Bible Commentary

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 44:1 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. Psalm 44:1-26 CALVIN says that the authorship of this psalm is uncertain, but that it is abundantly clear that it was composed by anyone rather than David, and that its plaintive contents suit best the time when the savage tyranny of Antiochus raged. No period corresponds to the situation which makes the background of the psalm so completely as the Maccabean, for only then could it be truly said that national calamities fell because of the nation’s rigid monotheism. Other epochs have been thought of, so as to avoid the necessity of recognising Maccabean psalms, but none of them can be said to meet the conditions described in the psalm. The choice lies between accepting the Maccabean date and giving up the attempt to fix one at all. Objections to that late date based upon the history of the completion of the canon take for granted more accurate and complete knowledge of a very obscure subject than is possessed, and do not seem strong enough to negative the indications arising from the very unique fact, asserted in the psalm, that the nation was persecuted for its faith and engaged in a religious war. The psalm falls into four parts: a wistful look backwards to days already "old," when God fought for them ( Psalm 44:1-8 ); a sad contrast in present oppression ( Psalm 44:9-16 ); a profession of unfaltering national adherence to the covenant notwithstanding all these ills ( Psalm 44:17-22 ); and a fervent cry to a God who seems asleep to awake and rescue His martyred people ( Psalm 44:23-26 ). The first part ( Psalm 44:1-8 ) recalls the fact that shone so brightly in all the past, the continual exercise of Divine power giving victory to their weakness, and builds thereon a prayer that the same law of His providence might be fulfilled now. The bitter side of the retrospect forces itself in, to consciousness in the next part, but here Memory is the handmaid of Faith. The whole process of the Exodus and conquest of Canaan is gathered up as one great "work" of God’s hand. The former inhabitants of the land were uprooted like old trees, to give room for planting the "vine out of Egypt." Two stages in the settlement are distinguished in Psalm 44:2 : first came the "planting" and next the growth; for the phrase "didst spread them forth" carries on the metaphor of the tree, and expresses the extension of its roots and branches. The ascription of victory to God is made more emphatic by the negatives in Psalm 44:3 , which take away all credit of it from the people’s own weapons or strength. The consciousness of our own impotence must accompany adequate recognition of God’s agency in our deliverances. The conceit of our own power blinds our vision of His working hand. But what moved His power? No merit of man’s, but the infinite free grace of God’s heart. "The light of Thy face" is the symbol of God’s loving regard, and the deepest truth as to His acts of favour is that they are the outcome of His own merciful nature. He is His own motive. "Thou hadst delight in them" is the ultimate word, leading us into sacred abysses of self-existent and self-originated Deity. The spirit, then, of Israel’s history is contained in these three thoughts: the positive assertion of God’s power as the reason for their victories; the confirmatory negative, putting aside their own prowess; and the tracing of all God’s work for them solely to His unmerited grace. On this grand generalisation of the meaning of past centuries a prayer is built for their repetition in the prosaic present. The psalmist did not think that God was nearer in some majestic past than now. His unchangeableness had for consequence, as he thought, continuous manifestation of Himself in the same character and relation to His people. Today is as full of God as any yesterday. Therefore Psalm 44:4 begins with an emphatic recognition of the constancy of the Divine nature in that strong expression "Thou Thyself," and with an individualising transition for a moment to the singular in "my King," in order to give most forcible utterance to the thought that He was the same to each man of that generation as He had been to the fathers. On that unchanging relation rests the prayer, "Command salvations for (lit. of) Jacob, as if a multitude of several acts of deliverance stood before God, as servants waiting to be sent on His errands. Just as God ( Elohim ) takes the place of Jehovah in this second book of the Psalter, so in it Jacob frequently stands for Israel. The prayer is no sooner spoken than the confidence in its fulfilment lifts the suppliant’s heart buoyantly above present defeat, which will in the next turn of thought insist on being felt. Such is the magic of every act of true appeal to God. However dark the horizon, there is light if a man looks straight up. Thus this psalmist breaks into anticipatory paeans of victory. The vivid image of Psalm 44:5 is taken from the manner of fighting common to wild horned animals, buffaloes