Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 44:17

"All this is come upon us; Yet have we not forgotten thee, Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant." — Psalms 44:17 (ASV)

All this is come upon us – All these calamities. The connecting thought here is that, although all these things had come upon them, they could not be traced to their own infidelity or unfaithfulness to God. There was nothing in the national character, no circumstances existing at that time, no special unfaithfulness among the people, no such general forgetfulness of God, and no such general prevalence of idolatry that would account for what had occurred or explain it.

The nation was not then more deeply depraved than it had been at other times; on the contrary, there was among the people a prevalent regard for God and His service. It was, therefore, a mystery to the author of the psalm that these calamities had been allowed to come upon them at that time; it was an event whose cause he desired to search out (Psalms 44:21).

Yet have we not forgotten thee – As a nation. That is, there was nothing special in the circumstances of the nation at that time that would call down divine displeasure. We cannot suppose that the psalmist means to claim for the nation entire perfection, but only to affirm that the nation at that time was not characterized by any special forgetfulness of God or prevalence of wickedness. All that is said here was true at the time when, as I have supposed, the psalm was written—the closing part of the reign of Josiah, or the period immediately following.

Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant – We have not been unfaithful to Your covenant, to the covenant that You made with our fathers, or to the commandments that You have given us. This can only mean that there was no such prevailing departure from the principles of that covenant that could account for this. The psalmist could not connect the existing state of things—the awful and unique defeats and calamities that had come upon the nation—with anything special in the character of the people or in the religious condition of the nation.