“Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.”
The description of the place of jackals and deep darkness as the location where God has broken them and covered them with shadow establishes the utter devastation of divine abandonment. The designation of Israel's territory as jackals' habitat suggests desolation and inhospitability; the land becomes uninhabitable. The image of God covering them with shadow of death suggests divine judgment or at minimum divine withdrawal of protective light. The claim that God has broken them implies active divine agency in their destruction; God is not absent but actively opposing Israel. This verse captures the disorientation of covenant community experiencing what appears to be divine judgment despite innocence. The extremity of the language reflects the depth of the crisis.
Church Fathers on Psalms 44:19
1. This Psalm is addressed “to the sons of Korah,” as its title shows. Now Korah is equivalent to the word baldness; and we find in the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified in “the place of a skull.” It is clear then that this Psalm is sung to the “sons of His 'Passion.'” Now we have on this point a most certain and most evident testimony from the Apostle Paul; because that at the time when the Church was suffering under the persecutions of the Gentiles, he quoted…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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