thus opened for the explanation of this contrast. The present oppression of Gods people grows out of their historico-religious character, Psa 44:23. During all past ages, they have experienced just such treatment at the hands of a world estranged from God; and hence Paul (Rom 8:36) finds in the sufferings of the church of Jesus Christ an exact historical verification of this Romans 5:23. The destruction of Gods people may at times seem imminent, but that danger will disappear when by earnest prayer they seek the effectual interference of God, relying not upon their own merits, but in the simple consciousness of their need of His help and grace,that grace which is the source of their covenant relation as their God and His people, Psa 44:24-26. This exposition renders it unnecessary for us to refute those who find here a superficial sense of sin and consciousness of guilt, at the same time it explains how this Psalm has been thought (Calvin) to have a prophetic reference to the times of the Maccabees. The explanation which supposes an historical reference to those times (Ven., Rosen., Olsh., Hitzig), is opposed by the history of the canon, and is objectionable on other grounds. The Psalm speaks of the whole nation and not merely of the pious part of it. Then, too, it appears from 1Ma 1:11, 2Ma 4:7, that, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, there was a large and organized body of apostates opposed to the party of the Chasedim (the Pious); and, again, while the Maccabees were victorious in all their battles, with the single exception mentioned in 1Ma 5:55, when their defeat was perhaps a punishment upon them for engaging in an imprudent enterprise, no armies were at that period sent out by the Jews. The solemn assertion of the peoples covenant faithfulness is quite inexplicable, if we refer the Psalm to the time of the Babylonian captivity (Cler. Kster), or to the last days of the Persian dynasty (Ewald), or to the Removal under Jehoiachin (Tholuck), or to the events which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (Baur). To the assertion of Hupfeld, that the language and form of the Psalm show that it belongs to a late age, we may reply that conclusions founded on such grounds are very uncertain, and that the remark does not in the least apply to the expressions of prayer here used. (Compare Psa 3:8; Psa 7:7; Psa 35:23; Psa 59:5); which are very similar to those found in Psalms 42, 43, 80, 85, 89 while the whole Psalm closely resembles Psalms 60. The older view maintained by Heng. Del. is preferable. This refers the Psalm to the same period as that of Psalms 60the period of the Syro-Ammonite war, in which the Edomites took part (2Sa 8:13). The latter carried on a commercial intercourse with the captured Israelites (Amo 1:6), but were afterwards terribly punished for it by Joab, 1Ki 11:15.
Psa 44:1. We have heard with our ears.This expression does not exclude the existence of written documents; it only brings out more strongly the contrast between those events of the past, in which they had a personal interest, but of which they had simply heard, and those which they had themselves witnessed. Every Israelite was bound to repeat the story of the Lords marvellous works, Exo 10:2; Exo 12:26; Exo 13:8; Exo 13:14; Deu 6:20; Jdg 6:13; compare Psa 22:31; Psa 78:3.The phrase done a deed is not a collective one, but refers specially to Gods work, as appears from verse 3, and in Psa 90:16. The emphasis of Gods hand, as the second subject besides Thou, (Isa 45:12) refers the work to God not only in a general way, but makes it appear as the immediate product of His activity, and of His personally ordering the events of history, Psa 74:11; Psa 89:14; Isa 51:9.The grant of fixed abodes, figuratively set forth as a planting (Exo 15:17; 2Sa 7:10; Psa 80:9) is carefully contrasted with the uprooting (Amo 9:15; Jer 1:10; Jer 24:6); the enlargement of the people is represented as a sending forth of roots and branches, Psa 80:12; Jer 17:8; Ezech. Psa 17:6.In German we cannot translate by the same word, in each of the three places in which it occurs in verse 3.[Barnes: Afflict the people; i. e., the people of the land of Canaan; the nations that dwelt there. The word means to bring evil or calamity upon any one.Perowne: Give them the victory. Such seems here, and generally in this Psalm, to be the force of the word usually rendered save, help; not very unlike is the use of sometimes in the New Testament.J. F.]
Psa 44:4. Thou art He (or even Thou Thyself art), my King. The word is not here as in Psa 102:28, the predicate=thou art the same (Luther), but strengthens the subject, as in Isa 43:25; Jer 49:12; Neh 9:6; Ezr 5:11. It is not accurately rendered by the German selbst, but contains an explicit reference to what has just been said. The transition to the present, coupled with confession and prayer, and likewise the change of person and tense, Psa 44:6-9, show that these verses do not refer to the past (Rosen.), but express the present confidence of faith, which lives in the midst and in spite of all oppression. The imperfect tense is used to set forth this confidence, while the displays of divine help on which it is founded are expressed by the perfect tense, Psa 44:8. This change of the perfect and imperfect distinguishes that which has been hitherto done day by day, from that which has been promised for all future time (J. H. Mich). [Alexander: The form of expression in the first clause is highly idiomatic, and somewhat obscure; it may mean thou who hast done all this art still my King; or, thou art He who is my King.The personal name of the patriarch (Jacob) is poetically substituted for his official title, as the father of the chosen people. Perowne: My King apparently with a personal application to himself, the Poet individually claiming his own place in the covenant between God and His people. The singular fluctuates with the plural in the Psalms, see verses 6, 15.J. F.]
Psa 44:12. For nought (without riches). This expression may also mean gratuitously. (Hupfeld). But there is nothing to indicate a contrast between the dealings of men in their worldly concerns, for the sake of gain or some external advantage, and the designs of Divine Providence, which have higher pedagogical reasons, and the Redemption which is effected without money and without price. (Isa 43:13; Isa 52:3; Jer 15:4). Strictly speaking, the figure here used has the sense of for nought, and conveys the idea of unworthiness and insignificance. Besides, the whole passage must be taken figuratively, and can have no reference, historically, to the supposed fact that the multitude of captives was so great as to lower the price of slaves. Hupfeld defends the more ancient (Chald., Theod., Kim.) translation of the following line, thou didst not increase (viz., thy wealth) by their purchase money. Pro 22:16, is not a parallel example, because the definitive words for thee are wanting; and the sense of to gain by usury, derived from the Aramaic, goes far beyond the meaning of the phrase thou hast gained nothing. Most modern expositors, therefore, take the verb to increase in an absolute sense, and the preposition as specifying its extent. [Alexander: They seemed to be gratuitously given up, i. e., without necessity or profit.Perowne: For nought, i. e., for that which is the very opposite of riches, a mere nothing.J. F.]
Psa 44:19. The place of (dragons) jackals denotes a desert region in general (Isa 34:13; Jer 9:10; Jer 10:22; Jer 49:33; Jer 51:37). It does not refer specially to the district of Jamnia, on the border of Philistia and Dan, where Samson found three hundred foxes (Jdg 15:4), and where the unfortunate battle mentioned in 1Ma 5:56, was fought, a locality in which Hasselquist, Seetzen, and other travellers tell us that these animals are found in great numbers (Hitzig). The older translation dragons originated in the supposition that is a contraction for , through a misapprehension of Eze 29:3. The original meaning of the word is howling. This cry of the animal of the desert, more minutely described in Lam 4:3; Is. 12:22; 35:7; 43:20, is compared to the sounds of wailings uttered by human beings, Job 30:29; Mic 1:8.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The living announcement of the help and deliverance which God has vouchsafed to our fathers in past ages is a means of confirming our faith in His constant providential care under present tribulations. It quickens the hope that He will speedily interfere on our behalf, and stimulates prayer for His instant aid under the pressing necessities of the present, and in the prospect of threatening dangers. Comp. Hab 3:2, and 2Ch 20:7.
2. In the narratives of events of past ages it is necessary both for the proper study of history, and the edification of contemporaries that attention be specially fixed on those events which most plainly exhibit a personal Providence. In tracing these events the thoughts should be turned away from all human activity, wisdom, and might; from all temporal and earthly instrumentalities; they should be fixed on the Divine power as their only and eternal cause. The free grace of God, and the good pleasure of His love, should be viewed as the final and decisive ground of these divine acts.
3. A people which, by faith, renews the confession of God as its King, gains thereby a firm foundation for its historical position in the world; it becomes confident that the same God, to whom, as it gratefully remembers, it owes its origin as a people, will preserve it and deliver it from dangers which may threaten its desolation and destruction. All that is needful to beget this hope is the consideration of the royal sovereignty of Almighty God.
4. The religious means of obtaining such a display of divine sovereignty, in any given case, is Prayer, which appeals not to human worthiness, but to the needs which men so plainly and frequently experience. Hence, Prayer addresses not the justice but the grace of God,that grace which has been already manifested in establishing the covenant relation, though it may plead this relation, and beg for its preservation.
5. In this appeal there is no affirmation of innocence; no assertion that the moral and religious condition of the people is in accordance with all the demands of the covenant law, for this would be both foolish and untrue. It simply declares the attachment of the people to their covenant God, and that they have preserved the historico-religious position which He has graciously granted to them. While many individuals may have proved faithless, the people, as such, have maintained their allegiance to God as their God. On this ground alone, they ask and expect from their heavenly King deliverance from the worst possible afflictions.
6. In such a case, there is a difference to be made between merited and unmerited sufferings, and while the latter are not to be viewed as judgments, nor as strokes of fate, they should be patiently endured for Gods sake. There is thus a progress in religious knowledge and historico-religious experience, even though it is fully comprehended, that for Gods people, as well as the servant of Jehovah, these sufferings are necessary in carrying out Gods plan of salvation, and that they are as essentially connected with their theocratic destination or mission as they are inseparable from their divine election and call.
