Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 44
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 44
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 44
"We have heard with our ears, O God, Our fathers have told us, What work thou didst in their days, In the days of old." — Psalms 44:1 (ASV)
We have heard. —The glorious traditions of ancient deliverances performed by Jehovah for His people were a sacred heritage of every Hebrew. (Exodus 12:26 and following; Deuteronomy 6:20, and so on.) This, and all the historical psalms, show how closely interwoven for the Jew were patriotism and religion.
"Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand; But them thou didst plant: Thou didst afflict the peoples; But them thou didst spread abroad." — Psalms 44:2 (ASV)
You ... with your hand. —Literally, You, Your 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 tree spreading its branches out (Ezekiel 17:6; Ezekiel 31:5, and especially Psalm 80:11), a passage which is simply an amplification of the figure in this verse, namely, 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.
You, with your hand, did dispossess the heathen,
And planted them (Israel) in.
You did afflict the peoples,
But did make them spread.
"For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them; But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, Because thou wast favorable unto them." — Psalms 44:3 (ASV)
The light of thy countenance. —Notice the contrast to this in Psalms 44:24; in times of distress God’s face seemed hidden or averted.
"Thou art my King, O God: Command deliverance for Jacob." — Psalms 44:4 (ASV)
You are my King. —Literally, You, He, my king, an idiomatic way of making a strong assertion, You, even you, are my king, O God. . 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.
"Through thee will we push down our adversaries: Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us." — Psalms 44:5 (ASV)
Push down. —The image of the original is lost here; the Septuagint has retained it. It is that of a buffalo or other horned animal driving back and goring its enemies. Deuteronomy 33:17 applies it as a special description of the tribe of Joseph. The figure is continued in the next clause; the infuriated animal tramples its victim underfoot.
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