Psalm 44 commentary

PSALM 44 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A
maskil.[b]
I TRODUCTIO
SPURGEO , "Title. To the Chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. The title
is similar to the forty-second, and although this is no proof that it is by the same
author it makes it highly probable. o other writer should be sought for to father
any of the Psalms when David will suffice, and therefore we are loathe to ascribe
this sacred song to any but the great psalmist, yet as we hardly know any period of
his life which it would fairly describe, we feel compelled to look elsewhere. Some
Israelitish patriot fallen on evil times, sings in mingled faith and sorrow, his
country's ancient glory and her present griefs, her traditions of former favour and
her experience of pressing ills. By Christians it can best be understood if put into the
mouth of the church when persecution is peculiarly severe. The last verses remind
us of Milton's famous lines on the massacre of the Protestants among the mountains
of Piedmont.
The song before us is fitted for the voices of the saved by grace, the sons of Korah,
and is to them and to all others full of teaching, hence the title Maschil.
Division. From Psalms 44:1-3, the Lord's mighty works for Israel are rehearsed, and
in remembrance of them faith in the Lord is expressed Psalms 44:4-8. Then the
notes of complaint are heard Psalms 44:9-16, the fidelity of the people to their God
is aroused, Psalms 44:17-22, and the Lord is entreated to interpose, Psalms 44:23-26.
ELLICOTT, "In spite of the singular used in Psalms 44:6; Psalms 44:15, we
recognise, in this psalm, a hymn expressive not of individual but of national feeling;
a feeling, too, which certainly could not have received such an expression before the
exile, before the spell of the fascination of the Canaanitish idolatries had passed
away. or can the psalm be assigned to the exile period itself, for it does not reflect
the profound spiritual insight that characterises the literature which undoubtedly
belongs to that time. Ewald places it during the months that disturbed the early
years of the return from captivity. The majority of critics, however, prefer the time
of Antiochus Epiphanes. It might well have been inspired by one of those reverses,
which so often came upon the struggling community of Israel, in consequence of
their scrupulous concern for the Sabbath day, which did not even allow them to
defend themselves. (See ote, Psalms 44:13-14.) The parallelism is fine and well
sustained.

PETT, "The meaning of Maschil in this context is not certain. It is used to describe a
number of Psalms. But the word maschil means ‘understanding’. It has been
variously interpreted as meaning, ‘a teaching Psalm’ (although that does not appear
to fit all its uses), ‘a meditation’, thus bringing understanding, or a ‘skilful Psalm’
indicating a complicated setting.
The chief musician. or choirmaster, was responsible for the music in the Temple.
For ‘the sons of Korah’ see the introduction to this whole section.
The basis of the Psalm, which is a lament because God has allowed them to be
defeated in warfare, is as to why God has failed to fight on their side and give them
victory as He had done in past times. It claims that the people have been faithful to
God’s covenant, and yet that in spite of that God has failed to help them so that they
find themselves in extremities. And it ends with an appeal to God to reverse the
situation. There is no real evidence in it as to when it was written, but its position in
the Second Book of Psalms would suggest an early date rather than a late one, and it
is clear that it was regularly sung because such occasions kept reoccurring. It is thus
an assurance that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
In a similar way it contains encouragement for us when we cannot understand why
God allows us to endure trials, even though we have not specifically failed Him in
any way that we can recall, for it demonstrates that such circumstances have often
come on the people of God in the past and must therefore be expected. It is the
common experience of God’s people. It is not so much therefore that we have
outwardly failed to observe His covenant, as that we have allowed our faith to fall to
a low level, as with the church at Ephesus which had lost its first love (Revelation
2:1-6), so that we have been needing a jolt to get us back to truly trusting in Him.
1 We have heard it with our ears, O God;
our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago.
BAR ES, "We have heard with our ears - That is, it has been handed down by

tradition.
Our fathers have told us - Our ancestors. They have delivered it down from
generation to generation. The word rendered “told” means properly to grave, or to
insculp on a stone; and thence, to write. Then it comes to mean to number, to count, to
recount, to tell, to declare. The word would be applicable to any method of making the
thing known, either by hieroglyphic figures in sculpture, by writing, or by oral tradition,
though it seems probable that the latter mode is particularly referred to here. Compare
Exo_10:2; Exo_12:26-27.
What work thou didst in their days - The great work which thou didst
accomplish for them; or, how thou didst interpose in their behalf. The reference is to
what God accomplished for them in delivering them from Egyptian bondage, and
bringing them into the land of Canaan.
In the times of old - In ancient times; in the beginning of our history. The idea here
is, that we may properly appeal to the past - to what God has done in former ages - as an
argument for his interposition in similar circumstances now, for,
(a) His former interposition showed his power to save;
(b) it was such an illustration of his character that we may appeal to that as a reason
for asking him to interpose again.
CLARKE, "We have heard with our ears - The psalmist begins with recounting
the marvellous interpositions of God in behalf of the Jewish people, that he might the
better strengthen his confidence, and form a ground on which to build his expectation of
additional help.
GILL, "We have heard with our ears, O God,.... The church being in distress calls
to mind the past favours of God to his people, in order to encourage her faith and hope;
and this expression, delivered in such a form, shows the clearness, evidence, and
certainty of what was heard; and which was heard not only as a tradition from father to
son; but being recorded in the writings of Moses and the prophets, and these things read
both in private and in public, were heard with the ear;
our fathers have told us what works thou didst in their days, in the times of
old: such as the signs and wonders in Egypt, the slaying of the firstborn there, and the
bringing of the people of Israel from thence with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
which fathers were used to tell in the ears of their sons, and sons' sons; and of which
there were memorials continued in future ages, which led children to ask their parents
the meaning of them; when they informed them of the wondrous works of Providence
done in former times, and by which means they were handed down from age to age: see
Exo_10:2.
HE RY, "Some observe that most of the psalms that are entitled Maschil - psalms of
instruction, are sorrowful psalms; for afflictions give instructions, and sorrow of spirit
opens the ear to them. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest and teachest.
In these verses the church, though now trampled upon, calls to remembrance the days
of her triumph, of her triumph in God and over her enemies. This is very largely
mentioned here, 1. As an aggravation of the present distress. The yoke of servitude
cannot but lie very heavily on the necks of those that used to wear the crown of victory;

and the tokens of God's displeasure must needs be most grievous to those that have been
long accustomed to the tokens of his favour. 2. As an encouragement to hope that God
would yet turn again their captivity and return in mercy to them; accordingly he mixes
prayers and comfortable expectations with his record of former mercies. Observe,
I. Their commemoration of the great things God had formerly done for them.
1. In general (Psa_44:1): Our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days.
Observe, (1.) The many operations of providence are here spoken of as one work - “They
have told us the work which thou didst;” for there is a wonderful harmony and
uniformity in all that God does, and the many wheels make but one wheel (Eze_10:13),
many works make but one work. (2.) It is a debt which every age owes to posterity to
keep an account of God's works of wonder, and to transmit the knowledge of them to the
next generation. Those that went before us told us what God did in their days, we are
bound to tell those that come after us what he has done in our days, and let them do the
like justice to those that shall succeed them; thus shall one generation praise his works
to another (Psa_145:4), the fathers to the children shall make known his truth, Isa_
38:19. (3.) We must not only make mention of the work God has done in our own days,
but must also acquaint ourselves and our children with what he did in the times of old,
long before our own days; and of this we have in the scripture a sure word of history, as
sure as the word of prophecy. (4.) Children must diligently attend to what their parents
tell them of the wonderful works of God, and keep it in remembrance, as that which will
be of great use to them. (5.) Former experiences of God's power and goodness are strong
supports to faith and powerful pleas in prayer under present calamities. See how Gideon
insists upon it (Jdg_6:13): Where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of?
JAMISO , "Psa_44:1-26. In a time of great national distress, probably in David’s
reign, the Psalmist recounts God’s gracious dealings in former times, and the confidence
they had learned to repose in Him. After a vivid picture of their calamities, he humbly
expostulates against God’s apparent forgetfulness, reminding Him of their faithfulness
and mourning their heavy sorrows.
This period is that of the settlement of Canaan (Jos_24:12; Jdg_6:3).
have told — or, “related” (compare Exo_10:2).
K&D 1-3, "(Heb.: 44:2-4) The poet opens with a tradition coming down from the
time of Moses and of Joshua which they have heard with their own ears, in order to
demonstrate the vast distance between the character of the former times and the
present, just as Asaph, also, in Psa_78:3, appeals not to the written but to the spoken
word. That which has been heard follows in the oratio directa. Psa_44:3 explains what
kind of “work” is intended: it is the granting of victory over the peoples of Canaan, the
work of God for which Moses prays in Psa_90:16. Concerning ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫ֽד‬ָ‫,י‬ vid., on Psa_3:5; Psa_
17:14. The position of the words here, as in Psa_69:11; 83:19, leads one to suppose that
ָ‫ך‬ ְ‫ֽד‬ָ‫י‬ is treated as a permutative of ‫ה‬ ָ ፍ, and consequently in the same case with it. The
figure of “planting” (after Exo_15:17) is carried forward in ‫ם‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ְ ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ ַ‫;ו‬ for this word means to
send forth far away, to make wide-branching, a figure which is wrought up in Ps 80. It
was not Israel's own work, but (‫י‬ ִⅴ, no indeed, for [Germ. nein, denn] = imo) God's work:
“Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance,” they it was which
brought Israel salvation, i.e., victory. The combination of synonyms ָ‫ך‬ ֲ‫ּוע‬‫ר‬ְ‫וּז‬ ָ‫ך‬ְ‫ינ‬ ִ‫מ‬ְ‫י‬ is just as