7. The endurance of such afflictions implies, on the part of the sufferer, no such feelings as would lead him to complain of God, or to glorify himself. His appeal to God will never take the form of an accusation, but of a prayer, and a vow of thanksgiving for that gracious help of the Almighty which is indispensable. Hence, if in his lamentation the question is asked why sleepest Thou, O Lord? and his prayer sounds like a cry to awake, he can use the language of John Hyrcanus (Sota 48, according to Del.) who, in the time of the Maccabees, quieted the anxieties of the Levites, who came daily to him with this same question, by saying, Does the Godhead sleep?Have not the Scriptures declared: Behold, he who keeps Israel slumbereth not? It was only in a time when Israel was in trouble, and the people of the world in the enjoyment of rest and prosperity, that the words were used, Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? In these, and similar figurative expressions, the prominent idea is, that these sufferings are not to be regarded as evils, positively inflicted by God, but rather as permitted by Him.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The best histories are those which rehearse the doings of God. The benefits resulting from the study of them are: 1. It helps us to understand Gods providential government on earth. 2. It awakens gratitude for His favors. 3. It stimulates confidence in Gods gracious help. God is our King! (1) Whence do we know this? (2) In what does He help us? (3) How do we testify this?As long as we are in covenant with God, the most powerful foes cannot destroy us. What follows from this in regard to our conduct and duty?God is not only the mightiest, but the surest, yea the only reliable ally.As we are indebted to God for all good things so we must ask Him for all needful things.Nothing without faith, but every thing through grace.If we know the name of God, we will properly use it for His honor, for our salvation, and for the good of others.He who belongs to Gods people, must be prepared to suffer for His sake, and be careful that he brings no dishonor upon His name.He who really suffers for Gods sake will find that such suffering never separates him from God.The tribulations of the times always bind the people of God more closely to His name, hand and grace, as the light of His countenance.
Starke: It is the business of parents to implant in the hearts of their children the knowledge and honor of God.Children and young people should lay to heart what they have heard concerning the works of God, from their parents, in order to confirm their faith and to improve their lives.The change of government in a land should not be regarded as a mere accident, but as an event with which the will and the hand of God are concerned.Although God employs instruments when He helps us, we should not ascribe to them the aid we get, nor give to them the honor and glory which are due to God alone.No enemy can gain any honor from a conflict with the children of God; all his malice brings upon himself only shame and injury, but glory and praise to the Lord.It will soon be manifest on what the heart of any man trusts, for whatever it be he will constantly think and speak of it.Reason left to itself regards the righteous judgments and the paternal chastisements of God as very strange.God has often allowed Christians to be brought like lambs to the slaughter, in order that by their death they may praise Him, and become martyrs for Christ.Let temporal things take whatever turn God pleases, if only the eternal inheritance is sure.To a suffering believer, the greatest stumbling-block is Gods patience and forbearance towards the very worst of men.The persecution of the Church for her good confession is a sharp trial of her faith, constancy, and patience.Contempt of the true worship of God will sooner or later end in the adoration of an idol, either in a gross or a refined way.Sufferings however intense involve no merit: we must look only to the goodness and grace of God.Bugenhagen: The pious man does what God has commanded, and waits for what Gods will has determined respecting him.Selnekker: The believer undertakes nothing that is contrary to Gods word. He will never tempt God, but uses such means as God has appointed. His trust is in God alone, who can and will help him.Osiander: Warlike preparation is not always the cause of victory.Frisch: He who would exercise true faith, and by such faith would conquer, must possess these three qualities, 1. He must lay aside all trust in earthly power. 2. His hearts entire trust must be in God. 3. His heart must give all the glory to God.Franke: Christs kingdom must ever manifest itself as a kingdom of the Cross, because it is through suffering that we enter into glory.Berlin Bible: The events that happened in the primitive Church will be repeated in the Church of the latter day, under the great Anti-Christ.Rieger: Oh! how mysterious is God! Never imagine that you can lead Him as you wish, even by faith. In ways that to us seem circuitous and contrary, He accomplishes His purposes. What He Himself hath built up, He can break down; what He Himself hath planted, He can root out again. Yet His kingdom loses nothing thereby. What the Church of God may seem to lose by oppression, is more than made up by the victory of the righteous, by the approved piety of those who hold fast their integrity, and their salutary experience gained by suffering. Pauls song of victory (Rom 8:38) for I am persuaded could be uttered only after the composition of such Psalms as the XLIVth, in which the cross and the sufferings of the believer are delineated.Vaihinger. A look full of faith towards the works of God in ages past!Tholuck: Israel celebrates in song only the works of God. But the hymns of other nations relate to the great deeds of their ancestors.Guenther: Gods army has a war-song to strengthen its hope, to describe its wants, and to cry mightily for help.Diedrich: In every new tribulation God gives us to experience and acknowledge, that if we are grounded upon His word, we can only stand by His power.Taube: There are instructions how the church of God should act, when she has to bear the cross. Israels strength and salvation is also Israels Psalm. The flesh timid and faint-hearted, sees in times of affliction, a sleeping God, yet the Keeper of Israel never slumbers,a repudiating God, and yet God does not repudiate eternally,a concealed God, and yet He is always mindful of us,a forgetful God and yet a mother would sooner forget her child than God His people. But He tarries that we may cry!
[Henry: The many operations of providence are here spoken of as one work, for there is a wonderful harmony and uniformity in all that God does, and the many wheels make but one wheel, many works make but one work.He that by His power and goodness planted a church for Himself in the world, will certainly support it by the same power and goodness, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.When the heart turns back, the steps will soon decline.We may the better bear our troubles, how pressing soever, if in them we still hold fast our integrity. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to God, we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God, for He will not leave us, if we do not leave Him.Bp. Patrick: Certainly we have deserved all these calamities, though this comfort is still remaining, that we are not so wicked as to be moved by all this to desert Thee, and violate that covenant by which we are engaged to worship Thee alone.
Scott: The formalist commonly escapes persecution by turning with the stream, and purchasing security with sinful compliances, or open apostacy; but the true Church of God cannot be prevailed on by menaces, sufferings, or promises to forget God or deal falsely in His covenant.The Church of God is one incorporated body, from the beginning to the end of the world; and the benefits conferred on it in every age, will be acknowledged with gratitude by believers through all generations, and even to eternity.We have reason to be thankful, considering our frailty, for exemption from the more violent species of persecution; but let us be careful that prosperity and ease do not render us careless and lukewarm.J. F.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here the church, under a cloud, and in this state appealing to the Lord, in the recollection of former deliverances, for present mercy. It forms an interesting subject, though we are not told to what period of the church it refers, or by whom it was written.
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is one of the best and strongest of all arguments, when pleading for the renewals of divine love, to put the Lord in remembrance of past mercies. It is as if we should say. Shall we despond now, when the Lord hath blessed so often? Shall our hope fail when God’s mercies fail not? Reader! think what an additional argument the church hath now to bring on this ground, since God’s dear Son came down from heaven. Rom 8:32 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God’s Doings in the Time of Old
Psa 44:1
What God has been to us men we know from history. We know then from history what He will be to us. Now to apply this there are three departments of human life in which this recurrence to the past is of great religious value.
I. First there is the family, resting on God’s own ordinance, springing out of the most intimate and sacred ties that can unite human beings. Every family has its traditions of the past has its encouragements and its warnings, its splendid memories of devotion and virtue, and too often its skeletons in the cupboard, and all this is part of the providential teaching intended for each member of the family.
II. And then there is our country. And here we have to remember what we too often forget, that God shapes the destinies of every nation just as truly as he did that of Judah and Israel. The Hebrews felt God’s presence in their history much more vividly than we do. They saw and adored His power, where we fix our gaze exclusively on the history and material agencies which He employs. Nevertheless, history is not less in England than in Palestine a revelation of the ways of God; there have been times in our English history when this has been felt, in the agony of hope or of fear which a great national danger will produce. Such a time was the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada. Such, again, was the crisis of the struggle with the first Napoleon which preceded Trafalgar. We who live in these quiet times can scarcely understand how our forefathers were then thrown back in very deed upon the protecting arm of God how they felt that, if any was to save them, He must, and how this belief in His presence and aid nerved them at the crisis of the struggle against faintheartedness and indecision and bound their hearts together with a sacred strength in love to their country and to Him, their God. It should be part of every young Englishman’s education to trace God’s hand in the annals of his country to see, amid its dangers and its triumphs, in its temporary failures, in its consistent advance, in the gradual development of its institutions, and the extensions of equal rights and advantages to all classes of people, without the revolutionary shocks which have desolated other lands, His hand who of old led His people through the wilderness like a flock, and brought them out safely that they should not fear, and overwhelmed their enemies at sea.
III. And then there is the great and sacred home of souls the Church of Jesus Christ. Church history is a vast treasure-house of sacred experience, well fitted to encourage the desponding, to determine the wavering, to put down with a firm hand the suggestions of selfish doubt, to kindle up in many a soul great enthusiasms for truth and goodness. They lose much who know little or nothing of it who know not what it is to stand in spirit at the side of martyrs like Ignatius and Polycarp to follow the mental anguish of Augustine which preceded his conversion, to do justice to the sanctified intellect, to the dauntless courage, of Athanasius when he is struggling with an apostatizing world. We catch from these great souls something of their devotion to our adorable Master something of their fervour, of their grace, as we exclaim, with deep reverence, ‘O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us, what thou hast done in the time of old’.