and the like, who first prostrate their foe by their fierce charge and then trample him. The individualising "my" reappears in Psalm 44:6 , where the negation that had been true of the ancestors is made his own by the descendant. Each man must, as his own act, appropriate the universal relation of God to men and make God his God and must also disown for himself reliance on himself. So he will enter into participation in God’s victories. Remembrance of the victorious past and confidence in a like victorious future blend in the closing burst of praise and vow for its continuance which vow takes for granted the future continued manifestation of deliverances as occasions for uninterrupted thanksgivings. Well might some long-drawn, triumphant notes from the instruments prolong the impression of the jubilant words. The song drops in the second part ( Psalm 44:9-16 ) from these clear heights with lyric suddenness. The grim facts of defeat and consequent exposure to mocking laughter from enemies force themselves into sight, and seem utterly to contradict the preceding verses. But the first part speaks with the voice of faith and the second with that of sense, and these two may sound in very close sequence or even simultaneously. In Psalm 44:9 the two verbs are united by the absence of "us" with the first; and the difference of tense in the Hebrew brings out the dependence of the second on the first, as effect and cause. God’s rejection is the reason for the nation’s disgrace by defeat. In the subsequent verses the thoughts of rejection and disgrace are expanded, the former in Psalm 44:9 b to Psalm 44:12 , and the latter in Psalm 44:13-16 . The poet paints with few strokes the whole disastrous rout. We see the fated band going out to battle, with no Pillar of Cloud or Ark of the Covenant at their head. They have but their own weapons and sinews to depend on-not, as of old, a Divine Captain. No description of a fight under such conditions is needed, for it can have only one issue; and so the next clause shows panic-struck flight. Whoever goes into battle without God comes out of it without victory. Next follows plundering, as was the savage wont of these times, and there is no force to oppose the spoilers. The routed fugitives are defenceless and unresisting as sheep, and their fate is to be devoured, or possibly the expression "sheep for food" may be substantially equivalent to "sheep for the slaughter" ( Psalm 44:22 ), and may refer to the usual butchery of a defeated army. Some of them are slain and others carried off as slaves. The precise rendering of Psalm 44:12 b is doubtful. Calvin, and among the moderns, Hitzig, Ewald, Delitzsch, Cheyne, take it to mean ‘Thou didst not set their prices high.’ Others, such as Hupfeld, Baethgen, etc., adhere to the rendering, "Thou didst not increase [Thy wealth] by their price." The general sense is clear, and as bold as clear. It is almost sarcasm, directed against the Divine dealings: little has He gained by letting His flock be devoured and scattered. Hupfeld attaches to the bitter saying a deep meaning: namely, that the "sale" did not take place "for the sake of profit or other external worldly ends, as is the case with men, but from higher disciplinary grounds of the Divine government-namely, simply as punishment for their sins for their improvement." Rather it may indicate the dishonour accruing to the God, according to the ideas of the old world, when His votaries were defeated; or it may be the bitter reflection, "We can be of little worth in our Shepherd’s eyes when He parts with us so easily." If there is any hint of tarnish adhering to the name of God by His people’s defeat, the passage to the second main idea of this part is the easier. Defeat brings dishonour. The nearer nations, such as Edomites, Ammonites, and other ancestral foes, are ready with their gibes. The more distant peoples make a proverb out of the tragedy, and nod their heads in triumph and scorn. The cowering creature, in the middle of this ring of mockers, is covered with shame as he hears the babel of heartless jests at his expense, and steals a glance at the fierce faces round him. It is difficult to find historical facts corresponding with this picture. Even if the feature of selling into captivity is treated as metaphor, the rest of the picture needs some pressure to be made to fit the conditions of the Maccabean struggle, to which alone the subsequent avowals of faithfulness to God as the cause of calamity answer. For there were no such periods of disgraceful defeat and utter devastation when once that heroic revolt had begun. The third part of the psalm is in full accord with the religious consciousness of that Indian summer of national glories; but it must be acknowledged that the state of things described in this second part does not fit quite smoothly into the hypothesis of a Maccabean date. The third part ( Psalm 44:17-22 ) brings closely together professions of righteousness, which sound strangely in Christian ears, and complaints of suffering, and closes with the