in Psa_74:11, Sir. 33:7, χείρα καᆳ βραχίονα δεξιόν, and is explained by both the names of
the members of the body as applied to God being only figures: the right hand being a
figure for energetic interposition, and the arm for an effectual power that carries
through the thing designed (cf. e.g., Psa_77:16; Psa_53:1), just as the light of His
countenance is a figure for His loving-kindness which lights up all darkness. The final
cause was His purpose of love: for (inasmuch as) Thou wast favourable to them (‫ה‬ ָ‫צ‬ ָ‫ר‬ as
in Psa_85:2). The very same thought, viz., that Israel owes the possession of Canaan to
nothing but Jahve's free grace, runs all through Deut. 9.
CALVI , "1.O God! we have heard with our ears. The people of God here recount
the goodness which he had formerly manifested towards their fathers, that, by
showing the great dissimilarity of their own condition, they may induce God to
alleviate their miseries. They begin by declaring that they speak not of things
unknown or doubtful, but that they related events, the truth of which was
authenticated by unexceptionable witnesses. The expression, We have heard with
our ears, is not to be considered as a redundant form of speech, but one of great
weight. It is designed to point out that the grace of God towards their fathers was so
renowned, that no doubt could be entertained respecting it. They add, that their
knowledge of these things was handed down from age to age by those who witnessed
them. It is not meant that their fathers, who had been brought up out of Egypt, had,
a thousand and five hundred years after, declared to their posterity the benefits God
had conferred upon them. The import of the language is, that not only the first
deliverance, but that also the various other works which God had wrought from
time to time in behalf of his people, had come down, as it were, from hand to hand,
in an uninterrupted series, even to the latest age. As, therefore, those who, after the
lapse of many ages, became witnesses and heralds of the grace which God had
exercised towards this people, spake upon the report of the first generation, the
faithful are warranted in saying, as they here do, that their fathers have declared to
them that which they certainly knew, because the knowledge of it had not been lost
by reason of its antiquity, but was continually preserved by the remembrance of it
from the fathers to the children. The sum of the whole is, that God had manifested
his goodness towards the children of Abraham, not only for ten or twenty years, but
that ever since he had received them into his favor, he had never ceased to bestow
upon them continued tokens of his grace.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 1. We have heard with our ears, O God. Thy mighty acts have
been the subjects of common conversation; not alone in books have we read thy
famous deeds, but in the ordinary talk of the people we have heard of them. Among
the godly Israelites the biography of their nation was preserved by oral tradition,
with great diligence and accuracy. This mode of preserving and transmitting history
has its disadvantages, but it certainly produces a more vivid impression on the mind
than any other; to hear with the ears affects us more sensitively than to read with
the eyes; we ought to note this, and seize every possible opportunity of telling
abroad the gospel of our Lord Jesus viva voce, since this is the most telling mode of
communication. The expression, "heard with our ears, "may denote the pleasure
with which they listened, the intensity of their interest, the personality of their

hearing, and the lively remembrance they had of the romantic and soul stirring
narrative. Too many have ears but hear not; happy are they who, having ears, have
learned to hear. Our fathers have told us. They could not have had better
informants. Schoolmasters are well enough, but godly fathers are, both by the order
of nature and grace, the best instructors of their sons, nor can they delegate the
sacred duty. It is to be feared that many children of professors could plead very
little before God of what their fathers have told them. When fathers are tongue tied
religiously with their offspring, need they wonder if their children's hearts remain
sin tied? Just as in all free nations men delight to gather around the hearth, and tell
the deeds of valour of their sires "in the brave days of old, "so the people of God
under the old dispensation made their families cheerful around the table, be
rehearsing the wondrous doings of the Lord their God. Religious conversation need
not be dull, and indeed it could not be if, as in this case, it dealt more with facts and
less with opinions. What work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. They
began with what their own eyes had witnessed, and then passed on to what were the
traditions of their youth. ote that the main point of the history transmitted from
father to son was the work of God; this is the core of history, and therefore no man
can write history aright who is a stranger to the Lord's work. It is delightful to see
the footprints of the Lord on the sea of changing events, to behold him riding on the
whirlwind of war, pestilence, and famine, and above all to see his unchanging care
for his chosen people. Those who are taught to see God in history have learned a
good lesson from their fathers, and no son of believing parents should be left in
ignorance of so holy an art. A nation tutored as Israel was in a history so marvellous
as their own, always had an available argument in pleading with God for aid in
trouble, since he who never changes gives in every deed of grace a pledge of mercy
yet to come. The traditions of our past experience are powerful pleas for present
help.
EXPLA ATORY OTES A D QUAI T SAYI GS
Whole Psalm. On a survey of this Psalm, it would seem not to admit of a doubt that
the speakers are of the race of Israel; and yet expositors for the most part have
found much difficulty in so understanding it, in thisâ€”the natural senseâ€”so as
even to be compelled to abandon it, owing to the impossibility of fixing on any
period in the history of that people which would furnish an occasion for it, and
verify its language. Thus, it cannot be referred to the times of the Babylonish
captivity; for to this it is objected, and with reason; first, that Ps 44:11 4:14
represent the speakers as "scattered among the nations, "and "a byword among the
peoples, "whereas their exile was then confined to one country; and, secondly, that
in Psalms 44:17-21 there is an assertion of faithful adherence to the worship of the
true God, which he is called to witness as acquitting the sufferers of having brought
the evil on themselves, while that captivity was a punishment of the nation for their
apostasy, and especially for the grievous sin of idolatry. And the same objections lie
to interpreting it with reference to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes and the
Maccabees; beside that, the history of the canon of Scripture is decisive against
assigning so late a date to any of the Psalms. Still less can the times of David be
looked to for the occasion, since, though religion was then pure, there was, on the
other hand, no dispersion of the nation nor any calamity such as to warrant the
lamentation, "Thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame. ...Thou hast given us like

sheep appointed for meat, "etc. Whence it appeared that there was no alternative
but to consider the Psalm as exclusively the language of the Christian church, and,
in her primitive days, as the period at once of her greatest purity and suffering.
William de Burgh.
Whole Psalm. S. Ambrose observes, that in former Psalms we have seen a prophecy
of Christ's passion, resurrection, and ascension and of the coming of the Holy
Ghost, and that here we are taught that we ourselves must be ready to struggle and
suffer, in order that these things may profit us. Human will must work together
with divine grace. Christopher Wordsworth.
Ver. 1. We have heard with our ears, i.e., we have both heard and heeded it with
utmost attention and affection. It is not a pleonasmus, but an emphasis that is here
used. John Trapp.
Ver. 1. Our fathers have told us. Hear this, saith Basil, ye fathers that neglect to
teach your children such things as may work his fear and love in them, and faith to
rely upon and seek to him in all times of danger. They made their mouths, as it
were, books, wherein the mighty deeds of the Lord might be read to his praise, and
to the drawing of their children's hearts unto him. John Mayer.
Ver. 1. What work thou didst. Why only work in the singular, when such
innumerable deliverances had been wrought by him, from the passage of the Red
Sea to the destruction of the hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the
Assyrians? Because all these were but types of that one great work, that one
stretching forth of the Lord's hand, when Satan was vanquished, death destroyed,
and the kingdom of heaven opened to all believers. Ambrose.
Ver. 1. What work thou didst. While the songs of other nations sing of the heroism
of their ancestors, the songs of Israel celebrate the works of God. Augustus F.
Tholuck.
Ver. 1. Three necessary requirements for learning well: 1. Intention and attention in
him who hears, we have heard with our ears. 2. Authority in him that teaches, our
fathers have told us. 3. Love between the teacher and the taught, "our fathers."
Hugo (Cardinal), quoted in eale's Commentary.
Ver 1-2,4-8. Children are their parent's heirs; it were unnatural for a father before
he dies to bury up his treasure in the earth, where his children should not find or
enjoy it; now the mercies of God are not the least part of his treasure, nor the least
of his children's inheritance, being both helps to their faith, matter for their praise,
and spurs to their obedience. Our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in
their days, how thou didst drive out the heathen, etc. Psalms 44:1-2; from this they
ground their confidence; Psalms 44:4 : Thou art my King, O God: command
deliverances for Jacob; and excite their thankfulness, Psalms 44:8 In God we boast
all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Indeed, as children are their parent's
heirs, so they become in justice liable to pay their parents' debts; now the great debt
which the saint at death stands charged with, is that which he owes to God for his
mercies, and, therefore it is but reason he should tie his posterity to the patent
thereof. Thus mayest thou be praising God in heaven and earth at the same time.
William Gurnall.
COKE, "Title. ‫למנצח‬ ‫לבני‬ ‫קרח‬ ‫משׂכיל‬ lamnatseach libnei korach maskiil.— This
Psalm appears to have been composed at a time when the Jewish people suffered

greatly from their enemies, and many were carried into captivity; though the state
itself subsisted, and the public worship of God was maintained. The author, by the
singular number which occurs every now and then, must have been of eminence; it
could not sound well out of any mouth but that of the prince himself; therefore
either the prince, or some one about his person, must have been the writer; not
unlikely, as Bishop Patrick thinks, Hezekiah; and perhaps from Psalms 44:15-16 it
was written soon after the blasphemous message of Rabshakeh. Mudge.
BE SO , "Psalms 44:1. We have heard with our ears, &c. — “We have been
certainly informed, O Lord, by our fathers, and we believe what they have told us,
not only concerning the wonderful works thou didst in their times, but in the ages
long before them; as our ancestors, who lived in those days, have recorded.” It is a
debt which every age owes to posterity, to keep an account of God’s works of
wonder, and transmit the knowledge of them to the next generation. As those that
went before us told us what God did in their days, we are bound to tell those that
come after us what he has done in ours, and let them do the like justice to those that
succeed them: thus shall one generation praise his works to another, Psalms 145:4.
The fathers to the children shall make known the truth, Isaiah 38:19. And children
should diligently attend to what their parents tell them of the wonderful works of
God, as that which will be of great use to them; and we may all find, if we make a
right use of them, that former experiences of God’s power and goodness are strong
supports to faith, and powerful pleas in prayer, when we are in any trouble or
distress.
CO STABLE, "The writer spoke for the nation of Israel in this psalm. He lamented
a national disaster, namely, defeat by enemies, and he called on the Lord to deliver.
Evidently he could not identify sin in the nation as the cause of this defeat. He
attributed it instead to it being "for Your sake" ( Psalm 44:22). Israel was
apparently suffering because she had remained loyal to God in a world hostile to
Him. The basis of the psalmist"s request was God"s faithfulness to the patriarchs
and the people"s present trust in Him. [ ote: On the meaning of Maskil in the title,
see my note on Psalm 32.]
"Perhaps the Psalter"s boldest appeal to God"s faithfulness is found in Psalm 44 , a
communal lament psalm offered to God during an unidentified national
catastrophe." [ ote: Chisholm, "A Theology . . .," p300. ]
Other communal or community lament psalms are60 , 74 , 77 , 79-80 , 83 , 85 , 90 ,
94 , 123 , 126 , and137.
"Perhaps this psalm was used at a national "day of prayer" with a worship leader
speaking the "I/my" verses and the people the "we/our" verses." [ ote: Wiersbe,
The . . . Wisdom . . ., p177.]
WHEDO , "1. Our fathers have told us—This is not a reference to oral tradition,
but an allusion to Exodus 10:2; Exodus 12:26; Exodus 13:8; Exodus 13:14;

