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PSALM 44

To him that presides over the music; a Psalm of instruction for the sons of Korah.

1. O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us the works you did in their days,—in the days of old.
2. You did drive out the nations with your hand, but them you did plant; you did destroy the peoples, but them you did cause to spread.
3. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, and their own arm did not save them; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you did favour them.
4. You are my king O god, command salvations for jacob.
5. Through you we will push down our oppressors; through your name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6. For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword shall not save me.
7. For you have saved us from our oppressors, and have put them to shame that hate us.
8. In god we glory all the day, and will praise your name for ever. Selah.
9. But now you have cast us off, and have put us to shame, and go not forth with our armies.
10. You make us to turn back from the enemy, and they who hate us spoil for themselves.
11. You have given us like sheep for meat, and have scattered us among the nations.
12. You have sold your people for nought, and have not become rich by their price.
13. You make us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
14. You make us a proverb amongst the nations, a shaking of the head amongst the peoples.
15. Every day my disgrace is before me, and the shame of my face has covered me.
16. Because of the voice of him that reviles and blasphemes, by reason of the enemy and the self-avenger.
17. All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten you, nor dealt falsely with your covenant.
18. Our heart is not turned back, and our steps have not declined from your way.
19. For you have bruised us in the place of dragons, and have covered us with the shadow of death.
20. If we have forgotten the name of our god, and stretched out our hands to any strange God;
21. Will not God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22. For on your account, are we killed every day, we are reputed as sheep appointed for slaughter.
23. Awake, why sleep you, O lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever.
24. Wherefore hide you your face? Wherefore forget you our afflictions and our oppression?
25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaves to the earth.
26. Arise for our help, deliver us for your mercy's sake.

Verse 3. Their own arm did not save them, but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your faces. It is said, your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your faces, because the right hand denotes power, the arm denotes strength, and the light of your faces denotes the Divine Truth from the Divine Good. AC 10019.

Verse 5. Through you will we push dawn (as an ox with his horns) our enemies. Striking with the horn in the Word is said of the destruction of the false by the power of truth, and in the opposite sense, of the destruction of truth by the power of the false; and this by reason that by horn is signified the power of truth derived from good, and of the false derived from evil, AC 2832, as in Ezekiel, "You push with side and shoulder, and with your horns you strike all that are infirm," Ezek 34:21, speaking of those who with all force and power destroy the truths and goods of the church by fallacious reasoning grounded in things sensual; to push with the side and shoulder denotes with all force and power, AC 1085, 4931 to 4937; hence it is evident why mention is made of striking with the horn in Moses, "The first-begotten of his ox, he has honour, and his horns are the horns of a unicorn, with these shall he strike the people together to the ends of the earth," Deut 33:17; these words are in the prophecy of Moses concerning Joseph, where by Joseph in the internal sense is meant the lord as to the Divine spiritual [principle], and in the representative sense his spiritual kingdom; the horns of a unicorn denote those things which are of power derived from the good and truth of faith; to strike the people denotes to destroy falses by truths; to the ends of the earth denotes from all sides where the church is. And in David, "You are my king, O god, by you will we strike with the horn our enemies" Psalm 44:4, 5, where to strike enemies with the horn denotes also to destroy falses by the power of the truth and good of faith: who cannot see, that in the above passages no mention would have been made of striking with the horn, as being done by men, unless on account of the signification of horn, as denoting power. AC 9081.

Verse 9. But you have cast us off, and put us to shame, and go not forth with our armies. That God did not go forth with their armies, signifies that he did not protect them, because they were in the falses of evil, for armies denote the falses of evil, wherefore also it is said, that he forsook them and put them to shame, and that he made them return from the enemy, the enemy being evil which is from hell. AE 573.

Verse 14. You make us a proverb among the nations, and a shaking of the head amongst the peoples. In this passage, peoples denote those who are against the truths of the spiritual church, thus who are in falses, and nations those who are against the goods of the celestial church, thus who are in evils. AE 331.

Verse 19. For you have bruised us in the place of dragons, and have covered us with the shadow of death. These words also relate to temptations; that man in such case is precluded from influx out of heaven, like the sensual man; that he does not perceive what is good and what is true, is signified by god bruising him in a place of dragons, and, covering him with, the shadow of death, a place of dragons denoting the abode of those who are dragons in hell, namely: who have destroyed in themselves all good; the false principle, in which the same are, is called the shadow of death. AE 714.

Verses 22, 23. For on your account we are killed all the day, we are reputed as the flock of slaughter. Awake, why sleep you, O lord? forsake us not for ever. We are killed all the day, signifies that of ourselves, we are always falling into falses, and are seduced by them, especially in the time when falses reign; hence it is evident what is signified by the flock of slaughter, that we may be elevated from them by the lord, is signified by Awake, O Lord, forsake us not for ever. AE 314.

Verses 25, 26. Our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaves to the earth. Arise for our help. In old time, by the belly were signified things which are nearest to the earth, by the breast those things which are above the earth, and by the head things supreme; this was also signified in the Jewish church by the depression of the belly to the earth, and by the sprinkling of dust upon the head; so in David, "Wherefore hide you your faces, wherefore forget you our affliction and our oppression, for our soul is bowed down to the dust, and our belly cleaves to the earth. "Arise for our help," Ps 44:24, 25, 26, where it is also manifest that when man averts himself from the faces of jehovah, he adheres with the belly to the dust and the earth. AC 247.

By the soul and by the belly in the spiritual sense is here also signified the thought of the understanding, and by being bowed down to the dust and cleaving to the earth, is signified that it was tainted with falses, for by dust and the earth is signified what is infernal and damned. AE 622.