Psalm 44:11

EXPOSITION

Verse 11. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat. As sheep are slaughtered for food, so were the people slain in flocks, with ease, and frequency. Not with dignity of sacrifice, but with the cruelty of the shambles, were they put to death. God appeared to give them up like sheep allotted to the butcher, to abandon them as the hireling abandons the flock to wolves. The complaint is bitterly eloquent. And hast scattered us among the heathen. Many were carried into captivity, far off from the public worship of the temple of God, to pine as exiles among idolaters. All this is ascribed to the Lord, as being allowed by him, and even appointed by his decree. It is well to trace the hand of God in our sorrows, for it is surely there.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 11. Like sheep appointed for meat. This very strongly and strikingly intimates the extent of the persecution and slaughter to which they were exposed; there being no creature in the world of which such vast numbers are constantly slaughtered as of sheep for the subsistence of man. The constancy of such slaughter is also mentioned in Psalms 44:22 as illustrating the continual oppression to which the Hebrews were subject. Kitto's Pictorial Bible.

Verse 11. Like sheep appointed for meat, and not reserved for breeding or for wool. Arthur Jackson.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

None.