Psalm 44:18-26 chanted in the Sarum Use by Sarah James

Themes: The Psalmist recounts the mercies of God, how in ancient times God gave them victory over their enemies, points out their present miserable state, asserts that thy have not apostatized, appeals to God for the truth of his assertion, and calls upon the Lord for deliverance once more from their enemies. The title is the same as that in Psalm 42:1-11. The Syriac says it was "A Psalm of the sons of Korah, which the people and Moses sung at Horeb." Like the preceding psalm, this one appears to belong to the time of the captivity. (From the Adam Clarke Commentary, 1831)

In Judaism: Verse 9 is found in the repetition of the Amidah (the Standing Prayer) during Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). Parts of verses 14 and 23 form a verse found in the long Tachanun (part of the morning and afternoon prayers) recited on Mondays and Thursdays, and verse 27 is the sixth verse of Hoshia Et Amecha (another group of prayers) in Pesukei Dezimra, which is the morning service. (Wikipedia)

In Christianity: St. Paul quoted Psalm 44:22 in the Epistle to the Romans 8:36: “As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." The context of Paul’s quotation is that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Nine hundred years ago, the Cathedral of Salisbury, England developed a unique form of chant and liturgy known as the “Use of Salisbury,” or “Sarum Use.” Differences from the Roman rite are both melodic (more florid in the Sarum) and textual (Elizabethan English rather than Latin). The best repository of Sarum Use tones is the St. Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter, from which Sarah has sung this psalm. Additional resources on Sarum Use plainsong at https://canticasacra.org.

“The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer,” an oil on canvas (completed in 1883) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, is made available at Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Walters Art Museum under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en.