Psalms 119:51(v18)The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from your law.
Psalms 119:157(v18)Many are my persecutors and my adversaries. I haven’t swerved from your testimonies.
Psalms 78:57(vv17–18)but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were twisted like a deceitful bow.
Job 23:11-12(v18)My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away. I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have…
Daniel 9:13(v17)As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should…
Show all 38 cross-references
Zephaniah 1:6(v18)those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.
1 Kings 15:5(v18)because David did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, and didn’t turn away from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life,…
Job 34:27(v18)because they turned away from following him, and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways,
Psalms 8:2(v16)From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the…
Psalms 69:7(v15)Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
Psalms 125:5(v18)But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
Jeremiah 11:10(v18)They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them.…
1 Corinthians 15:58(v18)Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in…
Deuteronomy 6:12(v17)then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Deuteronomy 8:14(v17)then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
Joshua 7:7-9(v15)Joshua said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to…
2 Chronicles 32:21(v15)Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he…
Psalms 71:13(v15)Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
Psalms 74:10(v16)How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
Psalms 74:18(v16)Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
Psalms 74:22-23(v16)Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of…
Jeremiah 51:51(v15)“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of…
Ezra 9:6(v15)and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our…
Psalms 9:17(v17)The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
Psalms 44:20(v17)If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god,
Psalms 78:7(v17)that they might set their hope in God, and not forget God’s deeds, but keep his commandments,
Psalms 79:12(v16)Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
Psalms 89:45(v15)You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame.
Isaiah 17:10(v17)For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants,…
Isaiah 37:3-4(v16)They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and…
Isaiah 37:17(v16)Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living…
Isaiah 37:23-24(v16)Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of…
Jeremiah 2:32(v17)“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.
Jeremiah 3:25(v15)Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth…
Jeremiah 31:32(v17)not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of…
Ezekiel 16:59(v17)“ ‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
Ezekiel 20:37(v17)“I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
38 distinct cross-references across this passage (39 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv15, 1715 My reproach is daily before me. The Hebrew…
15 My reproach is daily before me. The Hebrew words כלהיום, col-hayom, mean all the day, and denote long continuance: but they may be understood in two ways, either for the whole or entire day, from morning to evening, or for continued succession of days. According to either of these interpretations, the meaning is, that there is no end to their misfortunes. As to the change of the number from the plural to the singular, it is not at all inconsistent that what is spoken in the name of the Church should be uttered, as it were, in the person of one man. The reason is added why they were so overwhelmed with shame, that they dared not to lift up their eyes and their face, namely, because they had no respite, but were incessantly subjected to the insolence and reproach of their enemies. Had they been allowed to hide themselves in some corner, they might have endured, as well as they were able, their calamities in secret; but when their enemies openly derided them with the greatest insolence, it served to redouble the wound inflicted upon them. They, therefore, complain that their calamities had accumulated to such an extent, that they were forced unceasingly to hear blasphemies and bitter reproaches. They describe their enemies by the epithet avengers, a term which, among the Hebrews, denotes barbarity and cruelty, accompanied with pride, as we have remarked on the 8th Psalm
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv15–17I dare not lift up my head for shame.
I dare not lift up my head for shame.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv15–18Psa 44:15 My confusion [is] continually before me, and…
Psa 44:15 My confusion [is] continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
Ver. 15. My confusion is continually before me] Heb. All the day long, or every day; so as that there is neither hope of better nor place of worse.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv15–18Before me; before the eyes of my mind and…
Before me; before the eyes of my mind and body too. They vilify me, not only behind my back, but even before my face.
The shame of my face hath covered me, i.e. I am filled with shame of my face on every side, being ashamed to show my face in any place or company.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v17The people of God, being greatly afflicted and oppressed,…
The people of God, being greatly afflicted and oppressed, here apply to him; whither else should they go?
