There are 4 participants/characters in Psalm 44:
Profile List
| Leader/Psalmist
|
| "The Korahites" (v. 1)
|
| Physical might
|
| "My sword" (v. 7)
|
| Israel
|
| "Jacob" (v. 5)
|
| "Your people" (v. 13)
|
| Physical might
|
| "Our armies" (v. 10)
|
| Body parts
|
| "Our heart" (v. 19)
|
| "Our steps" (v. 19)
|
| "Our soul" (v. 26)
|
| "Our belly" (v. 26)
|
| Israel's ancestors
|
| Physical might
|
| "Their power" (v. 4)
|
| God
|
| "My king" (v. 5)
|
| "Lord" (v. 24)
|
| God's power
|
| "Your strength" (v. 3)
|
| "Your right hand" (v. 4)
|
| "Your power" (v. 4)
|
| "The light of your countenance" (v. 4)
|
| Enemies
|
| "The nations" (v. 3)
|
| "People groups" (v. 3)
|
| "Adversaries" (v. 6)
|
| "Those who rise against us >> adversaries" (v. 6)
|
| "Those who hate us >> enemies" (v. 8)
|
| "Neighbors" (v. 14)
|
| "Those who surround us" (v. 14)
|
| "Taunter and reviler >> reviling taunter" (v. 17)
|
| "Enemy and avenger >> vengeful enemy" (v. 17)
|
| Experience of shame
|
| "Shame" (v. 16)
|
| "Shamefacedness" (v. 16)
|
| Another god
|
Profile Notes
- Leader/Psalmist: The first-person singular references throughout this psalm are best construed as the voice of a liturgical leader (see The Speaker of Psalm 44:5, 7, and 16). According to the superscription of v. 1, this is best identified as the collective voice of the leadership group descended from Korah.
- Israel: While constituting a distinct participant (see The Speaker of Psalm 44:5, 7, and 16), the first-person plural references throughout the psalm indicate that the psalmist should be included within this participant set. Thus Israel and the psalmist are here presented as related participants.
- Non-Agentive Participants - Physical might / Physical might / Body parts / Physical might / God's power / Experience of shame: While not agentive participants per se, included in this list of participants are inanimate entities personified as performing relational actions, or entities representing a metonymy for an agentive participant.
- Israel's ancestors: By recounting God's past dealings with their ancestors, Israel can look ahead to future continuation of such works (Craigie 2004, 333). Based on this continuity of experience, it would be plausible to combine Israel and Israel's ancestors into a single participant set. However, it seems that Israel's ancestors play a sufficiently distinct relational role to warrant treating them as a separate participant.