Psalms 44

⁴Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

My king - The whole people speak as one man, being united in one body.

¹¹Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

Scattered - Those who were not slain are carried into captivity, and dispersed in several places.

¹⁶For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.

Avenger - Who executeth both God’s and his own vengeance upon me.

¹⁷All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.

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.

¹⁸Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;

Turned - From thy worship to idols.

¹⁹Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.

Broken us - By inflicting upon us one breach after another, thou hast at last brought us to this pass. The place - A place extremely desolate, such as dragons love, Isa 13:21,22, and therefore full of horror, and danger. Covered us - With deadly horrors and miseries.

²²Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yea - Because we are constant in thy worship, which they abhor.

²⁵For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

Our soul - Our persons. Our belly - We are not only thrown down to the earth, but we lie there like dead carcases.