Deuteronomy 6:20-23; where God commands the fathers to teach the meaning of the
written law, and the history of their settlement in Canaan, to their children. They
had been taught in childhood, by the command of God, that the Hebrew title to the
land was of divine authority. This is here appealed to as the basis of the plea and
prayer against dispossession, which the heathen now threatened.
EXPOSITORS DICTIO ARY OF TEXTS, "God"s Doings in the Time of Old
Psalm 44:1
What God has been to us men we know from history. We know then from history
what He will be to us. ow to apply this there are three departments of human life
in which this recurrence to the past is of great religious value.
I. First there is the family, resting on God"s own ordinance, springing out of the
most intimate and sacred ties that can unite human beings. Every family has its
traditions of the past—has its encouragements and its warnings, its splendid
memories of devotion and virtue, and too often its skeletons in the cupboard, and all
this is part of the providential teaching intended for each member of the family.
II. And then there is our country. And here we have to remember what we too often
forget, that God shapes the destinies of every nation just as truly as he did that of
Judah and Israel. The Hebrews felt God"s presence in their history much more
vividly than we do. They saw and adored His power, where we fix our gaze
exclusively on the history and material agencies which He employs. evertheless,
history is not less in England than in Palestine a revelation of the ways of God; there
have been times in our English history when this has been felt, in the agony of hope
or of fear which a great national danger will produce. Such a time was the
threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada. Such, again, was the crisis of the
struggle with the first apoleon which preceded Trafalgar. We who live in these
quiet times can scarcely understand how our forefathers were then thrown back in
very deed upon the protecting arm of God—how they felt that, if any was to save
them, He must, and how this belief in His presence and aid nerved them at the crisis
of the struggle against faintheartedness and indecision and bound their hearts
together with a sacred strength in love to their country and to Him, their God. It
should be part of every young Englishman"s education to trace God"s hand in the
annals of his country—to see, amid its dangers and its triumphs, in its temporary
failures, in its consistent advance, in the gradual development of its institutions, and
the extensions of equal rights and advantages to all classes of people, without the
revolutionary shocks which have desolated other lands, His hand who of old led His
people through the wilderness like a flock, and brought them out safely that they
should not fear, and overwhelmed their enemies at sea.
III. And then there is the great and sacred home of souls—the Church of Jesus
Christ. Church history is a vast treasure-house of sacred experience, well fitted to
encourage the desponding, to determine the wavering, to put down with a firm hand
the suggestions of selfish doubt, to kindle up in many a soul great enthusiasms for

truth and goodness. They lose much who know little or nothing of it—who know not
what it is to stand in spirit at the side of martyrs like Ignatius and Polycarp—to
follow the mental anguish of Augustine which preceded his conversion, to do justice
to the sanctified intellect, to the dauntless courage, of Athanasius when he is
struggling with an apostatizing world. We catch from these great souls something of
their devotion to our adorable Master—something of their fervour, of their grace, as
we exclaim, with deep reverence, "O God, we have heard with our ears, and our
fathers have told us, what thou hast done in the time of old".
—H. P. Liddon, The Penny Pulpit, vol. XIII. p189.
PETT, "A Description Of What God Has Done For His People In The Past (Psalms
44:1-3).
The Psalmist first calls to mind how it was God Who gave His people victory when
they initially took possession of the land of Canaan.
Psalms 44:1
‘We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us,
What work you did in their days,
In the days of old.
The people (‘we’) call to God and describe what they have learned from their
fathers in the past, of how God had acted for them in days of old. Each year at their
festivals these things would be recalled, and read out to them as a reminder of God’s
graciousness in the past, and especially so at the end of the seven year cycle.
Compare Exodus 23:14-17; Exodus 24:7; Deuteronomy 16:16; also note
Deuteronomy 31:11-13; Deuteronomy 31:24-28.
‘Our fathers have told us.’ It was the responsibility of every father to make his
family aware of YHWH’s deliverance of His people from Egypt at the Feast of the
Passover (Exodus 12:26-27; Exodus 13:8), and to make known His word daily
(Deuteronomy 11:19).
BI 1-26, "We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what work
Thou didst.
Aspects of national piety
There is such a thing as national piety. I mean the aggregation of genuine godly thought,
sympathy and aspiration, whether found in the breast of paupers or princes. Here we
have it represented—
I. As acknowledging God’s providential kindness to the nation in the past (Verses 1-8).
1. The certain assurance of it. We have heard it as an historical fact—heard it from
our own fathers, who would not deceive us, and who told it to us in love. God’s
merciful interpositions on behalf of the Hebrew people are recorded, not only in the
annals of the chosen people, but in the progress of the human race, not only in

documents and monuments, but through an institution as divine as nature, as old as
the race, viz. parental teaching.
2. The striking manifestations of it. “How Thou didst drive out the heathen,” etc. It is
not our armies and navies that have saved us and made us what we are, but God.
3. The practical influence of it.
(1) Loyalty towards God.
(2) Confidence in God.
II. As deploring God’s present apparent displeasure toward the nation (Psa_44:9-16).
He saw his country—
1. Defeated. “But Thou hast cast off,” etc. We struggle, but succeed not; there is no
victory for us; we are foiled in all our efforts.
2. Victimized. “They which hate us,” etc. We are made use of by our enemies.
3. Enslaved. “Thou sellest Thy people for nought,” etc.
4. Confounded. “My confusion is continually before me,” etc. I am ashamed and
bewildered. We have lost our dignity and self-command.
5. Scorned. “Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,” etc.
III. As avowing fidelity to God notwithstanding the calamities of the country.
I. A consciousness of fidelity to Heaven. “All this is come upon us; yet have we not
forgotten Thee,” etc.
2. Persecution on account of their fidelity. “For Thy sake are we killed,” etc.
(1) Genuine piety may co-exist with great suffering. Abraham, David, Job, Paul.
(2) Genuine piety may be stimulated by great suffering.
(3) Genuine piety enables one to bear great suffering.
IV. As invoking God’s interposition in order to restore past privileges.
1. A humanification of Deity. “Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?” No creature can
have a complete conception of the Absolute.
2. Utter prostration of being. “Our soul is bowed down to the dust,” etc. What
stronger expression could there be of depression and degradation than this? In a
moral sense all men are thus debased and crushed by sin.
3. Entire dependence on sovereign mercy. “Arise for our help,” etc. We cannot
redeem ourselves, nor can we plead our own merits or excellences as a reason for
Thy interposition. (Homilist.)
God’s doings of old
I. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light on the doings of the present.
1. We learn the principle of development. Men are taught that all our present
privileges in knowledge, science, civilization and religion came from very small
sources. We know that God performed wonders of old, but we also know that those
wonders have been continuously progressive.

2. We learn the principle of equalization. If God has done great things for us, He did
great things for those of old. They may not have had the full revelation of religion,
but they had to exercise faith in the same way as we do.
3. We learn the lesson of common depravity. The people of old did not notice God’s
works at the time they were wrought. And so we all allow mercies to come to us
unheeded and unpraised, and not till they are taken away do we appreciate their
worth.
II. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light upon the faithfulness of God. He is a
God who changes not and who never deserts His people.
III. Dwelling on the history of the past throws light upon our expectations for the future.
What God has been He will always be. (Homilist.)
Early Israel, the Lord’s host
The spirit evinced in these words is very different from that which is regarded by some
as the special excellency of modern times. It is supposed to be the height of wisdom now
to laugh at what our father said, and to show what utter fools they were in comparison
with their supremely wise and enlightened sons. Instead of our fathers “being the men,
and wisdom dying with them,” we are the men, and wisdom was non-existent until we
appeared. Now, I venture to say that our fathers never did or said anything more silly
than the modern extravagance I have now described. We blame the Jews for thinking
that God’s love stopped with them, and then we coolly declare that God’s wisdom began
with us. Of the two, the Jew had the greater excuse for his onesidedness. Our text clearly
introduces us to the time of Joshua, when Israel invaded the land of the Canaanites
avowedly by a Divine commission, and destroyed its inhabitants in the name of the Lord.
I. Now they really had a divine commission to do this, or they had not. The very
plausible objection is based upon a comparison of tribal histories in primitive times.
There is no need to deny the presence of important analogies between the history of
Israel and that of other tribes, for the special mission of Israel did not make it cease to be
human in its history. But its subsequent history is sufficient to show that it occupied a
position of pre-eminence from the beginning as the “chosen of God.” However rudely it
may have conceived its mission, to deny its special mission at the commencement of that
history is to make its subsequent development unintelligible, and to declare that its life
was false at its very foundation. Next, it is objected that Israel could not have received
such a mandate from God, seeing that it was immoral to engage in such aggressive wars.
But such an objection as this is pure assumption, and fails to take account of different
moral conditions and necessities. It is further urged that the cruelties sometimes
practised by Israel upon the conquered are morally indefensible. This may be perfectly
true, but it is not relevant as an objection. The abuse of a commission does not prove the
denial of its reality.
II. The continuity of their mission is seen further in the power in which they trusted.
Israel very significantly distinguished at the very first between the might of its army and
the might of its God. This was very important, for it contained the germ of all further
development. This distinction between God and physical force makes God definitely
ethical. It was this God that gave Israel a mission. No doubt there were many
crudenesses in it. It was but as the grey dawn, and was separated by many a stage from
the perfect day. But whatever the form of the mission, it was such as was necessary for
the time, and was distinctly ethical in spirit. The God they served and in whom they

