Psalm 44

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Maschil.

44 ¹We have heard with our ears, O God,

Our fathers have told us,

What work thou didst in their days,

In the days of old.

²Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand;

But them thou didst plant:

Thou didst afflict the peoples;

But them thou didst spread abroad.

³For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword,

Neither did their own arm save them;

But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance,

Because thou wast favorable unto them.

⁴Thou art my King, O God:

Command deliverance for Jacob.

⁵Through thee will we push down our adversaries:

Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

⁶For I will not trust in my bow,

Neither shall my sword save me.

⁷But thou hast saved us from our adversaries,

And hast put them to shame that hate us.

⁸In God have we made our boast all the day long,

And we will give thanks unto thy name for ever.

Selah

⁹But now thou hast cast us off, and brought us to dishonor,

And goest not forth with our hosts.

¹⁰Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary;

And they that hate us take spoil for themselves.

¹¹Thou hast made us like sheep appointed for food,

And hast scattered us among the nations.

¹²Thou sellest thy people for nought,

And hast not increased thy wealth by their price.

¹³Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors,

A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us.

¹⁴Thou makest us a byword among the nations,

A shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵All the day long is my dishonor before me,

And the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth,

By reason of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this is come upon us;

Yet have we not forgotten thee,

Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.

¹⁸Our heart is not turned back,

Neither have our steps declined from thy way,

¹⁹That thou hast sore broken us in the place of jackals,

And covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰If we have forgotten the name of our God,

Or spread forth our hands to a strange god;

²¹Will not God search this out?

For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

²²Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?

Arise, cast us not off for ever.

²⁴Wherefore hidest thou thy face,

And forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵For our soul is bowed down to the dust:

Our body cleaveth unto the earth.

²⁶Rise up for our help,

And redeem us for thy lovingkindness' sake.