If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
Parallel translations
- WEB If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god;
- KJV If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
- NKJV If we had forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god,
- NASB ¶If we had forgotten the name of our God Or extended our hands to a strange god,
- NLT If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread our hands in prayer to foreign gods,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people protest that they have not forgotten God's name or worshiped a foreign god. It matters because it disclaims the idolatry that would justify such suffering.
Overview
Beginning a conditional self-examination, the psalmist denies the apostasy that often brought judgment. Spreading out hands to a strange god would be open idolatry, which they reject. Their clean conscience on this point intensifies the mystery and casts them wholly on God's mercy rather than their merit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 81:9There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god.
- Job 11:13As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Ps 7:3–5O LORD my God, if I have done this, if injustice is on my hands,
- Job 31:5–40If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,
- Deut 6:14Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.
- Ps 68:31Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.
- Exod 9:29Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
- 1 Kgs 8:22Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,
- Ps 78:11They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them.
- Ps 44:17All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You or betrayed Your covenant.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 44:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.