trusted is the eternal God, that liveth and abideth for ever.
III. In perfect harmony with these characteristics was their belief in their divine
election. “Because Thou hadst a favour unto them.” It is important to note that this
election, though insisted upon with great emphasis, was ethically conceived. Everything
in the religious thought of Israel was necessarily related to its essential conception of
God as an ethical Being. Hence the true faith of Israel affords no prototype of later
conceptions of arbitrary and non-ethical election and rejection. The true prototype of
these is found in corruptions and perversions of Israel’s true faith. We must point out
further that Israel’s election, as truly conceived, simply imposed upon Israel a special
task and mission, and issued no decree of exclusion upon the rest of the world. Putting it
generally and tersely we may say that God’s elections do not involve exclusions. The man
of God’s choice, who is called to make known in his life the thought and life of God is so
far exclusive that he makes war against sin in such a form as is suitable to the age in
which he lives, but the final object of his mission is to lead others to share his life and
spirit, and to enter into his heritage. This the prophets clearly perceived to be the true
purpose of Israel’s election (Isa_60:3). (John Thomas, M. A.)
Lessons from the past
This verse, slightly altered in form though not in sense, occupies a prominent place in
the Church Litany. It is not a prayer at all: it does not form one of that long series of
supplications of which the Litany consists. The origin of the Litany is very interesting. It
is a most perfect and beautiful sample of a large class of devotions which in earlier ages
abounded in the Church, and which seem to have taken their rise in those dark and
anxious days which accompanied and followed upon the break-up of the Roman Empire.
There, “battle, murder and sudden death”; “plague, pestilence and famine,” and all the
calamities attendant on what seemed to be the entire collapse of social order, were
common things. Hence, when the misery of the people seemed likely to bring in its train
the withdrawal of such small blessings as they had, and even, in some cases, the fierce
ungodliness of despair; then it was that, in their agony, holy souls turned towards God
and sought to enkindle the souls around them by the sharp, prominate ejaculations,
such as men might spontaneously utter amid the ruins of a falling world. Our Litany was
drafted at the time of the Reformation from earlier compositions of this kind, and it
maintains its supplicatory character throughout with a simple and emphatic exception.
Between the two solemn adjurations to God to “arise and help,” there comes in the verse
of the psalm, “O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers,” etc. It is an appeal,
if we may reverently say so, to the historic consistency of God. It is an act of
acknowledgment and praise, and we find the reason for its occurrence in the Litany in
the drift and history of the psalm from which it is taken. This psalm was written,
probably, at a time and under circumstances not unlike those which some centuries later
created the Litanies of the Christian Church. It probably belongs to those dark times
which immediately preceded the great and final catastrophe of the Babylonish Captivity.
We live over those times, as nowhere else in Holy Scripture, in the pages of Jeremiah.
Everything was pointing to some coming disaster: there was failure abroad, there was
misery at home. At such times the hearts of thoughtful and religious men turned back
upon the past of Israel and upon all that God had done for Israel. Was He not the same
God? Was not Israel the same people? Would He be, could He be, inconsistent with
Himself? Surely it was enough to remind Him of His mercies in the past to be certain
that the future would in some way not be unprovided for. “O God, we have heard with
our ears,” etc. Now, since human history is a record of the way and will of God, we may

explain why it is that so large a portion of the Bible is made up of history. It has a
distinctly religious use as showing how God works and what He is. There are two main
reasons which practically make history so precious at all times, and especially in times of
public or private anxiety, and the first is, that it takes us out of the present, takes us out
of ourselves. We are taken out of the clouded and fluctuating present, and how can we
better learn than from experience, if the judgment be undisturbed? It is also a record of
the unalterable character of human nature, and it places us face to face with the infinite
and eternal God. “I am Jehovah, and change not.” Now, to apply this, there are three
departments of human life in which this recurrence to the past is of great religious value.
I. The family. Every family has its traditions as well as its hopes. We see it in the families
of the wealthy and powerful, amid nobles and princes. To be the descendant from great
and illustrious families is to inherit a past of which every educated man feels the
magnificence and the power. And it is not less true of the humble and undistinguished
lives which belong to most of us. When a boy is told that some generations ago one of his
ancestors did something noble and generous; when he is told that, but for the
misconduct of such and such a member of the family, he and his would be in a very
different position now; and when he is bidden imitate that which was noble, and shun
that which was bad in them who went before him, he is brought in this way under the
play of very powerful motives, and which cannot but have much influence over him.
They are part of the predestined discipline, depend upon it, to which God subjects him,
and a very valuable part too.
II. There is our country. And here we have to remember that God shapes the destiny of
every nation as surely as He did that of Judah and Israel. It should be part of every
young Englishman’s education to trace God’s hand in the annals of his country until he
can with sincerity and fervour exclaim, “O God, we have heard with our ears,” etc. And
then there is—
III. The great and sacred home of souls—the church of Jesus Christ. And all this has to
do with personal religion, for it is the religious use of history which enables us better to
do our duty in home, in nation and in the Church, and it makes history itself full of
interest and encouragement. (Canon Liddon.)
The story of God’s mighty acts
No stories stick by us so long as those that we hear in our childhood, notwithstanding
that so many of them are idle, vain and fabulous. But amongst the early Christians and
the old believers in the far-off times, nursery tales were far different from what they are
now. Abraham would, no doubt, talk to young children about the flood, and the
Israelites who had been in bondage in Egypt would tell their children about that, and
how the Lord delivered them. In primitive Christianity it was the custom of parents to
tell their children the story of Jesus, and so it was among our Puritanic ancestors. The
old Dutch tiles were the lesson-books in Bible history of many beside Doddridge. The
writer of this psalm seems to have had told him by his father the story of the wondrous
things God had done in the days of old. Let us now recall such things, and speak—
I. Of the wonderful stories we have heard of the lord’s ancient doings. God has, at times,
done very mighty acts at which men have been exceedingly amazed. See the history of
Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan; of Sennacherib and many more. And in the
New Testament, of Pentecost and of all the triumphs of the Gospel told of there. And
since those days in the history of the Church, of Chrysostom, Luther, Calvin and others

not a few. And nearer to our own times, of Wesley, Whitfield and the Methodists. Now,
in all these works of old there were these features—
1. They were sudden. The old stagers in our churches think that things must grow
gently, by degrees. But all God’s works have been sudden. At Pentecost. At the
Reformation. In Whitfield’s day. And so in all revivals.
2. God’s instruments have been insignificant. See little David when he slew Goliath;
a woman slew Sisera. And also were Luther, Whitfield and the rest.
3. And all these works were attended with much prayer.
II. The disadvantages under which these old stories frequently labour. People say, “Oh,
times are different now.” But has God changed? Cannot He do vow what He did of old?
III. The proper inferences that are to be drawn from the old stories of God’s mighty
deeds.
1. There should be gratitude and praise.
2. Prayer. For how many are still unsaved. Preaching will not alone save them. God
has done much in answer to prayer.
3. Entire dependence upon God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The days of old
A frivolous and shallow person once inquired of an old Carthusian monk how he had
contrived to get through his life. He replied in the words of another psalm, “I have
considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.” That man had found one great
secret of hope, and cheerfulness, and moral strength. It is unquestionably an immense
gain to be able to get beyond our own little life and the little circle which is round it, and
to allow our thoughts and sympathies to work in the wider and freer region of the
world’s past and present and future. Is it not profoundly melancholy in this world whose
history is of such solemn, and indeed painful, interest, to listen to the thing called
“conversation” by vast numbers? Education has done so little for vast numbers that if
they do not converse about their neighbours, they cannot converse at all. They are
simply without topics. It is pre-eminently the result of mental training that we have the
power to get away from our own concerns and surroundings, to feel ourselves one with
all mankind, to know that they and we are moving forward to the fulfilment of a glorious
hope. Here, however, it is that the influence of religion enters in. Reading and writing
and arithmetic, essential as they are, have no tendency to enlarge the mind or to widen
the mental horizon. But put the Bible into the hands of a child, and at once that child
becomes aware of the fact that its little world is but a corner of the great wide world, that
its little existence is but a segment of the life of the race. And at once an idea is set before
it under an immense variety of aspects which inevitably expands its mind, and by doing
this achieves one of the greatest aims of education. The child learns that it is in a very
large world, a member of the great human family; it is taught to look back to a past in
which God has been wise and good, to look forward to a future in which that wisdom and
goodness will be more perfectly justified and unfolded. This habit of considering “the
days of old and the years of ancient times” will have two happy results; it will teach
humility, and it will calm down anxiety. While we thank God for the light He has
vouchsafed in these last days, while we will not lend an ear to the suggestion that
knowledge, progress, science, civilization are bad things, we must also disallow the

monstrous notion that there was no wisdom in the world until this century. “There were
giants in the earth in those days.” And as we thus learn modesty, so may we, by
considering “the days of old and the veers of ancient times” be delivered from
unreasoning panic and unbelieving timidity. The faith is attacked; And was it never
attacked before? Surely the intellectual shock which men experienced at the
Reformation was far more violent than any which is felt now. A hundred years ago there
was a more widespread and pestilent scepticism than any we have to lament; yet religion
grappled with it, did not simply stand on the defensive, but attacked, and attacked
successfully. It seems to me that the robust trust of these old psalms cries shame upon
us, who live in a brighter and happier day. For the individual as for the community the
ultimate trust must be in the character of God, in His faithfulness most of all. (J. A.
Jacob, M. A.)
The eternal providence of God
I. Providence is not of yesterday. Men love what is ancient. Now, this antiquity of
Providence is not a myth. The Psalms are historical. They were written some thousands
of years ago, and yet the writers speak of former times of old.
II. The man is very bold who disputes this providence. He must be either a very great or
a very little man; there can be nothing common about him. But he ought to be sworn
before he gives evidence. We have a right to know who he is. We cannot have any chatter
upon this great question.
III. Providence is a revelation: there is a Gospel of Providence. It is a Gospel to be
assured that the foundation of your haven is strong; that all things are under the hand of
God.
IV. And there is a providence of facts. The men of old abused these, and from a long
succession of such observations they drew their conclusions. History seems to make it
more difficult to deny than to admit Providence.
V. Whatever objection any may have against the doctrine, its effect on life is good. We
ask, what kind of man does this belief in Providence produce; what fruit does it bear?
The creed which says God is, God rules, God will judge—what manner of man will this
creed make? It will give courage. See Moses before Pharaoh. And what blessed peace it
imparts. But surely this is a great presumption in favour of its truth. And thus should all
theology be tested. What are its effects; how does the theology come out in the life?
VI. The miraculous element is no difficulty. For what miracle can exceed the miracle of
your own spiritual development? The story of the Red Sea has been true of ourselves,
such seas have been before us, and they have opened for us, and we have gone through
them as on dry land. And the story of the manna; do we not know all about that? We
must read the Bible as having to do with our own life.
VII. Providence leads up to redemption. He who takes care of this present life must care
for our eternal life. Does God care for oxen; then how much more for man? But if for
man’s temporal welfare, so that He has provided everything for it, can He have made no
provision for the needs of the soul? Impossible I Now, such is our faith to-day. We have
come to it not by inheritance but by personal reception of it. We are one of a great band
of witnesses that “the Lord reigneth,” that all that occurs, whatever it be, is by His
ordering and under His control. (J. Parker, D. D.)

