Psalms 44:17 - Meaning and Application

The people of God were deeply afflicted and oppressed, so they turned to him. Where else could they go?

They appeal to God about their integrity, because he alone can judge it without error, and he will reward it. They call God to witness two things. First, even though these hardships came on them, they still kept close to God and to their duty (Psalm 44:17). “All this has come on us, and it is as bad as it could be, yet we have not forgotten you, and we have not turned away from the worship of you. We know we have acted foolishly at times, but we have not been false to your covenant, so as to reject you and turn to other gods. Though idolaters conquered us, we did not start thinking better of their idols or their idol worship. Though you seemed to leave us and withdraw from us, we did not leave you.” Their suffering had lasted a long time and had been severe. “We have been badly crushed in the place of dragons, among people as fierce, wild, and cruel as dragons. We have been covered with the shadow of death, meaning we have been deeply depressed and felt close to death. We have been wrapped in darkness, as if buried alive. You have broken us in this way, you have covered us in this way (Psalm 44:19), yet we have not held hard thoughts against you, and we have not planned to turn away from your service. Though you have slain us, we have kept trusting you. Our heart has not turned back, we have not secretly pulled our affections away from you, and our steps, either in worship or in daily life, have not drifted from your way (Psalm 44:18), the path you appointed for us.”

When the heart turns back, the feet soon follow. A heart filled with unbelief is what leads people away from God. We can bear trouble better, no matter how heavy it is, if we still hold on to our integrity in it. If our troubles do not drive us away from our duty to God, they should not drive us away from our comfort in God either. He will not leave us if we do not leave him.

For proof of their integrity, they call on God’s knowledge. That is a comfort to honest people and a terror to hypocrites (Psalm 44:20, Psalm 44:21). “If we have forgotten the name of our God, pretending that he forgot us, or if in our distress we have reached out to a strange god, thinking it would help us more, will not God uncover this? Will he not know it more fully and clearly than we know something we have carefully investigated? Will he not judge it and call us to account for it?” Forgetting God was a sin of the heart, and reaching out to a false god was often a secret sin (Ezekiel 8:12). But God knows heart sins and hidden sins, and he will hold people accountable for them. He knows the secrets of the heart, so he is an infallible judge of words and actions.

Second, they say they suffer these hardships because they have stayed close to God and their duty (Psalm 44:22). “It is for your sake that we are killed all day long, because we belong to you, are called by your name, call on your name, and will not worship other gods.” The Spirit of prophecy pointed ahead to those who would suffer even death for their testimony about Christ, as this verse is applied in (Romans 8:36). So many were killed, and in such drawn-out ways, that it felt like death all day long. This became so common that when a person became a Christian, he could expect to be like a sheep marked for slaughter.

Then they pray about their present trouble and ask God, in his right time, to bring deliverance. Their request is urgent: “Awake, arise” (Psalm 44:23). “Rise up to help us, redeem us” (Psalm 44:26). “Come quickly and powerfully to our rescue” (Psalm 80:2). “Stir up your strength, and come save us.” They had complained earlier that God had sold them (Psalm 44:12), and now they pray that he would redeem them, because no one can appeal from God except by appealing to him. If he sells us, no one else can buy us back. The same hand that tears must heal, and the same hand that strikes must bind up (Hosea 6:1). They had complained earlier, “You have cast us off” (Psalm 44:9), and now they pray, “Do not cast us off forever. Do not let us be finally forsaken by God” (Psalm 44:23).

Their words also include moving questions: “Why are you sleeping?” (Psalm 44:23). He who keeps Israel does not slumber or sleep, but when he does not quickly show himself for his people’s rescue, they are tempted to think he is asleep. The language is figurative, as in (Psalm 78:65), where the Lord awakes as one out of sleep. It also fits Christ in the literal sense, as in (Matthew 8:24), when he was asleep in the boat during the storm, and the disciples woke him, saying, “Lord, save us, we are going to die.” “Why do you hide your face, so that we cannot see your favor? Or so that you do not see us and our troubles? You seem to forget our suffering and oppression, because they still go on, and we can see no way to escape.”

Their pleas are also proper. They do not plead their own merit or righteousness, though their consciences did testify to their integrity. They use the prayers of poor sinners. First, they plead their misery, which made them fit objects of God’s compassion (Psalm 44:25). “Our soul is bowed down to the dust under heavy grief and fear. We have become like creeping things, the most despised creatures. Our belly clings to the ground. We cannot lift ourselves up, neither to cheer our own spirits nor to recover from our sad condition. We lie open to be trampled by every mocking enemy.”

Then they plead God’s mercy. “Redeem us for your mercy’s sake.” They rely on the goodness of his nature, which is the glory of his name (Exodus 34:6), and on the sure mercies of David, given through the covenant to all his spiritual children.