Psalm 44:1-8
From today’s reading it may not look like it, but Psalm 44 is a lament. You’ll see in tomorrow’s reading that Israel’s foes have overtaken them – at least some tribes or portions of the land have been overrun. So the whole Psalm is a lament with all its elements – the psalmists’ situation, a cry for help, confidence in the Lord’s deliverance, a statement of innocence or desire for vindication, and thanksgiving or praise to end the Psalm.
But today it’s all good, the writer recalling Israel’s past glory. It’s all remembrance, thanksgiving, confidence and praise, with a full recognition of the Lord’s deliverance: …for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but Your right hand and Your arm, and the light of Your face… (v. 3). There may be a bit of pronoun confusion in the second verse, where both uses of “them” refer to the writer’s ancestors, the “our fathers” mentioned in the first verse. “They” were planted and “they” were set free.
An item from the first verse: O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us… I was thinking on two levels here, of what I had heard from my father (my mother died when I was four) and what I have shared with our kids. Mostly I was thinking of “shared faith” on those two levels. And without going into detail, it is clear to me that Carol and I need to continue to share our faith with our kids more than my father did with me and my siblings. His faith was on display through all that he did, but “back then” it was more about religion than faith. We all need to reflect our faith regularly to our kids, both in our words and our actions. I remember David Brannen telling us one time that our kids don’t stop being our kids just because they’ve left home and started their own family. True.
So tomorrow we’ll begin to feel the lament that is Psalm 44.
Concerning the “Sons of Korah”, see https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/the-other-psalmists-who-were-the-sons-of-korah.html .