2 With your hand you drove out the nations
and planted our ancestors;
you crushed the peoples
and made our ancestors flourish.
BAR ES, "How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand - The word
rendered “heathen” means simply nations without necessarily conveying the idea of
paganism, as that word is now understood. It means the nations, to wit, of the land of
Canaan, or the Canaanites; and as these nations were in fact idolaters, or strangers to the
true religion, the word came in time to have that idea attached to it. It is in that sense
that we use the term now, though the word nations would accurately express the
meaning of the original. The word rendered “drive out” - ‫ירשׁ‬ yârash - means properly to
take, seize, or take possession of; and then, in the form here used (Hiphil), it means to
cause to possess; to give possession of; and then, to take possession of, to drive out of a
possession, to dispossess, to disinherit. The meaning here is, he dispossessed them of
their country; he disinherited them. This, the psalmist says, God had done “by his
hand;” that is, it was by his own power.
And plantedst them - That is, planted his people - the children of Israel. He put
them in the place of those whom he had disinherited or dispossessed. The word is
properly applicable to a tree, but it is also used with reference to a nation, and means
that he assigned them a fixed and permanent residence. Thus we say in English, “to
plant a colony.” Compare Amo_9:15; Jer_24:6; Jer_32:41; Psa_80:8; 2Sa_7:10.
How thou didst afflict the people - That is, the people of the land of Canaan; the
nations that dwelt there. The word means to bring evil or calamity upon anyone.
And cast them out - The word used here may be taken in the sense of sending out or
expelling, as in Gen_3:23; 1Ki_9:7 - and then it would be applicable to the Canaanites,
as meaning that God had expelled or driven them out - as it is understood by our
translators; or it may be used to denote the sending out of shoots or branches by a tree
or vine, as in Psa_80:11; Jer_17:8; Eze_17:6-7 - and then it would refer here to the
Israelites, and would mean that God caused them to increase; multiplied them; spread
them over the land, as a vine spreads, Psa_80:8-11. The parallelism here clearly
demands the latter interpretation. So it is understood by Luther, DeWette, Tholuck, and
Prof. Alexander.

CLARKE, "Thou didst drove out the heathen - The Canaanites were as a bad
tree planted in a good soil, and bringing forth bad fruit with great luxuriance. God
plucked up this bad tree from the roots, and in its place planted the Hebrews as a good
tree, a good vine, and caused them to take root, and fill the land.
GILL, "How thou didst drive out the Heathen with thy hand,.... Of power; that
is, the Canaanites, as the Targum; the seven nations which inhabited the land of Canaan
before the children of Israel came into it, Deu_7:1;
and plantedst them: not the Canaanites elsewhere; but, as the same Targum explains
it the house of Israel in their land; which, like a vine, was removed from one place, and
planted in another; and the settlement of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan is
frequently expressed by this metaphor, Exo_15:17, Jer_2:21;
how thou didst afflict the people; the Egyptians, according to Arama; rather the
Canaanitish nations by wars and desolating judgments;
and cast them out; that is, the same nations out of their land; though some render
this clause, "and didst send them out"; the captive Israelites, as Arama; or "didst
propagate them" (q); meaning the people of Israel; who being like a vine planted in the
and, sent out its boughs and branches, and became very flourishing and fruitful; see
Psa_80:9; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and thou confirmedst them"; but the
former sense seems best, agreeably to which is the Targum, "thou hast broken the
nations, and hast consumed them"; and that all this was the Lord's work appears by
what follows.
HE RY, " In particular, their fathers had told them,
(1.) How wonderfully God planted Israel in Canaan at first, Psa_44:2, Psa_44:3. He
drove out the natives, to make room for Israel, afflicted them, and cast them out, gave
them as dust to Israel's sword and as driven stubble to their bow. The many complete
victories which Israel obtained over the Canaanites, under the command of Joshua, were
not to be attributed to themselves, nor could they challenge the glory of them. [1.] They
were not owing to their own merit, but to God's favour and free grace: It was through the
light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour to them. Not for thy
righteousness, or the uprightness of thy heart, doth God drive them out from before
thee (Deu_9:5, Deu_9:6), but because God would perform the oath which he swore
unto their fathers, Deu_7:8. The less praise this allows us the more comfort it
administers to us, that we may see all our successes and enlargements coming to us from
the favour of God and the light of his countenance. [2.] They were not owing to their own
might, but to God's power engaged for them, without which all their own efforts and
endeavours would have been fruitless. It was not by their own sword that they got the
land in possession, though they had great numbers of mighty men; nor did their own
arm save them from being driven back by the Canaanites and put to shame; but it was
God's right hand and his arm. He fought for Israel, else they would have fought in vain;
it was through him that they did valiantly and victoriously. It was God that planted
Israel in that good land, as the careful husbandman plants a tree, from which he
promises himself fruit. See Psa_80:8. This is applicable to the planting of the Christian

church in the world, by the preaching of the gospel. Paganism was wonderfully driven
out, as the Canaanites, not all at once, but by little and little, not by any human policy or
power (for God chose to do it by the weak and foolish things of the world), but by the
wisdom and power of God - Christ by his Spirit went forth conquering and to conquer;
and the remembrance of that is a great support and comfort to those that groan under
the yoke of antichristian tyranny, for to the state of the church under the power of the
New Testament Babylon, some think (and particularly the learned Amyraldus), the
complaints in the latter part of this psalm may very fitly be accommodated. He that by
his power and goodness planted a church for himself in the world will certainly support
it by the same power and goodness; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
JAMISO , "plantedst them — that is, “our fathers,” who are also, from the parallel
construction of the last clause, to be regarded as the object of “cast them out,” which
means - literally, “send” them out, or, “extend them.” Heathen and people denote the
nations who were driven out to make room for the Israelites.
CALVI , "2.Thou hast expelled the heathen with thy hand. This is an illustration of
the preceding verse: for the inspired writer had not yet expressly referred to that
work of God, the fame of which had been preserved by their fathers. He therefore
now adds, that God with his own hand expelled the heathen, in order to plant in
their room the children of Abraham: and that he wasted and destroyed them, that
he might increase and multiply the seed of Abraham. He compares the ancient
inhabitants of the land of Canaan to trees; for, from long continued possession of
the country, they had, as it were, taken root in it. The sudden change, therefore,
which had happened to them, was as if a man plucked up trees by the roots to plant
others in their stead. But as it would not have been enough for God’s ancient people
to have been planted at first in the country, another metaphor is here added, by
which the faithful testify that the blessing of God had caused this chosen people to
increase and multiply, even as a tree, extending it roots and its branches far and
wide, gains still greater strength in the place where it has been planted. Besides, it is
necessary to observe for what purpose it is that the faithful here magnify this
manifestation of the grace of God. It often happens that our own hearts suggest to
us grounds of despair, when we begin to conclude that God has rejected us, because
he does not continue to bestow upon us the same benefits which in his goodness he
vouchsafed to our fathers. But it were altogether inconsistent, that the faithful here
disposing their hearts for prayer, should allow such an obstacle to prevent them
from exercising the confidence which is proper in prayer. I freely admit, that the
more we think of the benefits which God has bestowed upon others, the greater is
the grief which we experience when he does not relieve us in our adversities. But
faith directs us to another conclusion, namely, that we should assuredly believe that
we shall also in due time experience some relief, since God continues unchangeably
the same. There can be no reason to doubt, that the faithful now call to
remembrance the things which God had formerly done for the welfare of his
Church, with the view of inspiring their minds with stronger hope, as we have seen
them acting in a similar manner in the beginning of the twenty-second psalm. They
do not simply state the comparison, which would tend to draw a line of separation

