Psalms
Psalms 44
For the end. A psalm by the sons of Korah, for understanding.
1 God, we heard with our ears; our ancestors told us about the work you did in their days, in ancient days.
2 Your hand completely destroyed nations, and you planted our ancestors. You afflicted peoples and drove them out.
3 They did not inherit the land by their own sword, and their own arm did not save them. Instead, it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, because you delighted in them.
4 You yourself are my King and my God, the one who commands Jacob’s rescues.
5 Through you we will gore our enemies, and in your name we will treat those who rise against us as nothing.
6 I will not trust in my bow, and my sword will not save me.
7 You saved us from those who afflicted us and put those who hated us to shame.
8 We will boast in God all day and give thanks to your name forever. Pause.
9 But now you rejected us and put us to shame, and you will not go out with our armies.
10 You made us turn back from our enemies, and those who hated us plundered for themselves.
11 You gave us up like sheep for food and scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for no price and gained nothing from exchanging them.
13 You made us a reproach to our neighbors, an object of mockery and ridicule to those around us.
14 You made us a proverb among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 My disgrace is before me all day, and the shame of my face has covered me
16 because of the voice of the one who reproaches and slanders, because of the enemy and pursuer.
17 All these things came upon us, yet we did not forget you or act unjustly against your covenant.
18 Our heart did not turn back, and you turned our paths away from your way.
19 You humbled us in a place of suffering, and death’s shadow covered us.
20 If we forgot the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would God not investigate this? He knows the heart’s secrets.
22 Because of you we are put to death all day; we are regarded as sheep for slaughter.
23 Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Rise and do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you turn your face away and forget our poverty and affliction?
25 Our soul was humbled into the dust; our belly clung to the ground.
26 Rise, Lord! Help us and ransom us for your name’s sake.