What does Psalm 44:2 mean?

The psalmist credits God with the successful occupation of Canaan. This is part of a remembrance of the Lord's miraculous assistance (Psalm 44:3), as told by generations of Israelites (Psalm 44:1). Here, the passage notes that God fought against "the nations" and "the peoples," but showed favor to Israel: the term "them" refers to the psalmist's Israelite ancestors.

Among the miracles being celebrated are God's many interventions in Israel's settlement in Canaan. Though the nation of Israel was small and relatively weak after centuries of slavery (Deuteronomy 7:1, 6–8), God was the source of their power. He drove out the depraved tribes that dwelled there (Deuteronomy 9:1–5), and He replaced them with His people, the Israelites. He afflicted the Canaanites but set the Israelites free in the Promised Land.

Psalm 80:8–11 uses similar terminology. It depicts Israel's occupation of Canaan as a vine which God brought from Egypt. God prepared the ground for the vine and planted it. It flourished and covered the land, to the mountains in the south, to the cedars of Lebanon in the north, west to the Mediterranean Sea, and east to the Euphrates River. God had promised Joshua, Israel's leader after Moses, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory" (Joshua 1:3–4).

God kept His promise to Joshua. The psalmist, here, remembers those prior victories. Soon, the writer will express anguish as he struggles to understand why the Lord had not given Israel victory in a more recent conflict (Psalm 44:9).