Psalm 44:10 (ESV)

10 You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil.

Because you abandoned us, we had to flee from our enemies. Those who hated us, robbed us from everything. Because we were on our own, we could not win. The enemies robbed us to their heart’s content. The world is upside down. In the past, the enemies were humiliated but now it is us, God’s people.

We read about similar tension in Judges 6:13, where Gideon speaks with the angel of God “if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us [see Psalm 44:1], saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

In Psalm 89:36–39 we read, His [David’s] offspring shall endure forever…But now you have cast off and rejected…You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust. And when David fights with the Arameans, Psalm 60:1–12 starts with, O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us.