Psalms

To the Chief Musician. For the Sons of Korah. An Instructive Psalm.

44 O God! with our own ears have we heard, Our fathers have recounted to us,—The work thou didst work In their days, In the days of aforetime:

2 Thou thyself with thine own hand—Didst dispossess nations And didst plant them, Didst break peoples in pieces, And didst spread them out:

3 For not by their own sword gat they possession of the land Nor did their own arm win victory for them,—But thine own right hand and thine own arm and the light of thy face Because thou hadst accepted them.

4 Thou thyself art my king, O God, Command thou the victories of Jacob.

5 By thee will we thrust at our adversaries, In thy Name will we tread down our assailants;

6 For not in my bow will I trust, Nor shall my sword give me victory;

7 For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, And them who hated us hast thou put to shame.

8 In God have we boasted all the day, And thy Name—unto times age-abiding will we praise. [Selah.

9 But nay thou hast rejected and confounded us, And wilt not go forth with our hosts;

10 Thou sufferest us to turn back from the adversary, And they who hate us have plundered at will:

11 Thou dost give us up like sheep to be devoured, And amongst the nations hast thou scattered us.

12 Thou dost sell thy people for no-value, And hast not made increase by their price.

13 Thou dost make us A reproach to our neighbours, A mockery and a derision to them who are round about us:

14 Thou dost make us A by-word among the nations,—A shaking of the head among the peoples.

15 All the day is my confusion before me, And the shame of my face hath covered me:

16 At the voice of him who reproacheth and revileth, At the face of the foe and avenger.

17 All this hath come upon us, Yet had we not forgotten thee, Neither had we dealt falsely with thy covenant;

18 Our heart had not drawn back, Nor had our goings swerved from thy path;

19 That thou shouldst have crushed us down in the place of wild dogs, And covered us over with a deadly shadow.

20 If we had forgotten the Name of our God, And had spread forth our hands unto the God of the foreigner

21 Would not God have searched into this, Seeing that he knoweth the secrets of the heart?

22 Surely for thy sake have we been slain all the day, We have been accounted as sheep for slaughter.

23 Awake thou! wherefore shouldst thou sleep O Lord? Bestir thee! do not reject us altogether!

24 Wherefore shouldst thou hide thy face? Shouldst forget our humiliation and our oppression? For our soul sinketh down to the dust, Our body cleaveth to the earth.

25 Arise to our help, And ransom us because of thine own lovingkindness.

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