John Calvin Commentary Psalms 44:1

"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)

O God! we have heard with our ears. The people of God here recount the goodness He had previously shown to their fathers, so that by showing the great dissimilarity of their own condition, they might persuade God to alleviate their miseries. They begin by declaring that they are not speaking about things unknown or doubtful, but that they recounted events, the truth of which was authenticated by reliable witnesses.

The expression, We have heard with our ears, is not to be considered a redundant form of speech, but one of great significance. It is intended to point out that the grace of God shown to their fathers was so renowned that no doubt could be entertained about it. They add that their knowledge of these things was handed down from generation to generation by those who witnessed them.

This does not mean that their ancestors, who had been brought out of Egypt, had, fifteen hundred years later, declared to their descendants the benefits God had bestowed on them.

Rather, the meaning of the language is that not only the first deliverance, but also the various other works which God had performed from time to time for His people, had been passed down, so to speak, from hand to hand, in an uninterrupted succession, even to the most recent age.

Therefore, since those who, many ages later, became witnesses and heralds of the grace God had shown to this people spoke based on the report of the first generation, the faithful are justified in saying, as they do here, that their fathers declared to them what they certainly knew.

This knowledge had not been lost due to its antiquity but was continually preserved through remembrance from fathers to children.

The essence of it all is that God had shown His goodness to the children of Abraham, not only for ten or twenty years, but ever since He had received them into His favor, He had never ceased to bestow on them continued signs of His grace.