H. P. Liddon, The Penny Pulpit, vol. XIII. p. 189.
References. XLIV. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 263. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermon (2nd Series), p. 157. Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii. p. 216. J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 90. XLIV. 3. S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit (3rd Series), No. 13. XLIV. 21. R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 261. XLIV. International Critical Commentary, vol. i. p. 374. XLV. 5. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 173. S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit (4th Series), No. 12. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 80.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Gospel of Providence
Psa 44:1
So, we are not inventing a modern providence. The idea of providence personal, domestic, and imperial is not a new idea; we have the advantage of immemorial time. You are fond of antiquity; you go wild over it in some directions. Only point out something that is hoary and dateless, and into what ecstasy people are flung! I do not ask you to believe in mythological antiquity, but in historical time. The Hindu imagination was independent of arithmetic; in the Hindu chronicles it is casually mentioned the historian tells us just in an incidental way that one of the kings reigned for the period of seven-and-twenty thousand years. That is not that kind of antiquity to which we now call attention. The Psalms are historical; they can be traced day by day; we can go back to the very time of their writing. They were not written yesterday, they were written thousands of years ago; and here the minstrel says, “Our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.” So we are standing upon a line that is historical, real, verifiable; and the first truth that stands up before us is that the idea of providence personal, real, individual, secret, tender, gracious is not an idea of yesterday, but venerable, immemorial, and we take up the sacred song this day, and sing it without abatement of spiritual passion or cooling in any degree of gratitude and zeal.
He who rises to dispute this providence must be either a very great man or a very little one; there can be nothing common about him. A man who rises to contradict the centuries ought to be sworn before he gives evidence; we cannot have any frivolous chatter upon this great question; we cannot have speculations and dreamy suggestions, and partial, lackadaisical scepticisms; the man who rises to contradict this testimony must be sworn. Who is he? Whence came he? What is his title to speak? How is he credited in the marketplace? With what authority is he clothed? If this were a quotation from mythological writings, if it professed to be a revelation granted to mankind millions of years; ago, we should be lost in the infinite figures; but we are dealing; with a Book the very ink of which we can trace; and if men four thousand years ago stood up armed and strong, and sang the providence of God in loud and cheerful and grateful and resonant songs, and if today we do not alter a syllable of the hallelujah or the anthem, we have, at all events, a long and deep historical basis on which to stand.
Providence is a revelation. There is a Gospel of providence as well as a Gospel of forgiveness. We must enlarge our conception of the term “Gospel” or we shall hinder the progress of Christian civilisation. The Gospel is not a set of phrases to be found in certain books only; it is the mysterious spirit of the age; it is a light that looks out of historical events, a voice that sounds in the nighttime along all the lines of life; it is the morning newspaper; it is the great battle; it is the splendid victory; it is the new feeling of confidence that God is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. The Gospel is not a word of six letters or of two syllables. We wrong the Gospel by limiting it to any number of letters. We repeat, as the result of personal observation, and corroborating in some feeble degree the grand historical testimony, that there is a Gospel of providence as certainly as there is a Gospel of redemption. Is it nothing for you to be assured that the foundations of your house are strong? Good news does not take up one set of words only, good news calls for all great words and noble sentences, ay, and for all musical instruments, and it says, “Everything that hath breath announce me. Repeat me, and let all heaven be filled with the musical thunder.” God did not come into the race a thousand years after it was created; the race is in him, its root is in his duration. All things are under his hand. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.
There is a providence of facts. When the Psalmist and the ancient seers and prophets spoke of the law of the Lord, they did not confine their observations to that which was written with pen and ink. They were observers in the ancient time as men profess to be now. Inductive reasoning is not a little invention of the day before yesterday; in the Bible you have all the wealth of that reasoning baptised, sanctified, followed up into glory. The law of the Lord was written in the movement of nations, in the development of ideas and purposes, in the destination of the good man, in the issue of all wickedness. The men sat, and looked, and noted, and wrote memorandum book after memorandum book, if we may so modernise the incident, and when they had filled up their paper they said, “This is the law; this is the point of pressure; this is the meaning of the secret behind.” Oh that men were wise, that they understood these things, that they would say that the newspaper is the supplement, and the daily incident the daily annotation of the one eternal word! If you were believing only in something that is written, that had no counterpart in the actual life around you, and no confirmation in your own consciousness and experience, you might be living a highly speculative life; but if any man in all the school of wisdom can confirm his doctrine by living proof the Christian is that man. When we look back upon all the way of history so far as it is revealed to us, it seems to me to be more difficult to deny providence than to believe it. It appears to me that the difficulty is on the side of unbelief. If we had to deal with a single instance only, the case would be so limited as to be vexed by much personal contention; but a whole volume of history lies wide open. What about all the purposes that have been countervailed, the schemes that have come to nothing? What about those who have dug pits, and fallen into them themselves? What about the towers, half built and then thrown down? What about the law of checking and limitation and restriction, the mysterious unwritten law of boundary thus far shalt thou come and no farther? These are not church words; these are not chapel expressions; there they are on the open page of the world’s own history. Looking at them, endeavouring to connect them and to give them shape and almost personality, we should feel that the difficulty would be on the side of unbelief and not on the side of faith in view of the proposition that God is, that God rules.
If we cannot thus prove the objective existence of providence, we can do something which is equal to it. What kind of men does this faith produce? How does the creed come up in the life? Let us not fritter away our time in discussing the creed in words and syllables; let us get away from merely intellectual contest and skilful encounter of cunning use of words, and ask this question, What kind of men does this creed make? How does the creed come down into the life, and touch it, mould it, shape and direct it? We are willing to abide by the answer; to judge the works, as Christ challenged his contemporaries to do. We cannot find the source, it may be, but let us drink the water and say what kind it is, and be honest, healthy of soul in giving our evidence. There is a faith which says, “God is, God rules, God judges. God will bring all men into account; nothing happens by chance; the eternal decree includes the boundary and the issue of all things.” How does that creed operate in the life? It ought to make courageous men. Given the conviction that God has sent me, ordained me, and put his name within me, and where is fear? There is no night in my marching; the wilderness is a garden and the desert is a ground full of roses, so long as that gladdening, inspiring faith burns in my soul. Any faith that will produce such courage is, presumptively, well founded, and must, presumptively, have grand issues. Moses says, “Lord, whom shall I say sent me? When they ask me his name, what shall I say?” If a little name had been given to the man there had been no access of power in heart or arm; but charged with this name, “I AM that I AM,” Pharaoh became an object rather of contempt than of dread. The man came down upon Egypt from infinite heights; he did not struggle up to it as if the situation were greater than his resources. The man in whom this gracious faith rules ought to be a man in the enjoyment of the deepest peace. He ought to sing night and day, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” There is peace in his heart. “All things work together for good to them that are good” that is a gospel the good never left alone, the good never left to run any risks, the good pledged from eternity; the army that is with it, the Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Admit that intellectually, and you will go away and be as troubled as ever; realise it spiritually, let it enter into the making of the soul, and be the soul’s very protoplasm, the force of the soul, then your peace will flow like a river; no storm can trouble it; no wind can toss it into more than momentary agitation. The faith that produces such peace and the Christian faith does produce it is, presumptively, divine, authoritative, final.
We have thus ventured to trace all these speculations, suggestions, or nominal revelations to providence; thus, too, would we test all theology. How does the theology come out in the life? To believe in the Triune God, and to rob our neighbour, is the vilest blasphemy. Do not affront me with impertinence, and say you are orthodox, because you believe so much theological ink. If your life is heterodox “you are of your father, the devil.” Let us try all Christian propositions and doctrines and theologies by this one grand test What is the fruit? What is the work? What is the result? What is the life? And the life being such as God loves, the faith must be of the same quality; the tree is never better than the root.
In reading the Biblical description of providence and its operations in individual histories and imperial developments we feel no difficulty whatever as to the merely extraordinary or romantic element which may distinguish the story. Your own life is a romance. It is only commonplace for you, because you have come into it a day at a time; but if you could have taken a seven years’ stride, you would have gone from commonplace into the incredible, not to say the miraculous. Our light comes to us so gradually, we grow little by little, and the increments are so small and scarcely namable, that the sum-total does not surprise us; but if you could see your point of origin and your present point of strength, wealth, influence, comfort, hope, and Christian assurance, without seeing the intermediate process, what miracle could exceed the miracle of your own development? So, when we read of the men who went through the Red Sea, we can say, each for himself, “So have I.” We have fled from Egypt, and have been pursued by the enemy, and have passed through seas as upon dry land. If we had come to the story from without, entirely without sympathy or personal consciousness of divine realities, we should have called it miracle, romance, incredible, fable; but coming to it after forty years’ experience, struggle, difficulty, pain, hardship, loss, joy, and all the wondrous contradictions which crowd themselves into human life, we read about the Red Sea as if the story were part of our own life. We must try to outgrow the miracles, and, by our own daily growth in grace, so tower above them as to make them commonplaces. When we read of being fed in the wilderness, a strange glow of fire warms the heart, for we say, “Surely the man has known me; surely he has read my heart. Why, this is my own course.” When he says, “There is a certain tree the branches whereof will sweeten the bitter waters,” we say, “I know it. I have taken off the branches. I have sweetened the bitter stream, and that tree has been to me a tree of life.” We must not read the Bible as if it were something that had nothing to do with our life; we must come from our life back to the Redeemer of it; then, by instinctive gratitude, by an inborn music of the soul, our emphasis will fall into right pressure, and the colour of our reading will be beautiful as God’s rainbows, and our whole utterance of the word will be natural because we have lived it, and in reading the Bible we are telling our own story.
