Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 44:20

"If we have forgotten the name of our God, Or spread forth our hands to a strange god;" — Psalms 44:20 (ASV)

If we have forgotten the name of our God - That is, if we have apostatized from him.

Or stretched out our hands to a strange god - Or have been guilty of idolatry. The act of stretching out the hands, or spreading forth the hands, was significant of worship or prayer: 1 Kings 8:22; 2 Chronicles 6:12–13; see the notes at Isaiah 1:15.

The idea here is that this was not the cause or reason for their calamities. If this had occurred, it would have been a sufficient reason for what had taken place; but no such cause actually existed, and therefore the reason must be found in something else.

It was the fact that such calamities had come upon the nation when no such cause existed that perplexed the author of the psalm and led him to the conclusion in his own mind (Psalms 44:22) that these calamities were produced by the malignant designs of the enemies of the true religion, and that, instead of suffering for their national sins, they were really martyrs in the cause of God and were suffering for his sake.