The psalmist's confrontation with God

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Returning to our little group (you are invited to join us) at Robert Geiss' Psalm Challenge meme, I add some illustrations for Psalm 44.
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¹We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:

²you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;

³for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm give them victory; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, for you delighted in them.

⁴You are my King and my God; you command victories for Jacob.

⁵Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down our assailants.

⁶For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.

⁷But you have saved us from our foes, and have put to confusion those who hate us.

⁸In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

⁹Yet you have rejected us and abased us, and have not gone out with our armies.

¹⁰You made us turn back from the foe, and our enemies have gotten spoil.

¹¹You have made us like sheep for slaughter, and have scattered us among the nations.

¹²You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.

¹³You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us.

¹⁴You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

¹⁵All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face

¹⁶at the words of the taunters and revilers, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you, or been false to your covenant.

¹⁸Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way,

¹⁹yet you have broken us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with deep darkness.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god,

²¹would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

²²Because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever!

²⁴Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

²⁵For we sink down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.

²⁶Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.

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Translation is NRSV. Hebrew original and an older translation are here. See also Rabbi Segal's study of this psalm.
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PHOTOS:
A sculpture at the Israel Museum.
Sheep grazing in the Jura Mountains, Switzerland.
A dead jackal in my village.
"The [Aztec] god Nanauatzin" by Yifah Adir, Mamilla mall, Jerusalem.
Grandson Dean at the Children's Wing, Israel Museum.
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