Providence leads up to redemption. There is no escape along that line. The God that numbers the hairs of our heads must be proportionately interested in the salvation of our souls. You cannot cut off the divine ministry, saying it belongs to this side of life but not to that. If God care for oxen, there is nothing in all human imagery of speech that can represent his love of man. If you admit the numbering of the hairs of your head, you are bound to go on to the completion of the evidence. Redemption involves providence; providence suggests redemption. Any one intervention of the divine finger in human life means, rightly read, the Cross. To think that God has provided for everything but for the forgiveness of sins, that God has been gracious to the body and forgotten the soul, that God has provided us with bread for the passing hunger of the days and made no provision for the inward hunger, the famine that kills the soul who can believe it? It is inadmissible in reasoning, not to say inadmissible in theology.
So, then, we stand in this faith today. We do not inherit our religion; we personally receive it, and personally repronounce the faith. Thousands of years ago, men said, “His mercy endureth for ever;” today men say the same. And they do not read it out of a book; it is forced out of them by the gracious necessities of gratitude. We are not to be snubbed by men who have invented some new theory of life for which no man ever died, and which never cost any man the sacrifice of a night’s sleep. We hide ourselves in the tabernacle of history, and we enter into that tabernacle through the gateway of our own consciousness and experience. We are part of a great band of witnesses; no merely single voice is heard in this testimony; it is a grand, massive, choral utterance of all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues, that God reigneth; that all that transpires in his universe is under his eye, and with him are the resources of wisdom and strength. So, whether we remain here or go elsewhere, the bounds of our habitation are fixed; we do not urge providence, or seek to drive it; we say to thee, ever-looking, ever-loving Father, “As thou wilt, here or there, or yonder, only fix the place, and we will build the altar.”
Prayer
Almighty God, we want to trust thee; give us thy Holy Spirit that we may not fail in the exercise of faith. We are made happy by trust; we are sure that our lives are in the hands of God, and that all things, how contrary soever in appearance and momentary conflict, work together for good, if we be right within. It is this inward part of our nature that is our difficulty. We can dress the body, but how can we perfect the soul? It is not in man that liveth to direct his way or to handle the education of his own spirit; we must come to our Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, and cry mightily unto our Father, saying, Create in me a clean heart, and renew within me a right spirit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; it tells lies to itself; it is self-deceiving, self-mocking, therefore self-ruining: Lord, save us from ourselves. Out of the heart proceed all evil things: create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. When we would do good, evil is present with us; whilst we pray, we doubt; whilst our eyes are lifted up to the hills whence cometh our help, they turn aside that they may glance at the valleys, the temptations, the prizes of time. How wondrously hast thou made us, and how wondrously have we made ourselves! We have lost our Father, we are in the darkness, we are meditating mischief all the day: create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Assure us that the enemy is not dead, that he has but left us for a season, and will return stronger than ever. When the enemy would come in like a flood, lift up thy Spirit as a standard against him. Feed us with the bread of life: Lord, evermore give us this bread; then we shall be stronger than all that can be arrayed against us. Watch our spirit, regard our heart with special interest, take not thy Holy Spirit from us. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew within me a right spirit. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 44:1 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, [what] work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
Maschil ] i.e. Making wise, or giving instruction; for which purpose this psalm was composed by David (as it is most probable), 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.
Ver. 1. We have heard with our ears ] i.e. We have both heard and heeded it, with utmost attention and affection. It is not a redundancy, but an emphasis that is here used.
Our fathers have told us
What work thou didst
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
From their now outcast condition, which the knew to be just, they cry to God, Who had done all the good their fathers had ever experienced; and God abides the same, He is their God.
The first group continues to Psa 49 which is a sort of homily concluding them. As the saint in the extreme trial endured could only look to God as his King (Psa 44:5 ), here we have the prophetic intervention immediately following.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 44:1-3
1O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.
2You with Your own hand drove out the nations;
Then You planted them;
You afflicted the peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.
3For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them.
Psa 44:1-3 This strophe recounts (perfect verbs, cf. Deu 32:7) all of YHWH’s activities for Israel during the conquest of Joshua. This conquest fulfilled the promise of Gen 15:12-21. Notice the Genesis passage emphasizes YHWH’s role (i.e., holy war) in the promise. YHWH acted, Abraham slept! The conquest was YHWH’s victory, not the Israelite military’s (Psa 44:3).
Psa 44:1 we have heard The Jewish annual feasts were occasions to instruct the new generations about God’ saving activities (cf. Exodus 12; Deu 6:20-25; note the recurrent phrase, when your children ask. . ., cf. Exo 12:26-27; Exo 13:14-15; Deu 6:20-25; Jos 4:6-7; Jos 4:21-24). It is the spiritual responsibility of every generation of believers to instruct the new generation about God, His character, and redemptive acts.
Psa 44:2 the nations. . .the peoples This refers to the native tribes of Canaan. See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: The Pre-israelite Inhabitants of Palestine
You planted them In context this still refers to the Canaanite tribes (cf. LXX). The OT viewed YHWH as the establisher of all people groups (cf. Deu 32:8). Gen 15:12-21 asserts that the inhabitants of Canaan were expelled because of their sins; when Israel sins she will be expelled also (cf. Psalms 78).
The TEV, REV, and NET Bible assume that Psa 43:2 relates to
1. the Canaanite people, Psa 44:2 a,c
2. the Israelites under Joshua, Psa 44:2 b,d (cf. Exo 15:17; Jer 45:4)
Psa 44:3 It was not Israel’s military but YHWH’s power to accomplish His purposes that allowed Israel to leave Egypt, travel to Canaan, and dispossess the native tribes!
Notice the parallelism between
1. Your right hand
2. Your arm
3. the light of Your presence
Number 3 would refer to the Shekinah Cloud of Glory during the Wilderness Wandering Period.
You favored them This is the purpose of YHWH’s promise to Abraham.
1. a seed (i.e., descendants)
2. a land
a. Abraham Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15; Gen 15:18
b. Israel Gen 26:3
c. Jacob Gen 28:13
The verb favored (BDB 953, KB 1280, Qal perfect) denotes the covenant purpose (cf. Gen 12:3) of bringing all peoples to Himself (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan ). YHWH chose to use Abraham and his seed (cf. Deu 4:37; Deu 7:7-8; Deu 10:15) to reach all the sons and daughters of Adam.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title. For the sons of Korah. The second of eleven so ascribed. See note on Title, Psalm 42, App-63. Maschil = Instruction. The third of thirteen Psalms so named. See note on Psalm 32, Title, and App-65. See note on Psalm 42, Title.
We have heard. Refers to the exodus. No time in reigns of David or Solomon to suit this Psalm. Temple-worship carried on. People in the land. Israel gone astray. Judah had turned away, but had returned (Psa 44:17-18). The Psalm suits Hezekiah only. Sennacherib and Rab-shakeh referred to in Psa 44:16. See the cylinder of Sennacherib (App-67.)
God. Hebrew Elohim. App-4.
told us = rehearsed. Compare Exo 12:26; Exo 13:14; Jos 4:6-7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 44:1-26
Psa 44:1-26 :
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in times of old. How you did drive out the heathen with thy hand, and you planted them; and how you did afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thy arm, and the light of thy countenance, because you had favor unto them. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me ( Psa 44:1-6 ).
Now, this psalm begins in a very powerful kind of an affirmation of God and a dependency upon God and, “Lord, we have heard, our fathers have told us, how that in times past You were with them, You helped them, You delivered their enemies into their hands. How that they came into this land and You gave this land over to them. You drove out the enemies. It wasn’t their strength or their power, but God, it was Your hand upon them that brought them into the land then gave them victory here. Lord, we have known all about it. We’ve heard about it. And You are our God. We acknowledge You as our King. But what is wrong?”
Now we get into the complaint of the psalmist. Up until now we were in good shape. “We know Your power. We know what You have done, and You are our God. But something has gone wrong here.”
But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and thou hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever and ever ( Psa 44:7-8 ).
And then the Selah brings the end of that part of the psalm. That is it. “God, we’re trusting in You. You are it. You’ve done it.” Now, here begins the complaint with verse Psa 44:9 . The Selah ends the first thing of confidence in God.
But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and you go not forth with our armies. You make us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves. You have given us like sheep appointed for meat; and you have scattered us among the heathen. You sell your people for nothing, and you do not increase your wealth by their price. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. You make us a byword among the heathen, the shaking of the head among the people. My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me, for the voice of him that reproached and blasphemed; by reason of the enemy and the avenger. All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the earth. Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake ( Psa 44:9-26 ).
Now it is an interesting psalm because there is vivid contrast. Again, the beginning with God, “We have heard of what You have done in the past. We know of Your power. Our fathers have told us what You have done. You are our God.” And yet, the difficulty of trying to understand our present circumstances which are so adverse. “If it is true that You take care of Your people, if it is true that You deliver Your people, then why are we in this present dilemma? For we have served You. We have kept Your covenant. Why, God, are we having these problems?”
Again, let me emphasize that God nowhere has promised that He would keep us from problems. He has promised to be with us in every trial. “But beloved count it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you” ( 1Pe 4:12 ). And yet, when we see a friend going through a deep trial we say, “Boy, this is weird. Wonder why God is allowing this, you know.” Or if I am going through a heavy trial I am always thinking of it as some strange thing that has happened to me. Why should I have to go through this trial? I guess it is almost instinctive for us to shun suffering. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t like to suffer. We would like to have an easy path through life. We would like to have everything come up roses. But life isn’t that way. Life has many pitfalls. Life has many sorrows. Life is filled with trials. But as a child of God I have the confidence and the assurance that God will be with me through any experience that I might have to pass. More than that, He has already gone before me.
