Psalms 44:25

Psa 44:25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

Ver. 25. For our soul, &c.] Soul and belly (or body), both are oppressed, and lie suppliant at God’s feet; resolved there to live and die together.

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.

26. (Psa 44:25). For bowed (or sunk) to the dust is our soul, fixed to the earth is our belly. Both Hebrew verbs are active, and literally mean, our soul has bowed down, our belly has adhered. Belly may either have the sense of body, as opposed to soul, as in Psa 31:10 (9), above, or be taken in its proper sense, in which case the whole clause is descriptive of the deepest degradation, a grovelling on the earth, without the capacity or wish to rise, a state like that of the lowest reptiles, or the one denounced upon the serpent in Gen 3:14. Whatever the image here presented may be, it is evidently meant to represent a state of deep depression and debasement.

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

There is no hope of recovery, except thou put to thine hand and raise us up.

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

Verse 25. Our soul is bowed down] Our life is drawing near to the grave. If thou delay to help us, we shall become extinct.

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

25 For our soul is humbled to the dust The people of God again deplore the greatness of their calamities, and in order that God may be the more disposed to help them, they declare to him that they are afflicted in no ordinary manner. By the metaphors which they here employ, they mean not only that they are cast down, but also that they are crushed and laid upon the earth, so that they are not able to rise again. Some take the word soul for the body, so that there would be in this verse a repetition of the same sentiment; but I would rather take it for the part in which the life of man consists; as if they had said, We are cast down to the earth, and lie prostrate upon our belly, without any hope of getting up again. After this complaint they subjoin a prayer, (verse 26,) that God would arise for their help By the word redeem they mean not ordinary kind of help, for there was no other means of securing their preservation but by redeeming them. And yet there can be no doubt, that they were diligently employed in meditating upon the great redemption from which all the deliverances which God is daily effecting in our behalf, when he defends us from dangers by various means, flow as streams from their source. In a previous part of the psalm, they had boasted of the steadfastness of their faith; but to show us that, in using this language, they boasted not in their own merits, they do not claim here some recompense for what they had done and suffered for God. They are contented to ascribe their salvation to the unmerited goodness of God as the alone cause of it.

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.

25. We lie utterly prostrate, crushed and helpless. Cp. Psa_119:25.

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.

For our soul is bowed down to the dust,.... Which may signify great declension in spiritual things, much dejection of mind, and little exercise of grace, Psa 119:25; or a very low estate in temporals; subjection to their enemies; they setting their feet upon their necks, and obliging them to lick the dust of them: and even it may signify nearness to death itself; see Jos 10:24;

our belly cleaveth to the earth; as persons that lie prostrate, being conquered and suppliants.

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

For our soul is bowed down to the dust - That is, We are overborne with calamity, so that we sink to the earth. The expression is one that denotes great affliction.

Our belly cleaveth unto the earth - We are like animals that are prone upon the earth, and that cannot rise. The allusion may be to reptiles that cannot stand erect. The figure is intended to denote great prostration and affliction.

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

Our soul, i.e. either our lives or persons; or rather bodies, as it is explained in the next clause, and as the soul is oft taken by a synecdoche, as Num 11:6; Psa 16:10; 106:15, &c.

To the dust; either to the ground, where we lie prostrate at our enemies’ feet, or to the grave.

Our belly cleaveth unto the earth; we are not only thrown down to the earth, but we lie there like dead carcasses fixed to it, without any ability or hope of rising again.

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

Ver. 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our heart is low as low can be, as low as the dust beneath the soles of men's feet. When the heart sinks, the man is down indeed. Heart sorrow is the very heart of sorrow. Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. The man is prone upon the earth, and he is not only down, but fastened down on the earth and glued to it. It is misery, indeed, when the heart cannot escape from itself, is shut up in its own dejection, and bound with the cords of despondency. God's saints may be thus abject, they may be not only in the dust, but on the dunghill with Job and Lazarus, but their day cometh, and their tide will turn, and they shall have a brave summer after their bitter winter.

Ver. 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth. We are as to body and soul, smitten and thrown down, glued as it were to the ground, so that we cannot raise ourselves up. E. W. Hengstenberg.

Ver. 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust, etc. The speech is metaphorical, expressing the depth of their misery, or the greatness of their sorrow and humiliation. 1. The depth of their misery, with the allusion to the case of a man overcome in battle, or mortally wounded, and tumbling in the dust, or to a man dead and laid in the earth; as, "Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Ps 22:15. Sure we are, the expression imports the extremity of distress and danger, either as a man dead or near death. 2. The greatness of their sorrow and humiliation; and so the allusion is taken from a man prostrate and grovelling on the ground, which was their posture of humbling themselves before the Lord, or when any great calamity befell them. As when Herod Agrippa died, they put on sackcloth and lay upon the earth weeping. Thomas Manton.

Ver. 25. The great need, the great prayer, the great plea.

Psalms 44:26*

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

For our soul is bowed down to the dust; i.e. brought very low, humbled, as it were, to the earth, so weakened that it has no strength in it. Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. The body participates in the soul"s depression, and lies prostrate on the ground.

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

Our soul - Our persons. Our belly - We are not only thrown down to the earth, but we lie there like dead carcases.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

For we have melted away into the dust; our bodies cling to the earth

These parallel phrases share similar meanings. The writer describes his people as lying on the ground in a posture of defeat and humiliation. (See: Parallelism)

For we have melted away into the dust

The writer speaks of their humiliation as if their bodies were objects, such as ice, that melt and soak into the dirt. (See: Metaphor)

our bodies cling to the earth

The writer speaks of their humiliation as if their their bodies were stuck to the ground and they could not raise themselves up. (See: Metaphor)

Rise up

This is a command to stand. This phrase refers to beginning to act on something. AT: "Take action" (See: Idiom)

for the sake of your covenant faithfulness

The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated as an adjective. AT: "to show that you are faithful to your covenant" (See: Abstract Nouns)

translationWords

body

earth

raise

redeem

covenant faithfulness

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.