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.
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.
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