“There is no temptation that has taken you but what is common with all man. But God, with that temptation, will provide for you the way of escape” ( 1Co 10:13 ). For He will not allow you to be tempted beyond your capacity to bear it, to endure it. But the trial of your faith is more precious than gold, though it perisheth, because that trial of your faith is producing, really, the enduring qualities.
Now fire is an interesting substance. And one of the ways by which God is defined is, “Our God,” it says, “is a consuming fire.” Now God is love, God is light, God is good. But then also our God is a consuming fire. What does He consume? He consumes the dross, the chaff, the sin, the evil. You see, fire is interesting because it has the capacity of destroying or of transmitting into permanency. It all depends on the material that is in it. Now if you have got a bag of sticks, then fire will consume it. But that same fire that consumes the sticks can forge the steel into permanency. In order for steel to be hardened, forged, you’ve got to put it through severe fire, tremendous heat. But it is tempered, transmitted into permanency. Now God is a figure of fire. We are all dwelling in God, in the fire. But what is the fire doing to you? It all depends on what you are. If you are a child of God, that fire is burning the dross. If you are not a child of God, that same fire is destroying you.
Now, we do have experiences in life that we do not understand. It is interesting that this particular psalm does not come out with any glowing happy ever after at the end. It ends with a cry, “O help me, God, for Your mercies’ sake.” But it isn’t one of the, “And lived happily ever after,” kind of things. It just ends with the cry, “O God, I need help.” But because the cry is unto God, the end is assumed. God will take care of it. God is watching over me. God does know the trial and the path that I take. And God will bring me through. Someday I am going to come out on top, victorious through Him. God will see that I do. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 44:1. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
Now Israel was restored to Canaan, and the Canaanite and Perizzite were driven out, that Gods chosen people might occupy their appointed place.
Psa 44:2-3. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
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.
Psa 44:4-6. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
See how the lesson from ancient history was turned to practical account in the psalmists 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 Gods 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.
Psa 44:7-8. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psa 44:1-8; and Psalms 45.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 44:1-8
THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S SUFFERING SAINTS
We shall refrain from discussing the multiple opinions about when this psalm was written, by whom, and upon what occasion. This writer professes no special ability for resolving the problem of the divergent views; and, besides, in the great majority of instances, the resolution of such questions adds very little to the proper understanding and appreciation of what is written. “The deepest and most precious elements in the Psalms are very slightly affected by the answers to such questions.
This does not indicate any lack of appreciation on our part for the kind of research scholars do toward finding the true answers to such questions; it only means that we find many reasons for loving and appreciating the Psalms regardless of `When’? `Where’? `By whom’? and `Upon what occasion’? a particular psalm might have been written.
The dates for this psalm which have been seriously proposed by able scholars are as follows. (1) “The times of the Maccabees was the date preferred by Calvin and others. (2) The reign of Jehoiachin was advocated by Tholuck. (3) Canon Cook argued for the times of David. (4) The reigns of Jehoram or Joshua are chosen by some. Ash included the “reign of Hezekia” as another proposed date.
Since the historical setting is apparently unknown and impossible of discovery, it seems a very futile exercise to “guess” at what it was and then to elaborate deductions based upon the “guess.”
We believe the New Testament provides the key for understanding this remarkable psalm. The problem that dominates it was identified by McCaw as, “The problem of the undeserved sufferings of godly people,” along with the astounding fact that such is in keeping with the will of God!
This mystery was pointed out by the apostle Paul who also provided the solution.
“For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” – Rom 8:36.
This quotation of Paul from Psa 44:22 here states what the mystery is. And then he gave the solution: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom 8:37). Paul’s quotation identifies the undeserved sufferings of 1Century Christians with those of the Old Israel featured in this psalm.
This makes it evident that the study of the sufferings of both the Old Israel and the New Israel of God, along with the reasons that apparently lay back of them, will yield for us the greatest profit. The sufferings of both Israels are here said to be, “for God’s sake,” because God desired it to be so, a truth evident in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
RECORD OF GOD’S PAST MERCIES
Psa 44:1-8
“We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us,
What work thou didst in their days,
In the days of old.
Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand;
But them thou didst plant:
Thou didst afflict the peoples;
But them thou didst spread abroad.
For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword,
Neither did their own arm save them;
But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance,
Because thou wast favorable unto them.
Thou art my King, O God:
Command deliverance for Jacob.
Through thee will we push down our adversaries:
Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow,
Neither shall my sword save me.
But thou hast saved me from our adversaries,
And hast put them to shame that hate us.
In God have we made our boast all the day long,
And we will give thanks unto thy name forever.”
The first three verses here are a thumb nail recapitulation of the victories of Israel in their conquest of Canaan. The psalmist frankly acknowledges that their victories were all the result of God’s providential aid and that they themselves were not the ones who won Canaan; God gave it to them. It was God’s work, not theirs.
“Command Deliverance for Jacob” (Psa 44:4). The marginal reading here for `deliverance’ is `victories,’ indicating that what the psalmist prayed for was more victories like those which marked Joshua’s leading Israel into Canaan. He also desired to trample his enemies under foot.
“We will tread them under” (Psa 44:5). “`Having pushed our foes to the ground, we shall then be able to tread them under,’ The imagery is drawn from the practice of buffaloes and wild bulls.
The last four books of the Pentateuch are a record of what is summarized here in these 8 verses. The psalmist, and all Israel, were familiar with the historical delivery of Israel from Egyptian slavery and with God’s replacing the pagan nations of Canaan with the Chosen People. These first eight verses conclude with what amounts to a prayer that “God will do it again” for Israel.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 44:1. The hearing that David mentioned had a figurative meaning. He was referring to the events that occurred many years before he was born. When people accepted and observed the sayings of God’s Word they were said to be hearing it. This principle is what is meant in Heb 2:1, for the things that “we have heard” had been said long before that day, and had been transmitted to the future generations in the writings of the apostles of Christ.
Psa 44:2. Heathen and people denoted the nations living in Canaan when the Israelites reached the land. Plantedst them means God settled his own people in the land.
Psa 44:3. This does not mean that the children of Israel did not have to use the sword, for they did. But that would not have conquered the heathen without the help of God. Light of thy countenance means that God’s face was toward the Israelites for their good and prompted him to fight for them.
Psa 44:4. God’s right to be ruler over all was the idea David meant to express in this verse. Clothed with such power and might he could decree that Jacob (the Israelites) be delivered, and their enemies be put to shame.
Psa 44:5. David’s confidence of victory over his enemies was based on his trust in the Lord. Lack of such faith caused the people to murmur when the spies formed their evil conclusions about the land. (Numbers 13, 14.)
Psa 44:6. This verse repeats the sentiments of the preceding one, with a specification on the negative side. It does not mean that no weapons were to be used, but that such weapons would succeed only when used in the service of God.
Psa 44:7. This verse starts with but, which verifies the comments I have made on the preceding one. Instead of relying on his material weapons for victory, David ascribes it to the help from the Lord.
Psa 44:8. Boast is not used in a bad sense. It is true the word usually has the idea of vanity and display. But it also may be used as an expression of gratitude, and of recognition of the true value of the things one possesses. It is used in that sense by David in this verse. For selah see comments at Psa 3:2.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The final meaning of this psalm is discovered in its last four verses. It is a prayer for deliverance from defeat. Its strength of appeal lies in its recognition of the government of God. He is the Author of good and evil. Of course, evil is used here in the sense of disaster and calamity. The psalmist sings of the God of good first (verses Psa 44:1-8). There is a double recognition of this. History attests it. The testimony of the fathers affirms it.
They had originally come into possession by the act of God (verses Psa 44:1-3). Then there is personal recognition of it. Trust is to be reposed in nothing save God (verses Psa 44:4-8). The word “but” indicates a change. The day is one of disaster, and this is recognized as the act of God, “Thou hast cast us off.” “Thou makest us to turn back,” and so on (verses Psa 44:9-16). Yet there has been no apostasy. Nay, rather it has been a pathway of suffering for the sake of God and His name (verses Psa 44:17-22). Light is thrown on this by Paul’s use of the words in Rom 8:36.
Then follows the plea for help and deliverance. It is a perfectly honest and reasonable plea, yet the wonderful advance of Christian experience is nowhere more plainly shown than here. The apostle of the new covenant makes no appeal for deliverance, but rather declares that in all these things we are more than conquerors, and affirms that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Courage from Former Deliverances
Psa 44:1-8
This psalm, like Psa 60:1-12, came out of one of the early wars in Davids reign, as described in 2Sa 8:13-14. Some refer it to 2Ch 20:1-37. It befits the Church when her former prosperous state contrasts sadly with her depressed and suffering condition.
It is a great argument in prayer when we can quote to God the mighty things of the past, and ask that He should do the same again. The great revivals and advances of the past were not achieved by human wisdom or might, but by faith. It is always Gods right hand and the light of Hiscountenance that win the land in possession; but why should He not command similar deliverances again! And what is true of the Church is equally true of the individual. Why not lift thy heart to God, O defeated soul, and claim that He should command victories for thee? Psa 44:2, r.v., margin. Make thy boast in God and thou wilt have reason to give thanks unto Him forever! But before we can claim Gods deliverances, we must be able to say, Thou art my King, Psa 44:4.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 44:3
This passage presents to us the following truths:-
I. The co-operation of God secures the success of all right work.
II. The spirit of true godliness will acknowledge God’s co-operation.
III. The recognition of God’s co-operation in the work of others is largely useful to ourselves.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 3rd series, No. 13.
