Psalm 44 is another song “of the sons of Korah”, similar to psalms 42 and (probably) 43. It’s too early for me to start drawing common patterns across their musical style, so I’ll just focus on the contents of this psalm alone.
Psalm 44 is somewhat difficult to identify using my standard analysis, but overall it appears to be an extended prayer psalm. It begins in verses 1-8 with two simple points. The first one, established in verses 1-3, is that God supported the ancestors of Israel and granted them success in battle. Israel’s success did not come from “their sword” (v. 3) but the “right hand” of God that they won victories. The second point, most thoroughly established in verses 5-8 but really infused through the whole psalm, is that victory does not come from the “bow” or “sword” of soldiers (v. 6), but from the LORD.
The psalmist is drawing a comparison between how his ancestors “won the land” (v. 3) and victory over their enemies by the LORD, and in the same way the psalmist and the Israelites of his generation also win their victories through the LORD. The fact that Israel depends on God to win their battles sets up the context for what follows next, but verse 8 really caps the thought because of its exclamation of praise (the logical conclusion of God’s support for Israel) and the “selah” that encourages us to pause and meditate in this attitude of praise.
The beginning of this psalm has much the same feel as a psalm of praise, and verse 1 seems to set up that particular context by calling the reader back to think of the LORD’s deliverance in crossing the Red Sea, freedom from slavery in Egypt, and so many other things that God did for Israel “in days long ago”, as the psalmist listens to his parents or the older generation tell him the stories of the Passover. This is one case where the first verse does not seem to summarize the psalm as a whole, because once we reach verse 9 we see the tone shift quite suddenly.
The psalm maintains the same underlying premise throughout: the LORD is the source of our victory. What changes is that in “days long ago” (v. 1) God was with Israel and brought them victory; in the time of the psalmist, the LORD has “rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies” (v. 9). By the psalmist’s reasoning, Israel is facing defeat before their enemies, and since victory does not come by the sword, defeat doesn’t come by the sword either. Victory is when God grants it, and defeat is when God abandons them.
After several paragraphs of elaborating on their present suffering and shame, verses 17-22 present something of a defense. The psalmist explains that if Israel had turned their backs on the LORD and worshiped other gods, then he can understand in that case if God might choose to punish or abandon them. However, he bluntly denies that this happened; verse 17 simply says, “we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant”.
Overall, it’s somewhat difficult to evaluate this claim objectively because we don’t know the time period when this psalm was written. From the history of Israel presented in the book of Kings, I think it’s fair to say that Israel’s devotion to the LORD ebbed and flowed in different seasons, sometimes rising to tremendous heights such as during the reigns of David, Hezekiah or Josiah, and sometimes falling to terribly dark places such as the reigns of Athaliah, Manasseh or Amon. And that’s focusing on the kings of Judah (where this psalm was most likely composed); if we include the kings of Israel, the northern kingdom, there are many worse kings we could choose from. Beyond the kings themselves, it’s also fair to say the people themselves varied in the devotion from one king to another. I won’t go through the evidence but even a plain reading of the book of Kings shows vast numbers of people worshiping Baal (how else could the kingdom support 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah in 1 Kings 18?).
Although devotion to the LORD varied over time, it also seems fair to say that the overall trend was negative and even during the good times it’s pretty likely that Baal and Asherah worship persisted in rural areas, away from the influence of the king. As such, the psalmist’s claim that Israel never turned away from the LORD is mostly false, even at the time of composition. It’s likely that the psalmist is, shall we say, speaking poetically or figuratively here. I would like to remind my readers that this psalm is not intended as a history lesson. Since this is a prayer directed at the LORD, I suspect the psalmist is attempting to paint Israel in the best possible light; furthermore, since it was likely part of the temple psalter, we could reasonably suspect that the people singing or listening to this psalm were indeed wholly devoted to the LORD, and therefore it is “locally true”, even if it’s not the case for Israel or Judah as a national entity.
In any case, the psalm ends with a strong petition for deliverance. This gives us two parts out of three for a prayer psalm; the defeats suffered by Israel constitute the problem statement, and verses 23-26 are the petition. This psalm abruptly ends without anticipatory praise.
One final thing I would like to point out is to contrast this psalm with Psalm 18. In particular, verse 3 of this psalm says that God delivered Israel’s ancestors “because you loved them”. Similarly, verse 26 ends this psalm by saying, “rescue us because of your unfailing love”. In both cases it calls upon God’s love, but what I found interesting is how it talks about God’s love for “them”, i.e. the ancestors; or perhaps Israel as a whole. What I don’t see is an expression of God’s love for “me”, i.e. the author of this psalm himself. In contrast, Psalm 18 is much more personal; in Psalm 18:19, David says, “[The LORD] rescued me because he delighted in me. Similarly, Psalm 18:21 says, “For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God”. Once again, this is a personal expression of how David has kept the Law of the LORD and maintained faithful obedience (and was blessed as a result). In contrast, Psalm 44:20-22 consistently refers to “we”. “If we had forgotten”, “spread out our hands”, etc. The difference may seem subtle, but it’s clear that in some important respects Psalm 44 is basically a prayer by the community and for the community. The sons of Korah, as priestly or Levitical intercessors, are praying on behalf of the nation. On the other hand, David was writing deeply personal psalms, praying about his own issues and speaking on his own behalf.
This is perhaps consistent with David’s deeply personal relationship with God, and it also shows some possible evidence of the underlying authorship and origin for these psalms, but I don’t think we can necessarily read much into it beyond the points made above. David tends to have a strong focus on the personal relationship with the LORD and personal struggles, while this psalm is clearly focused on the nation and their relationship with the LORD. We’ll have to continue reading to see if the sons of Korah maintain this kind of national focus or if they also have more “personal” material in the psalter.
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