Psalm 44 (43)
National lament. The believing people has suffered a defeat and complain to God.
2 With our ears, O God, we have heard; our ancestors have declared to us the works you did in their days of old.
3 You drove out the nations and settled them in their land; you conquered the peoples to make room for them.
4 For it was not with their own sword that they conquered the land nor were they victors by their own hand; but it was by your right hand and arm and by the light of your countenance; for you truly loved them.
5 It is you, my King and my God, who ordain victories for Jacob.
6 Through you we batter down our foes; through your name we shatter our enemies.
7 For it is not in my bow that I trust, nor in my sword to make me victorious.
8 But it is you who give us victory, you who bring our adversaries to shame.
9 It is always in God that we find glory. Forever shall we praise your name.
10 Yet now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go forth with our armies.
11 You have let our enemies drive us back and our adversaries plunder us.
12 You have let us be driven for slaughter like sheep, scattered among nations as captives.
13 You have handed us over to them for nothing: the sale was of no benefit for you.
14 You have made us the butt of our neighbors’ insult, the scorn and laughingstock of those around us.
15 You have made us a byword among the nations; they look at us and shake their heads.
16 All day long my disgrace is before me and shame covers my face,
17 at the voice of the one who mocks and reviles, in the presence of the enemy and the avenger.
18 All this has happened to us, although we have not forgotten you, nor have we been untrue to your covenant.
19 Our heart has not turned back nor have our steps faltered;
20 yet you have crushed us in the desert of the snakes and cov ered us with deep darkness.
21 Had we forgotten the name of our God and stretched forth our hands to an alien god,
22 God would have discovered this, for the secrets of the heart are not hidden from him.
23 For your sake we are slain all day and accounted as sheep for slaughter.
24 Awake, O Lord! Why are you asleep? Arise! Reject us not forever.
25 Why hide your face from us? Why forget our misery and woes?
26 Our souls are humbled in the dust, our bodies smashed to the ground.
27 Come to our help, deliver us for the sake of your kindness.