I. By way of appeal, concerning their integrity, which he only is an infallible judge of, and which he will certainly be the rewarder of. Two things they call God to witness to: -
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1. That, though they suffered these hard things, yet they kept close to God and to their duty (Psa 44:17): "All this has come upon us, and it is as bad perhaps as bad can be, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither cast off the thoughts of thee nor deserted the worship of thee; for, though we cannot deny but that we have dealt foolishly, yet we have not dealt falsely in thy covenant, so as to cast thee off and take to other gods. Though idolaters were our conquerors, we did not therefore entertain any more favourable thoughts of their idols and idolatries; though thou hast seemed to forsake us and withdraw from us, yet we have not therefore forsaken thee." The trouble they had been long in was very great: "We have been sorely broken in the place of dragons, among men as fierce, and furious, and cruel, as dragons. We have been covered with the shadow of death, that is, we have been under deep melancholy and apprehensive of nothing short of death. We have been wrapped up in obscurity, and buried alive; and thou hast thus broken us, thou hast thus covered us (Psa 44:19), yet we have not harboured any hard thoughts of thee, nor meditated a retreat from thy service. Though thou hast slain us, we have continued to trust in thee: Our heart has not turned back; we have not secretly withdrawn our affections from thee, neither have our steps, either in our religious worship or in our conversation, declined from they way (Psa 44:18), the way which thou hast appointed us to walk in." When the heart turns back the steps will soon decline; for it is the evil heart of unbelief that inclines to depart from God. Note, We may the better bear our troubles, how pressing soever, if in them we still hold fast our integrity. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to God we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God; for he will not leave us if we do not leave him. For the proof of their integrity they take God's omniscience to witness, which is as much the comfort of the upright in heart as it is the terror of hypocrites (Psa 44:20, Psa 44:21): "If we have forgotten the name of our God, under pretence that he had forgotten us, or in our distress have stretched out our hands to a strange god, as more likely to help us, shall not God search this out? Shall he not know it more fully and distinctly than we know that which we have with the greatest care and diligence searched out? Shall he not judge it, and call us to an account for it?" Forgetting God was a heart-sin, and stretching our the hand to a strange god was often a secret sin, Eze 8:12. But heart-sins and secret sins are known to God, and must be reckoned for; for he knows the secrets of the heart, and therefore is a infallible judge of the words and actions.
2. That they suffered these hard things because they kept close to God and to their duty (Psa 44:22): "It is for thy sake that we are killed all the day long, because we stand related to thee, are called by thy name, call upon thy name, and will not worship other gods." In this the Spirit of prophecy had reference to those who suffered even unto death for the testimony of Christ, to whom it is applied, Rom 8:36. So many were killed, and put to such lingering deaths, that they were in the killing all the day long; so universally was this practised that when a man became a Christian he reckoned himself as a sheep appointed for the slaughter.
II. By way of petition, with reference to their present distress, that God would, in his own due time, work deliverance for them. 1. Their request is very importunate: Awake, arise, Psa 44:23. Arise for our help; redeem us (Psa 44:26); come speedily and powerfully to our relief, Psa 80:2. Stir up thy strength, and come and save us. They had complained (Psa 44:12) that God had sold them; here they pray (Psa 44:26) that God would redeem them; for there is no appealing from God, but by appealing to him. If he sell us, it is not any one else that can redeem us; the same hand that tears must heal, that smites must bind up, Hos 6:1. They had complained (Psa 44:9), Thou hast cast us off; but here they pray (Psa 44:23), "Cast us not off forever; let us not be finally forsaken of God." 2. The expostulations are very moving: Why sleepest thou? Psa 44:23. He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; but, when he does not immediately appear for the deliverance of his people, they are tempted to think he sleeps. The expression is figurative (as Psa 78:65, Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep); but it was applicable to Christ in the letter (Mat 8:24); he was asleep when his disciples were in a