If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
Parallel translations
- WEB If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god;
- BSB If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign 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 shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
- Job 11:13If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;
- Ps 7:3–5O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;
- Job 31:5–40If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
- Deut 6:14Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
- Ps 68:31Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
- Exod 9:29And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’s.
- 1 Kgs 8:22And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:
- Ps 78:11And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
- Ps 44:17All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy 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.