Psalm 44 · a question people ask
"You sell your people for nothing" (44:12). Can someone say that to God?
Psalm 44 does. From 44:9 to 44:14 every verse says what God has done: "But now you rejected us" (44:9), "You have made us like sheep for food" (44:11), "You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale" (44:12), "You make us a byword among the nations" (44:14). All of it is said to God, not about him to someone else. The same psalm says, "God, you are my King" (44:4), and it ends by asking him for help: "Rise up to help us. Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake" (44:26). Sell is the verb other books use for the LORD giving his people into their enemies' hands: "He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around" (Judges 2:14), and "unless their Rock had sold them" (Deuteronomy 32:30) (tap sell). Psalm 44 goes on to ask, "Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord?" (44:23). Psalm 35's chapter sets that cry beside "Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4), and Psalm 13's chapter sets out the words 44:23-24 share with Psalm 13. The psalm doesn't soften what it says, and it doesn't stop speaking to God. These notes don't say more than the psalm does, about God or about the people.
The verses
“God, you are my King. Command victories for Jacob!”
“But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies. You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take plunder for themselves. You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations. You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.”
“Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.”
“Rise up to help us. Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.”