storm, and they awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. "Wherefore hidest thou thy face, that we may not see thee and the light of thy countenance?" Or, "that thou mayest not see us and our distresses? Thou forgettest our affliction and our oppression, for it still continues, and we see no way open for our deliverance." And, 3. The pleas are very proper, not their own merit and righteousness, though they had the testimony of their consciences concerning their integrity, but they plead the poor sinner's pleas. (1.) Their own misery, which made them the proper objects of the divine compassion (Psa 44:25): "Our soul is bowed down to the dust under prevailing grief and fear. We have become as creeping things, the most despicable animals: Our belly cleaves unto the earth; we cannot lift up ourselves, neither revive our own drooping spirits nor recover ourselves out of our low and sad condition, and we lie exposed to be trodden on by every insulting foe." 2. God's mercy: "O redeem us for they mercies' sake; we depend upon the goodness of thy nature, which is the glory of thy name (Exo 34:6), and upon those sure mercies of David which are conveyed by the covenant to all his spiritual seed."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv15–18My confusion is continually before me,.... Meaning that which…
My confusion is continually before me,.... Meaning that which is the occasion of it;
and the shame of my face hath covered me; not by reason of sin, which is often the cause of confusion and shame in God's people; see Jer 3:25; but on account of what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv16–18Avenger - Who executeth both God's and his own…
Avenger - Who executeth both God's and his own vengeance upon me.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn v17Verse 17. Yet have we not forgotten thee] These…
Verse 17. Yet have we not forgotten thee] These are bold words; but they must be understood in a qualified sense. We have not apostatized from thee, we have not fallen into idolatry. And this was strictly true: the charge of idolatry could never be brought against the Jewish nation from the time of the captivity, with sufficient evidence to support it.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv15, 17Psa 44:15-16. My confusion is continually before me —…
Psa 44:15-16. My confusion is continually before me — I cannot open my eyes but the tokens of our disgrace present themselves before me; and the shame of my face hath covered me — These things have made me so ashamed, that I do not willingly show my face. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth — I can hear nothing but reproachful words against us, and blasphemous words against thee and thy religion, for our sakes; which is intolerable to me; by reason of the enemy and avenger — That insolent enemy, whose very countenance is full of disdain and scorn, and threatens further mischief to us, as being the executioner, both of thy vengeance and his own upon us, and who persecutes us with despiteful hatred and great cruelty.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv15–18My confusion is continually before me - My shame;…
My confusion is continually before me - My shame; the conviction and the evidence of my disgrace is constantly present with me. Literally, “all the day my shame is before me.” That is, the evidences of disgrace, defeat, and disaster; render everywhere around him, and he could not conceal them from himself. The psalmist here is represented as the head of the people, and expresses the sense of disgrace which the sovereign era people would feel in a time of national calamity; identifying himself with the people, he speaks of the national disgrace as his own.
And the shame of my face - The shame that is manifested on the countenance when we blush.
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Hath covered me - That is, I am suffused with the evidence of my shame; or, as we sometimes say, “he blushed all over.” The blush, however - that special rush of blood manifesting itself through the skin - which constitutes the evidence of shame, is confined to the face and the neck; an arrangement which none can explain, except on the supposition that there is a God; that he is a moral governor; and that, as it was designed that the body should be covered or clothed, he meant that the evidence of guilt should manifest itself on the parts of the person which are most exposed to view, or where others could see it. The idea here is, that he could not conceal the proofs of his shame and disgrace; he was compelled to exhibit them to all around.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv15–18shame of . . . face--blushes in disgrace.
shame of . . . face--blushes in disgrace.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v1717. All this is come—All mentioned in Psa_44:9-16.