assertion that these two are cause and effect. The sufferers are a nation of martyrs, and know themselves to be so. This tone is remarkable when the nation is the speaker; for though we find individuals asserting innocence and complaining of undeserved afflictions in many psalms, a declaration of national conformity with the Law is in sharp contradiction both to history and to the uniform tone of prophets. This psalmist asserts not only national freedom from idolatry, but adherence in heart and act to the Covenant. No period before the exile was clear of the taint of idol worship and yet darkened by calamity. We have no record of any events before the persecutions that roused the Maccabean struggle which answer to the martyr cry of Psalm 44:22 : "For Thy sake we are killed all the day." It may, indeed, be questioned what is the relation in time of the two facts spoken of in Psalm 44:17-19 . Which comes first, the calamity or the steadfastness? Does the psalmist mean, "We are afflicted, and yet we are in affliction true to God," or "We were true to God, and yet are afflicted"? Probably the latter, as in the remainder of this part. "The place of jackals" is apparently the field of defeat referred to in the second part, where obscene creatures would gather to feast on the plundered corpses. The Christian consciousness cannot appropriate the psalmist’s asseverations of innocence, and the difference between them, and it should not be slurred over. But, on the other hand, his words should not be exaggerated into charges of injustice against God. nor claims of absolute sinlessness. He does feel that present national distresses have not the same origin as past ones had had. There has been no such falling away as to account for them. But he does not arraign God’s government. He knows why the miseries have come, and that he and his fellows are martyrs. He does not fling that fact down as an accusation of Providence, but as the foundation of a prayer and as a plea for God’s help. The words may sound daring; still they are not blasphemy, but supplication. The fourth part is importunate prayer. Its frank anthropomorphisms of a sleeping God, forgetting His people, surely need little defence. Sleep withdraws from knowledge of and action on the external world, and hence is attributed to God, when He allows evils to run unchecked. He is said to "awake," or, with another figure, to "arise," as if starting from His throned calm, when by some great act of judgment He smites flourishing evil into nothingness. Injustice is surely done to these cries of the Ecclesia pressa when they are supposed to be in opposition to the other psalmist’s word: "He that keepeth Israel slumbers not, nor sleeps." Some commentators call these closing petitions commonplace; and so they are. Extreme need and agony of supplication have other things to think of than originality, and so long as sorrows are so commonplace and like each other, the cries of the sorrowful will be very much alike. God is pleased with well-worn prayers, which have fitted many lips, and is not so fastidious as some critics. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what work Thou didst. Psalm 44 Aspects of national piety Homilist. There is such a thing as national piety. I mean the aggregation of genuine godly thought, sympathy and aspiration, whether found in the breast of paupers or princes. Here we have it represented — I. As ACKNOWLEDGING GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL KINDNESS TO THE NATION IN THE PAST (Vers. 1-8). 1. The certain assurance of it. We have heard it as an historical fact — heard it from our own fathers, who would not deceive us, and who told it to us in love. God's merciful interpositions on behalf of the Hebrew people are recorded, not only in the annals of the chosen people, but in the progress of the human race, not only in documents and monuments, but through an institution as divine as nature, as old as the race, viz. parental teaching. 2. The striking manifestations of it. "How Thou didst drive out the heathen," etc. It is not our armies and navies that have saved us and made us what we are, but God. 3. The practical influence of it. (1) Loyalty towards God. (2) Confidence in God. II. AS DEPLORING GOD'S PRESENT APPARENT DISPLEASURE TOWARD THE NATION (vers. 9-16). He saw his country — 1. Defeated. "But Thou hast cast off," etc. We struggle, but succeed not; there is no victory for us; we are foiled in all our efforts. 2. Victimized. "They which hate us," etc. We are made use of by our enemies. 3. Enslaved. "Thou sellest Thy people for nought," etc. 4. Confounded. "My confusion is continually before me," etc. I am ashamed and bewildered. We have lost our dignity and self-command. 5. Scorned. "Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours," etc. III. As AVOWING FIDELITY TO GOD NOTWITHSTANDING THE CALAMITIES OF THE COUNTRY. I. A consciousness of fidelity to Heaven. "All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten Thee," etc. 2. Persecution on account of their fidelity. "For Thy sake are we killed," etc. (1) Genuine piety may co-exist with great suffering. Abraham, David, Job, Paul. (2) Genuine piety may be stimulated by great suffering. (3) Genuine piety enables one to bear great suffering. IV. As INVOKING GOD'S INTERPOSITION IN ORDER TO RESTORE PAST PRIVILEGES. 