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Psalm 44[a]

God’s Past Favor and Israel’s Present Need

For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.

I

O God, we have heard with our own ears;
    our ancestors have told us(A)
The deeds you did in their days,
    with your own hand in days of old:
You rooted out nations to plant them,(B)
    crushed peoples and expelled them.
Not with their own swords did they conquer the land,(C)
    nor did their own arms bring victory;
It was your right hand, your own arm,
    the light of your face for you favored them.(D)
You are my king and my God,(E)
    who bestows victories on Jacob.
Through you we batter our foes;
    through your name we trample our adversaries.
Not in my bow do I trust,
    nor does my sword bring me victory.
You have brought us victory over our enemies,
    shamed those who hate us.
In God we have boasted all the day long;
    your name we will praise forever.
Selah

II

10 (F)But now you have rejected and disgraced us;
    you do not march out with our armies.(G)
11 You make us retreat[b] before the foe;
    those who hate us plunder us at will.(H)
12 You hand us over like sheep to be slaughtered,
    scatter us among the nations.(I)
13 You sell your people for nothing;
    you make no profit from their sale.(J)
14 You make us the reproach of our neighbors,(K)
    the mockery and scorn of those around us.
15 You make us a byword among the nations;
    the peoples shake their heads at us.
16 All day long my disgrace is before me;
    shame has covered my face
17 At the sound of those who taunt and revile,
    at the sight of the enemy and avenger.

III

18 All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    nor been disloyal to your covenant.
19 [c]Our hearts have not turned back,
    nor have our steps strayed from your path.
20 Yet you have left us crushed,
    desolate in a place of jackals;[d](L)
    you have covered us with a shadow of death.
21 If we had forgotten the name of our God,
    stretched out our hands to another god,
22 Would not God have discovered this,
    God who knows the secrets of the heart?
23 For you we are slain all the day long,
    considered only as sheep to be slaughtered.(M)

IV

24 Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
    Rise up! Do not reject us forever!(N)
25 Why do you hide your face;(O)
    why forget our pain and misery?
26 For our soul has been humiliated in the dust;(P)
    our belly is pressed to the earth.
27 Rise up, help us!
    Redeem us in your mercy.

Psalm 45[e]

Song for a Royal Wedding

For the leader; according to “Lilies.” A maskil of the Korahites. A love song.

I

My heart is stirred by a noble theme,
    as I sing my ode to the king.
    My tongue is the pen of a nimble scribe.

II

You are the most handsome of men;
    fair speech has graced your lips,
    for God has blessed you forever.(Q)
Gird your sword upon your hip, mighty warrior!
    In splendor and majesty ride on triumphant!(R)
In the cause of truth, meekness, and justice
    may your right hand show your wondrous deeds.
Your arrows are sharp;
    peoples will cower at your feet;
    the king’s enemies will lose heart.
Your throne, O God,[f] stands forever;(S)
    your royal scepter is a scepter for justice.
You love justice and hate wrongdoing;
    therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings.
With myrrh, aloes, and cassia
    your robes are fragrant.
From ivory-paneled palaces[g]
    stringed instruments bring you joy.
10 Daughters of kings are your lovely wives;
    a princess arrayed in Ophir’s gold[h]
    comes to stand at your right hand.

III

11 Listen, my daughter, and understand;
    pay me careful heed.
Forget your people and your father’s house,[i]
12     that the king might desire your beauty.
He is your lord;
13     (T)honor him, daughter of Tyre.
Then the richest of the people
    will seek your favor with gifts.
14 All glorious is the king’s daughter as she enters,(U)
    her raiment threaded with gold;
15 In embroidered apparel she is led to the king.
    The maids of her train are presented to the king.
16 They are led in with glad and joyous acclaim;
    they enter the palace of the king.

IV

17 The throne of your fathers your sons will have;
    you shall make them princes through all the land.(V)
18 I will make your name renowned through all generations;
    thus nations shall praise you forever.(W)

Psalm 46[j]

God, the Protector of Zion

For the leader. A song of the Korahites. According to alamoth.[k]

I

God is our refuge and our strength,
    an ever-present help in distress.(X)
[l]Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken
    and mountains quake to the depths of the sea,
Though its waters rage and foam
    and mountains totter at its surging.(Y)
Selah

II

[m]Streams of the river gladden the city of God,
    the holy dwelling of the Most High.(Z)
God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken;
    God will help it at break of day.(AA)
Though nations rage and kingdoms totter,
    he utters his voice and the earth melts.(AB)
[n]The Lord of hosts is with us;
    our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Selah

III

Come and see the works of the Lord,
    who has done fearsome deeds on earth;(AC)
10 Who stops wars to the ends of the earth,
    breaks the bow, splinters the spear,
    and burns the shields with fire;(AD)
11 (AE)“Be still and know that I am God!
    I am exalted among the nations,
    exalted on the earth.”
12 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    our stronghold is the God of Jacob.
Selah

Psalm 47[o]

The Ruler of All the Nations

For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.