17. All this is come—All mentioned in Psa_44:9-16.
Yet have we not forgotten thee—Psa_44:17-22 contain the assertion of the kingdom of Judah’s fidelity to God, emphatically during Hezekiah’s reign, which was more closely modelled after David’s example, and more uniformly pious, than that of any other king of Judah, except the brief reign of Josiah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv15–1715. My confusion &c.] Render with R.V., All the…
15. My confusion &c.] Render with R.V., All the day long is my dishonour before me, as in Psa_44:8; Psa_44:22; Psa_44:9. My disgrace is perpetually staring me in the face. Cp. Psa_38:17.
the shame of my face &c.] Shame is said to cover or clothe a man (Job_8:22; Psa_35:26; Psa_69:7; Psa_132:18); and the shame of my face is an emphatic synonym for my shame, inasmuch as the sense of shame betrays itself in the countenance. Cp. Ezr_9:6 ff; Jer_7:19; Dan_9:7-8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn v15(15) The shame.—Better take the face as a second…
(15) The shame.—Better take the face as a second object—shame hath covered me as to my face, i.e., covered my face. Though the record of the facts of a sad reality, these verses have also the value of a prophecy sadder still. Twenty centuries of misery are summed up in these few lines, which have been most literally repeated,
“By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
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By the infamy, Israel’s heritage;
By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace,
By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place.”
R. BROWNING: Holy Cross Day.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv15–18My confusion is continually before me, and the shame…
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me (see the comment on ver. 9).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv15–18Ver. 15. My confusion is continually before me. The…
Ver. 15. My confusion is continually before me. The poet makes himself the representative of his nation, and declares his own constant distress of soul. He is a man of ill blood who is unconcerned for the sorrows of the church of which he is a member, or the nation of which he is a citizen; the better the heart the greater its sympathy. And the shame of my face hath covered me. One constant blush, like a crimson mantle, covered him both before God and man; he felt before God that the divine desertion was well deserved, and before man, that he and his people were despicable indeed now that heavenly help was gone. It is well for a nation when there still exist in it men who lay to heart its sin and shame. God will have pity on his chastened ones, and it is a pledge thereof when he sends us choice ministers, men of tenderness, who make the people's case their own.
Ver. 15. My confusion in continually before me. When the visible church is visited with sad calamities, the true members thereof are partakers of the trouble, and sorrow, and shame of that condition. David Dickson.
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Ver. 15. Confessions of a penitent.
Psalms 44:16*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv15, 18my dishonor is before me
my dishonor is before me
The writer speaks of his dishonor as if it were an object that is always in front of him for him to see. The phrase means that he is always thinking about his dishonor. AT: "I think about my dishonor" (See: Metaphor)
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the shame of my face has covered me
The writer speaks of his shame as if it is an object that covers him like a blanket would cover him. AT: "the shame of my face has overwhelmed me" (See: Metaphor)
the shame of my face
"the shame that shows on my face." This refers to his facial expressions that his shame causes.
because of the voice of him who rebukes and insults
Here the words "the voice" represents the person insulting him. AT: "because of what the person says who rebukes and insults me" (See: Synecdoche)
rebukes and insults
These words have similar meanings and emphasize the harsh nature of what this person says. (See: Doublet)
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv15, 17 15 My reproach is daily before me. The Hebrew…
15 My reproach is daily before me. The Hebrew words כלהיום, col-hayom, mean all the day, and denote long continuance: but they may be understood in two ways, either for the whole or entire day, from morning to evening, or for continued succession of days. According to either of these interpretations, the meaning is, that there is no end to their misfortunes. As to the change of the number from the plural to the singular, it is not at all inconsistent that what is spoken in the name of the Church should be uttered, as it were, in the person of one man. The reason is added why they were so overwhelmed with shame, that they dared not to lift up their eyes and their face, namely, because they had no respite, but were incessantly subjected to the insolence and reproach of their enemies. Had they been allowed to hide themselves in some corner, they might have endured, as well as they were able, their calamities in secret; but when their enemies openly derided them with the greatest insolence, it served to redouble the wound inflicted upon them. They, therefore, complain that their calamities had accumulated to such an extent, that they were forced unceasingly to hear blasphemies and bitter reproaches. They describe their enemies by the epithet avengers, a term which, among the Hebrews, denotes barbarity and cruelty, accompanied with pride, as we have remarked on the 8th Psalm
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15–17 I dare not lift up my head for shame.
