"To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
O God, we have heard with our ears,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old:
2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,
but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
but them you set free;
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
and the light of your face,
for you delighted in them.
4 You are my King, O God;
ordain salvation for Jacob!
5 Through you we push down our foes;
through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our foes
and have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have made us turn back from the foe,
and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You have sold your people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face
16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
26 Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!"
Psalm 44
In relation to what was said at the end of the previous note, it is quite possible to allow the pain and distress of the prevalence of evil (9-16), and the mystery that it creates for us, not to say the crisis of faith (7-22), full reign, without being utterly overcome, because behind it all there stands the 'vision' of the unchanging God of history and God of revival, Who is still the same today. And, consequently, two things happen. On the one hand, some understanding and explanation of the terrific problem posed by this situation emerges, as we see in 22; on the other hand, our souls are awakened to a new intensity of prayer. As to what is said in 22, 'For Thy sake are we killed all the day long', we recall Paul's use of these words in Romans 8. They mean that, in some mysterious way, the sufferings and agonies of the faithful are a sharing of the sufferings of their Lord for the salvation of men. This is one of the things we see also in the message of Job - his agonies were in some way integrally related to the fulfilment of the divine purposes. And this we may take for our comfort and encouragement also, in our travail and burden for the work of God. In this connection we may recall Daniel 10, and the strange, inexplicable delay in answer to the prophet's prayer for his people: there was a spiritual battle going on, a war to be waged in the unseen, and not without prayer and fasting was the victory to be won. Hence - and this is the second point - the intensity of prayer and intercession, redoubled and renewed in 23-26. To catch a glimpse of these unseen realities must surely act as a spur to ever more earnest supplication. In this, the Psalm has something very important to say to us today.