Psalm 44

Psalm 44 — Past, Future, and Present

Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Tehillim Talks, our studies in the Psalms.
And in this episode, we’re looking at Psalm 44. Now, this psalm at first blush seems pretty typical of many of the psalms where the writer kind of bemoans the things they’re going through but looks to God in hope that He’ll deliver them and so on.

But as you look a little deeper, there’s more going on than this.
In fact, this psalm is very particular and very unusual in one regard — so unusual, in fact, that Paul chooses to quote this psalm over in Romans 8 in something he wants to teach the people in Rome, the believers in Rome, who are going through something very similar to what is described here in Psalm 44.

So let’s get started. This is another psalm written by the sons of Korah, and it is a maskil, which means that more than praise or prayer or pleading, it’s a teaching psalm.
And there’s a lesson to be learned here.

So our job is to learn the lesson that is being taught by this psalm.
Now, this psalm divides itself pretty conveniently into three sections, and I’ve entitled these sections the past, and then the future, and then the present.
Now, I know you’re thinking, well, that’s out of order.
Yes, it is. But what the psalmist is doing is he’s looking to the past and looking to the future, and he’s fine with those — those are great — but it’s the present that’s really the problem.
Isn’t that kind of the case with all of us as well?

Section 1 (vv. 1–3) — The Past

Verses one through three:

O God, we have heard with our ears; our fathers have told us what You performed in their days, in the days of old.

So the fathers here can refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also to those who went out with Moses in the Exodus and through the wilderness and went on to conquer the land of Canaan.

You, with Your own hand, drove out the nations, but them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, but them — the fathers — You set free.
For not by their sword did they inherit 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.

So looking at the past, it’s all good.
Even though there was a lot of pain in the past, what remains is the sense of history and victory and deliverance that God had performed.

Section 2 (vv. 4–8) — The Future

And then the psalmist moves on to the future.
Now, even though verses four through eight are written kind of in the present tense and refer to the past, the tone, especially in the closing part of this section, is definitely toward the future.

For You are my King, O God; ordain salvations for Jacob.
Through You we gore our foes; through Your name we trample those who rise up against us.
For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me;
but You have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us.
In God we praise continually, and we will give thanks to Your name forever.

So here now, instead of speaking of the fathers or what God has done for them in the past, it’s now speaking about me and about us.
It keeps switching between the singular and the plural.
And it ends with we praise continually, God, we praise continually, and we will give thanks to Your name forever.

Section 3 (vv. 9–16) — The Present Trouble

But then we come to the present.
Now see if you can notice something unusual about the present here:

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

Now, so far in this third section, it’s kind of similar to other psalms that are bemoaning the things that they’re going through — how they’re being exiled, traumatized by their enemies, and there’s no victory.
But the surprise is still yet to come.

Meaning of Mashal מָשָׁל (mashal) — “Byword”

Before we get there, I want to talk about this word byword.
It’s not a very common word in modern English usage, but the word there in Hebrew is Mashal מָשָׁל (mashal).

This word may be familiar to you because mashal is usually translated a parable or a proverb.
Now, Yeshua told parables, and Solomon gave us proverbs, but in Hebrew, they’re the same word — mashal.
In fact, the Book of Proverbs is called Mishlei Shlomo, the mashalim of Solomon.

But how can parable and proverb also be the same word as to rule?

Well, the rabbis describe a proverb, a mashal, as like a handle on a bucket.
Now, picture this with me: you have a bucket that’s brimful with water, and you want to carry this bucket from one place to another, but there’s no handle on the bucket.
So you take this and you hug it to your chest, and you walk as carefully as you can, but with every step, the water sloshes and spills over, and some of it is lost.
Now, imagine putting a handle on that bucket — it puts you in control of the contents of the bucket, and you can swing the bucket, you can spin it around, and not a drop is lost.

So a mashal allows you to rule over a body of truth.
This is why a proverb or a parable, a little short story, if you learn it, it’s like it gives you a handle on a large body of truth without spilling a drop.

In the first chapter of Genesis, it describes the fourth day of creation when God put the sun and the moon in the sky.
And He put the sun, the greater light, and the moon, the lesser light, to mashal over the day and to mashal over the night.
So as the sun and the moon rule over the day and night, what does that mean — to rule, to mashal?
It means it brings clarity. The daytime, the sun brings us great clarity, where we can understand and embrace and see and comprehend the world around us.
And the moon does that in varying degrees at night.
They both are described as moshlim (rulers) over the day and night, just as the parable or proverb allows you to mashal over a body of truth.
You can comprehend it, you can see it, you can carry it, you don’t lose anything.

So going back to the context here, the psalmist has been bemoaning the fact that, God, You have made us a mashal among the nations.

Israel as a Byword Among the Nations

It’s sad and it’s upsetting when people who don’t know better use the word “Jew” in a derogatory sense.
And this is a fulfillment of this verse here: You’ve made us a byword.

What I have found is that almost every single time I hear someone called a Jew in a derogatory sense, it’s unfair, inaccurate, and wrong.
Because my experiences with the Jewish people have always been very positive — they’ve been generous, kind, wise.
I’m sure there are exceptions; I know there are historically.
But in general, meeting a Jewish person, I meet someone who’s very focused, upright, straightforward.