I dare not lift up my head for shame.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15–18 Psa 44:15 My confusion [is] continually before me, and…
Psa 44:15 My confusion [is] continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
Ver. 15. My confusion is continually before me] Heb. All the day long, or every day; so as that there is neither hope of better nor place of worse.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv15–18 Before me; before the eyes of my mind and…
Before me; before the eyes of my mind and body too. They vilify me, not only behind my back, but even before my face.
The shame of my face hath covered me, i.e. I am filled with shame of my face on every side, being ashamed to show my face in any place or company.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v17 The people of God, being greatly afflicted and oppressed,…
The people of God, being greatly afflicted and oppressed, here apply to him; whither else should they go?
I. By way of appeal, concerning their integrity, which he only is an infallible judge of, and which he will certainly be the rewarder of. Two things they call God to witness to: -
Read full note →
1. That, though they suffered these hard things, yet they kept close to God and to their duty (Psa 44:17): "All this has come upon us, and it is as bad perhaps as bad can be, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither cast off the thoughts of thee nor deserted the worship of thee; for, though we cannot deny but that we have dealt foolishly, yet we have not dealt falsely in thy covenant, so as to cast thee off and take to other gods. Though idolaters were our conquerors, we did not therefore entertain any more favourable thoughts of their idols and idolatries; though thou hast seemed to forsake us and withdraw from us, yet we have not therefore forsaken thee." The trouble they had been long in was very great: "We have been sorely broken in the place of dragons, among men as fierce, and furious, and cruel, as dragons. We have been covered with the shadow of death, that is, we have been under deep melancholy and apprehensive of nothing short of death. We have been wrapped up in obscurity, and buried alive; and thou hast thus broken us, thou hast thus covered us (Psa 44:19), yet we have not harboured any hard thoughts of thee, nor meditated a retreat from thy service. Though thou hast slain us, we have continued to trust in thee: Our heart has not turned back; we have not secretly withdrawn our affections from thee, neither have our steps, either in our religious worship or in our conversation, declined from they way (Psa 44:18), the way which thou hast appointed us to walk in." When the heart turns back the steps will soon decline; for it is the evil heart of unbelief that inclines to depart from God. Note, We may the better bear our troubles, how pressing soever, if in them we still hold fast our integrity. While our troubles do not drive us from our duty to God we should not suffer them to drive us from our comfort in God; for he will not leave us if we do not leave him. For the proof of their integrity they take God's omniscience to witness, which is as much the comfort of the upright in heart as it is the terror of hypocrites (Psa 44:20, Psa 44:21): "If we have forgotten the name of our God, under pretence that he had forgotten us, or in our distress have stretched out our hands to a strange god, as more likely to help us, shall not God search this out? Shall he not know it more fully and distinctly than we know that which we have with the greatest care and diligence searched out? Shall he not judge it, and call us to an account for it?" Forgetting God was a heart-sin, and stretching our the hand to a strange god was often a secret sin, Eze 8:12. But heart-sins and secret sins are known to God, and must be reckoned for; for he knows the secrets of the heart, and therefore is a infallible judge of the words and actions.
2. That they suffered these hard things because they kept close to God and to their duty (Psa 44:22): "It is for thy sake that we are killed all the day long, because we stand related to thee, are called by thy name, call upon thy name, and will not worship other gods." In this the Spirit of prophecy had reference to those who suffered even unto death for the testimony of Christ, to whom it is applied, Rom 8:36. So many were killed, and put to such lingering deaths, that they were in the killing all the day long; so universally was this practised that when a man became a Christian he reckoned himself as a sheep appointed for the slaughter.
