King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 5 notes
1We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
2How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.
3For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
4Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.
8In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
10Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
12Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
A sad state to be in. Where the people of God are so cheap and valueless that they are sold for nought, and those that sell them barely make a thing from their sales. The seller is not made any richer by that sale.
That should tell you how common of a slave the people of God became. The people of God. That in itself is an irony.
13Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
18Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;
19Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
The New King 👑 James Version uses jackals instead of dragons, and so do many other versions.
20If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
What point in the history of Israel was this?
Where they dared God to search their hearts 💕, where their ways were perfect before the Lord, yet they lost battles and they fled before their enemies.
Usually it was when they went out of covenant that the Lord caused them to be afflicted by their enemies.
But this time they were doing alright, yet they were counted as sheep 🐑 for the slaughter.
And the circumstances of this period were also used to allude to the suffering of the church ⛪ and of Christ in his day.
Romans 8:36 KJV
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Maybe this was penned down for us, that sometimes for no ill 🤒 doing of ours, evil 😈 befalls us.
We may search our hearts and find no fault; in such times we just trust in the providence of God.
He is God.
It gets even more ironic. The people had not abandoned God or his laws, yet they were suffering as a people whose God had abandoned them. So this was their plea and cry to God.
They did not deserve what they were suffering.
21Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Paul alluded to this in
Romans 8:36 KJV
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
23Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.