Psalm 44

¹We have heard with our ears, O God,

our ancestors have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

in the days of old:

²you with your own hand drove out the nations,

but them you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

but them you set free;

³for not by their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm give them victory;

but your right hand, and your arm,

and the light of your countenance,

for you delighted in them.

⁴You are my King and my God;

you command victories for Jacob.

⁵Through you we push down our foes;

through your name we tread down our assailants.

⁶For not in my bow do I trust,

nor can my sword save me.

⁷But you have saved us from our foes,

and have put to confusion those who hate us.

⁸In God we have boasted continually,

and we will give thanks to your name forever.   Selah

⁹Yet you have rejected us and abased us,

and have not gone out with our armies.

¹⁰You made us turn back from the foe,

and our enemies have gotten spoil.

¹¹You have made us like sheep for slaughter,

and have scattered us among the nations.

¹²You have sold your people for a trifle,

demanding no high price for them.

¹³You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,

the derision and scorn of those around us.

¹⁴You have made us a byword among the nations,

a laughingstock among the peoples.

¹⁵All day long my disgrace is before me,

and shame has covered my face

¹⁶at the words of the taunters and revilers,

at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this has come upon us,

yet we have not forgotten you,

or been false to your covenant.

¹⁸Our heart has not turned back,

nor have our steps departed from your way,

¹⁹yet you have broken us in the haunt of jackals,

and covered us with deep darkness.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God,

or spread out our hands to a strange god,

²¹would not God discover this?

For he knows the secrets of the heart.

²²Because of you we are being killed all day long,

and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?

Awake, do not cast us off forever!

²⁴Why do you hide your face?

Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

²⁵For we sink down to the dust;

our bodies cling to the ground.

²⁶Rise up, come to our help.

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.