II. By way of petition, with reference to their present distress, that God would, in his own due time, work deliverance for them. 1. Their request is very importunate: Awake, arise, Psa 44:23. Arise for our help; redeem us (Psa 44:26); come speedily and powerfully to our relief, Psa 80:2. Stir up thy strength, and come and save us. They had complained (Psa 44:12) that God had sold them; here they pray (Psa 44:26) that God would redeem them; for there is no appealing from God, but by appealing to him. If he sell us, it is not any one else that can redeem us; the same hand that tears must heal, that smites must bind up, Hos 6:1. They had complained (Psa 44:9), Thou hast cast us off; but here they pray (Psa 44:23), "Cast us not off forever; let us not be finally forsaken of God." 2. The expostulations are very moving: Why sleepest thou? Psa 44:23. He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; but, when he does not immediately appear for the deliverance of his people, they are tempted to think he sleeps. The expression is figurative (as Psa 78:65, Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep); but it was applicable to Christ in the letter (Mat 8:24); he was asleep when his disciples were in a storm, and they awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. "Wherefore hidest thou thy face, that we may not see thee and the light of thy countenance?" Or, "that thou mayest not see us and our distresses? Thou forgettest our affliction and our oppression, for it still continues, and we see no way open for our deliverance." And, 3. The pleas are very proper, not their own merit and righteousness, though they had the testimony of their consciences concerning their integrity, but they plead the poor sinner's pleas. (1.) Their own misery, which made them the proper objects of the divine compassion (Psa 44:25): "Our soul is bowed down to the dust under prevailing grief and fear. We have become as creeping things, the most despicable animals: Our belly cleaves unto the earth; we cannot lift up ourselves, neither revive our own drooping spirits nor recover ourselves out of our low and sad condition, and we lie exposed to be trodden on by every insulting foe." 2. God's mercy: "O redeem us for they mercies' sake; we depend upon the goodness of thy nature, which is the glory of thy name (Exo 34:6), and upon those sure mercies of David which are conveyed by the covenant to all his spiritual seed."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv15–18 My confusion is continually before me,.... Meaning that which…
My confusion is continually before me,.... Meaning that which is the occasion of it;
and the shame of my face hath covered me; not by reason of sin, which is often the cause of confusion and shame in God's people; see Jer 3:25; but on account of what follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv16–18 Avenger - Who executeth both God's and his own…
Avenger - Who executeth both God's and his own vengeance upon me.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v17 Verse 17. Yet have we not forgotten thee] These…
Verse 17. Yet have we not forgotten thee] These are bold words; but they must be understood in a qualified sense. We have not apostatized from thee, we have not fallen into idolatry. And this was strictly true: the charge of idolatry could never be brought against the Jewish nation from the time of the captivity, with sufficient evidence to support it.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15, 17 Psa 44:15-16. My confusion is continually before me —…
Psa 44:15-16. My confusion is continually before me — I cannot open my eyes but the tokens of our disgrace present themselves before me; and the shame of my face hath covered me — These things have made me so ashamed, that I do not willingly show my face. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth — I can hear nothing but reproachful words against us, and blasphemous words against thee and thy religion, for our sakes; which is intolerable to me; by reason of the enemy and avenger — That insolent enemy, whose very countenance is full of disdain and scorn, and threatens further mischief to us, as being the executioner, both of thy vengeance and his own upon us, and who persecutes us with despiteful hatred and great cruelty.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv15–18 My confusion is continually before me - My shame;…
My confusion is continually before me - My shame; the conviction and the evidence of my disgrace is constantly present with me. Literally, “all the day my shame is before me.” That is, the evidences of disgrace, defeat, and disaster; render everywhere around him, and he could not conceal them from himself. The psalmist here is represented as the head of the people, and expresses the sense of disgrace which the sovereign era people would feel in a time of national calamity; identifying himself with the people, he speaks of the national disgrace as his own.
And the shame of my face - The shame that is manifested on the countenance when we blush.