But there are other people in history — when you call someone a Hitler, Hitler’s become a byword, and that’s something we never want to call one another.
You call someone a little Napoleon, or say they have a Napoleon complex — you’ve made Napoleon a byword.
And we can think of other villains through history we’ve made into bywords.
But here the psalmist is so upset that the word Jew, the word Israel, has become a byword.

Section 4 (vv. 17–22) — Faithfulness Yet Afflicted

And you can see already that the bulk of this psalm has to do with the present conditions.
So we continue with verse 17:

All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You, and we have not been false to Your covenant.
Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way.

This is the surprise, because most psalms that decry Israel’s condition — that talk about exile, defeat, and hardship — include a confession: we have broken Your commandments, neglected Your statutes, worshiped other gods.

But not this psalm.
Here he says, we have not forgotten You, we have not been false to Your covenant, our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way.
In other words, we have been doing things right — but how come things feel so wrong?
How come we’re suffering the way we are?
Why do You feel so distant?

Yet You have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
Yet for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

And this is the verse that Paul quotes over in Romans 8, because the experience the sons of Korah describe here in Psalm 44 was also the experience of the believers in Rome when Paul wrote to them.
They were doing things right — and yet they were experiencing great suffering.

Section 5 (vv. 23–26) — Cry for Redemption

Awake! Why are You sleeping, O Lord?
And of course, God never slumbers or sleeps, but it seems that way.
Rouse Yourself; do not reject us forever.
Why do You hide Your face?
Why do You forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground.
Rise up; come to our help; redeem us for the sake of Your steadfast love.

Here the psalmist looked to the past — the great victories God brought.
He looked to the future — he knows the story has a happy ending.
He knows God’s kingdom is coming, that King Messiah will rule.
And then after that, there will be new heavens and a new earth.

As believers in Yeshua, we know He serves the best wine last — the best is yet to come.

So we have a glorious past, we have a glorious future, but right now things just seem completely upside down — so mixed up, so much unfair suffering.
No wonder Paul quotes this psalm when he writes to the Romans in Romans 8.

Paul’s Commentary in Romans 8

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

There were people against the believers in Rome. They were under terrible circumstances.
You could legally be a Jew — the Jews had a sanction from Rome that they could practice Judaism.
They were the only religion in the ancient Roman Empire that was allowed to practice its own worship within the empire.
Everyone else had to worship the gods of Rome.

So where did that leave the Gentile believers who did not convert to Judaism but rejected Rome’s paganism?
It put them in a place where, to be loyal to God, they had to do something completely illegal — something that could, and often did, cost them their lives.

So Paul asks, Who can be against us?
Well — pretty much the whole Roman Empire.
But he reminds them: if God is for us, what difference does it make if Rome is against us?

He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all — will He not also graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Messiah Yeshua is the One who died — more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

No matter how much the Roman government brings charges against you, no matter how much others condemn you, don’t worry about it, because our God and our Messiah have the last word.

Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
And there were all those things the believers in Rome were facing.

And then Paul quotes Psalm 44:
As it is written, “For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

But Paul brings the rest of the story:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation — will be able to separate us from the love of God in Messiah Yeshua our Master.

Suffering and Purpose

What’s he really saying here?
I think it’s this: in this world, everyone suffers.

The more wicked and foolish we are, the more suffering we bring on ourselves.
The more righteous we are, generally there’s less self-inflicted suffering — but still we suffer from the unrighteousness of others.

When someone runs a red light, or rear-ends you because they’re texting, you suffer from their unrighteousness.
We pay higher prices in stores to cover the cost of theft — we suffer from others.

If you don’t believe that, look at Yeshua.
He didn’t suffer for His own sin — He had none.
He was perfectly righteous but suffered for ours.

So Paul is reminding us: you can be doing everything right, and still suffer.
But if we’re all going to die anyway, let’s die for righteousness’ sake.
Let’s not die old because we denied God to avoid persecution.
If we have to die younger because we confessed who God is, then let’s go out that way.

Even in this, we are more than conquerors — because we die on the victorious side.
We lay down our lives for the winning team.
And God, our Redeemer, will resurrect us.
There’s an eternal reward and an eternal weight of glory for those who live their lives for Him.

Closing Reflection

I’m reminded of the words of George MacDonald, one of my favorite authors.
He said:

“The Savior did not come and suffer and die so that we would not have to suffer and die, but so that our deaths could be like His.”

In other words, our suffering and our death have purpose.

So if we’re all going to suffer in this world — whether righteous or unrighteous — let’s suffer for the sake of righteousness.
If we’re all going to die, then let’s die for the sake of righteousness.
We all have to go through things — so let’s go through them because we’re following God.
And though it may look like the path of loss, it’s actually the path of victory.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.(Matthew 5:10–12)

So we have a glorious past and an even more glorious future, but right now we all feel pain.
Right now everything looks confusing.
Sometimes things look pretty awful.
But even in the midst of that, there can be great joy and great rejoicing.
And like the Woman of Valor, we can laugh at the future.

But there will be suffering — so let’s just make sure that the suffering we go through is for the sake of righteousness.

And with that, I wish you shalom, and may God bless.