1. A humanification of Deity. "Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?" No creature can have a complete conception of the Absolute. 2. Utter prostration of being. "Our soul is bowed down to the dust," etc. What stronger expression could there be of depression and degradation than this? In a moral sense all men are thus debased and crushed by sin. 3. Entire dependence on sovereign mercy. "Arise for our help," etc. We cannot redeem ourselves, nor can we plead our own merits or excellences as a reason for Thy interposition. ( Homilist. ) God's doings of old Homilist. I. DWELLING ON THE HISTORY OF THE PAST THROWS LIGHT ON THE DOINGS OF THE PRESENT. 1. We learn the principle of development. Men are taught that all our present privileges in knowledge, science, civilization and religion came from very small sources. We know that God performed wonders of old, but we also know that those wonders have been continuously progressive. 2. We learn the principle of equalization. If God has done great things for us, He did great things for those of old. They may not have had the full revelation of religion, but they had to exercise faith in the same way as we do. 3. We learn the lesson of common depravity. The people of old did not notice God's works at the time they were wrought. And so we all allow mercies to come to us unheeded and unpraised, and not till they are taken away do we appreciate their worth. II. DWELLING ON THE HISTORY OF THE PAST THROWS LIGHT UPON THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. He is a God who changes not and who never deserts His people. III. DWELLING ON THE HISTORY OF THE PAST THROWS LIGHT UPON OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE FUTURE. What God has been He will always be. ( Homilist. ) Early Israel, the Lord's host John Thomas, M. A. The spirit evinced in these words is very different from that which is regarded by some as the special excellency of modern times. It is supposed to be the height of wisdom now to laugh at what our father said, and to show what utter fools they were in comparison with their supremely wise and enlightened sons. Instead of our fathers "being the men, and wisdom dying with them," we are the men, and wisdom was non-existent until we appeared. Now, I venture to say that our fathers never did or said anything more silly than the modern extravagance I have now described. We blame the Jews for thinking that God's love stopped with them, and then we coolly declare that God's wisdom began with us. Of the two, the Jew had the greater excuse for his onesidedness. Our text clearly introduces us to the time of Joshua, when Israel invaded the land of the Canaanites avowedly by a Divine commission, and destroyed its inhabitants in the name of the Lord. I. Now THEY REALLY HAD A DIVINE COMMISSION TO DO THIS, OR THEY HAD NOT. The very plausible objection is based upon a comparison of tribal histories in primitive times. There is no need to deny the presence of important analogies between the history of Israel and that of other tribes, for the special mission of Israel did not make it cease to be human in its history. But its subsequent history is sufficient to show that it occupied a position of pre-eminence from the beginning as the "chosen of God." However rudely it may have conceived its mission, to deny its special mission at the commencement of that history is to make its subsequent development unintelligible, and to declare that its life was false at its very foundation. Next, it is objected that Israel could not have received such a mandate from God, seeing that it was immoral to engage in such aggressive wars. But such an objection as this is pure assumption, and fails to take account of different moral conditions and necessities. It is further urged that the cruelties sometimes practised by Israel upon the conquered are morally indefensible. This may be perfectly true, but it is not relevant as an objection. The abuse of a commission does not prove the denial of its reality. II. The continuity of their mission is seen further in THE POWER IN WHICH THEY TRUSTED. Israel very significantly distinguished at the very first between the might of its army and the might of its God. This was very important, for it contained the germ of all further development. This distinction between God and physical force makes God definitely ethical. It was this God that gave Israel a mission. No doubt there were many crudenesses in it. It was but as the grey dawn, and was separated by many a stage from the perfect day. But whatever the form of the mission, it was such as was necessary for the time, and was distinctly ethical in spirit. The God they served and in whom they trusted is the eternal God, that liveth and abideth for ever. III. In perfect