Psalms 44:19-26

19 Yet you have crushed us in the jackal’s desert home. You have covered us with darkness and death.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread our hands in prayer to foreign gods,

21 God would surely have known it, for he knows the secrets of every heart.

22 But for your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.

23 Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Get up! Do not reject us forever.

24 Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?

25 We collapse in the dust, lying face down in the dirt.

26 Rise up! Help us! Ransom us because of your unfailing love.

Psalms 44:19-26 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. It is not certain who was the writer of this psalm, nor when it was written, and to what time it belongs: some have thought it was composed by one of the Babylonish captivity, and that it gives an account of the church and people of God in those times; but what is said in Psalm 44:17 does not seem to agree with Daniel 9:5. It is most likely it was written by David, and to him the Targum ascribes it; though it does not respect his times; since what is said in Psalm 44:9 cannot agree with them; yet he being a prophet might, under a prophetic influence, speak of future times, and represent the church in them. Some are of opinion that he prophetically speaks of the times of the Maccabees and of Antiochus, when the church and people of God suffered much for the true religion, and abode steadfast in it; so Theodoret: but rather the whole may be applied to the times of the New Testament, since Psalm 44:22 is cited by the Apostle Paul, Romans 8:36, and is applied to his times, and as descriptive of the suffering state and condition of the church then; and which seems to be the guide and key for the opening of the whole psalm.