Psa 44:21
This subject naturally divides itself into three parts.
I. The sin-forgetting God and holding up the hands to some strange god. These are not two sins, but one and the same sin, contemplated first upon one side and then upon the other.
II. The certainty of the discovery and punishment of the sin. “Shall not God search it out?” God will search out these idols, these strange gods to which we lift up our hands, rendering to them the service, the love, the fealty, the affection, which we justly owe to Him, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. The ground of this certainty: because He with whom we have to do is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of man. “He knoweth the very secrets of the heart.” The one great lesson for us is to beware of idols.
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 261.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalm 44
The Increased Cry for Deliverance
1. My King, O God! Command deliverances (Psa 44:1-8)
2. Trouble upon trouble and confusion (Psa 44:9-21)
3. Awake! Arise for our help! (Psa 44:22-26)
The third Maschil Psalm. They remember the days of old, what God did for His covenant people in the past, how He gave them the land with an outstretched arm and delivered them from their enemies. They own Him as King and call on Him to command deliverances for Jacob. Then they utter their complaint and describe the great troubles and calamities they are facing; they are spoiled, like sheep appointed for meat, scattered, scorned and derided. Yet they have not forgotten Him. Then follows the cry for the Deliverer and for deliverance. Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies sake.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
have heard: Psa 22:31, Psa 71:18, Psa 78:3-6, Psa 105:1, Psa 105:2, Exo 12:24-27, Exo 13:14, Exo 13:15, Isa 38:19, Joe 1:3
in the times: Num 21:14-16, Num 21:27-30, Job 8:8, Job 8:9, Job 15:17-19
Reciprocal: Exo 10:2 – And that Exo 13:8 – General Exo 18:1 – heard Num 14:42 – General Num 23:23 – according Num 26:11 – General Num 32:22 – land Deu 4:32 – ask now Deu 32:7 – Remember Jos 4:6 – when your Jos 23:3 – And ye Jdg 6:13 – our fathers 1Sa 12:8 – made them 1Ch 6:37 – Korah 1Ch 9:19 – Korah 1Ch 17:20 – according 1Ch 22:18 – before the Lord 1Ch 26:1 – Korhites 2Ch 20:19 – Korhites Psa 22:4 – General Psa 42:1 – the sons Psa 48:8 – As we Psa 90:16 – Let Psa 135:12 – gave their Psa 145:4 – generation Isa 5:2 – fenced it Isa 51:9 – as in Jer 21:2 – according Hab 3:12 – didst march
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Faith building on the testimony of past deliverances, and sustained, though in contrasted circumstances.
To the chief musician, Maskil of the sons of Korah.
In the forty-fourth psalm, faith goes back to the testimony of days long past, to build itself up on this, amid circumstances which yet are in such utter contrast. And this is what faith supposes, that the circumstances are, at least, not such as one can build upon. Faith is in “things unseen,” making that substantial which to mere sight and sense have no reality. Not that it has not foundations, but that these too are beyond natural sight, in the sphere of the spiritual, and thus, to the carnal, dreams.
1. The history of those days so long gone has indeed for Israel to bear the reproach of the meantime experience. Its testimony is of God acting in triumphant power, in behalf of a people now for long scattered and under the heel of the Gentiles, for whom how many vain hopes have kindled, only to be dispersed and put out in worse darkness than before. None more intense can be than that in which the period to which these psalms apply will find those whose exercises are recorded in them. The nation is lapsed into a condition of utter apostasy, for which the hand of God is necessarily upon them, and the remnant remaining true are yet under the shadow of this. From it they emerge at last, with the fruit of needed exercise secured by a discipline which divine love has ordained for them, into the apprehension of favor never to be lost again.
The lesson here is of absolute dependence on God, which to a feeble and oppressed people is the only possible source of encouragement. To leave man out of the question is to leave out an incalculable element, always causing uncertainty and disappointment. To make God all is to make reckoning simple, safe, and the balance sheet an immense surplus, whatever the expenditure. Let things be as they may, His grace is such as to give one amplest title to reckon upon Him. Here boldness of faith is only simplicity of obedience.
If this God is our God, we may claim Him wherever we find Him. All histories of His past ways become light for us. No laws of His in nature are so unchangeable as He Himself is. As He has ordained for us as His creatures a world of fixed realities amid which to walk, this spiritual world in which we find ourselves, living, and walking, and having our being in Him, is still as far beyond it as eternity beyond time, or heaven beyond earth. Here there is no caprice, but immutability itself, inviting absolute confidence. No dispensations -though they may variously reflect Him -change the Eternal. And this is how the very histories of Scripture become for us types and prophecies, and (in another sense than the Preacher meant it) “that which has been is that which shall be.”
So the remnant go back here to the beginning of their national history, to that which had come down to them from their fathers, who not with their own swords took possession of the land. God had dispossessed the nations and planted them; He had broken up races, and cast them out. His right hand, His arm, the light of His countenance, had manifested His acceptance of them. All this abode with them for present wisdom. Man’s nothingness was just as certain; God’s sufficiency was just as perfect.
2. And so now they claim and proclaim this God as theirs. “Thou art He,” -Thou art the same, -“my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.” Yes, Jacob, this worm of the dust, can only be delivered by Him who can command deliverances for him. And then, falling upon that arm of strength, there is at once an outburst of confidence: “Through Thee will we push down our oppressors; and by Thy name will we tread down those that rise against us.” Here is the application of that past history; and a reckoning like this has in it no element of deception.
3. The remembrance becomes fruitful in the production of character. In self-distrust like theirs, the children of those conquerors of old proclaim their genealogy. “I will not trust in my bow: nor shall my sword save me.” Testified by deliverances all along their history, which only His hand could have effected, the divine sufficiency is their only and constant boast, and His name shall be their praise forever. This is that for which He works, that His people may know Him, to their ceaseless joy, this joy in Him being the spring of power in them, and what unites His creatures to Himself forever. The worship of eternity is the seal of its blessing and perfection too. God is in His place, and the creature in his happy place with God.
4. But now we have the testing of faith by those circumstances which seem so thoroughly in contrast with this claim of the divine favor. Here there scarcely needs comment. The facts are plain to all and speak for themselves. The recital naturally goes on gathering gloom as it proceeds. First, though their hosts still go forth, God is no longer with them, as of old. Then there follows necessarily defeat and spoiling. Then they become mere sheep for the slaughter, scattered among the victorious nations. God too acquires no glory by the giving up of His people: those who should have been for His honor have become a reproach; nay, far and wide, an evil proverb and a shaking of the head.
5. These are the circumstances; now they speak of their inward state, exercised by all this, feeling it keenly, covered with shame and confusion of face, able to answer nothing in the presence of those who reproach and blaspheme, of enemies and vengeful men. Yet in spite of all, they cleave to God, neither their heart nor their steps turned aside from Him, though crushed in the place of prowling jackals, covered with the shadow of death. Had they forgotten Him, would they, they ask, be able to conceal it from Him? Their appeal is to One perfect in knowledge.
6. Must there not be, then, a limit to this sorrow? can He forget forever? When their enemies are His enemies, and for His sake they are being slaughtered? Can the hiding of His face continue, and their affliction as if unknown to Him? Now in the utter prostration of their strength, they cry to Him to arise and for His mercies’ sake to redeem them.
The next psalm shows the glorious answer to this prayer.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 44:1. We have heard with our ears, &c. We have been certainly informed, O Lord, by our fathers, and we believe what they have told us, not only concerning the wonderful works thou didst in their times, but in the ages long before them; as our ancestors, who lived in those days, have recorded. It is a debt which every age owes to posterity, to keep an account of Gods works of wonder, and transmit the knowledge of them to the next generation. As those that went before us told us what God did in their days, we are bound to tell those that come after us what he has done in ours, and let them do the like justice to those that succeed them: thus shall one generation praise his works to another, Psa 145:4. The fathers to the children shall make known the truth, Isa 38:19. And children should diligently attend to what their parents tell them of the wonderful works of God, as that which will be of great use to them; and we may all find, if we make a right use of them, that former experiences of Gods power and goodness are strong supports to faith, and powerful pleas in prayer, when we are in any trouble or distress.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 44:1. Our fathers have told us. All ancient patriarchs instructed their children, and all ancient nations instructed posterity by oral traditions, as in this psalm, by reciting how Joshua drove out the Canaanites. This was done also in their sacred odes, as many of the psalms testify. Our northern fathers often employed the early part of their long winter-nights in the amusing runes and histories of their ancestors. When a stranger called for hospitality, it was reckoned his duty to entertain the family by a recitation of sacred odes and histories. The EDDA, that is, instruction, of Iceland, celebrates the gods, the fathers, and the heroes. The VOLUSPA, by the sibyl or prophetess Vola, is of the same character. She sung the age when Emir lived, when there was neither land, nor sea, nor heaven above. The age before the invention of arts, and the coining of money.
Psa 44:12. Thou sellest thy people for nought. Thou deliverest them into the hands of their enemies, not indeed for money, but as corrections for their sins; for long and gross violations of the covenant, to which they had sworn.
Psa 44:19. In the place of dragons. The low country of Chaldea, where serpents abounded.
