Psalm 44 shows us the mixed expressions of the psalmists' sentiment in their enjoyment of God in His house and city.
In verses 1-8 the psalmists were treasuring their forefathers' past history. Verse 1 says, "O God, we have heard with our ears;/Our fathers have recounted it to us,/The work You did in their days,/In the days of old." Their treasuring the past was a distraction as a part of their mixed sentiment.
In addition to treasuring the past, the psalmists were sighing for the present (Psa. 44:9-26). Psalm 44:9 says, "Nevertheless You have rejected us and humiliated us,/And You have not gone forth with our armies." This verse begins with the word nevertheless. The psalmists were saying that even though God was so good and kind to their forefathers, He had rejected them now. Thus, they blamed God.
Verse 17 says, "All this has come upon us; but we have not forgotten You,/Nor have we been false to Your covenant." The psalmists maintained that even though all these bad things such as their defeat and captivity had come upon them, they had not forgotten God nor had they been false to His covenant. Was this true? In the Old Testament, especially in the Prophets, God told His people frequently that they had forsaken Him (Jer. 2:13) and had broken His covenant (Jer. 11:10; Hosea 6:7). Thus, it was false for the psalmists to say that they had not forgotten God or been false to His covenant.
Psalm 44:18 says, "Our heart has not turned back,/Nor have our steps slipped from Your way." God said in the Prophets that the people of Israel turned their hearts away from Him. Whose word is right—God's word or the psalmists' ? In the Prophets God also said clearly that the people of Israel had left His way. In spite of this, the seeking psalmists argued with God in this way. This shows us that we should not think that every psalm is so wonderful. Again we need to realize that in the Psalms there are both the human concept and the divine concept.
We can see again that the psalmists' panting after God was disturbed, and their thirsting for God was taken away by all these different thoughts. The psalmists spoke of how good God was to their forefathers, but of how bad He was to them. They told God that even though He had rejected them, they had not rejected Him. They were vindicating themselves, but where was their panting after God and their thirsting for God? They were gone. All of us have had similar experiences. Often we may have been panting after God, but then we became distracted by many thoughts. Often we are distracted from panting after God, from enjoying God.
I hope that we are being helped to understand how to study the book of Psalms. Verses 1-2 and 5 of Psalm 42 are very good because they are according to the divine concept. Verses 1 and 2 speak of panting after God and thirsting for God, and verse 5 speaks of the salvation of God's countenance. Like the psalmists, we may have lost everything, having been stripped of everything, yet we have not lost God. Even though we may have rejected Him, we have not lost Him. His presence is with us, and that presence is His countenance. His countenance is our salvation.