harmony with these characteristics was THEIR BELIEF IN THEIR DIVINE ELECTION. "Because Thou hadst a favour unto them." It is important to note that this election, though insisted upon with great emphasis, was ethically conceived. Everything in the religious thought of Israel was necessarily related to its essential conception of God as an ethical Being. Hence the true faith of Israel affords no prototype of later conceptions of arbitrary and non-ethical election and rejection. The true prototype of these is found in corruptions and perversions of Israel's true faith. We must point out further that Israel's election, as truly conceived, simply imposed upon Israel a special task and mission, and issued no decree of exclusion upon the rest of the world. Putting it generally and tersely we may say that God's elections do not involve exclusions. The man of God's choice, who is called to make known in his life the thought and life of God is so far exclusive that he makes war against sin in such a form as is suitable to the age in which he lives, but the final object of his mission is to lead others to share his life and spirit, and to enter into his heritage. This the prophets clearly perceived to be the true purpose of Israel's election ( Isaiah 60:3 ). ( John Thomas, M. A. ) Lessons from the past Canon Liddon. This verse, slightly altered in form though not in sense, occupies a prominent place in the Church Litany. It is not a prayer at all: it does not form one of that long series of supplications of which the Litany consists. The origin of the Litany is very interesting. It is a most perfect and beautiful sample of a large class of devotions which in earlier ages abounded in the Church, and which seem to have taken their rise in those dark and anxious days which accompanied and followed upon the break-up of the Roman Empire. There, "battle, murder and sudden death"; "plague, pestilence and famine," and all the calamities attendant on what seemed to be the entire collapse of social order, were common things. Hence, when the misery of the people seemed likely to bring in its train the withdrawal of such small blessings as they had, and even, in some cases, the fierce ungodliness of despair; then it was that, in their agony, holy souls turned towards God and sought to enkindle the souls around them by the sharp, prominate ejaculations, such as men might spontaneously utter amid the ruins of a falling world. Our Litany was drafted at the time of the Reformation from earlier compositions of this kind, and it maintains its supplicatory character throughout with a simple and emphatic exception. Between the two solemn adjurations to God to "arise and help," there comes in the verse of the psalm, "O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers," etc. It is an appeal, if we may reverently say so, to the historic consistency of God. It is an act of acknowledgment and praise, and we find the reason for its occurrence in the Litany in the drift and history of the psalm from which it is taken. This psalm was written, probably, at a time and under circumstances not unlike those which some centuries later created the Litanies of the Christian Church. It probably belongs to those dark times which immediately preceded the great and final catastrophe of the Babylonish Captivity. We live over those times, as nowhere else in Holy Scripture, in the pages of Jeremiah. Everything was pointing to some coming disaster: there was failure abroad, there was misery at home. At such times the hearts of thoughtful and religious men turned back upon the past of Israel and upon all that God had done for Israel. Was He not the same God? Was not Israel the same people? Would He be, could He be, inconsistent with Himself? Surely it was enough to remind Him of His mercies in the past to be certain that the future would in some way not be unprovided for. "O God, we have heard with our ears," etc. Now, since human history is a record of the way and will of God, we may explain why it is that so large a portion of the Bible is made up of history. It has a distinctly religious use as showing how God works and what He is. There are two main reasons which practically make history so precious at all times, and especially in times of public or private anxiety, and the first is, that it takes us out of the present, takes us out of ourselves. We are taken out of the clouded and fluctuating present, and how can we better learn than from experience, if the judgment be undisturbed? It is also a record of the unalterable character of human nature, and it places us face to face with the infinite and eternal God. "I am Jehovah, and change not." Now, to apply this, there are three departments of human life in which this recurrence to the past is of great religious value. I. THE FAMILY. Every family has its traditions as well as its hopes. We see it in the families of the wealthy and powerful, amid nobles and princes. To be the descendant from great and illustrious families is to inherit a past of which every educated man feels the