Psalm 44 ~ we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered

Psalm 44

English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio Bible

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

O God, we have heard with our ears,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old:
² you with your own hand drove out the nations,
but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
but them you set free;
³ for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
and the light of your face,
for you delighted in them.

⁴ You are my King, O God;
ordain salvation for Jacob!
⁵ Through you we push down our foes;
through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
⁷ But you have saved us from our foes
and have put to shame those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to your name forever.
Selah

⁹ But you have rejected us and disgraced us
and have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰ You have made us turn back from the foe,
and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
¹¹ You have made us like sheep for slaughter
and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You have sold your people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face
¹⁶ at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷ All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³ Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

We don't live in a world where we dress for our worship, arrive early, to pick out the animal who will have their throat slit for our sins. Evidently ~ our Psalmist felt some concern for the animals doomed to die. Interesting since the Sons of Korah were Priests at the Temple.

This Psalm echoes Job (the Psalms written in 1,000 B.C., Job in 600 B.C.). People wonder if God hears them. Is God sleeping?

Psalm 44 begins with the acknowledgement all we have is God's. And continues that thought as we, with the Psalmist, wonder about the fairness of life.

We are not so different from David who cried out to the Lord and this Psalmist - who lived 3,000 years ago. (Or Job living 2,400 years ago.)

According to Mark 12:27
He is not God of the dead, but of the living.

Even the people who give justice with mercy, walking humbly with the Lord ~ Wonder. This isn't new to the LORD. David faced days he had justice issues and his own ideas of victory.

What would set David, & these writers - the Sons of Korah, David saw had the Spirit of God, apart? Even in frustration, David would look to Father God. People of faith look for God to care when they ask Him.

Proverbs 24:14
Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Isaiah 55:12
For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Psalm 96:12
let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy

Isaiah 40:9
You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, "Here is your God!"


We know of Job's misery. David's worries. We know our own doubts. God triumphs.




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