Psalm 44
EasyEnglish Bible
This is a special song that the sons of Korah wrote for the music leader.
God, please help us![a]
44 God, we have heard it for ourselves.
Our ancestors told us
what you did for them a long time ago.
2 You used your power to chase away the other nations,
so that our ancestors could live in their land.
You punished those nations,
and you helped our ancestors to be free.
3 Our ancestors did not get the land
by the power of their own swords.
Their own strength did not win the fight.
It was your own power and strength that did it!
You were kind to them because you were their friend.
4 God, you are my king!
You command that Jacob's descendants
must win against their enemies.
5 Because of your power,
we can knock down our enemies.
Because of your strength,
we can beat them down.
6 I do not trust in my bow and arrows.
It is not my sword
that has helped me to win the fight.
7 It is you who rescues us from our enemies.
You bring shame on the people that hate us.
8 Every day, we praise you, God.
We will always thank you, all the time,
because you are great!
Selah.
9 But now you have turned against us.
You have made us ashamed.
When our armies go out to fight a battle,
you no longer go with us.
10 You make us run away from our enemies.
The people who hate us take from us whatever they like!
11 You have put us under their power,
so that they kill us like sheep for them to eat.
You have sent us away
to live in foreign countries.
12 You have sold your own people,
for almost nothing!
They had no value to you.
13 The people who live in countries near us
do not respect us.
They laugh at us
and they insult us.
14 The other nations tell jokes about us.
They think that we are nothing.
15 I feel ashamed all the time.
I do not know where to look.
16 This is because my cruel enemies are always insulting me.
All they want is to hurt me.
17 We have not turned away from you,
but all this has happened to us.
We have not turned against the covenant that you made with us.
18 We have continued to serve you
and obey your commands.
19 But you have broken us in pieces.
You have left us for wild dogs to eat.
You have covered us with the darkness of death.
20 We might have turned against you, our God,
and worshipped a strange god.
21 But if we had done that,
you would have discovered it.
You know even our most secret thoughts.
22 But, because we are your people, God,
people try to kill us all the time.
They think that we are like sheep
and we are ready to be killed.
23 Lord, do something!
Why are you sleeping? Wake up!
Do not turn away from us for ever!
24 Why do you turn away from us?
Why do you forget our troubles
and the way that people hurt us?
25 We have fallen down in the dirt.
Our bodies are lying on the ground.
26 Wake up and help us!
Save us, because of your faithful love.
Footnotes
- 44:1 Verses 1-8 tell us what God did for the Israelites when they came into the country that he had promised to give to them, Canaan. They did not win the land for themselves, but God did it for them. Their enemies were the people that lived in the land before they did. In verses 9-22 we read that something bad has happened. The people are saying that they obeyed their part of the covenant, but God still did not take care of them. In verses 23-26 the person who wrote the psalm prays. He asks God to send help quickly.
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