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Hath covered me - That is, I am suffused with the evidence of my shame; or, as we sometimes say, “he blushed all over.” The blush, however - that special rush of blood manifesting itself through the skin - which constitutes the evidence of shame, is confined to the face and the neck; an arrangement which none can explain, except on the supposition that there is a God; that he is a moral governor; and that, as it was designed that the body should be covered or clothed, he meant that the evidence of guilt should manifest itself on the parts of the person which are most exposed to view, or where others could see it. The idea here is, that he could not conceal the proofs of his shame and disgrace; he was compelled to exhibit them to all around.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv15–18 shame of . . . face--blushes in disgrace.
shame of . . . face--blushes in disgrace.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v17 17. All this is come—All mentioned in Psa_44:9-16.
17. All this is come—All mentioned in Psa_44:9-16.
Yet have we not forgotten thee—Psa_44:17-22 contain the assertion of the kingdom of Judah’s fidelity to God, emphatically during Hezekiah’s reign, which was more closely modelled after David’s example, and more uniformly pious, than that of any other king of Judah, except the brief reign of Josiah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–17 15. My confusion &c.] Render with R.V., All the…
15. My confusion &c.] Render with R.V., All the day long is my dishonour before me, as in Psa_44:8; Psa_44:22; Psa_44:9. My disgrace is perpetually staring me in the face. Cp. Psa_38:17.
the shame of my face &c.] Shame is said to cover or clothe a man (Job_8:22; Psa_35:26; Psa_69:7; Psa_132:18); and the shame of my face is an emphatic synonym for my shame, inasmuch as the sense of shame betrays itself in the countenance. Cp. Ezr_9:6 ff; Jer_7:19; Dan_9:7-8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v15 (15) The shame.—Better take the face as a second…
(15) The shame.—Better take the face as a second object—shame hath covered me as to my face, i.e., covered my face. Though the record of the facts of a sad reality, these verses have also the value of a prophecy sadder still. Twenty centuries of misery are summed up in these few lines, which have been most literally repeated,
“By the torture, prolonged from age to age,
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By the infamy, Israel’s heritage;
By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace,
By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place.”
R. BROWNING: Holy Cross Day.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv15–18 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame…
My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me (see the comment on ver. 9).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv15–18 Ver. 15. My confusion is continually before me. The…
Ver. 15. My confusion is continually before me. The poet makes himself the representative of his nation, and declares his own constant distress of soul. He is a man of ill blood who is unconcerned for the sorrows of the church of which he is a member, or the nation of which he is a citizen; the better the heart the greater its sympathy. And the shame of my face hath covered me. One constant blush, like a crimson mantle, covered him both before God and man; he felt before God that the divine desertion was well deserved, and before man, that he and his people were despicable indeed now that heavenly help was gone. It is well for a nation when there still exist in it men who lay to heart its sin and shame. God will have pity on his chastened ones, and it is a pledge thereof when he sends us choice ministers, men of tenderness, who make the people's case their own.
Ver. 15. My confusion in continually before me. When the visible church is visited with sad calamities, the true members thereof are partakers of the trouble, and sorrow, and shame of that condition. David Dickson.
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Ver. 15. Confessions of a penitent.
Psalms 44:16*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 18 my dishonor is before me
my dishonor is before me
The writer speaks of his dishonor as if it were an object that is always in front of him for him to see. The phrase means that he is always thinking about his dishonor. AT: "I think about my dishonor" (See: Metaphor)
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the shame of my face has covered me
The writer speaks of his shame as if it is an object that covers him like a blanket would cover him. AT: "the shame of my face has overwhelmed me" (See: Metaphor)
the shame of my face
"the shame that shows on my face." This refers to his facial expressions that his shame causes.
because of the voice of him who rebukes and insults
Here the words "the voice" represents the person insulting him. AT: "because of what the person says who rebukes and insults me" (See: Synecdoche)
rebukes and insults
These words have similar meanings and emphasize the harsh nature of what this person says. (See: Doublet)
translationWords
dishonor
shame
face
voice
rebuke
avenge
covenant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.