33 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 44 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. It is not certain who was the writer of this psalm, nor when it was written, and to what time it belongs: some have thought it was composed by one of the Babylonish captivity, and that it gives an account of the church and people of God in those times; but what is said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
We have heard with our ears, O God,.... The church being in distress calls to mind the past favours of God to his people, in order to encourage her faith and hope; and this expression, delivered in such a form, shows the clearness, evidence, and certainty of what was heard; and which was heard not only as a tradition from father to son; but being...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
We are not told either who was the penmen of this psalm or when and upon what occasion it was penned, upon a melancholy occasion, we are sure, not so much to the penman himself (then we could have found occasions enough for it in the history of David and his afflictions), but to the church of God in general; and therefore, if we suppose it penned...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
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. Now Israel was restored to Canaan, and the Canaanite and Perizzite were driven out, that God’s chosen people might occupy their appointed place.
Spurgeon - Treasury of David - Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 1. We have heard with our ears, O God. Thy mighty acts have been the subjects of common conversation; not alone in books have we read thy famous deeds, but in the ordinary talk of the people we have heard of them. Among the godly Israelites the biography of their nation was preserved by oral tradition, with great diligence and accuracy. This...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[How] thou didst drive out the Heathen with thy hand,.... Of power; that is, the Canaanites, as the Targum; the seven nations which inhabited the land of Canaan before the children of Israel came into it, Deuteronomy 7:1; and plantedst them: not the Canaanites elsewhere; but, as the same Targum explains it the house of Israel in their land; which,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
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. They did use their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they got not the land in possession by their own sword,.... There were many things which show that the possession of the land of Canaan was not of the Israelites themselves, but of the Lord; as their passing over into it through Jordan as on dry land; the manner in which Jericho, the first city of it, was taken, and the smiting of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou art my King, O God,.... Besides the favours God had done for his people in time past, the church takes notice of her interest in God as her King, who was able to protect and defend her, and to deliver her out of all her distresses, in order the more to strengthen her faith and hope in him; and, claiming her interest in him, she draws nigh to...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
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. See how the lesson from ancient history was turned to practical account in the psalmist’s own experience: “As our...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Through thee will we push down our enemies,.... The Chaldee paraphrase renders it, "through the Word": the essential Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the church's King and God, and has wrought out complete deliverance and salvation for his people; and he is the horn of salvation, by which, though weak in themselves, they push down their...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For I will not trust in my bow,.... In any carnal weapon, in any creature help and assistance, or in an arm of flesh, but in the word of the Lord, and in his name; see Psalms 20:7; neither shall my sword save me; that is, I will not ascribe salvation to it; the church's weapons are not carnal, but spiritual; not the sword of the civil magistrate,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But thou hast saved us from our enemies,.... Spiritual ones, and not we ourselves; and therefore will not trust in ourselves, nor in anything of ours, but in the Lord, and give him the glory of salvation; and hast put them to shame that hated us; the men of the world, the seed of the serpent, and the serpent himself, when his works were destroyed,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
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. This exposition consisted of readings from Psa_44:1-8; and Psalms 45.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
In God we boast all the day long,.... Or, as the Targum, "in the word of the Lord", in Christ, who is God over all, and who of God is made to his church and people wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; so that there is always matter of glorying and boasting in him; and praise thy name for ever and ever; in this world, as long as...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But thou hast cast off,.... This, with what follows to Psalms 44:17, describe the desolate and afflicted state of the church, under the Gospel dispensation, in some parts and ages of it; and in the light in which it was viewed by the church, previous to the encouragement she took from the consideration of favours and benefits formerly bestowed,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy,.... In the times of Eli, according to Arama; but may he understood of some of the visible members of the church, and professors of religion, not being valiant for the truth, and deserting the cause of God and Christ, by reason of tribulation and persecution arising because of the word; and they which...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat,.... To be butchered, and then eaten as sheep are; and therefore are called "the flock of slaughter", Zechariah 11:4; as the church was, not only under the ten persecutions of Rome Pagan, but through the butcheries and massacres of Rome Papal; who have worried many of Christ's sheep, have eaten...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou sellest thy people for nought,.... So God, when he is said to deliver up his people into the hands of their enemies, is said to sell them to them; see Judges 2:14; and selling them for nought suggests, that in their apprehensions he had no esteem of them and value for them; just as men, when they have any person or thing to dispose of they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,.... Which is the common lot of Christians: Christ and his apostles have given reason for the saints in all ages to expect it, and have fortified their minds to bear it patiently, yea, to esteem it an honour, and greater riches than the treasures of the antichristian Egypt; a scorn and a derision to them...