I

All you peoples, clap your hands;
    shout to God with joyful cries.(AF)
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
    the great king over all the earth,(AG)
Who made people subject to us,
    nations under our feet,(AH)
[p]Who chose our heritage for us,
    the glory of Jacob, whom he loves.(AI)
Selah

II

[q]God has gone up with a shout;
    the Lord, amid trumpet blasts.(AJ)
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
    sing praise to our king, sing praise.

III

For God is king over all the earth;(AK)
    sing hymns of praise.
God rules over the nations;
    God sits upon his holy throne.
10 The princes of the peoples assemble
    with the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God,
    highly exalted.(AL)

Psalm 48[r]

The Splendor of the Invincible City

A psalm of the Korahites.[s] A song.

I

Great is the Lord and highly praised
    in the city of our God:(AM)
His holy mountain,
    fairest of heights,
    the joy of all the earth,(AN)
    Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon,[t](AO)
    the city of the great king.

II

God is in its citadel,
    renowned as a stronghold.
See! The kings assembled,
    together they advanced.
[u]When they looked they were astounded;
    terrified, they were put to flight!(AP)
Trembling seized them there,
    anguish, like a woman’s labor,(AQ)
As when the east wind wrecks
    the ships of Tarshish![v]

III

[w]What we had heard we have now seen
    in the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God,
    which God establishes forever.
Selah
10 We ponder, O God, your mercy
    within your temple
11 Like your name, O God,
    so is your praise to the ends of the earth.(AR)
Your right hand is fully victorious.
12     Mount Zion is glad!
The daughters of Judah rejoice
    because of your judgments!(AS)

IV

13 Go about Zion, walk all around it,
    note the number of its towers.
14 Consider the ramparts, examine its citadels,
    that you may tell future generations:(AT)
15 That this is God,
    our God for ever and ever.[x]
    He will lead us until death.

Psalm 49[y]

Confidence in God Rather than in Riches

For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.[z]

Hear this, all you peoples!
    Give ear, all who inhabit the world,
You of lowly birth or high estate,
    rich and poor together.
My mouth shall speak words of wisdom,
    my heart shall offer insights.(AU)
I will turn my ear to a riddle,[aa]
    expound my question on a lyre.

I

Why should I fear in evil days,
    with the iniquity of my assailants surrounding me,
Of those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of their abundant riches?(AV)
[ab]No man can ransom even a brother,
    or pay to God his own ransom.(AW)
The redemption of his soul is costly;
    and he will pass away forever.
10 Will he live on forever, then,
    and never see the Pit of Corruption?
11 Indeed, he will see that the wise die,
    and the fool will perish together with the senseless,(AX)
    and they leave their wealth to others.(AY)
12 Their tombs are their homes forever,
    their dwellings through all generations,
    “They named countries after themselves”
13     —but man does not abide in splendor.
    He is like the beasts—they perish.(AZ)

