It was Your Right Hand, Your Arm, and the Light of Your Countenance

A recount of the journey of the Exodus is given here. They recalled how God's favour on them resulted in their possession of the Promised Land, rather by their own efforts. They acknowledged that it was God who gave them all the victories and that no enemies could stand against them.

Then they also recalled when God cast them off and let them be defeated by their enemies. They were scattered, some sold to slavery, they were scorned by their neighbours, people shaking their heads at them, they were dishonoured and ashamed.

However, they did not forget their God. It appeared that this is a handful of people who kept the ways of God ("we dealt falsely with Your covenant"), yet suffered the punishment God unleashed on the nation as a whole. So they continued to cry out to God to wake up and see their affliction and oppression, and called for God's mercy to redeem them.

Psalm 44

To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation[a] of the sons of Korah.

 1 We have heard with our ears, O God,
         Our fathers have told us,
         The deeds You did in their days,
         In days of old:
 2 You drove out the nations with Your hand,
         But them You planted;
         You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.
 3 For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,
         Nor did their own arm save them;
         But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,
         Because You favored them.
       
 4 You are my King, O God;[b]
         Command[c] victories for Jacob.
 5 Through You we will push down our enemies;
         Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
 6 For I will not trust in my bow,
         Nor shall my sword save me.
 7 But You have saved us from our enemies,
         And have put to shame those who hated us.
 8 In God we boast all day long,
         And praise Your name forever.  Selah
       
 9 But You have cast us off and put us to shame,
         And You do not go out with our armies.
 10 You make us turn back from the enemy,
         And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.
 11 You have given us up like sheep intended for food,
         And have scattered us among the nations.
 12 You sell Your people for next to nothing,
         And are not enriched by selling them.
       
 13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
         A scorn and a derision to those all around us.
 14 You make us a byword among the nations,
         A shaking of the head among the peoples.
 15 My dishonor is continually before me,
         And the shame of my face has covered me,
 16 Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
         Because of the enemy and the avenger.
       
 17 All this has come upon us;
         But we have not forgotten You,
         Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.
 18 Our heart has not turned back,
         Nor have our steps departed from Your way;
 19 But You have severely broken us in the place of jackals,
         And covered us with the shadow of death.
       
 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God,
         Or stretched out our hands to a foreign god,
 21 Would not God search this out?
         For He knows the secrets of the heart.
 22 Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long;
         We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
       
 23 Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
         Arise! Do not cast us off forever.
 24 Why do You hide Your face,
         And forget our affliction and our oppression?
 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
         Our body clings to the ground.
 26 Arise for our help,
         And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.