Psalms 44:15

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.

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.

16. (Psa 44:15). All the day my disgrace is before me, and shame my face has covered. It is before me so that I cannot fail to see it or lose sight of it. See above, Psa 38:18 (17). Shame is here represented as a covering, as in Jeremiah 25, but perhaps with special reference to the suffusion of the face with blushes, as in Psa 69:8 (7).

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I dare not lift up my head for shame.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

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.

(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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.