Psalms 44:20

Psa 44:20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;

Ver. 20. If we have forgotten the name of our God] i.e. Foregone our religion, as renegadoes, denying the Lord that bought us. In the time of the Maccabees many defected to Paganism; Demas, forsaking Paul, became an idolatrous priest at Thessalonica, saith Dorotheus; Julian turned Pagan; Damascen, Mahometan, as some write; Harding, an obstinate Papist. In the Palatinate, when, not forty years since, taken by the Spaniard, scarce one man in twenty stood out, but fell to Popery, as fast as leaves fall in antumn.

Or stretched out our hands to a strange god] This Ignatius, Laurentius, and thousands of those primitive Christians would die, rather than be drawn to do. So the three children, the seven brethren, &c. Origen, for yielding a little, was excommunicated.

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.

21. (Psa 44:20). If we have forgotten the name of our God, and spread our hands to a strange God. Some regard this as the common elliptical formula of swearing. "(God do so to us and more also) if we have forgotten," which is equivalent to saying, "we have not forgotten." Another method of supplying the ellipsis is exemplified in Jos 22:22. But since the verse, conditionally understood, yields a good sense in connection with the next verse, this, as being the more obvious construction, is entitled to the preference. The act of holding up or stretching out the hands is often mentioned as a natural gesture of entreaty. See Exo 9:29; Exo 9:33, 1Ki 8:38, Isa 1:15. The word God in the version represents two different divine names in Hebrew, Elohim and El. See above, on Psa 43:4. A strange God, or a God (who is) a stranger, i.e. to Jehovah and his people. The Hebrew word is applied by Moses both to men (Exo 30:33) and idols (Deu 32:16).

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

They show that they honored God aright, because they trusted in him alone.

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

A solemn appeal to God to witness their constancy.

stretched out . . . hands--gesture of worship (Exo 9:29; Psa 88:9).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 20. If we have forgotten the name of our God] That name, יהוה Jehovah, by which the true God was particularly distinguished, and which implied the exclusion of all other objects of adoration.

Or stretched out our hands] Made supplication; offered prayer or adoration to any strange god - a god that we had not known, nor had been acknowledged by our fathers. It has already been remarked, that from the time of the Babylonish captivity the Jews never relapsed into idolatry.

It was customary among the ancients, while praying, to stretch out their hands towards the heavens, or the image they were worshipping, as if they expected to receive the favour they were asking.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. stretched out] R.V., spread forth: the gesture of prayer being not, as with us, folded hands, but the hands extended with open palms: the Lat. ‘manibus passis.’ Cp. Psa_143:6; 1Ki_8:22; 1Ki_8:38; 1Ki_8:54; Isa_1:15.

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.

If we have forgotten the name of our God,.... As antichrist, and the antichristian party did in those times, Dan 11:36;

or stretched out our hands to a strange god; as not to any of the Heathen deities under the Pagan persecutions, so not to any images of gold, silver, brass, and wood, under the Papal tyranny; not to the Virgin Mary, nor to angels and saints departed; nor to the breaden God in the mass, never heard of before; see Dan 11:38.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

If we have forgotten the name of our God - That is, if we have apostatized from him.

Or stretched out our hands to a strange god - Or have been guilty of idolatry. The act of stretching out the hands, or spreading forth the hands, was significant of worship or prayer: 1Ki 8:22; 2Ch 6:12-13; see the notes at Isa 1:15. The idea here is, that this was not the cause or reason of their calamities; that if this had occurred, it would have been a sufficient reason for what had taken place; but that no such cause actually existed, and therefore the reason must be found in something else. It was the fact of such calamities having come upon the nation when no such cause existed, that perplexed the author of the psalm, and led to the conclusion in his own mind Psa 44:22 that these calamities were produced by the malignant designs of the enemies of the true religion, and that, instead of their suffering for their national sins, they were really martyrs in the cause of God, and were suffering for his sake.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In the place: or rather into, as others render it; which seems much more emphatical. And so this verb may be rendered, thou hast humbled, or brought us down, as all the ancients rendered it. Or this is a pregnant verb, as they call them, or one verb put for two; of which there are many instances, as hath been showed. So it may be rendered, thou hast sore broken us, casting us into; or, thou hast by sore breaking brought us into. By inflicting upon us one breach after another, thou hast at last brought us to this pass. The place of dragons; which signifies a place extremely desolate, such as dragons love, Isa 13:21,22; 34:13; 35:7, and therefore full of horror, and danger, and mischief. Thou hast thrown us among people as fierce and: cruel as dragons. With the shadow of death, i.e. with deadly horrors and miseries. See Poole "Job 3:5"; See Poole "Psa 23:4".

The name of God, i.e. either God himself; or his worship and service; which we have denied that we have done, Psa 44:17.

Stretched out our hands, in way of prayer or adoration, whereof this is a gesture, Exo 9:29; 1Ki 8:22; Psa 143:6.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 20. An appeal is now made to the omniscience of God; he is himself called in to bear witness that Israel had not set up another God. If we have forgotten the name of our God. This would be the first step in apostasy; men first forget the true, and then adore the false. Or stretched out our hands to a strange god. Stretching out the hands was the symbol of adoration or of entreaty in prayer; this they had not offered to any of the idols of the heathens.

Ver. 20. Stretched out our hands to a strange god. The stretching out the hand towards an object of devotion, or an holy place, was an ancient usage among the Jews and heathens both, and it continues in the East at this time, which continuance I do not remember to have seen remarked. That this attitude in prayer has continued among the Eastern people, appears by the following passage from Pitts, in his account of the religion and manners of the Mohammedans. Speaking of the Algerians throwing wax candles and pots of oil overboard, as a present to some marabbot (or Mohammedan saint), Pitt goes on, and says, "When this is done, they all together hold up their hands, begging the marabbot's blessing, and a prosperous voyage." In the same page he tells us, "the marabbots have generally a little neat room built over their graves, resembling in figure their mosques or churches, which is very nicely cleaned, and well looked after." And in the succeeding page he tells us, "Many people there are who will scarce pass by any of them without lifting up their hand, and saying some short prayer." In like manner, he tells us, that at quitting the Beat, or holy house at Mecca, to which they make devout pilgrimages, "they hold up their hands towards the Beat, making earnest petitions." Harmer's "Observations."

None.

Psalms 44:21*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. If we have forgotten—Compare Job 31

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out (rather, spread out) our hands to a strange god. If Israel had either forgotten the true God (see above, ver. 17) or fallen away to the worship of false or strange gods then her ill success against her foreign enemies would have been fully accounted for, since it would only have been in accordance with the threatenings of the Law; (Lev_26:14-17 Deu_28:15-23) but as she had done neither of these things, her defeats and depressed condition seemed to the psalmist wholly unaccountable. We trace here the same current belief, which comes out so strongly in the Book of Job the belief that calamities were, almost of necessity, punishments for sin; and that when they occurred, and there had been no known precedent misconduct, the case was abnormal and extraordinary.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

when You crushed us in a place of serpents This כי serves as an expression of כאשר, when. Even when You humbled us in a land of plains and pits; [in] a desert, a place of serpents, and You covered us with the darkness of death - despite all this, if we forgot the name of our God, will God not search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.