1We have heard with our ears,
O God, Our fathers have told
us,
The deeds You did in their
days,
In days of old:
2You drove out the nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and
cast them out.
3For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save
them;
But it was Your right hand,
Your arm, and the light of
Your countenance,
Because You favored them.
4You are my King, O God;
Command victories for Jacob.
5Through You we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will
trample those who rise up against us.
6For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those
who hated us.
8In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
9But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our
armies.
10You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have
taken spoil for themselves.
11You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among
the nations.
12You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by
selling them.
13You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to
those all around us.
14You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among
the peoples.
15My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has
covered me,
16Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the
avenger.
17All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with
Your covenant.
18Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps departed
from Your way;
19But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow
of death.
20If we had forgotten the name of our God,
Or stretched out our hands to
a foreign god,
21Would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of
the heart.
22Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter.
23Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Arise! Do not cast us off
forever.
24Why do You hide Your face,
And forget our affliction and
our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26Arise for our help,
And redeem us for Your
mercies’ sake.
Commentary
Vs.
1-3
1We have heard with
our ears,
O God, Our fathers have told
us,
The deeds You did in their
days,
In days of old:
2You drove out the nations with Your hand,
But them You planted;
You afflicted the peoples, and
cast them out.
3For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save
them;
But it was Your right hand,
Your arm, and the light of
Your countenance,
Because You favored them.
This
psalm opens by recalling the Lord’s faithfulness to His people down through the
ages. How He in ancient times drove put the nations of Canaan before Israel so
that they could inherit the promised land. For it was the Lord who planted His
people there, who gave them peace on every side, while He afflicted their foes. For Israel did not gain the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm
save them against the overwhelming opposition that cane against them. But it was the Lord’s right
hand, His mighty arm that saved and preserved them. For His countenance favored
them, therefore He established and upheld them in the land. Now these truths
apply not just to Israel, but also to the Body of Christ, to every believer,
whether collectively or individually who also faithfully follows Christ.
Vs.
4-5
4You are my King, O
God;
Command victories for Jacob.
5Through You we will push down our enemies;
Through Your name we will
trample those who rise up against us.
Such
then is our confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ our King, for just as the Lord
God commanded victories for Jacob, so He does for us, not military victories,
but spiritual ones. Therefore, through Him we will push down our enemies,
through His name we will trample those who rise against us (consider 2 Cor.
10:4-5; Eph. 6:10-20). Therefore, when you read this, please understand these
things are being said in the light of the Gospel. For that is the revelation and light in
which I want them understood.
Vs.
6-8
6For I will not
trust in my bow,
Nor shall my sword save me.
7But You have saved us from our enemies,
And have put to shame those
who hated us.
8In God we boast all day long,
And praise Your name forever. Selah
Because
the Lord Jesus Christ is our confidence, our Savior and Deliverer, we also put no trust in our own "weapons", on spending our lives mastering fighting or warfare skills. For none
of that will save us, or anyone else in the end. And all such things are only
an allusion of having power and might, none of which remains, and none of which
can deliver from death. Therefore, we don’t look to ourselves, or how
well we have equipped or trained ourselves, instead we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ who is to lead us who has saved us time and again from the overwhelming opposition. For in the end He will put to shame all those who hate us who rejected Him and made war against us (consider Isiah 54:17; 54:14;
Obadiah 16). Therefore, in God we boast all day long, for it is He we trust and
shall praise forever!
Vs.
9-22 9But You have cast
us off and put us to shame,
And You do not go out with our
armies.
10You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have
taken spoil for themselves.
11You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
And have scattered us among
the nations.
12You sell Your people for next to nothing,
And are not enriched by
selling them.
13You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scorn and a derision to
those all around us.
14You make us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among
the peoples.
15My dishonor is continually before me,
And the shame of my face has
covered me,
16Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the enemy and the
avenger.
17All this has come upon us;
But we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we dealt falsely with
Your covenant.
18Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps departed
from Your way;
19But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow
of death.
20If we had forgotten the name of our God,
Or stretched out our hands to
a foreign god,
21Would not God search this out?
For He knows the secrets of
the heart.
22Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter.
The
Psalm now takes a sudden turn, going from confidently asserting their faith and
confidence in the Lord, in His proven deliverance of them, to their now openly
declaring their own humiliation and defeat as He, in their eyes, has seemingly
abandoned them. For here we read that they are now suffering defeat and
reproach from their enemies. But not because they
have turned their backs on Him, or broken His covenant, or done evil
by regarding and serving idols etc.. Now we know that Israel often went through
these things because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord. For when they through
Moses entered into God’s Covenant, (what we now call the Old Covenant), they
were required to keep it. Therefore, when they openly turned their backs on Him
and it, and served the nations idols, He then gave them over to the curses of
it. However, as verses 17-22 reveal this was not the case. And yet past sins
can bear consequences on the nation, as was the case in king Josiah’s day. For
though he turned to the Lord with all his heart in seeking to purge the land of
its idolatry; so much so that the Scripture says of him; “Now before him there
was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with
all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor
after him did any arise like him.” 1 Kings 23:25 26 Nevertheless
the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with
which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with
which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And the Lord said, “I
will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast
off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, ‘My
name shall be there.” 1 Kings 23:26-27 Is this then the case in this
Psalm? That though that generation was being faithful, yet God still had much
to remove from them, or correct them for? One might assume that however
from this Psalm verse twenty-two is clearly cited in the N.T. in declaring the
plight of us all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; that in the eyes of
those of this world we are only accounted as sheep for the slaughter (Rom.
8:36). Thus, making it clear that Israel was suffering for the Lord, for
their faithfulness to Him, just like the seven thousand God reserved for
Himself who did not bow the knee to Baal in the days of Elijah and Elisha, (1
Kings 19:18).
Vs.
23-26
23Awake! Why do You
sleep, O Lord?
Arise! Do not cast us off
forever.
24Why do You hide Your face,
And forget our affliction and
our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
Our body clings to the ground.
26Arise for our help,
And redeem us for Your
mercies’ sake.
Therefore,
verses twenty-three to twenty-six are their crying out to Him in their affliction
for their faith in Him. And even though verses twenty-three and four asks why do
You sleep O Lord and why do You hide Your face from us, we know that the Lord
never sleeps! And that He does not hide His face from us when we are being
wronged! Rather sometimes we must suffer reproach for Him so that when He
judges them, they can be fully and completely repaid for their rejecting Him. Verse
twenty-five then declares the depths of their sorrows and grief, and yet there
is hope, for only those who have faith and hope in the Lord will ask Him to
deliver them in their times of trouble, knowing that in time He will!
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.
