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Selected Verse: Psalms 44:17 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 44:17 |
King James |
All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| They had not apostatized totally--were still God's people. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
All this is come upon us - All these calamities. The connecting thought here is, that although all these things had come upon them, yet they could not be traced to their own infidelity or unfaithfulness to God. There was nothing in the national character, there were no circumstances at that time existing, there was no special unfaithfulness among the people, there was no such general forgetfulness of God, and no such general prevalence of idolatry as would account for what had occurred, or as would explain it. The nation was not then more deeply depraved than it had been at other times; but, on the contrary, there was among the people a prevalent regard for God and for his service. It was, therefore, a mystery to the author of the psalm, that these calamities had been suffered to come upon them at that time; it was an event the cause of which he desired to search out, Psa 44:21.
Yet have we not forgotten thee - As a nation. That is, there was nothing special in the circumstances of the nation at that time which would call down the divine displeasure. We cannot suppose that the psalmist means to claim for the nation entire perfection, but only to affirm that the nation at that time was not characterized by any special forgetfulness of God, or prevalence of wickedness. All that is here said was true at the time when, as I have supposed, the psalm was written - the closing part of the reign of Josiah, or the period immeditely following.
Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant - We have not been unfaithful to thy covenant; to the covenant which thou didst make with our fathers; to the commandments which thou hast given us. This can only mean that there was no such prevailing departure from the principles of that covenant as could account for this. The psalmist could not connect the existing state of things - the awful and unique discomfitures and calamities which had come upon the nation - with anything special in the character of the people, or in the religious condition of the nation. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| (Heb.: 44:18-22) If Israel compares its conduct towards God with this its lot, it cannot possibly regard it as a punishment that it has justly incurred. Construed with the accusative, בּוא signifies, as in Psa 35:8; Psa 36:12, to come upon one, and more especially of an evil lot and of powers that are hostile. שׁקּר, to lie or deceive, with בּ of the object on whom the deception or treachery is practised, as in Psa 89:34. In Psa 44:19 אשּׁוּר is construed as fem., exactly as in Job 31:8; the fut. consec. is also intended as such (as e.g., in Job 3:10; Num 16:14): that our step should have declined from, etc.; inward apostasy is followed by outward wandering and downfall. This is therefore not one of the many instances in which the לא of one clause also has influence over the clause that follows (Ges. 152, 3). כּי, Psa 44:20, has the sense of quod: we have not revolted against Thee, that Thou shouldest on that account have done to us the thing which is now befallen us. Concerning תּנּיּם vid., Isa 13:22. A "place of jackals" is, like a habitation of dragons (Jer 10:22), the most lonesome and terrible wilderness; the place chosen was, according to this, an inhospitable מדבר, far removed from the dwellings of men. כּסּה is construed with על of the person covered, and with בּ of that with which (Sa1 19:13) he is covered: Thou coveredst us over with deepest darkness (vid., Psa 23:4). אם, Psa 44:21, is not that of asseveration (verily we have not forgotten), but, as the interrogatory apodosis Psa 44:22 shows, conditional: if we have (= should have) forgotten. This would not remain hidden from Him who knoweth the heart, for the secrets of men's hearts are known to Him. Both the form and matter here again strongly remind one of Job 31, more especially Job 31:4; cf. also on תּעלמות, Job 11:6; Job 28:11. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Yet - Although we cannot excuse ourselves from many other sins, yet through thy grace we have kept ourselves from apostacy and idolatry, notwithstanding all examples and provocations. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| Yet have we not forgotten thee - These are bold words; but they must be understood in a qualified sense. We have not apostatized from thee, we have not fallen into idolatry. And this was strictly true: the charge of idolatry could never be brought against the Jewish nation from the time of the captivity, with sufficient evidence to support it. |
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
6 And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?
22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
13 And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
14 Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.
19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.