Psa 44:22. For thy sake are we killed all the day long. Rabbinical comments are often wide of the mark, yet we find here a reference to Mary, daughter of Nachton, who was taken captive with her seven sons, and shut up in prison. They brought forth the first before Csar; [Antiochus, 2 Maccabees 7., where the horrible story is related at large] and said to him, worship idols. He answered, it is written in our law, I am the Lord thy God. Then they carried him out and slew him, and brought the second before Caesar. The massacre of these seven sons took up the whole day. Dr. Lightfoot, Gittim, fol. 57. 2.
REFLECTIONS.
This Psalm being addressed to the sons of Korah, as well as Psalm 42. and 43., was probably much sung during the Babylonian captivity. It celebrates the goodness of the Lord in giving them the promised land, and by consequence indulges a distant hope of emancipation, though for the present he went not forth with their armies. It complains bitterly of the insults and the scorn they received in captivity; for calamities falling on persons of dignity are more severely felt than when they fall on the humble poor: and surely no persons are more justly exposed to scorn than fallen professors. There was another consideration which encouraged the Jews to hope for salvation; they had not forgotten the name of God in captivity. Therefore they were the more encouraged to pray that he would arise, help, and redeem them for his mercies sake. In every view the dealings of God with his ancient people, are instructive to the christian church.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XLIV. A National Prayer in Unmerited Distress.The Ps. evidently depicts the situation of Israel under Antiochus Epiphanes [but see OTJC2, pp. 207f., 437440.A. S. P.] So much was plain long ago to the Antiochene Fathers and at a later date to Calvin. Antiochus promulgated a decree enforcing unity of worship in his dominions and especially in Palestine. He also polluted the Temple at Jerusalem by heathen sacrifice. He encountered fierce opposition from the Asidans (= Hasidim), led by the Maccabees, and died in 164 B.C. without effecting his purpose (p. 607). This Ps. was written when the cause of the faithful Jews was under a temporary cloud. The following are the chief points which enable us to place it with confidence in Maccabean times. (a) The Jews have an army of their own, and therefore enjoy some measure of independent government, but at the same time many of their brethren are scattered among the nations (Psa 44:11). (b) Israel suffers, though faithful to its covenant with its God (Psa 44:17 f.). (c) There is no idolatry among the Jews (Psa 44:20). (d) The Jews are suffering religious persecution for, so far as we know, the first time. They are killed for the sake of their God and their Law. For thy sake are we killed all the day long (Psa 44:22). The earlier enemies of Israel and Judah, viz. the Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Greek successors of Alexander down to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, had shown no inclination to interfere with the Jewish religion as such. To what period in the Maccabean age does this Ps. belong? Possibly to the time which followed hard on the defeat and death of Judas Maccabus (p. 608). But no certain answer can be given.
Psa 44:1-3. Gods wonderful work in olden days, when He uprooted the peoples of Canaan and planted the Israelites in their place.
Psa 44:2. drive out: read, root out.afflict: read, break down.Thou didst spread them (i.e. the Israelites) abroad. The image is that of a tree spreading its branches.
Psa 44:4-8. Petition for renewed help: the people of Israel rely on God alone.
Psa 44:9-16. The present distress.
Psa 44:12 b. Thou hast not made their price great. We learn from 1Ma 3:41 that slave-dealers followed the Syrian army to purchase the captive Israelites as slaves.
Psa 44:14. The shaking of the head was a gesture of scorn (cf. Psa 22:7).
Psa 44:17-22. The misery is quite undeserved. The Jews have been faithful to the covenant.
Psa 44:19. place of jackals, i.e. in desolate ruins such as jackals haunt.
Psa 44:23-26. A renewed cry for Divine help.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 44
The faith of the godly remnant, counting upon what God has done for His people in the past and acknowledging God as their King, looks to God to arise for the help of His people and to deliver them from all their enemies.
(vv. 1-3) The godly remnant, though cast out of the land, and under the oppression of their enemies, cling in simple faith to what they have heard from their fathers of God’s mighty works on behalf of His people in the past. In those days it was not by their own power that God’s people were brought into the land, and their enemies dispossessed. It was God’s right hand, and God’s arm, that brought them into blessing, because God was favourable to His people and delighted in them.
(vv. 4-8) Now, when again the enemy is in possession of the land, and God’s people are cast out, the believing remnant claim God as their King, and look to Him that, once again, through His power they may be delivered from their enemies. Their trust will not be in their bow or sword, but in the God who in times past had saved them from their enemies. In God will be their boast, and His Name will they praise for ever.
(vv. 9-16) They recount before God the present condition of God’s professing people, and God’s ways with them, so utterly in contrast with His former ways. Not only are they cast off, defeated, spoiled by their enemies, and scattered among the heathen; but it is God Himself, who formerly wrought on their behalf, who has cast them off, and turned their backs before their enemies, and scattered them. They own that God’s hand in government is upon them; that God has sold His people into captivity, and made them a reproach, a scorn, a derision and a byword. Thus the godly soul is continually face to face with the confusion and shame of God’s people; for the voice of those that reproach and blaspheme is ever raised against them.
(vv. 17-22) Nevertheless, in the midst of all their confusion and shame, the godly can plead their integrity. They have not forgotten God. In the presence of the reproaches and blasphemy of the enemy they can say nothing, for they are conscious of the utter failure of the nation: but in the presence of God they can still plead that they have not forgotten God, nor turned aside from His covenant or His ways.
They are sore broken, and lie under the shadow of death; nevertheless they have not forgotten the name of God, nor stretched out their hands in appeal to a strange god. Had they done so God would have known it, for He knoweth the secrets of the heart. Thus they appeal to the perfect knowledge of God. So far from turning to a strange god, they are suffering all the day long, and are exposed to death, because they cleave to the true God.
(vv. 23-26) They appeal to God to awaken on their behalf, and cast them not off for ever. They plead their own deep need and His exceeding grace. They are in affliction and oppressed, bowed down and crushed; but with God there is help and loving-kindness.
This psalm unfolds deeply important principles, applicable to God’s people in any day of ruin. First, in an evil day, we should ever judge of the power and goodness of God by the way He acted for His people in the beginning of the dispensation; and beware of judging of God by the low condition in which they may be found by reason of their failure (vv. 1-3).
Secondly, in spite of all their failure, His people should trust in God as the One who alone can bring deliverance, and beware of seeking to remedy their condition by their own efforts (vv. 4-8).
Thirdly, in a day of failure it becomes God’s people to bow under the chastening hand of the Lord, looking beyond all second causes, and recognizing that God Himself has allowed them to become a reproach and a byword (vv. 9-18).
Fourthly, in spite of all failure, and the consequent chastening of the Lord, let them never surrender the truth; or think for one moment that failure relieves from responsibility to obey the Word, or to walk in God’s appointed way. It is still their privilege, and responsibility, in a day of ruin, to keep the covenant, walk in God’s way, cleave to His Name, and suffer for His sake (vv. 17-22).
Finally, while owning their failure, let them look to God alone to arise for their help (vv. 23-26).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
44:1 [To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.] We have heard with our {a} ears, O God, our fathers have told us, [what] work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
(a) This psalm seems to have been made by some excellent prophet for the use of the people when the Church was in extreme misery, either at their return from Babylon or under Antiochus or in similar afflictions.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 44
The writer spoke for the nation of Israel in this psalm. He lamented a national disaster, namely, defeat by enemies, and he called on the Lord to deliver. Evidently he could not identify sin in the nation as the cause of this defeat. He attributed it instead to it being "for Your sake" (Psa 44:22). Israel was apparently suffering because she had remained loyal to God in a world hostile to Him. The basis of the psalmist’s request was God’s faithfulness to the patriarchs and the people’s present trust in Him. [Note: On the meaning of Maskil in the title, see my note on Psalms 32.]
"Perhaps the Psalter’s boldest appeal to God’s faithfulness is found in Psalms 44, a communal lament psalm offered to God during an unidentified national catastrophe." [Note: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p. 300. ]
Other communal or community lament psalms are 60, 74, 77, 79-80, 83, 85, 90, 94, 123, 126, and 137.
"Perhaps this psalm was used at a national ’day of prayer’ with a worship leader speaking the ’I/my’ verses and the people the ’we/our’ verses." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 177.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The reason for Israel’s present trust in the Lord 44:1-8
The psalmist recalled God’s past faithfulness to Israel’s forefathers and affirmed the nation’s present confidence in the Lord.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Speaking for the nation, the psalmist related the account of God giving the Promised Land to His people in Joshua’s days that the forefathers had told. He stressed that God had given Canaan to them by defeating their enemies. The Israelites did not win it by their own strength. Next to the Exodus, the most frequently mentioned period of Israel’s history in the Psalms is the conquest of the land. [Note: Bullock, p. 112.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 44:1-26
CALVIN says that the authorship of this psalm is uncertain, but that it is abundantly clear that it was composed by anyone rather than David, and that its plaintive contents suit best the time when the savage tyranny of Antiochus raged. No period corresponds to the situation which makes the background of the psalm so completely as the Maccabean, for only then could it be truly said that national calamities fell because of the nations rigid monotheism. Other epochs have been thought of, so as to avoid the necessity of recognising Maccabean psalms, but none of them can be said to meet the conditions described in the psalm. The choice lies between accepting the Maccabean date and giving up the attempt to fix one at all.
Objections to that late date based upon the history of the completion of the canon take for granted more accurate and complete knowledge of a very obscure subject than is possessed, and do not seem strong enough to negative the indications arising from the very unique fact, asserted in the psalm, that the nation was persecuted for its faith and engaged in a religious war. The psalm falls into four parts: a wistful look backwards to days already “old,” when God fought for them (Psa 44:1-8); a sad contrast in present oppression (Psa 44:9-16); a profession of unfaltering national adherence to the covenant notwithstanding all these ills (Psa 44:17-22); and a fervent cry to a God who seems asleep to awake and rescue His martyred people (Psa 44:23-26).