magnificence and the power. And it is not less true of the humble and undistinguished lives which belong to most of us. When a boy is told that some generations ago one of his ancestors did something noble and generous; when he is told that, but for the misconduct of such and such a member of the family, he and his would be in a very different position now; and when he is bidden imitate that which was noble, and shun that which was bad in them who went before him, he is brought in this way under the play of very powerful motives, and which cannot but have much influence over him. They are part of the predestined discipline, depend upon it, to which God subjects him, and a very valuable part too. II. THERE IS OUR COUNTRY. And here we have to remember that God shapes the destiny of every nation as surely as He did that of Judah and Israel. It should be part of every young Englishman's education to trace God's hand in the annals of his country until he can with sincerity and fervour exclaim, "O God, we have heard with our ears," etc. And then there is — III. THE GREAT AND SACRED HOME OF SOULS — THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. And all this has to do with personal religion, for it is the religious use of history which enables us better to do our duty in home, in nation and in the Church, and it makes history itself full of interest and encouragement. ( Canon Liddon. ) The story of God's mighty acts No stories stick by us so long as those that we hear in our childhood, notwithstanding that so many of them are idle, vain and fabulous. But amongst the early Christians and the old believers in the far-off times, nursery tales were far different from what they are now. Abraham would, no doubt, talk to young children about the flood, and the Israelites who had been in bondage in Egypt would tell their children about that, and how the Lord delivered them. In primitive Christianity it was the custom of parents to tell their children the story of Jesus, and so it was among our Puritanic ancestors. The old Dutch tiles were the lesson-books in Bible history of many beside Doddridge. The writer of this psalm seems to have had told him by his father the story of the wondrous things God had done in the days of old. Let us now recall such things, and speak — I. OF THE WONDERFUL STORIES WE HAVE HEARD OF THE LORD'S ANCIENT DOINGS. God has, at times, done very mighty acts at which men have been exceedingly amazed. See the history of Israel in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan; of Sennacherib and many more. And in the New Testament, of Pentecost and of all the triumphs of the Gospel told of there. And since those days in the history of the Church, of , Luther , Calvin and others not a few. And nearer to our own times, of Wesley , Whitfield and the . Now, in all these works of old there were these features — 1. They were sudden. The old stagers in our churches think that things must grow gently, by degrees. But all God's works have been sudden. At Pentecost. At the Reformation. In Whitfield's day. And so in all revivals. 2. God's instruments have been insignificant. See little David when he slew Goliath; a woman slew Sisera. And also were Luther, Whitfield and the rest. 3. And all these works were attended with much prayer. II. THE DISADVANTAGES UNDER WHICH THESE OLD STORIES FREQUENTLY LABOUR. People say, "Oh, times are different now." But has God changed? Cannot He do vow what He did of old? III. THE PROPER INFERENCES THAT ARE TO BE DRAWN FROM THE OLD STORIES OF GOD'S MIGHTY DEEDS. 1. There should be gratitude and praise. 2. Prayer. For how many are still unsaved. Preaching will not alone save them. God has done much in answer to prayer. 3. Entire dependence upon God. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The days of old J. A. Jacob, M. A. A frivolous and shallow person once inquired of an old Carthusian monk how he had contrived to get through his life. He replied in the words of another psalm, "I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times." That man had found one great secret of hope, and cheerfulness, and moral strength. It is unquestionably an immense gain to be able to get beyond our own little life and the little circle which is round it, and to allow our thoughts and sympathies to work in the wider and freer region of the world's past and present and future. Is it not profoundly melancholy in this world whose history is of such solemn, and indeed painful, interest, to listen to the thing called "conversation" by vast numbers? Education has done so little for vast numbers that if they do not converse about their neighbours, they cannot converse at all. They are simply without topics. It is pre-eminently the result of mental training that we have the power to get away from our own concerns and surroundings, to feel ourselves one with all mankind, to know that they and we are moving forward to the fulfilment of a glorious hope. Here, however, it is that the influence of religion enters in. Reading and writing and arithmetic, essential