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Meditations of the Heart (Ps. 44:22)
For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (Ps 44:22)
This psalm laments circumstances in which Israel feels abandoned by God. After reflecting on God’s past bles-sings (44:1-8), a reversal of fortune is recounted: “But You have cast us off and put us to shame…You have given us up like sheep intended for food, and have scattered us among the nations” (44:9, 11).
Why this has occurred is puzzling to the psalmist: “But we have not forgotten You, nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant …” (44:17). This introduces a challenge of life: there are times when we have not sinned in such a way so as to deserve God’s wrath, yet we suffer still.
Paul refers to this very passage when contemplating the “sufferings of this present time” (Rom 8:18). Christians are often “sheep for the slaughter” (Rom 8:36), and while he does not give a rationale for it Paul affirms that God will help us overcome it and triumph in the end. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:37).
