Psalm 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.

2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand and planted them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.

 arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them.

4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverance 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.

9 But thou hast cast off and put us to shame; and goes not forth with our armies.

10 Thou makes us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.

11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

12 Thou sells thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.

13 Thou makes us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

14 Thou makes us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

16 For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes, by reason of the enemy and avenger.

17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.

18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way.

19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;

21 Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart.

22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

23 Awake, why sleeps thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off forever.

24 Wherefore hides thou thy face, and forgets our affliction and our oppression?

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the earth.

26 Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.  (KJV)

Romans 11:25 “For I do not want you brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel be saved; just as it is written, The Deliver will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob, and this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”  In Romans chapter eleven Paul expounds on how God has not rejected His people but for a space of time until the completeness of the fulness of the Gentiles they will be in darkness.  Consider carefully the words found in verses nine through twenty-six as you study this psalm:

But thou hast cast off and put us to shame.

And goes not forth with our armies.

Thou make us to turn back from the enemy.

They which hate us spoil for themselves.

Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat.

Thou hast scattered us among the heathen.

Thou sell thy people for nought.

Thou dost not increase thy wealth by their price.

Thou make us a reproach to our neighbors.

We are a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

Thou make us a byword among the heathen.

We are a shaking of the head among the people.

My confusion is continually before me.

The shame of my face hath covered me,

For the voice of him those reproaches and blasphemes, by reason of the enemy and avenger.

All this comes 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 are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Awake, why sleeps thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off forever.

Wherefore hides thou thy face and forgets 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. 

This is the reply to verses one through eight in this chapter. 

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 planted them.

How thou didst afflict the people and cast them out.

How your arm saves them: by thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance.

          Because thou hadst a favor unto them.

Thou art my King, O God: command deliverance 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.

But thou hast saved us from our enemies.

Thou hast put them to shame that hated us.

          In God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever. Selah.

The history of the Jewish people is not only a history of a religion, but of a nation of people who have been scattered by God unto the utter ends of the earth.  Their history begins with Abraham around four thousand years ago through his son Isaac. For almost two thousand years after Isaac, we can read how they grew from a small tribe of people to a small nation living and serving the Pharoah in Egypt to a becoming a nation in the Middle East.  For almost fifteen hundred years we can study the rise and fall of this nation from being a group of tribes to a strong nation under three kings and then becoming two divide nations which will then go into captivity and then return to rebuild again.   

And yet in the nearly two thousand years after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans and the scattering of the Jewish people throughout the entire world they have still retain their national identity over these last two thousand years.  Now for the last seventy-six years Israel is back in land that they can call home.  They have look to this promise return throughout their history and it has now come to past.  Verses nine through twenty-six in this psalm could reflect how the probably felt the last two thousand years.  Reflecting back to Paul’s words in Roman 11:25 “partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel be saved” could point to the return of our Lord in the near future.  

Verse twenty-two “Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered” is used by Paul in Romans 8:36 in response to the question “If God is for us who can be against us”.  In the past my daughter and I would race to see who could quote Romans 8:28 the fastest. It was my desire to make this verse real in her life, since I knew her Christian walk in this life would not be easy. Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” is the verse that states the conclusion of Paul’s discussion on living your life through the spirit. When studying the book of Romans, we realize that we were born in sin and we do not seek God, but it was God who seeks after us and provided a way back to Him through Christ that we might become sons of God.  Therefore, to understand this psalm in light of Romans chapter eight we must understand that the world lives according to the sinful nature of the old man, and we live according to the spiritual nature of the new man. These two natures have two different masters with two different goals: Christ and glorifying God, man and glorifying man. When we take on the spiritual nature, we take on the nature of a servant just as Christ did when he was on this earth. This new nature then seeks Christ and ways of glorifying God.

When we study the scripture, we must realize that God’s will for man is that we become sons of God. Therefore, it is important that all believers know and completely understand the effects that the fall of man (found in Genesis 3) had on the relationship of God and man that existed before the fall. Before the fall man walk with God, after the fall man hid from God. Christ though his death on the cross has renewed the relationship between God and man. The relationship that existed before the fall (found in Genesis 3) has been restored to man through Christ.