as they are, have no tendency to enlarge the mind or to widen the mental horizon. But put the Bible into the hands of a child, and at once that child becomes aware of the fact that its little world is but a corner of the great wide world, that its little existence is but a segment of the life of the race. And at once an idea is set before it under an immense variety of aspects which inevitably expands its mind, and by doing this achieves one of the greatest aims of education. The child learns that it is in a very large world, a member of the great human family; it is taught to look back to a past in which God has been wise and good, to look forward to a future in which that wisdom and goodness will be more perfectly justified and unfolded. This habit of considering "the days of old and the years of ancient times" will have two happy results; it will teach humility, and it will calm down anxiety. While we thank God for the light He has vouchsafed in these last days, while we will not lend an ear to the suggestion that knowledge, progress, science, civilization are bad things, we must also disallow the monstrous notion that there was no wisdom in the world until this century. "There were giants in the earth in those days." And as we thus learn modesty, so may we, by considering "the days of old and the veers of ancient times" be delivered from unreasoning panic and unbelieving timidity. The faith is attacked; And was it never attacked before? Surely the intellectual shock which men experienced at the Reformation was far more violent than any which is felt now. A hundred years ago there was a more widespread and pestilent scepticism than any we have to lament; yet religion grappled with it, did not simply stand on the defensive, but attacked, and attacked successfully. It seems to me that the robust trust of these old psalms cries shame upon us, who live in a brighter and happier day. For the individual as for the community the ultimate trust must be in the character of God, in His faithfulness most of all. ( J. A. Jacob, M. A. ) The eternal providence of God J. Parker, D. D. I. PROVIDENCE IS NOT OF YESTERDAY. Men love what is ancient. Now, this antiquity of Providence is not a myth. The Psalms are historical. They were written some thousands of years ago, and yet the writers speak of former times of old. II. THE MAN IS VERY BOLD WHO DISPUTES THIS PROVIDENCE. He must be either a very great or a very little man; there can be nothing common about him. But he ought to be sworn before he gives evidence. We have a right to know who he is. We cannot have any chatter upon this great question. III. PROVIDENCE IS A REVELATION: there is a Gospel of Providence. It is a Gospel to be assured that the foundation of your haven is strong; that all things are under the hand of God. IV. AND THERE IS A PROVIDENCE OF FACTS. The men of old abused these, and from a long succession of such observations they drew their conclusions. History seems to make it more difficult to deny than to admit Providence. V. WHATEVER OBJECTION ANY MAY HAVE AGAINST THE DOCTRINE, ITS EFFECT ON LIFE IS GOOD. We ask, what kind of man does this belief in Providence produce; what fruit does it bear? The creed which says God is, God rules, God will judge — what manner of man will this creed make? It will give courage. See Moses before Pharaoh. And what blessed peace it imparts. But surely this is a great presumption in favour of its truth. And thus should all theology be tested. What are its effects; how does the theology come out in the life? VI. THE MIRACULOUS ELEMENT IS NO DIFFICULTY. For what miracle can exceed the miracle of your own spiritual development? The story of the Red Sea has been true of ourselves, such seas have been before us, and they have opened for us, and we have gone through them as on dry land. And the story of the manna; do we not know all about that? We must read the Bible as having to do with our own life. VII. PROVIDENCE LEADS UP TO REDEMPTION. He who takes care of this present life must care for our eternal life. Does God care for oxen; then how much more for man? But if for man's temporal welfare, so that He has provided everything for it, can He have made no provision for the needs of the soul? Impossible I .Now, such is our faith to-day. We have come to it not by inheritance but by personal reception of it. We are one of a great band of witnesses that "the Lord reigneth," that all that occurs, whatever it be, is by His ordering and under His control. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) 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. Psalm 44:3 God the source of all success S. Martin, M. A. The subject of this verse is the conquest of Canaan by Israel. It teaches that — I. THE CO-OPERATION OF GOD IS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF ALL RIGHT WORK. See this in husbandry; in the spread of the Gospel. II. THE SPIRIT OF TRUE GODLINESS WILL EVER BE READY TO OWN THIS. III. Such RECOGNITION HELPS OUR OWN SUCCESS. Praise, like prayer, helps us as it honours God. Our success in all good work depends partly on using our own sword, upon using our arm and making it bare; but it equally depends on our trusting in neither. "Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in," etc. Apply the text retrospectively to all success we have had; prospectively to all we hope for, and let us rely upon God's love, for without that we have no strong confidence. ( S. Martin, M. A. ) Through Thee will we push down our enemies; through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. Psalm 44:5-8 God's gift of victory D. Dickson. 