The first part (Psa 44:1-8) recalls the fact that shone so brightly in all the past, the continual exercise of Divine power giving victory to their weakness, and builds thereon a prayer that the same law of His providence might be fulfilled now. The bitter side of the retrospect forces itself in, to consciousness in the next part, but here Memory is the handmaid of Faith. The whole process of the Exodus and conquest of Canaan is gathered up as one great “work” of Gods hand. The former inhabitants of the land were uprooted like old trees, to give room for planting the “vine out of Egypt.” Two stages in the settlement are distinguished in Psa 44:2 : first came the “planting” and next the growth; for the phrase “didst spread them forth” carries on the metaphor of the tree, and expresses the extension of its roots and branches. The ascription of victory to God is made more emphatic by the negatives in Psa 44:3, which take away all credit of it from the peoples own weapons or strength. The consciousness of our own impotence must accompany adequate recognition of Gods agency in our deliverances. The conceit of our own power blinds our vision of His working hand. But what moved His power? No merit of mans, but the infinite free grace of Gods heart. “The light of Thy face” is the symbol of Gods loving regard, and the deepest truth as to His acts of favour is that they are the outcome of His own merciful nature. He is His own motive. “Thou hadst delight in them” is the ultimate word, leading us into sacred abysses of self-existent and self-originated Deity. The spirit, then, of Israels history is contained in these three thoughts: the positive assertion of Gods power as the reason for their victories; the confirmatory negative, putting aside their own prowess; and the tracing of all Gods work for them solely to His unmerited grace.
On this grand generalisation of the meaning of past centuries a prayer is built for their repetition in the prosaic present. The psalmist did not think that God was nearer in some majestic past than now. His unchangeableness had for consequence, as he thought, continuous manifestation of Himself in the same character and relation to His people. Today is as full of God as any yesterday. Therefore Psa 44:4 begins with an emphatic recognition of the constancy of the Divine nature in that strong expression “Thou Thyself,” and with an individualising transition for a moment to the singular in “my King,” in order to give most forcible utterance to the thought that He was the same to each man of that generation as He had been to the fathers. On that unchanging relation rests the prayer, “Command salvations for (lit. of) Jacob, as if a multitude of several acts of deliverance stood before God, as servants waiting to be sent on His errands. Just as God (Elohim) takes the place of Jehovah in this second book of the Psalter, so in it Jacob frequently stands for Israel. The prayer is no sooner spoken than the confidence in its fulfilment lifts the suppliants heart buoyantly above present defeat, which will in the next turn of thought insist on being felt. Such is the magic of every act of true appeal to God. However dark the horizon, there is light if a man looks straight up. Thus this psalmist breaks into anticipatory paeans of victory. The vivid image of Psa 44:5 is taken from the manner of fighting common to wild horned animals, buffaloes and the like, who first prostrate their foe by their fierce charge and then trample him. The individualising “my” reappears in Psa 44:6, where the negation that had been true of the ancestors is made his own by the descendant. Each man must, as his own act, appropriate the universal relation of God to men and make God his God and must also disown for himself reliance on himself. So he will enter into participation in Gods victories.
Remembrance of the victorious past and confidence in a like victorious future blend in the closing burst of praise and vow for its continuance which vow takes for granted the future continued manifestation of deliverances as occasions for uninterrupted thanksgivings. Well might some long-drawn, triumphant notes from the instruments prolong the impression of the jubilant words.
The song drops in the second part (Psa 44:9-16) from these clear heights with lyric suddenness. The grim facts of defeat and consequent exposure to mocking laughter from enemies force themselves into sight, and seem utterly to contradict the preceding verses. But the first part speaks with the voice of faith and the second with that of sense, and these two may sound in very close sequence or even simultaneously. In Psa 44:9 the two verbs are united by the absence of “us” with the first; and the difference of tense in the Hebrew brings out the dependence of the second on the first, as effect and cause. Gods rejection is the reason for the nations disgrace by defeat. In the subsequent verses the thoughts of rejection and disgrace are expanded, the former in Psa 44:9 b to Psa 44:12, and the latter in Psa 44:13-16. The poet paints with few strokes the whole disastrous rout. We see the fated band going out to battle, with no Pillar of Cloud or Ark of the Covenant at their head. They have but their own weapons and sinews to depend on-not, as of old, a Divine Captain. No description of a fight under such conditions is needed, for it can have only one issue; and so the next clause shows panic-struck flight. Whoever goes into battle without God comes out of it without victory. Next follows plundering, as was the savage wont of these times, and there is no force to oppose the spoilers. The routed fugitives are defenceless and unresisting as sheep, and their fate is to be devoured, or possibly the expression “sheep for food” may be substantially equivalent to “sheep for the slaughter” (Psa 44:22), and may refer to the usual butchery of a defeated army. Some of them are slain and others carried off as slaves. The precise rendering of Psa 44:12 b is doubtful. Calvin, and among the moderns, Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch, Cheyne, take it to mean Thou didst not set their prices high. Others, such as Hupfeld, Baethgen, etc., adhere to the rendering, “Thou didst not increase [Thy wealth] by their price.” The general sense is clear, and as bold as clear. It is almost sarcasm, directed against the Divine dealings: little has He gained by letting His flock be devoured and scattered. Hupfeld attaches to the bitter saying a deep meaning: namely, that the “sale” did not take place “for the sake of profit or other external worldly ends, as is the case with men, but from higher disciplinary grounds of the Divine government-namely, simply as punishment for their sins for their improvement.” Rather it may indicate the dishonour accruing to the God, according to the ideas of the old world, when His votaries were defeated; or it may be the bitter reflection, “We can be of little worth in our Shepherds eyes when He parts with us so easily.” If there is any hint of tarnish adhering to the name of God by His peoples defeat, the passage to the second main idea of this part is the easier.
Defeat brings dishonour. The nearer nations, such as Edomites, Ammonites, and other ancestral foes, are ready with their gibes. The more distant peoples make a proverb out of the tragedy, and nod their heads in triumph and scorn. The cowering creature, in the middle of this ring of mockers, is covered with shame as he hears the babel of heartless jests at his expense, and steals a glance at the fierce faces round him.
It is difficult to find historical facts corresponding with this picture. Even if the feature of selling into captivity is treated as metaphor, the rest of the picture needs some pressure to be made to fit the conditions of the Maccabean struggle, to which alone the subsequent avowals of faithfulness to God as the cause of calamity answer. For there were no such periods of disgraceful defeat and utter devastation when once that heroic revolt had begun. The third part of the psalm is in full accord with the religious consciousness of that Indian summer of national glories; but it must be acknowledged that the state of things described in this second part does not fit quite smoothly into the hypothesis of a Maccabean date.
The third part (Psa 44:17-22) brings closely together professions of righteousness, which sound strangely in Christian ears, and complaints of suffering, and closes with the assertion that these two are cause and effect. The sufferers are a nation of martyrs, and know themselves to be so. This tone is remarkable when the nation is the speaker; for though we find individuals asserting innocence and complaining of undeserved afflictions in many psalms, a declaration of national conformity with the Law is in sharp contradiction both to history and to the uniform tone of prophets. This psalmist asserts not only national freedom from idolatry, but adherence in heart and act to the Covenant. No period before the exile was clear of the taint of idol worship and yet darkened by calamity. We have no record of any events before the persecutions that roused the Maccabean struggle which answer to the martyr cry of Psa 44:22 : “For Thy sake we are killed all the day.” It may, indeed, be questioned what is the relation in time of the two facts spoken of in Psa 44:17-19. Which comes first, the calamity or the steadfastness? Does the psalmist mean, “We are afflicted, and yet we are in affliction true to God,” or “We were true to God, and yet are afflicted”?
Probably the latter, as in the remainder of this part. “The place of jackals” is apparently the field of defeat referred to in the second part, where obscene creatures would gather to feast on the plundered corpses. The Christian consciousness cannot appropriate the psalmists asseverations of innocence, and the difference between them, and it should not be slurred over. But, on the other hand, his words should not be exaggerated into charges of injustice against God. nor claims of absolute sinlessness. He does feel that present national distresses have not the same origin as past ones had had. There has been no such falling away as to account for them. But he does not arraign Gods government. He knows why the miseries have come, and that he and his fellows are martyrs. He does not fling that fact down as an accusation of Providence, but as the foundation of a prayer and as a plea for Gods help. The words may sound daring; still they are not blasphemy, but supplication.
The fourth part is importunate prayer. Its frank anthropomorphisms of a sleeping God, forgetting His people, surely need little defence. Sleep withdraws from knowledge of and action on the external world, and hence is attributed to God, when He allows evils to run unchecked. He is said to “awake,” or, with another figure, to “arise,” as if starting from His throned calm, when by some great act of judgment He smites flourishing evil into nothingness. Injustice is surely done to these cries of the Ecclesia pressa when they are supposed to be in opposition to the other psalmists word: “He that keepeth Israel slumbers not, nor sleeps.” Some commentators call these closing petitions commonplace; and so they are. Extreme need and agony of supplication have other things to think of than originality, and so long as sorrows are so commonplace and like each other, the cries of the sorrowful will be very much alike. God is pleased with well-worn prayers, which have fitted many lips, and is not so fastidious as some critics.