Aa
Redemption Remembered in Present Dishonor
To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation44:0 Heb. Maschil of the sons of Korah.
1We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us,
The deeds You did in their days,
In days of old:
2You drove out the 44:2 Gentiles, heathennations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
3For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them;
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
Because You favored them.
4You are my King, 44:4 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. and my GodO God;
44:4 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Syr., Vg. Who commandsCommand victories for Jacob.
5Through You we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
6For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those who hated us.
8In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
9But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our armies.
10You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken 44:10 plunderspoil for themselves.
11You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among the nations.
12You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by selling them.
13You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
14You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
15My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has covered me,
16Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the avenger.
17All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
18Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
19But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow of death.
20If we had forgotten the name of our God,
Or stretched44:20 Worshiped out our hands to a foreign god,
21Would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
22Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
23Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
24Why do You hide Your face,
And forget our affliction and our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the 44:25 Ground, in humiliationdust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26Arise for our help,
And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.