Psalm 44:1

Psalm 44 is one of the most intense communal laments in the Psalter, and these eight verses are its foundation. After them the psalm turns sharply. In Psalm 44:9–16 the people describe defeat and public shame, in Psalm 44:17–22 they insist that they have kept faith with God, and in Psalm 44:23–26 they cry out for him to awake and help them. The psalm names no event. Some place it in the Assyrian or Babylonian invasions and others later still, and whatever the occasion was, God’s people were suffering badly while holding to his covenant.

Many laments open with a cry for help. This one opens with history, and the order carries the argument. The God they call on is the God who has already acted for them, and the distance between what he did then and what they suffer now makes the plea urgent. In effect they ask, “Why are you not acting now as you did then?” Other laments lean on God’s past acts in the same way (Psalm 74, Psalm 77, Psalm 80), and Isaiah calls on the arm of the LORD to wake as it did in the ancient days (Isaiah 51:9–10).

Verse 2 tells the work itself. “Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand.” The verb yârash means to occupy by driving out the previous tenants and possessing in their place. The heathen, gôwy, are the foreign nations, here the peoples of Canaan who lived in the land before Israel came. “With thy hand” gives the deed to God himself, acting directly.

“And plantedst them.” The verb nâṭaʻ simply means to plant. The picture is of God setting his people in the ground like a tree or a vine, so that they could take root and grow there. Isaiah’s song of the vineyard uses the same picture: Israel is the vineyard the LORD planted, and it belongs to him (Isaiah 5:1–7). The second half of the verse says the first again in other words. “How thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out” uses râʻaʻ for “afflict”, and the two halves together say that God both removed the old inhabitants and established the new.

This was God keeping his word. He promised the land to Abraham and his seed (Genesis 12:7) and marked out its borders by covenant (Genesis 15:18–21). He commanded Israel to drive out the nations of Canaan when he brought them in (Deuteronomy 7:1–2), and at the end of Joshua’s life he reminded them that he had given them “a land for which ye did not labour” (Joshua 24:13). The promise at the sea held all through: “The LORD shall fight for you” (Exodus 14:14).

Verse 3 gives the reason for everything in verse 2. “They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them.” The sword, chereb, is the soldier’s weapon, a word Strong’s ties to destruction, and the arm, zᵉrôwaʻ, is the common Hebrew picture of strength. Together they stand for an army’s might and skill. The nations around Israel gave the glory for their victories to their gods and their armies together. This verse gives Israel’s armies none of it.

“But thy right hand, and thine arm.” God’s right hand is his saving power at work, as Moses sang at the sea: “Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power” (Exodus 15:6). Their arm is set beside his arm, and his is the one that won. Moses had warned Israel against saying in the land, “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth,” and told them to remember the LORD who gave them power (Deuteronomy 8:17–18). The prophet says it in one line: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). Paul finds the same pattern in the church, where God chose the weak and the despised so that no flesh should glory in his presence (1 Corinthians 1:26–29).

In verse 4 the memory turns into prayer. “Thou art my King, O God.” The word melek comes from a root meaning to reign, and it names the one with supreme and rightful rule. A king was his people’s lawgiver, judge and protector, and the God of Israel is all of these without limit. The psalmist says it in the singular, “my King”, so the confession of the whole people is also his own act of trust. He says it on the edge of the lament that follows, which makes it a bold word of faith: the people are about to describe defeat, and they first declare that God still reigns. Other scriptures give him the same title, the King of glory who enters his gates (Psalm 24:7–10), and the LORD who is “our king; he will save us” (Isaiah 33:22).

“Command deliverances for Jacob.” The verb tsâvâh means to give an order with authority, a decree that carries the will of the one who gives it. A king’s word is power, as the Preacher says: “Where the word of a king is, there is power.” The psalmist asks God to speak as King, because his word is enough to bring the rescue about.

“Deliverances” is the plural of yᵉshûwʻâh, deliverance or salvation, so the prayer is for rescue upon rescue, a full deliverance from all their distress. Scripture uses this word for rescue brought about by men as well, though every such rescue comes in the end from the LORD.

“Jacob” stands for the whole nation. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Genesis 32:28), his twelve sons became the twelve tribes, and at Bethel God promised him the land, a great seed, and his presence: “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest” (Genesis 28:13–15). Calling the people Jacob reminds God of those promises, and the prophets use the name the same way when God promises to save Jacob from afar (Jeremiah 30:10–11).

