Psalm 44

v.1

We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.

v.3

It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.

Though they used their swords and were valiant in battle, they realized that the fulfillment of the land-promise was God’s.

vangemeren

Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.

DallasWillard

v.6-7

I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; ⁷but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.

v.17

All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant.

v.20-22

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, ²¹would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? ²²Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

The people’s suffering is not because of their sins. Rather, they suffer “vicariously” like “sheep to be slaughtered.” In their fidelity to the Lord, they receive greater abuse than if they had conformed to the pagan world. In suffering for the honor of God, they need reassurance of his love (cf. Ro 8:36-39).

vangemeren