If we had forgotten the name of our God, Or stretched 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;
- BSB If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread 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 be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.
- Job 11:13“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
- Ps 7:3–5Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,
- Job 31:5–40“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit
- Deut 6:14You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you;
- Ps 68:31Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.
- Exod 9:29Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, and there will not be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh’s.
- 1 Kgs 8:22Solomon stood before Yahweh’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven;
- Ps 78:11They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.
- Ps 44:17All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to 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.