between those who have in former times been preserved by the power of God, and
those who now labored and groaned under afflictions; but they rather set forth the
covenant of God as the bond of holy alliance between them and their fathers, that
they might conclude from this, that whatever amount of goodness the Church had at
any time experienced in God pertained also to them. At first, indeed, they use the
language of complaint, asking why it is that the course of God’s fatherly favor
towards his people is, as it were, interrupted; but straightway they correct their
mistake, and take courage from a new consideration — the consideration that God,
who had adopted them as well as their fathers, is faithful and immutable. It is,
however, no great wonder if the faithful, even in prayer, have in their hearts divers
and conflicting affections. But the Holy Spirit, who dwells in them, by assuaging the
violence of their sorrow, pacifies all their complaints and leads them patiently and
cordially to obey. Moreover, when they here say that their fathers have declared to
them the deliverances which God had accomplished in behalf of his Church, what
the fathers did in this respect corresponds with the precept of the law, by which the
fathers were commanded to teach their children. And all the faithful ought to reflect
that the same charge is enjoined upon them by God even to this day. He
communicates to them the doctrine of salvation, and commits it to their charge for
this purpose — that they may transmit it to their posterity, and, as much as in them
lies, endeavor to extend its authority, that his worship may be preserved from age to
age.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 2. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand. The
destruction of the Canaanites from the promised land is the work here brought to
remembrance. A people numerous, warlike, gigantic and courageous, firmly
established and strongly fortified, were driven out by a far feebler nation, because
the Lord was against them in the fight. It is clear from Scripture that God sent a
plague (so that the land ate up the inhabitants thereof), and also a visitation of
hornets against the Canaanites, and by other means dispirited them, so that the easy
victories of Joshua were but the results of God's having worked beforehand against
the idolatrous nation. And plantedst them. The tribes of Israel were planted in the
places formerly occupied by the heathen. Hivites and Jebusites were chased from
their cities to make room for Ephraim and Judah. The Great Wonder worker tore
up by the roots the oaks of Bashan, that he might plant instead thereof his own
chosen "vineyard of red wine." How thou didst afflict the people. With judgments
and plagues the condemned nations were harassed, by fire and sword they were
hunted to the death, till they were all expelled, and the enemies of Israel were
banished far away. And cast them out. This most probably refers to Israel and
should be read, "caused them to increase." He who troubled his enemies smiled on
his friends; he meted out vengeance to the ungodly nations, but he reserved of his
mercy for the chosen tribes. How fair is mercy when she stands by the side of
justice! Bright beams the star of grace amid the night of wrath! It is a solemn
thought that the greatness of divine love has its counterpart in the greatness of his
indignation. The weight of mercy bestowed on Israel is balanced by the tremendous
vengeance which swept the thousands of Amorites and Hittites down to hell with the
edge of the sword. Hell is as deep as heaven is high, and the flame of Tophet is as
everlasting as the blaze of the celestial glory. God's might, as shown in deeds both of

mercy and justice, should be called to mind in troublous times as a stay to our
fainting faith.
Ver. 1-2,4,8. See Psalms on "Psalms 44:1" for further information.
Ver. 2.
"Thou with thine hand hast driven out heathen,
And hast planted them;
The nations thou hast broken down,
But them thou hast engrafted."
The two clauses of this verse stand in regular contrast. The first has the figure of
rooting out one kind of tree, and planting another, as the Canaanites were rooted
out of Palestine, and Israel was planted in their stead. (Compare Psalms 80:8). The
second figure is that of cutting off bad branches, and engrafting others in their
place, in the same root, which is Palestine again. Benjamin Weiss.
COKE, "Psalms 44:2. How thou didst afflict, &c.— How thou didst enfeeble the
nations, and spread them;—our fathers, Psalms 44:1. That is, madest them shoot
forth their roots and branches, which they were enabled to do by enfeebling their
enemies, as they were first planted in the place from whence they were removed. See
Mudge and Houbigant.
ELLICOTT, "(2) Thou . . . with thy hand.—Literally, Thou, Thy hand, which may
be, as in the Authorised Version, taken as accusative of instrument, or as a repeated
subject.
And cast them out.—This entirely misses the meaning and destroys the parallelism.
The Hebrew word is that used for a treo spreading its branches out; comp.
Jeremiah 17:8; Ezekiel 17:6; Ezekiel 31:5, and especially Psalms 80:11, a passage
which is simply an amplification of the figure in this verse, viz., of a vine or other
exotic, planted in a soil cleared for its reception, and there caused to grow and
flourish. The pronoun them in each clause plainly refers to Israel.
Thou, with thine hand, didst dispossess the heathen,
And planted them (Israel) in.
Thou didst afflict the peoples.
But didst make them to spread.
WHEDO , "2. With thy hand—By the direct interposition of thy power.
Plantedst them—That is, the Hebrew people. The figure is borrowed from Exodus
15:17, and is often used: Psalms 80:8; Isaiah 5:1-7. It denotes a fixed abode, as
opposed to a wandering or nomadic life.
Afflict the people—The nations of Canaan. The word signifies to do evil to. By their

corrupt and cruel practices they had forfeited their right to the land. God gave them
warning to depart, and many did, as Procopius informs us, spreading themselves
over orthern Africa.
Cast them out—This may apply to the Canaanitish nations. But the verb often
means, in a good sense, to enlarge, to send forth, to make free, and thus may better
apply to Israel, who enlarged, or sent forth, his root and branch. This accords
withthe figure of planting just used, and with Psalms 80:11, “She sent out her
boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.” It also better preserves the
antithetic parallelism. Thus Conant:—
“Thou, with thy hand, didst dispossess the heathen,
And them thou plantedst;
Didst crush peoples,
And them thou didst extend.”
Or Bishop Mant:—
“Thy hand the people forth didst cast,
And Jacob plant instead,
Thy hand the stranger tribes didst waste,
And make thine Israel spread.”
BE SO , "Psalms 44:2-3. How thou didst drive out the heathen, &c. — The seven
nations of the Canaanites out of Canaan, and settled in their stead thy people Israel,
whom thou didst transplant thither from Egypt. Didst afflict the people — The
heathen; and cast them out. They got not the land, &c., by their own sword — That
is, by their arms or valour. But thy right hand, &c., and the light of thy countenance
— Thy favour, as the next words explain it; thy gracious and glorious presence,
which went along with them. The many complete victories which Israel obtained
over the Canaanites, under the command of Joshua, were not to be attributed to
themselves; nor could they claim the glory of them. They were neither owing to their
own merit nor their own light, but to God’s favour and power engaged for them;
without which all their own efforts and endeavours would have been fruitless.
PETT, "Psalms 44:2
‘You drove out the nations with your hand,
But them you planted,
You afflicted the peoples,
But them you spread abroad.
On the one hand He had driven out the nations with His hand, on the other He had
planted and established His own people in their place. On the one hand He had
afflicted the peoples, and on the other He had spread His own people abroad
throughout the land.

The picture is possibly of a tree which is firmly planted, and then grows and spreads
out its leafy branches (compare Psalms 80:8-11). The idea of His people being
‘planted’ is a common one in Scripture (e.g. Exodus 15:17; 2 Samuel 7:10). It is
applied in Isaiah 61:3 to those who will be restored to God by the coming Anointed
Prophet, ‘that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of YHWH’,
compare Matthew 15:13 where those who are not of the Father’s planting will be
rooted up.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them.
BAR ES, "For they got not the land in possession - The land of Canaan. The
design of this verse is to illustrate the sentiment in the previous verse, that they owed
their establishment in the promised land wholly to God. The fact that He had interposed
in their behalf; that He had shown that he was able to discomfit their enemies, is
appealed to as a reason why he should now interpose in a time of national danger and
calamity. He who had driven out the nations in the days of their fathers; he who had
established his people peaceably in the land from which the former inhabitants had been
expelled, was able to interpose now and save them. The prominent thought in all this is,
that it was God who had accomplished all that had been done. That same God was able
to save them again.
By their own sword - That is, it was not owing to their valor, but to the divine
power: Deu_8:10-18; Deu_9:3-6; Jos_24:12.
Neither did their own arm save them - Not their own strength or prowess.
But thy right hand - The right hand is mentioned because it is that which is
employed in wielding the sword or the spear in battle.
And the light of thy countenance - Thy favor. It was because thou didst lift upon
them the light of thy countenance, or because thou didst favor them. See the notes at
Psa_4:6.
Because thou hadst a favor unto them - Thou didst desire to show them favor;
thou hadst pleasure in them. The idea in the Hebrew word is that of delighting in

anything, or having pleasure in it.
CLARKE, "For they got not the land - Neither by their valor, nor cunning, nor
for their merit; yet, they were obliged to fight. But how did they conquer? By the right
hand of the Lord, and by his arm; by his strength alone, and the light of his countenance
- his favor most manifestly shown unto them.
GILL, "For they got not the land in possession by their own sword,.... There
were many things which show that the possession of the land of Canaan was not of the
Israelites themselves, but of the Lord; as their passing over into it through Jordan as on
dry land; the manner in which Jericho, the first city of it, was taken, and the smiting of
the Israelites by the men of Ai;
neither did their own arm save them; from their enemies, and deliver them into
their hands: they were too apt to ascribe things to their own righteousness, merit, and
power; but such methods were taken by the Lord as to prevent such attributions to
themselves; see Deu_8:16;
but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance; the
mighty power of God, his outstretched arm in their favour, and which arose from his
pure good will to them;
because thou hadst a favour unto them; was well pleased, and took delight in
them; chose them to be a special people to himself, above all people on the face of the
earth.
SBC, "This passage presents to us the following truths:—
I. The co-operation of God secures the success of all right work.
II. The spirit of true godliness will acknowledge God’s co-operation.
III. The recognition of God’s co-operation in the work of others is largely useful to
ourselves.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 3rd series, No. 13.
CALVI , "3For they got not possession of the land by their own sword. Here the
sacred writer confirms by contrast what he has just said; for if they obtained not
possession of the land by their own power and skill, it follows that they were planted
in it by the hand of another. The multitude of men who went out of Egypt was very
great; but not being trained to the art of war, and accustomed only to servile works,
they would soon have been defeated by their enemies, who far excelled them in
numbers and strength. In short, there were not wanting evident signs by which the
people were made to know as well their own weakness as the power of God; so that
it was their bounden duty to confess that the land was not conquered by their own
sword, and also, that it was the hand of God which had preserved them. The

