Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 44:6
For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
6. Cp. Psa 20:7; Psa 33:16; Psa 60:11 f; 1Sa 17:47; Hos 1:7; and the noble speech of Judas Maccabaeus (1Ma 3:17 ff.); “The victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host, but strength cometh from heaven.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For I will not trust in my bow – The author of the psalm himself again speaks as expressing his own feelings, and stating the grounds of his confidence and hope. Compare Psa 44:4. At the same time he doubtless expresses the feelings of the people, and speaks in their name. He had said Psa 44:3 that the ancestors of the Jewish people had not obtained possession of the promised land by any strength or skill of their own, and he now says that he, and those who were connected with him, did not depend on their own strength, or on the weapons of war which they might employ, but that their only ground of trust was God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. I will not trust in my bow] As he is speaking of what God had already done for his forefathers, these words should be read in the past tense: “We have not trusted,” &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But I will trust in thee only, as the next verse implies; and therefore do not frustrate my hope and confidence fixed upon thee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6-8. God is not only our solehelp, but only worthy of praise.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For I will not trust in my bow,…. In any carnal weapon, in any creature help and assistance, or in an arm of flesh, but in the word of the Lord, and in his name; see Ps 20:7;
neither shall my sword save me; that is, I will not ascribe salvation to it; the church’s weapons are not carnal, but spiritual; not the sword of the civil magistrate, but the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; Christ’s kingdom, being not of this world, is not supported and defended by worldly means, or carnal weapons.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“I will freely sacrifice unto thee.” Psa 44:6
If we take the word “freely” as equivalent to freewill we see what a scope love has in the offering of sacrifices unto God. The verse might be rendered “I will offer a freewill sacrifice.” Some offerings we must make, not of our own freewill but by the compulsion of nature, by all the necessities which represent the sterner aspects of life. Some tributes are forced from us. We are obliged to wait for the seasons. We are compelled to bow down our heads if not in acquiescent yet in sullen consent to the decrees of Providence. On other occasions we are, so to say, left to invent the expressions of our own love; God gives us opportunities in which we may show our real quality, and prove what we would do if we could. The great purpose of divine discipline is; to work out the freewill of men. At first man would seem to have no freewill; he is bounded by laws, he is influenced by heredity, he is shut in by circumstances, he is hardly consulted as to the way in which he will spend his own life. We begin our experiences under the rod. Stern commandments say, Thou shalt, Thou shalt not, during every hour of our early existence. Then the time comes when we have a larger manhood. God gives us partial liberty. Having enjoyed this liberty without abusing it we are entrusted with still greater responsibility. As time goes on we seem to have reversed the whole plan of life and to have come into a large heritage of individual freedom. If we have profited by the discipline of life, the freedom which follows it will not be misunderstood or perverted. Freedom itself will be but a larger law. Love will begin to consider what it can do by way of repayment of the divine goodness. Thus we escape the mere literal law, the hard and stern request and command, and come into the exercise of our larger and finer faculties. The question then is, What shall we do now that we have come under the inspiration of love, having escaped the dominion of iron law? If the home-life has been good, wise, and beautiful, children on leaving it will not forget the past, but will begin to wonder how they can recognise the very discipline under which once they chafed. Let us feel that God has given us great liberty in this matter of serving him, and let it be our business not to consider how little we can do in return, but how much.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Psa 44:6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
Ver. 6. For I will not trust in my bow ] To trust in men or means is the ready road to utter ruin. Idas, one of the Argonauts, is brought in by the poet, bragging that he trusted not in the gods, but in his own arm and arms. .
What need we to fear the Turks (said Sigismund, the young king of Hungary, in his pride and jollity), who need not at all to fear the falling of the heavens, which, if they should fall, yet were we able with our spears and halberds to hold them up for falling upon us? He shortly after this received a notable overthrow. Carnal confidence endeth in confusion.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
trust = confide. Hebrew. batah. App-69.
bow . . . sword. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), for military science. Compare 2Ki 19:32.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Psa 20:7, Psa 33:16, Psa 33:17, Hos 1:7
Reciprocal: 1Sa 14:23 – the Lord 1Sa 17:45 – Thou comest 1Sa 17:47 – saveth not 2Ki 6:22 – thy sword Job 40:14 – that Psa 18:29 – by thee