CHAPTER 44

AUTHOR UNKNOWN, IT DOESNT APPEAR TO BE DAVIDIC: A CRY FOR HELP

¹We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work You did in their days, in the times of old. (Whoever the writer was, it seems that the Holy Spirit took him back in spirit to the great Deliverance by God of Israel under Joshua. As well, the latter part of the Psalm seems to include Israel under the trying days of the Antichrist, and her cry for Deliverance.)

²How You did drive out the heathen with Your Hand, and planted them: how You did afflict the people, and cast them out (this is a reference to the Lord casting the heathen nations out of the Promised Land; as well, it is a physical example of the spiritual experience in our own lives, with the Lord driving out the works of the flesh).

³For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Your right Hand, and Your arm, and the light of Your Countenance, because You had a favor unto them (as it was not possible for Israel to gain their inheritance by their own sword, likewise, it is not possible for us to obtain our spiritual inheritance by the works of the flesh; it can only be done by our Faith in Christ and what He did for us at the Cross, which gives the Holy Spirit latitude to work on our behalf [Rom. 8:12, 11]).

⁴You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob (being King, You have a right to command; we pray that, at this present time, You will command our deliverance).

⁵Through You will we push down our enemies: through Your Name will we tread them under who rise up against us (only through the Lord can victory be ours; as well, this victory can come only by Faith in Christ and the Cross [Rom. 6:314]).

⁶For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me (human ability, no matter how strong, is woefully insufficient as it regards victory over the world, the flesh, and the Devil [Gal., Chpt. 5]).

⁷But You have saved us from our enemies, and have put them to shame who hate us (some think that Hezekiah may have written this Psalm; if so, he rejoices in the enemies of Israel being defeated).

⁸In God we boast all the day long, and praise Your Name for ever. Selah. (Paul said, God forbid that I glory [boast] save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world [Gal. 6:14].)

⁹But You have cast off, and put us to shame; and go not forth with our armies. (Prophetically, this Psalm is a forepicture of the affliction of the believing remnant of Israel under the oppression of the Antichrist. Presently, it speaks of every Christian who, at one time or the other, due to failure, suffers chastisement at the hands of God. Nevertheless, Gods chastisement is never punitive, but rather redemptive.)

¹⁰You make us to turn back from the enemy: and they who hate us spoil for themselves.

¹¹You have given us like sheep appointed for meat; and have scattered us among the heathen (this happened in A.D. 70, and continues in a sense unto this hour).

¹²You sold Your People for nought, and do not increase Your wealth by their price (the wealth of the Kingdom of God was not increased by this necessary act, but actually decreased).

¹³You make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them who are round about us.

¹⁴You make us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people (and thats exactly what has happened!).

¹⁵My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,

¹⁶For the voice of him who reproaches and blasphemes; by reason of the enemy and avenger (Israel is reproached and blasphemed, and yet the Lord seems to do nothing about it).

¹⁷All this is come upon us: yet have we not forgotten You, neither have we dealt falsely in Your Covenant (at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, Israel will cry these words, but they are false).

¹⁸Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Your Way;

¹⁹Though You have sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. (Here, Israel is admitting that God has rightly broken them because they had, for a long period of time, forgotten Him with their hearts turned back from Him.

The place of dragons concerns that terrible time when Israel will accept the Antichrist and think he is, in fact, the Messiah. Because of this, they will be brought to the shadow of death. The Antichrist will declare war on them, with Israel at that time coming close to total annihilation [Jn. 5:43].)

²⁰If we have forgotten the Name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god (in fact, they did forget the Name of their God, and they did stretch out their hands to a strange god [Dan. 11:39]; the Antichrist, who Israel at the beginning will think is the Messiah, will actually be a strange god);

²¹Shall not God search this out? for He knows the secrets of the heart.

²²Yes, for Your sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter (Paul quoted this Passage in Romans 8:36; the Holy Spirit through Paul uses this Passage in the correct sense, basically stating that the things God allows to come upon us are meant to bring us closer to God; rather than separating us from God, they are designed to bring us into compliance with His Will).

²³Awake, why do You sleep, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. (This will be the cry of Israel during the closing days of the Battle of Armageddon, when it looks like they will be annihilated. In a sense, it is Christ interceding for Israel, which He no doubt will do at that time!)

²⁴Wherefore do You hide Your Face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? (During the Battle of Armageddon, Israel will be pressed beyond measure, with no visible hope in sight.)

²⁵For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the Earth (this will be the darkest hour of Israels history, when, as Zechariah prophesied, they will come close to extinction [Zech. 14:13]).

²⁶Arise for our help, and redeem us for Your Mercies sake. (This prayer will be answered after so many years of spiritual declension. Zechariah said so [Zech. 14:3].

The reason God will answer is because of Your Mercies sake.)