II

14 This is the way of those who trust in themselves,
    and the end of those who take pleasure in their own mouth.
Selah
15 Like a herd of sheep they will be put into Sheol,
    and Death will shepherd them.
Straight to the grave they descend,
    where their form will waste away,
    Sheol will be their palace.
16 But God will redeem my life,
    will take me[ac] from the hand of Sheol.(BA)
Selah
17 Do not fear when a man becomes rich,
    when the wealth of his house grows great.
18 At his death he will not take along anything,
    his glory will not go down after him.(BB)
19 During his life his soul uttered blessings;
    “They will praise you, for you do well for yourself.”
20 But he will join the company of his fathers,
    never again to see the light.(BC)
21 In his prime, man does not understand.
    He is like the beasts—they perish.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 44 In this lament the community reminds God of past favors which it has always acknowledged (Ps 44:2–9). But now God has abandoned Israel to defeat and humiliation (Ps 44:10–17), though the people are not conscious of any sin against the covenant (Ps 44:18–23). They struggle with being God’s special people amid divine silence; yet they continue to pray (Ps 44:24–26).
  2. 44:11 You make us retreat: the corollary of Ps 44:3. Defeat, like victory, is God’s doing; neither Israel nor its enemies can claim credit (Ps 44:23).
  3. 44:19 Our hearts have not turned back: Israel’s defeat was not caused by its lack of fidelity.
  4. 44:20 A place of jackals: following Israel’s defeat and exile (Ps 44:11–12), the land lies desolate, inhabited only by jackals, cf. Is 13:22; Jer 9:10; 10:22. Others take tannim as “sea monster” (cf. Ez 29:3; 32:2) and render: “you crushed us as you did the sea monster.”
  5. Psalm 45 A song for the Davidic king’s marriage to a foreign princess from Tyre in Phoenicia. The court poet sings (Ps 45:2, 18) of God’s choice of the king (Ps 45:3, 8), of his role in establishing divine rule (Ps 45:4–8), and of his splendor as he waits for his bride (Ps 45:9–10). The woman is to forget her own house when she becomes wife to the king (Ps 45:11–13). Her majestic beauty today is a sign of the future prosperity of the royal house (Ps 45:14–17). The Psalm was retained in the collection when there was no reigning king, and came to be applied to the king who was to come, the messiah.
  6. 45:7 O God: the king, in courtly language, is called “god,” i.e., more than human, representing God to the people. Hb 1:8–9 applies Ps 45:7–8 to Christ.
  7. 45:9 Ivory-paneled palaces: lit., “palaces of ivory.” Ivory paneling and furniture decoration have been found in Samaria and other ancient Near Eastern cities, cf. Am 3:15.
  8. 45:10 Ophir’s gold: uncertain location, possibly a region on the coast of southern Arabia or eastern Africa, famous for its gold, cf. 1 Kgs 9:28; 10:11; Jb 22:24.
  9. 45:11 Forget your people and your father’s house: the bride should no longer consider herself a daughter of her father’s house, but the wife of the king—the queen.
  10. Psalm 46 A song of confidence in God’s protection of Zion with close parallels to Ps 48. The dominant note in Ps 46 is sounded by the refrain, The Lord of hosts is with us (Ps 46:8, 12). The first strophe (Ps 46:2–4) sings of the security of God’s presence even in utter chaos; the second (Ps 46:5–8), of divine protection of the city from its enemies; the third (Ps 46:9–11), of God’s imposition of imperial peace.
  11. 46:1 Alamoth: the melody of the Psalm, now lost.
  12. 46:3–4 Figurative ancient Near Eastern language to describe social and political upheavals.
  13. 46:5 Jerusalem is not situated on a river. This description derives from mythological descriptions of the divine abode and symbolizes the divine presence as the source of all life (cf. Is 33:21; Ez 47:1–12; Jl 4:18; Zec 14:8; Rev 22:1–2).
  14. 46:8 The first line of the refrain is similar in structure and meaning to Isaiah’s name for the royal child, Emmanuel, With us is God (Is 7:14; 8:8, 10).
  15. Psalm 47 A hymn calling on the nations to acknowledge the universal rule of Israel’s God (Ps 47:2–5) who is enthroned as king over Israel and the nations (Ps 47:6–9).
  16. 47:5 Our heritage…the glory: the land of Israel (cf. Is 58:14), which God has given Israel in an act of sovereignty.
  17. 47:6 God has gone up: Christian liturgical tradition has applied the verse to the Ascension of Christ.
  18. Psalm 48 A Zion hymn, praising the holy city as the invincible dwelling place of God. Unconquerable, it is an apt symbol of God who has defeated all enemies. After seven epithets describing the city (Ps 48:2–3), the Psalm describes the victory by the Divine Warrior over hostile kings (Ps 48:4–8). The second half proclaims the dominion of the God of Zion over all the earth (Ps 48:9–12) and invites pilgrims to announce that God is eternally invincible like Zion itself (Ps 48:13–14).
  19. 48:1 Korahites: see note on Ps 42:1.
  20. 48:3 The heights of Zaphon: the mountain abode of the Canaanite storm-god Baal in comparable texts. To speak of Zion as if it were Zaphon was to claim for Israel’s God what Canaanites claimed for Baal. Though topographically speaking Zion is only a hill, viewed religiously it towers over other mountains as the home of the supreme God (cf. Ps 68:16–17).
  21. 48:6 When they looked: the kings are stunned by the sight of Zion, touched by divine splendor. The language is that of holy war, in which the enemy panics and flees at the sight of divine glory.
  22. 48:8 The ships of Tarshish: large ships, named after the distant land or port of Tarshish, probably ancient Tartessus in southern Spain, although other identifications have been proposed, cf. Is 2:16; 60:9; Jon 1:3.
  23. 48:9 What we had heard we have now seen: the glorious things that new pilgrims had heard about the holy city—its beauty and awesomeness—they now see with their own eyes. The seeing here contrasts with the seeing of the hostile kings in Ps 48:6.
  24. 48:15 Our God for ever and ever: Israel’s God is like Zion in being eternal and invincible. The holy city is therefore a kind of “sacrament” of God.
  25. Psalm 49 The Psalm affirms confidence in God (cf. Ps 23; 27:1–6; 62) in the face of the apparent good fortune of the unjust rich, cf. Ps 37; 73. Reliance on wealth is misplaced (Ps 49:8–10) for it is of no avail in the face of death (Ps 49:18–20). After inviting all to listen to this axiom of faith (Ps 49:2–5), the psalmist depicts the self-delusion of the ungodly (Ps 49:6–13), whose destiny is to die like ignorant beasts (Ps 49:13, 18; cf. Prv 7:21–23). Their wealth should occasion no alarm, for they will come to nought, whereas God will save the just (Ps 49:14–20).
  26. 49:1 Korahites: see note on Ps 42:1.
  27. 49:5 Riddle: the psalmist’s personal solution to the perennial biblical problem of the prosperity of the wicked. Question: parallel in meaning to problem; in wisdom literature it means the mysterious way of how the world works.
  28. 49:8 No man can ransom even a brother: an axiom. For the practice of redemption, cf. Jb 6:21–23. A play on the first Hebrew word of Ps 49:8, 16 relates the two verses.
  29. 49:16 Will take me: the same Hebrew verb is used of God “taking up” a favored servant: Enoch in Gn 5:24; Elijah in 2 Kgs 2:11–12; the righteous person in Ps 73:24. The verse apparently states the hope that God will rescue the faithful psalmist in the same manner.