Psalm 44 Overview
Sheep to Be Slaughtered
Psalm 44
Welcome to the Overview of Psalm 44
This page will introduce and provide orientation to Psalm 44 as a whole. It includes the following sections:
Introduction to Psalm 44
Author:
Purpose:
- To wrestle with an experience of rejection, in spite of covenant faithfulness.
Content:
- God delivered Israel's favored ancestors. Israel, who has been faithful to the covenant, should also experience that favor. However, the reality is that God has been causing defeat and humiliation. Israel wrestles with this reality, and pleads for deliverance according to God's faithfulness.
Message:
- When confused and disappointed, God’s people can still appeal to his covenant and character.
Psalm 44 At-a-Glance
These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content.
Background Orientation for Psalm 44
Following are the common-ground assumptionsCommon-ground assumptions include information shared by the speaker and hearers. In our analysis, we mainly use this category for Biblical/Ancient Near Eastern background. which are the most helpful for making sense of the psalm.
- God establishes his covenant with Israel's ancestors. The Mosaic Covenant includes an extensive list of blessings for covenant faithfulness and curses for covenant unfaithfulness (Lev 26:3–45; Deut 28).
- Defeat and humiliation are characteristic of covenant curse, while victory and prosperity are characteristic of covenant blessing.
- ANE kings could pay foreign powers (with silver and gold) to come to their military aid (2 Kgs 16:7–9; 2 Chr 16:1–6).
- Sacrifices were often offered to God prior to battle, in order to seek his military favor (1 Sam 7:8–11; 13:8–12).
Background Situation for Psalm 44
The background situation is the series of events leading up to the time in which the psalm is spoken. These are taken from the story triangle – whatever lies to the left of the star icon.
Participants in Psalm 44
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