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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to Psalms · About this commentary

Awake! Why Do You Sleep?

Psalms 44:1-26

1 For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative psalm. We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us what work you did in their days, in the days of old. · WEB

A defeated nation states that it has done nothing wrong, and the New Testament agrees with it.

We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us what work you did in their days Psalms 44:1.

The psalm opens with the national memory and states its lesson exactly: they didn't get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face Psalms 44:3. The conquest was not an achievement.

For I will not trust in my bow, neither will my sword save me Psalms 44:6. Having learned the lesson, they apply it. Everything to verse eight is orthodox and grateful.

But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don't go out with our armies Psalms 44:9.

The hinge, and what follows is the most direct accusation in the Psalter. Every verb is God's: you make us turn back, you have made us like sheep for food, you sell your people for nothing, you make us a byword among the nations Psalms 44:10–14. The defeat is not blamed on the enemy or on bad leadership. It is laid at God's door in the second person, at length.

You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale Psalms 44:12.

The bitterest line. Not merely sold, but sold cheap — and the seller got nothing out of it either. Whatever this catastrophe accomplished, the psalm cannot see it.

All this has come on us, yet we haven't forgotten you. We haven't been false to your covenant Psalms 44:17.

Here the psalm departs from every other national lament in Scripture. The standard form is confession: we were defeated because we sinned. This one denies it. Our heart has not turned back, neither have our steps strayed from your path Psalms 44:18, and it dares God to check — won't God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart Psalms 44:21.

That this psalm is in the canon is the important fact about it. Scripture preserves, for public singing, a prayer that insists the suffering was undeserved and refuses the explanation the sufferers were expected to give.

Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter Psalms 44:22.

Paul quotes this verse in the middle of the eighth chapter of Romans, in the list of things that cannot separate believers from the love of Christ Romans 8:36. The quotation settles the psalm's central claim: the suffering really was for your sake, and the apostle does not correct the complaint. He includes it, and answers it not by explaining the defeat but by saying what it cannot do.

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Psalms 44:23. The psalm ends with no answer, no turn, and no resolution — only redeem us for your loving kindness' sake Psalms 44:26, which is the one ground left when innocence has already been pleaded.

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