Psalmist, not content with mentioning thy right hand, adds, thy arm, to amplify the
matter, and give greater weight to his discourse, that we may know that they were
preserved in a wonderful manner, and not by any ordinary means. The light of thy
countenance is here taken, as in other places, for the manifestation of the divine
favor. As, on the one hand, when God is afflicting us severely, he seems to frown
upon us, and to overshadow his face with thick clouds; so, on the other, when the
Israelites, sustained by his power, overthrew their enemies without any great
difficulty, and pursued them in every direction far and near, it is said, that then they
beheld the face of God serene and placid, just as if he had manifested himself in a
visible manner near them. Here it is necessary to observe the mode of reasoning
which the prophet employs, when he argues that it is by the free gift of God that the
people obtained the land in heritage, seeing they had not acquired it by their own
power. We then truly begin to yield to God what belongs to him, when we consider
how worthless our own strength is. And certainly, the reason why men, as it were
through disdain, conceal and forget the benefits which God has conferred on them,
must be owing to a delusive imagination, which leads them to arrogate somewhat to
themselves as properly their own. The best means, therefore, of cherishing in us
habitually a spirit of gratitude towards God, is to expel from our minds this foolish
opinion of our own ability. There is still in the concluding part of the verse another
expression, which contains a more illustrious testimony to the grace of God, when
the Psalmist resolves the whole into the good pleasure of God: Thou hadst a favor
for them. The prophet does not suppose any worthiness in the person of Abraham,
nor imagine any desert in his posterity, on account of which God dealt so
bountifully with them, but ascribes the whole to the good pleasure of God. His
words seem to be taken from the solemn declaration of Moses,
“The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in
number than any people; (for ye were the fewest of all people;) but because the Lord
loved you,” (Deuteronomy 7:7.)
Special mention is here made of the land of Canaan; but the prophet has stated the
general principle why it was that God vouchsafed to reckon that people for his flock
and peculiar heritage. And certainly, the source and origin of the Church is the free
love of God; and whatever benefits he bestows upon his Church, they all proceed
from the same source. The reason, therefore, why we are gathered into the Church,
and are nourished and defended by the hand of God, is only to be sought in God.
or does the Psalmist here treat of the general benevolence of God, which extends to
the whole human race; but he discourses of the difference which exists between the
elect and the rest of the world; and the cause of this difference is here referred to the
mere good pleasure of God.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 3. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword.
Behold how the Lord alone was exalted in bringing his people to the land which
floweth with milk and honey! He, in his distinguishing grace, had put a difference
between Canaan and Israel, and therefore, by his own effectual power, he wrought
for his chosen and against their adversaries. The tribes fought for their allotments,
but their success was wholly due to the Lord who wrought with them. The warriors

of Israel were not inactive, but their valour was secondary to that mysterious, divine
working by which Jericho's walls fell down, and the hearts of the heathen failed
them for fear. The efforts of all the men at arms were employed, but as these would
have been futile without divine succour, all the honour is ascribed unto the Lord.
The passage may be viewed as a beautiful parable of the work of salvation; men are
not saved without prayer, repentance, etc., but none of those save a man, salvation is
altogether of the Lord. Canaan was not conquered without the armies of Israel, but
equally true is it that is was not conquered by them; the Lord was the conqueror,
and the people were but instruments in his hands. either did their own arm save
them. They could not ascribe their memorable victories to themselves; he who made
sun and moon stand still for them was worthy of all their praise. A negative is put
both upon their weapons and themselves as if to show us how ready men are to
ascribe success to second causes. But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of
thy countenance. The divine hand actively fought for them, the divine arm
powerfully sustained them with more than human energy, and the divine smile
inspired them with dauntless courage. Who could not win with such triple help,
though earth, death, and hell should rise in war against him? What mattered the
tallness of the sons of Anak, or the terror of their chariots of iron, they were as
nothing when Jehovah arose for the avenging of Israel. Because thou hadst a favour
unto them. Here is the fountain from whence every stream of mercy flows. The
Lord's delight in his people, his peculiar affection, his distinguishing regardâ€”this
is the mainspring which moves every wheel of a gracious providence. Israel was a
chosen nation, hence their victories and the scattering of their foes; believers are an
elect people, hence their spiritual blessings and conquests. There was nothing in the
people themselves to secure them success, the Lord's favour alone did it, and it is
ever so in our case, our hope of final glory must not rest on anything in ourselves,
but on the free and sovereign favour of the Lord of Hosts.
Ver. 3. They got not the land in possession by their own sword. The Lord's part in a
work is best seen when man's part, and all that he as an instrument hath done, or
could have done in it, is declared null; being considered as separate from God who
moved the instruments, and did work by them what he pleased. David Dickson.
Ver. 3. Because thou hadst a favour unto them. Free grace was the fundamental
cause of all their felicity. God loved them because he loved them. De 7:7. He chose
them of his love, and then loved them for his choice. John Trapp.
Ver. 3. God's love to Israel was free, unmerited, and amazing, and he gave them a
land for which they did not labour, and cities which they built not, and vineyards
and oliveyards which they planted not. Joshua 24:13. In some cases neither sword
nor bow were used, but hornets were the instruments of conquest. Joshua 24:12.
Since the fall of Adam all good things in the lot of any mere man are undeserved
kindnesses. William S. Plumer.
Ver. 3. (last clause). The prophet does not suppose any worthiness in the person of
Abraham, nor imagine any desert in his posterity, on account of which God dealt so
bountifully with them; but ascribes the whole through the good pleasure of
God... or does the psalmist here treat of the general benevolence of God, which
extends to the whole human race: but he discourses of the difference which exists
between the elect and the rest of the world, and the cause of this difference is here

referred to the mere good pleasure of God. John Calvin.
COKE, "Psalms 44:3. The light of thy countenance— This expression here seems to
signify the special, the majestic presence of God, visibly presiding over the army of
the Israelites, by a light shining cloud going before them and conducting them; so
that the words here will be best rendered by the light of thy presence, and not by the
light of thy countenance; which is the same with God's favour, the mention whereof
follows in the next words, as the ground or reason of this his shining presence, and
not as the thing itself.
PETT, "Psalms 44:3
‘For they did not get the land in possession by their own sword,
or did their own arm save them,
But your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance,
Because you were favourable to them.
And it was God Who had done it. For it was not by their sword that they took
possession of the land, nor as a result of the exercise of the strength of their own arm
that they were saved (although they used both. Trust in God is no excuse for not
acting ourselves where possible). Rather it was God’s right hand, and His arm, and
the fact that He was looking on them with love and favour, that was responsible for
their success.
The thing that stood out to them in their history was the amazing way that time and
again God had openly acted on their behalf when they themselves were in dire
straits.
4 You are my King and my God,
who decrees[c] victories for Jacob.
BAR ES, "Thou art my King, O God - literally, “Thou art He, my King, O God;”
that is, Thou art the same: the same King, and the same God, who didst interpose in the
time of the fathers, and thou art he whom I recognize as King, as the Sovereign Ruler of
thy people. The psalmist here uses the singular number, “my King,” as expressive of his
own feelings, though he doubtless means also to speak in the name of the people. It
would seem not improbable from this, that the author of the psalm was the reigning
monarch in the time of the troubles referred to. If not, it was evidently one who

personated him, and who meant to represent his feelings. The language shows the strong
confidence of the author of the psalm in God, and perhaps also is designed to express his
personal responsibility at the time, and his consciousness that his only refuge in
conducting the troubled affairs of the nation was God.
Command deliverances for Jacob - As if all was under His command, and He had
only to give direction, and salvation would come. The word “Jacob” here is used to
denote the descendants of Jacob, or the people of God. See the notes at Psa_24:6.
CLARKE, "Thou art my king - What thou wert to them, be to us. We believe in
thee as they did; we have sinned and are in captivity, but we repent and turn unto thee;
command, therefore, deliverances to Jacob, for we are the descendants of him in whose
behalf thou hast wrought such wonders.
GILL, "Thou art my King, O God,.... Besides the favours God had done for his
people in time past, the church takes notice of her interest in God as her King, who was
able to protect and defend her, and to deliver her out of all her distresses, in order the
more to strengthen her faith and hope in him; and, claiming her interest in him, she
draws nigh to him with an holy boldness, and desires him as a King, that by a word of his
(for where the word of a king is, there is power) he would
command deliverances for Jacob; not literally, but mystically understood; the
spiritual Jacob, and people of God; all Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile;
meaning herself and members: the blessing desired is "deliverances", or "salvations"; so
called, because the, deliverance or salvation the Lord commands grants, and works out
for his people, is of different kinds, both spiritual and, temporal, and is a deliverance
from various things; from sin, Satan, the present evil world, wrath to come, and all
enemies; and out of various temptations and afflictions, and which follow successively
one upon another; and at last it is complete and perfect.
HE RY, " The good use they make of this record, and had formerly made of it, in
consideration of the great things God had done for their fathers of old.
1. They had taken God for their sovereign Lord, had sworn allegiance to him, and put
themselves under his protection (Psa_44:4): Thou art my King, O God! He speaks in the
name of the church, as (Psa_74:12), Thou art my King of old. God, as a king, has made
laws for his church, provided for the peace and good order of it, judged for it, pleaded its
cause, fought its battles, and protected it; it is his kingdom in the world, and ought to be
subject to him, and to pay him tribute. Or the psalmist speaks for himself here: “Lord,
Thou art my King; whither shall I go with my petitions, but to thee? The favour I ask is
not for myself, but for thy church.” Note, It is every one's duty to improve his personal
interest at the throne of grace for the public welfare and prosperity of the people of God;
as Moses, “If I have found grace in thy sight, guide thy people,” Exo_33:13.
2. They had always applied to him by prayer for deliverance when at any time they
were in distress: Command deliverances for Jacob. Observe, (1.) The enlargedness of
their desire. They pray for deliverances, not one, but many, as many as they had need of,
how many soever they were, a series of deliverances, a deliverance from every danger.
(2.) The strength of their faith in the power of God. They do not say, Work deliverances,
but Command them, which denotes his doing it easily and instantly - Speak and it is

