Psalm 44 - Modern English Version

For the Music Director. A Contemplative Maskil of the sons of Korah.

¹ We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what deeds You performed in their days, in the days of old:

² You drove out the nations with Your hand, but them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, but them You set free.

³ For they did not take possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them.

⁴ You are my King, O God; command victories for Jacob.

⁵ Through You we will push down our enemies; through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.

⁶ For I will not trust in my bow, nor can my sword save me.

⁷ But You have saved us from our enemies, 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 put us to shame, and you do not go out with our armies.

¹⁰ You make us turn back from the enemy, and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

¹¹ You have given us up like sheep for slaughter, and have scattered us among the nations.

¹² You sell Your people for a low price, and do not increase Your wealth by their sale.

¹³ You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to those around us.

¹⁴ You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵ My disgrace is continually before me, and shame has covered my face

¹⁶ at the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, at the presence of the enemy and avenger.

¹⁷ All this has come upon us; yet we have not forgotten You, nor have we dealt falsely with 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 stretched out our hands to a foreign god,

²¹ would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

²² Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³ Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise! Do not cast us off forever!

²⁴ Why do You hide Your face? Why do you forget our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our body clings to the ground.

²⁶ Arise, be our help. Redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness!