Chapter 44
2021 - Specifically says the Sons of Korah wrote this. NOT David.
First stanza thanks God for his help in conquering Canaan. His help in times past, in establishing Israel.
Second stanza is a praise to God for his help in the present, in defeating current foes.
Third stanza is about God's rejection of Israel (presumably when they do not obey his laws, when they break covenant with him) and the ridicule and shame it brings on them to be defeated.
These verses:
9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. 10 You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. [Psa 44:9-10 ESV]
David assumed power right after the Philistine's routed Saul's army and killed his sons. Perhaps this is the rejection referred to in this stanza. Furthermore, at this time the north and south are divided, and the south is divided against itself. There would be no common defense of Israel, so it would be vulnerable to raiders, to invaders, and so on. There would be no central response. So they would get no respect from any of the surrounding countries.
Fourth stanza says they have not broken the covenant but are being slaughtered like sheep anyway. The writer says he doesn't understand why Israel is being punished/abandoned by God to her enemies. Perhaps this Psalm is an appeal for understanding, so that they can know what the problem is?
Ahh...not just me. MSB note on this Psalm says it is a national lament following some unidentifiable defeat in battle. They didn't understand why they lost, and we don't even know what battle it was.
So you have to ask why this Psalm is at this spot in a chronological reading if we don't know what battle it is about. Just a good spot, maybe.
Fifth stanza is short, and exhorts God to awake, to rouse, and to help them.
2021 - This is about a bad time. Israel is losing battles. Was this a time when David was in Hebron and Jerusalem was not the capital at all? Hmm...where is the tabernacle at this time? Where were these "Sons of Korah" writing from? The Ark was still in a tent at this time...or was it in Philistia still. Is this about Saul's defeat and the advantage taken by all Israel's neighbors during their time of division and disunity? Most of the country was likely operating without rule of law, and raiders might have been having a heyday in Israel.
2021 - This verse shows up twice almost identically. I will put the second time, because it is so familiar:
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. [Psa 44:22 ESV]. Similar to vs 11. I have heard this verse used to say we should send missionaries out until the pagans stop killing them. I have heard it used to say we should not resist evil, but let ourselves be sacrifices. I don't see how either of these interpretations of the verse could be correct in the context of this Psalm. People in Israel were dying right and left, and they hadn't done anything (in their view) to deserve such destruction. God was not giving His people any more consideration than a farmer would his sheep at slaughter time. They were being indiscriminately killed and God didn't seem to care. It is a metaphor, it is not an instruction. This verse never meant that missionaries should be sent to their deaths like lemmings going over a cliff. This would not be right at all. Just look at the next verse:
23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! [Psa 44:23 ESV]. These sheep were not people doing God's will in a sacrificial way. They didn't see it that way at all. They saw it as God not caring what happened to them. How long were they in bondage in Egypt? How long were they abused there and treated like so much livestock? This is reminding me of what happened to Job as it was applied to a whole nation. God must have had his reasons to let these things happen. And their response, like Job's, is to cry out to God but not to call God wrong for their plight.
Possible FB post. This verse is NOT about submission. It is a crying out to God by a people who believe they are unjustly punished. It doesn't say "be like a sheep going to slaughter", it says "why do you treat us like sheep?" It says "We are NOT sheep". This is a discouraged nation. Perhaps that is the lesson...even when it seems that God has turned us over to the enemy, we are still to be faithful, and it is to Him and Him only that we appeal for help. But it is NOT about submitting to enemies!
2022 addendum...BUT, there is also this:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." [Rom 8:35-36 ESV]. Why in the world did Paul use this passage in this way? He does indeed make it sound like we are to be martyrs. But...look at the very next verse:
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [Rom 8:37 ESV]. Starts with NO! We are NOT expendable, not dying as so many sheep, sent to slaughter by an owner interested only in our value, not in who we are. This is NOT right. We are loved by Christ, and we are MORE than sheep, loved by the master, not "sent to the sale barn" with never a thought. This is NOT what we are. Not in Psalm 44, not in Romans 8.
2023 - But the passage ending at vs 22 does kind of say that for some reason not at all understood by the nation, God is letting them be slaughtered like so many sheep. Like Job, they are not saying God has no right, but they are most definitely asking for an explanation. Look at this verse: 17 All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. [Psa 44:17 ESV]. Very reminiscent of things we read in Job. And then vss 23-24! They want God to stop this "unjustified" retribution - or what seems to them unjustified, and seems to them retribution.
2024 - Or...hmmm...So if we start with say vs 20, we read that the writer is talking about how they are loyal to God. They have no other Gods but him. They offer that if they had done anything like this, God would know. He is saying that they ARE worshiping God, they are proclaiming his name, they are giving him the praise and thanksgiving for all they have. I do not think we can read "missionary work" or "making proselyte Jews" into this passage at this point in Jewish history. But like Job, they seem absolutely to believe they are in the revealed will of God in all that they are doing. And yet they meet with failure, derision, death, defeat, they are laughed at by their enemies, their goods are taken as spoil...in all they do it is like God has turned away, and decided to get out of the sheep business. He is "liquidating his stock". This is how they feel. And I suppose missionaries in the field might feel this way when they have essentially no success for many years...or when missionary after missionary goes into the jungle or into the desert, and is never seen or heard from again. Like sending sheep to the butcher with no thought at all. Perhaps this was during the time that the ark was in the hands of the Philistines. Perhaps Israel, as it started to organize itself under a new king, was perpetually raided by those who knew the army had been severely reduced by the loss to the Philistines under Saul. They knew Israel was weak militarily, and when the remaining army of Israel went out to stop these raids, expecting God to give them victory over stronger forces as He had helped their fathers to conquer the land in the first place, and they had faith that he would do so...yet they keep losing. They are seen by their enemies as a pitiful excuse for a national army, and with each defeat they look weaker than before, inviting more and more raids, invasion, and pillaging. This makes some sense. They march out trusting that God is on their side...and they get routed, time after time after time. And so they ask, what are we to do? What have we gotten wrong. Finally a way to look at it that seems to make sense.