Psalm 44

Psalm 44 is one of the psalms of the sons of Korah near the beginning of Book II of the Psalms (Psalms 42–72). Its superscription reads "Maschil for the sons of Korah" (maschil is the name of a poetic genre whose meaning is uncertain). In the preceding Psalms 42–43, an individual speaker voices discouragement and addresses "my soul." In Psalm 44 the speaker shifts to "we," and the psalm becomes the lament of the entire community.

Structure

• Verses 1–3 recall the deeds of old that the people heard from their fathers. They confess that God drove out the nations and planted their fathers in the land, and that the land was won not by their fathers' sword but by God's right hand and the light of His countenance.
• Verses 4–8 address God as "my King" and confess that victory over enemies comes not by bow and sword but through God's name. The section closes with a vow to boast in God all the day long, followed by "Selah."
• Verses 9–16 turn with "But now": God no longer goes forth with the armies, so the people are defeated and plundered. They complain that they have been scattered among the nations like sheep appointed for meat and, as though sold for nought, have become a reproach to their neighbors.
• Verses 17–22 protest that the people have not forgotten God, have not dealt falsely in His covenant, and have not stretched out their hands to a strange god. Yet they have been sore broken "in the place of dragons" (rendered "jackals" in many translations) and are counted as sheep for the slaughter all the day long.
• Verses 23–26 cry out, "Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?" and plead with God not to hide His face but to redeem them for His mercies' sake.

Key Verses

• Psalm 44:3 "For they got not the land in possession by their own sword" — a confession that attributes past victories entirely to God and lays the foundation for the lament that follows.
• Psalm 44:22 "We are counted as sheep for the slaughter" — the verse Paul quotes in Romans 8:36.
• Psalm 44:23 "Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?" — a clear example of the direct protest to God that characterizes lament psalms.

People and Places

• Sons of Korah: The name in the superscription, traditionally identified as a Levitical family responsible for singing in the temple. They were descendants of Korah, who appears in the book of Numbers.
• Jacob (verse 4): Refers not to the patriarch as an individual but to the whole people of Israel, his descendants.

Points for Reflection

• Many lament psalms regard suffering as discipline for sin and include a confession of repentance. This psalm, by contrast, asserts that the people suffered even though they had been faithful to the covenant. For this reason it is sometimes read alongside the book of Job, which deals with the suffering of the righteous.
• The text does not identify the historical event behind the psalm. Various settings have been proposed, including the Babylonian exile, the Assyrian invasions, and the Maccabean period, but none has been established.
• "Why sleepest thou" in verse 23 does not mean that God actually sleeps. It is understood as an expression of God's silence as experienced by the one who prays. The verse is sometimes contrasted with Psalm 121, which declares that He "shall neither slumber nor sleep."
• In Romans 8, Paul quotes verse 22 to describe the suffering Christians endure and goes on to confess that even such suffering cannot separate them from the love of Christ. Jewish tradition is said to have read verse 22 in connection with martyrdom.
• "Mercies" in verse 26 translates the Hebrew hesed, which denotes God's covenant love. Some words, such as Selah in verse 8 (verse 9 in the Hebrew numbering), appear only in the Psalms.
• Because the Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as verse 1, its verse numbers are offset by one from those of the Korean Revised Version and of English versions such as the KJV. In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), this psalm is numbered Psalm 43.