Psalm 44:1-Psalm 45:1 - Israel's Complaint

¹ O God, we have heard with our ears; our ancestors have told us of work you worked in their days, in days of old. ² You [with] your hand drove out the nations, but them you planted. You harmed [the] peoples, but them you let spread out. ³ For not with their sword did they possess [the] land, and their arm did not give them victory. Rather [it was] your right hand and your arm and the light of your presence, because you delighted in them.

⁴ You are my king, O God. Command victories for Jacob. ⁵ By you we push down our enemies; by your name we tread down those who rise up against us. ⁶ For I do not trust my bow, and my sword cannot give me victory. ⁷ Rather you have saved us from our enemies, and have humiliated those who hate us. ⁸ In God we boast all the day, and we will give thanks [to] your name forever. Selah

⁹ Surely you have rejected and disgraced us, and have not gone out with our armies. ¹⁰ You have caused us to pull back from [the] enemy, and [so] those who hate us have plundered for themselves. ¹¹ You have given us as sheep [for] food, and among the nations you have scattered us. ¹² You have sold your people {cheaply}, and did not profit by their price. ¹³ You have made us a taunt to our neighbors, a derision and a scorn to those around us. ¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations, a shaking of [the] head among [the] peoples. ¹⁵ {All day long} my disgrace [is] before me, and the shame of my face covers me, ¹⁶ because of [the] voice of [the] taunter and [the] reviler, because of [the] enemy and [the] avenger.

¹⁷ All this has befallen us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. ¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have [not] turned aside from your way. ¹⁹ But you have crushed us in a place of jackals, and have covered us with deep shadow. ²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God, or had spread out our hands [in prayer] to a foreign god, ²¹ would not God discover this, for he knows [the] secrets of [the] heart? ²² Rather, on account of you we are killed {all day long}; we are accounted as sheep for slaughter.

²³ Wake up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake! Do not reject forever. ²⁴ Why do you hide your face? [Have] you forgotten our misery and our oppression? ²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our {body} clings to the ground. ²⁶ Rise up! [Be a] help for us, and redeem us for the sake of your loyal love.

¹ My heart is moved [with] a good word; I recite my {compositions} to [the] king. My tongue [is the] pen [of] a skilled scribe.