Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 44:2

"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.