1. The believer may promise to himself whatsoever God hath promised unto him; hath God promised to give His own people the victory over their enemies? then the believer may promise to himself he shall overcome his persecutors, and through God's strength be more than a conqueror over them; "Through Thee will we push down our enemies." If the enemy make head against them after a defeat, the believer may say, "Through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us." 2. The less confidence we have in ourselves or in anything beside God, the more evidence have we of the sincerity of our faith in God: "For I will not trust in my bow," etc. 3. It is a proof of sincerity of faith to give God as much credit for time to come, as He hath gained to Himself, by the evidencing of His truth in time bygone. 4. Whosoever doth hate the Lord's people shall be forced to think shame of their enmity one day; "Thou hast put them to shame that hated us." 5. The glory which we give to God in prosperity we should give Him the same in our adversity; change of times and dispensations should not change His glory, nor our confidence in Him. Though the Church be under foot of men, the Church's God is above all. "In God will we boast," etc. ( D. Dickson. ) The better confidence George III. was one day looking at the plate which had been recently brought from Hanover, and observing one of the articles with engraved arms upon it, he said to the domestic who attended him, "This belonged to King George II.; I know it by the Latin inscription — 'I trust in my sword.' This," said he, "I always disliked; for had I nothing to trust in but my sword, I well know what would be the result; therefore, when I came to the crown, I altered it. My motto is, 'I trust in the truth of the Christian religion.'" He then, with his usual condescension, said, "Which of the two inscriptions do you like best?" The attendant replied, "Your Majesty's is infinitely preferable to the other." He said, "I have ever thought so, and ever shall think so, for therein is my trust and confidence."

44:1-8 Former experiences of God's power and goodness are strong supports to faith, and powerful pleas in prayer under present calamities. The many victories Israel obtained, were not by their own strength or merit, but by God's favour and free grace. The less praise this allows us, the more comfort it affords, that we may see all as coming from the favour of God. He fought for Israel, else they had fought in vain. This is applicable to the planting of the Christian church in the world, which was not by any human policy or power. Christ, by his Spirit, went forth conquering and to conquer; and he that planted a church for himself in the world, will support it by the same power and goodness. They trusted and triumphed in and through him. Let him that glories, glory in the Lord. But if they have the comfort of his name, let them give unto him the glory due unto it. 44:9-16 The believer must have times of temptation, affliction, and discouragement; the church must have seasons of persecution. At such times the people of God will be ready to fear that he has cast them off, and that his name and truth will be dishonoured. But they should look above the instruments of their trouble, to God, well knowing that their worst enemies have no power against them, but what is permitted from above. 44:17-26 In afflictions, we must not seek relief by any sinful compliance; but should continually meditate on the truth, purity, and knowledge of our heart-searching God. Hearts sins and secret sins are known to God, and must be reckoned for. He knows the secret of the heart, therefore judges of the words and actions. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to God, we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God. Let us take care that prosperity and ease do not render us careless and lukewarm. The church of God cannot be prevailed on by persecution to forget God; the believer's heart does not turn back from God. The Spirit of prophecy had reference to those who suffered unto death, for the testimony of Christ. Observe the pleas used, ver. 25,26. Not their own merit and righteousness, but the poor sinner's pleas. None that belong to Christ shall be cast off, but every one of them shall be saved, and that for ever. The mercy of God, purchased, promised, and constantly flowing forth, and offered to believers, does away every doubt arising from our sins; while we pray in faith, Redeem us for thy mercies' sake.