done (such was the faith of the centurion, Mat_8:8, Speak the word only, and my
servant shall be healed); it denotes also his doing it effectually: “Command it, as one
having authority, whose command will be obeyed.” Where the word of a king is there is
power, much more the word of the King of kings.
JAMISO , "Thou art my King — literally, “he who is my King,” sustaining the
same covenant relation as to the “fathers.”
K&D 4-8, "(Heb.: 44:5-9) Out of the retrospective glance at the past, so rich in
mercy springs up (Psa_44:5) the confident prayer concerning the present, based upon
the fact of the theocratic relationship which began in the time of the deliverance wrought
under Moses (Deu_33:5). In the substantival clause ‫י‬ ִⅴ ְ‫ל‬ ַ‫מ‬ ‫הוּא‬ ‫ה‬ ָ ፍ, ‫הוּא‬ is neither logical
copula nor predicate (as in Psa_102:28; Deu_32:39, there equivalent to ‫ר‬ ֶ‫שׁ‬ ֲ‫א‬ ‫הוּא‬ ‫ה‬ ָ ፍ, cf.
1Ch_21:17), but an expressive resumption of the subject, as in Isa_43:25; Jer_49:12;
Neh_9:6., Ezr_5:11, and in the frequently recurring expression ‫האלהים‬ ‫הוא‬ ‫;יהוה‬ it is
therefore to be rendered: Thou-He who (such an one) is my King. May He therefore, by
virtue of His duty as king which He has voluntarily taken upon Himself, and of the
kingly authority and power indwelling in Him, command the salvation of Jacob, full and
entire (Ps 18:51; 53:7). ‫ה‬ָ‫וּ‬ ִ‫צ‬ as in Psa_42:9. Jacob is used for Israel just as Elohim is used
instead of Jahve. If Elohim, Jacob's King, now turns graciously to His people, they will
again be victorious and invincible, as Psa_44:6 affirms. ַ‫ח‬ֵ ִ‫נ‬ with reference to ‫ן‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ק‬ as a
figure and emblem of strength, as in Psa_89:25 and frequently; ‫ינוּ‬ ֵ‫מ‬ ָ‫ק‬ equivalent to ‫ים‬ ִ‫מ‬ ָ‫ק‬
‫ינוּ‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ָ‫.ע‬ But only in the strength of God ( ָ‫ך‬ ְ as in Psa_18:30); for not in my bow do I trust,
etc., Psa_44:7. This teaching Israel has gathered from the history of the former times;
there is no bidding defiance with the bow and sword and all the carnal weapons of
attack, but Thou, etc., Psa_44:8. This “Thou” in ‫נוּ‬ ָ ְ‫ע‬ ַ‫ּושׁ‬‫ה‬ is the emphatic word; the
preterites describe facts of experience belonging to history. It is not Israel's own might
that gives them the supremacy, but God's gracious might in Israel's weakness. Elohim is,
therefore, Israel's glory or pride: “In Elohim do we praise,” i.e., we glory or make our
boast in Him; cf. ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ ‫ל‬ ֵ ִ‫,ה‬ Psa_10:3. The music here joins in after the manner of a hymn.
The Psalm here soars aloft to the more joyous height of praise, from which it now falls
abruptly into bitter complaint.
CALVI , "4.Thou, even thou, art my King, O God! In this verse the faithful express
still more plainly what I have already alluded to a little before, namely, that the
goodness of God was not only apparent in the deliverance of his people, but also
flowed upon them in continued succession from age to age; and therefore it is said,
Thou, even thou, art my King In my judgment, the demonstrative pronoun ‫,הוא‬ hu,
imports as much as if the prophet had put together a long series of the benefits of
God after the first deliverance; so that it might appear, that God, who had once
been the deliverer of his people, did not show himself otherwise towards their
posterity: unless, perhaps, it might be considered as emphatic, and employed for the
purpose of asserting the thing stated the more strongly, namely, that the faithful

praise God alone as the guardian of their welfare to the exclusion of all others, and
the renunciation of aid from any other quarter. Hence they also present the prayer,
that God would ordain and send forth new deliverances to his people; for, as he has
in his power innumerable means of preservation and deliverance, he is said to
appoint and send forth deliverances as his messengers wherever it seems good to
him.
SPURGEO , "Ver. 4. Thou art my King, O God. Knowing right well thy power and
grace my heart is glad to own thee for her sovereign prince. Who among the mighty
are so illustrious as thou art? To whom, then, should I yield my homage or turn for
aid? God of my fathers in the olden time, thou art my soul's monarch and liege
Lord. Command deliverances for Jacob. To whom should a people look but to their
king? he it is who, by virtue of his office, fights their battles for them. In the case of
our King, how easy it is for him to scatter all our foes! O Lord, the King of kings,
with what ease canst thou rescue thy people; a word of thine can do it, give but the
command and thy persecuted people shall be free. Jacob's long life was crowded
with trials and deliverances, and his descendants are here called by his name, as if to
typify the similarity of their experience to that of their great forefather. He who
would win the blessings of Israel must share the sorrows of Jacob. This verse
contains a personal declaration and an intercessory prayer; those can pray best who
make most sure of their personal interest in God, and those who have the fullest
assurance that the Lord is their God should be the foremost to plead for the rest of
the tried family of the faithful.
Ver. 1-2,4,8. See Psalms on "Psalms 44:1" for further information.
Ver. 4. My King; apparently with a personal application to himself, the poet
individually claiming his own place in the covenant between God and his people. J.
J. Stewart Perowne.
Ver. 4. Thou art my king, O God; command deliverances for Jacob. If there were no
creature, no instrument in the world to help, yet would you not be at a loss in time of
need, for he that is on the throne could do it alone. He can do all that ever you need,
without any means or instruments. His bare word is sufficient, all sufficient, for it,
whatever it be, how great, how difficult, how impossible soever it seems. Such a
power there is even in the word of the great King. There needs no more to deliver
you, to deliver his people anywhere, how deep soever plunged, but only the
command of him that sits on the throne. If the gospel, the interests of Christ, in these
parts of the world, and the dear concerns of our souls, and the souls of posterity,
were all as dry bones, in a more forlorn and hopeless condition than they are, he
could make all live with a word. He that is our King, that sits upon the throne, can
command life into that which seems as far from living as a dry bone. While he keeps
the throne, it is a senseless heart that fails through distrust of his power, even when
all visible power and help fail. David Clarkson.
ELLICOTT, "(4) Thou art my King.—Literally, Thou, He, my king, an idiomatic
way of making a strong assertion, Thou, even thou, art my king, O God. (Comp.
Isaiah 43:25.) What God has done in the past may be expected again, and for a

moment the poet forgets the weight of actual trouble in the faith that has sprung
from the grateful retrospect over the past.
BE SO , "Psalms 44:4-8. Thou art my king, O God — And thou, O God, who
didst such astonishing things for them, art still the very same almighty Being, whom
I honour as my sovereign, my governor, and protector. The whole people speak as
one man, being united together in one body. Command — That is, effectually
procure by thy commanding word, deliverances for Jacob — For the posterity of
Jacob, the Israelites. Through thee will we push down our enemies — Hebrew, ‫,ננגח‬
nenaggeeach, cornu feriemus, we will smite with the horn, that is, subdue and
destroy them. The phrase is taken from Deuteronomy 33:17, and alludes to cattle
pushing with their horns. As if he had said, If thou wouldst but appear for us, the
most powerful enemies would not be able to stand before us. Through thy name will
we tread them under — That is, by the help of thy power. I will not trust in my bow
— I have no confidence in my arms, but in thee only, (as the next verse implies,) and
therefore do not frustrate my hope and expectation, placed only on thee. In God we
boast all the day — In this we glory continually, that we have such a King, such a
mighty Saviour and Deliverer, who has wrought such wonderful things for us and
our forefathers.
CO STABLE, "Verses 4-8
Israel needed God"s help again in her present conflicts with enemy nations. On the
basis of parallels between this psalm and Psalm 60 , Wiersbe suggested that the
enemies in view may have been the Edomites and the Arameans (cf. Psalm 44:3 and
Psalm 60:5; Psalm 44:5 and Psalm 60:12; Psalm 44:9; Psalm 44:23 and Psalm 60:1;
Psalm 60:10). [ ote: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p177.] The writer led the nation
in looking to Yahweh as her King and military commander (cf. Joshua 5:13-15). He
not only affirmed his confidence in God but also renounced reliance on military
armaments. He intended his statement that the nation had boasted in the Lord and
would thank Him forever ( Psalm 44:8) to move God to save His people again.
"Only when the Israelites had put aside their confidence in weaponry and bravery
could they become instruments in the hands of God." [ ote: VanGemeren, p339.]
PETT, "Verses 4-8
The Psalmist Expresses His General Confidence In the Fact That God Will In The
Future Fight For Them And Act On Their Behalf As He Has In The Past (Psalms
44:4-8).
The Psalmist speaks in the singular as well as in the plural, and speaks of ‘my
sword’, which suggests that he is the king. But here he allots the supreme Kingship
to God, and calls on Him to act as their King and deliver His people. This was part
of a King’s responsibility. He points out that he is putting all his trust in Him.
Psalms 44:4-5
‘You are my King, O God,

Command deliverances for Jacob.
Through you will we push down our adversaries,
Through your name will we trample upon under those who rise up against us.’
Addressing God as ‘my King’, he calls on Him to exercise His divine power and
‘command’ deliverances for Israel (Jacob). Once God has done that he has no doubt
that through Him and His mighty power His people will be able to ‘push down’
their adversaries, as a wild ox pushes down its foes with its horns, and that through
His ame they will be able to trample on those who rise against them, as the wild ox
tramples its foes beneath its feet.
‘Through your ame.’ The name was seen as expressing the full attributes and
character of the One named. It may be that, as YHWH is nowhere mentioned, the
‘ ame’ referred to is ‘King’.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.
BAR ES, "Through thee - By thy help. “Will we push down our enemies.” The
word here rendered “push down” means literally to strike or push with the horns,
spoken of horned animals, Exo_21:28, Exo_21:31-32. Then it is applied to a conqueror
prostrating nations before him: Deu_33:17; 1Ki_22:11.
Through thy name - That is, acting under thine authority and by thy help. If he gave
the commandment Psa_44:4, it would be certain that they would be able to overcome
their adversaries.
Will we tread them under - Will we conquer or subdue them. The language is
taken from the custom of treading on a prostrate foe. See Psa_7:5, note; Psa_18:40,
note; compare Job_40:12, note; Isa_10:6, note; Isa_63:3, note; Dan_7:23, note.
That rise up against us - Our enemies that have mustered their strength for war.
The language would properly denote those who had rebelled against a government; but
it seems here to be used in a more general sense, as referring to those who had waged
war against them. See Psa_18:39,
CLARKE, "Through thee will we push down - Through thy Word, ‫במימרא‬

Psalm 44 commentary

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