_The church, in memory of former favours, complaineth of their present
evils.—Professing her integrity, she fervently prayeth for succour._
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, _what_
work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
_How_ thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst
them; _how_ thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither
did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and
the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we
tread them under that rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame
that hated us.
In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with
our armies.
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy; and they which hate us
spoil for themselves.
Thou hast given us like sheep _appointed_ for meat; and hast scattered
us among the heathen.
Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase _thy wealth_
by their price.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to
them that are round about us.
Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among
the people.
My confusion _is_ continually before me, and the shame of my face hath
covered me,
For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of
the enemy and avenger.
All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have
we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy
way;
Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered
us with the shadow of death.
If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands,
to a strange God;
Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the
heart.
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as
sheep for the slaughter.
Awake, why sleepest thou, O LORD? arise, cast _us_ not off for ever.
Wherefore hidest thou thy face, _and_ forgettest our affliction and
our oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the
earth.
Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.
This is a prayer of the whole people of God; and it is offered up in
the person of all the saints; especially of those under the New
Testament, whom you here find to be complaining that they are cruelly
slaughtered and slain by the wicked nations, by the ungodly men, and
by tyrants. For God delivers his saints into the hands of men, as if
he had rejected them, or utterly forgotten them. Whereas, he glorified
the patriarchs of old, and all those his people from the beginning, by
mighty works and miracles in the sight of the nations that opposed
them. And indeed all the saints maintain, not their own cause, but
God’s; and seek, not their own glory, but his: and yet for this very
just and holy cause, and for no other reason, nor any other crime,
they are thus torn and slaughtered by exile, by the spoiling of their
goods, and, in a word, by death; and are as cruelly treated in the
world, as if they were the most wicked of all men, and a mere set of
vagabonds and murderers.
In a word, this Psalm is a sighing and groaning of spirit against the
weakness of the flesh; which flesh, even in the saints, murmurs
against God, because he governs the world with such an appearance of
injustice; and is in appearance, an unjust judge, permitting the
saints to be afflicted whom he ought to support and comfort, and
promoting and exalting the wicked whom he ought to overthrow.