(Continuation of Psalm 42)
[44:1] With our own ears we have heard it, O God— our ancestors have told us about it, about the great things you did in their time, in the days of long ago:
[44:2] how you yourself drove out the heathen and established your people in their land; how you punished the other nations and caused your own to prosper.
[44:3] Your people did not conquer the land with their swords; they did not win it by their own power; it was by your power and your strength, by the assurance of your presence, which showed that you loved them.
[44:4] You are my king and my God; you give victory to your people,
[44:5] and by your power we defeat our enemies.
[44:6] I do not trust in my bow or in my sword to save me;
[44:7] but you have saved us from our enemies and defeated those who hate us.
[44:8] We will always praise you and give thanks to you forever.
[44:9] But now you have rejected us and let us be defeated; you no longer march out with our armies.
[44:10] You made us run from our enemies, and they took for themselves what was ours.
[44:11] You allowed us to be slaughtered like sheep; you scattered us in foreign countries.
[44:12] You sold your own people for a small price as though they had little value.
[44:13] Our neighbors see what you did to us, and they mock us and laugh at us.
[44:14] You have made us a joke among the nations; they shake their heads at us in scorn.
[44:15] I am always in disgrace; I am covered with shame
[44:16] from hearing the sneers and insults of my enemies and those who hate me.
[44:17] All this has happened to us, even though we have not forgotten you or broken the covenant you made with us.
[44:18] We have not been disloyal to you; we have not disobeyed your commands.
[44:19] Yet you left us helpless among wild animals; you abandoned us in deepest darkness.
[44:20] If we had stopped worshiping our God and prayed to a foreign god,
[44:21] you would surely have discovered it, because you know our secret thoughts.
[44:22] But it is on your account that we are being killed all the time, that we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered.
[44:23] Wake up, Lord! Why are you asleep? Rouse yourself! Don't reject us forever!
[44:24] Why are you hiding from us? Don't forget our suffering and trouble!
[44:25] We fall crushed to the ground; we lie defeated in the dust.
[44:26] Come to our aid! Because of your constant love save us!