Verse 5 turns the memory into present confidence. “Through thee will we push down our enemies.” The verb nâgach means to butt with the horns, as an ox or a ram does, and so to war against and push down. It pictures a charge that throws the enemy over. “Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.” The verb bûwç means to trample or tread down underfoot, and trampling a beaten enemy was a sign of complete conquest.

“Through thee” and “through thy name” say the same thing twice. In Scripture a shêm, a name, stands for the whole person: his character, his reputation, his authority and his presence. To fight through God’s name is to fight with his backing and in his power, which is why it carries no magic of its own. Another psalm makes the contrast: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7). “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10). David went out to Goliath with these words: “I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45). Israel’s law promised that the LORD goes with his people to fight for them against their enemies (Deuteronomy 20:4), and Moses sang, “The LORD is a man of war” (Exodus 15:3).

Verse 7 looks back again. “But thou hast saved us from our enemies.” The verb is yâshaʻ, the same verb as in verse 6. What the sword could never do, God has done. The enemies are tsar, a word that most often means an adversary, and that comes from a root meaning to cramp. It can also mean a narrow place or distress. Set beside a verb for being open and free, the verse pictures enemies who hem God’s people in and a God who brings them out into safety. “Hast saved” speaks of something done and finished, a record of God’s faithfulness to build on.

“And hast put them to shame that hated us.” The verb bûwsh properly means to grow pale, and so to be ashamed, and it can carry the sense of being disappointed. For an enemy it means public disgrace, plans that come to nothing and boasts proved empty. God’s rescue of his people and the shaming of their enemies are one act, as at the Red Sea, where Pharaoh’s army was overthrown (Exodus 14). “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD” (Psalm 3:8). Another psalm blesses God for the same escape and ends, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:6–8), and God promises through Isaiah that all who are incensed against his people shall be ashamed and confounded (Isaiah 41:11–12).

The opening section ends in praise. “In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever.” The name here is ʼĕlôhîym, plural in form, which when it names the true God is a plural of majesty, usually with a singular verb. The verb for boasting is hâlal, which Strong’s defines as to be clear, to shine, and so to make a show or to boast. It is the root of “Hallelujah”, and it most often means to praise.

The people boast, and the boast is all about God. It puts his greatness, his mighty acts and his faithfulness on display. Jeremiah draws the line: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might... But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” (Jeremiah 9:23–24). Paul takes that up for the church: “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17). “All the day long” and “for ever” make the praise constant, as David vowed, “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1).

The verse ends with Selah, the Hebrew çelâh, which appears 71 times in the Psalms and 3 times in Habakkuk. Its exact meaning is uncertain. It is a musical or liturgical mark, and it may call for a pause, an instrumental interlude or an emphasis. Here it stands after the vow of lasting praise and gives it weight, just before the psalm plunges into lament.

The work God did in the times of old points ahead to his greatest work, in Jesus Christ. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and by his own blood he obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). The fathers told their children what God had done, and the gospel is told in the same way from one generation to the next, so that people hear it and confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9).

The God who planted Israel plants a people in his Son. Jesus is the true vine (John 15:1), believers are rooted and built up in him (Colossians 2:7), and they are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), looking for a better country, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16). What they receive comes the way the land came, by grace through faith and without works of their own (Ephesians 2:8–9), and God’s favour shines on them in the face of Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 2 Corinthians 4:6).

The King who commands deliverances came in person. Jesus commanded the wind and the sea, “Peace, be still”, and they obeyed (Mark 4:39). He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16), and all who belong to him are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29).

He won his victory with no bow and no sword. He could have called on more than twelve legions of angels, and he went to the cross instead (Matthew 26:53), because “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25). There he spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly (Colossians 2:15), and through death he destroyed the one who had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). He became the author of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:9) and delivered his people from the power of darkness into his kingdom (Colossians 1:13). So believers are “more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37), he gave his disciples power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19), and every knee will bow at the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9–11). Our boast is in that name, and our praise will go on for ever with the heavenly chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Revelation 5:12–13), for God works all things together for good to them that love him (Romans 8:28).

These verses give us a way to pray when things go badly. The people of Psalm 44 began with what God had done, and that memory gave them words for the hardest prayer of their lives. The God who drove out nations with his hand and planted his people in the land is the same God we pray to. Everything his people have ever held, they received from his right hand and the light of his face, because he was pleased to give it.

They also show us who God is. He is the King whose word is enough to save, whose name is a strong tower, and whose favour, and never our strength, is the reason his people stand. A people who know this can lay down their trust in bow and sword without losing their confidence, and can make God their boast all the day long, even on the eve of a lament.