John Calvin Commentary Psalms 44:10

"Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary; And they that hate us take spoil for themselves." — Psalms 44:10 (ASV)

Thou hast made us to turn back from the enemy. Here the people of God still further complain that He had made them flee before their enemies and had given them up as a prey to be devoured by them. As the saints firmly believe that men are strong and valiant only insofar as God upholds them by His secret power, they also conclude that when men flee and are seized with trembling, it is God who strikes them with terror, so that the poor, wretched creatures are deprived of reason, and both their skill and courage fail them. The expression here used is taken from the Law, Deuteronomy 32:30, where Moses says:

How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?

The faithful, fully persuaded of this truth, do not ascribe to fortune the change that had passed over them—that those who were accustomed to vigorously and fearlessly assail their enemies were now terrified by their very appearance. Instead, they feel assured that it was by the appointment of heaven that they were thus defeated and made to flee before their enemies.

And as they formerly confessed that the strength which they had previously possessed was the gift of God, so, on the other hand, they also acknowledge that the fear by which they are now driven was inflicted upon them as a punishment by God. And when God thus deprived them of courage, they say that they are exposed to the will of their enemies; for in this sense I interpret the word למו, lamo, which I have rendered, for themselves, namely, that their enemies destroyed them at their pleasure and without any resistance, as their prey.

To the same purpose is that other comparison (Psalms 44:11), in which they say that they were given as sheep for food. By this the prophet intimates that, being already vanquished previous to the battle, they fell down, as it were, upon the earth before their enemies, ready to be devoured by them, and not fit for anything else than to gratify their insatiable cruelty.

It ought to be observed that when the faithful represent God as the author of their calamities, it is not in the way of murmuring against Him, but that they may with greater confidence seek relief, as it were, from the same hand that struck and wounded them. It is certainly impossible that those who impute their miseries to fortune can sincerely turn to God, or look for help and salvation from Him.

If, therefore, we are to expect a remedy from God for our miseries, we must believe that they befall us not by fortune or mere chance, but that they are inflicted upon us properly by His hand. Having stated that they were thus abandoned to the will of their enemies, they add, at the same time, that they were scattered among the heathen: a dispersion that was a hundred times more grievous to them than death.

The whole glory and blessedness of that people consisted in this: that, being united under one God and one King, they formed one body. And, this being the case, it was a sign that the curse of God lay heavy upon them to be mingled among the heathen and scattered here and there like broken members.